God Renews His Covenant with David

Preacher

Rev Iver Martin

Date
Sept. 14, 2014

Transcription

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.

[0:00] There are two Old Testament readings, there are 2 Samuel chapter 7 and Isaiah chapter 9.

[0:12] First of all, 2 Samuel chapter 7. Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given rest from all his surrounding enemies.

[0:25] This is on page 311, 2 Samuel chapter 7. And 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.

[0:41] And Nathan said to the king, go, do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you. So it's obvious that David wanted now to build a house for the ark of the covenant.

[0:54] He wanted to build a temple. That was what was in his heart. And initially Nathan said to the king, the prophet, he said to the king, go, do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you.

[1:05] Verse 4. But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in?

[1:16] I have not lived in a house since the day I brought you, brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people 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?

[1:38] 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.

[1:54] And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

[2:04] And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them so they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel.

[2:17] And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you, the Lord will make you a house. 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.

[2:35] 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 will be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with a rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men.

[2:52] But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

[3:06] Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

[3:17] I was going to read from Isaiah chapter 9, but I think we'll leave it. I'll refer to it later on. I see the time is moving on.

[3:28] Psalm number 132. It's the new psalms. It's on page 174. Psalm 132.

[3:41] Psalm 132. And we're going to sing from verse 10 to verse 18. It's on page 174. It's 132. It's the psalm number. We're going to sing the last three double stanzas from verse 10 to verse 18.

[3:55] The tune is Hifredol. For the sake of your own servant, David, your appointed one, do not turn away your favor from his own appointed son. God has sworn an oath to David, and he will not turn from it.

[4:07] I will choose from your descendants one who on your throne will set. Psalm 132. It's the sing-salms version from verse 10 to the end of the psalm.

[4:18] And we're going to stand to sing. For the sake of your own servant, David, your appointed one, do not turn away your favor from his own anointed son.

[4:50] God has sworn an oath to David, and he will not turn from it.

[5:03] I will choose from your descendants one who on your throne will sit.

[5:16] If your sons will keep my covenant, and the statutes I may know.

[5:28] Surely then shall their descendants sit forever on your throne.

[5:40] For the Lord has chosen Zion, that he wishes to remain.

[5:52] Here's my resting place forever, if it pleases me to reign.

[6:04] I will bless her with abundance, for her firm, a shrewd of pain.

[6:16] I will grant her free salvation, and with joy her saints will sing.

[6:28] I will raise a heart for David, for my chosen one alive.

[6:40] With disgraces, foes and cover, he'll be crowned with glory, Christ.

[6:52] Turn back with me to the chapter we were reading, 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse 18. And then we'll read very briefly from the New Testament, Luke chapter 1.

[7:09] 2 Samuel 7 and verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

[7:23] And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come. And this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God.

[7:35] And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God. Because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it.

[7:49] Therefore you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you. And there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods.

[8:17] And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house and do as you have spoken.

[8:33] And your name will be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is God over Israel. And the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, I will build you a house.

[8:51] Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God, you are God and your words are true. And you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you.

[9:08] For you, O Lord God, have spoken. And with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. And then just a short reading in the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke and chapter 1.

[9:23] Luke's Gospel and chapter 1 and verse 26.

[9:33] Luke's Gospel and chapter 1 and verse 26.

[10:03] And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your woman, bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

[10:15] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

[10:29] And of his kingdom there will be no end. Amen. And we pray together that God will bless his own word to us.

[10:41] We're going to once again join together in prayer. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we have so much to bring before you. We have the needs that we see around us.

[10:52] We have a whole world to pray for. Nothing is too big for you. And nothing is too small to bring before you. So we bring our own personal needs, our frustrations, our anxieties, our uncertainties.

[11:10] We bring, O Lord, the day-by-day difficulties of living through this world and the perplexing problems and questions and choices that we have to make.

[11:24] Sometimes they are not easy. Sometimes they are not clear. Sometimes we have to make the decisions which we would rather not make, would rather run away from them.

[11:36] And yet, O Lord, this world is full of thorns and weeds and difficulties and storms and darkness and confusion.

[11:47] And yet, Lord, just like you took your people through the wilderness, you've promised to bring us through our lives. So we commit ourselves to you. We pray that you will give us the strength to be obedient to you and to live according to your word.

[12:01] Show us how to, Lord, and show us how to make known the fact that we belong to Jesus. To such an extent, we pray that your Holy Spirit will work within us and that he will bring others to know you as we do.

[12:17] Lord, we pray for our community here. We pray, Lord, for Stornoway and for the Isle of Lewis where we are. We thank, O Lord, of all the people that we know who do not know you as their saviour.

[12:30] We pray, Lord, that you will work in their hearts and pray that you will bring them to know you and raise questions within them and bring them to that place of discontentment where they come to you asking, Lord, that you will show them who you are.

[12:50] Our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, that you have a great power and you are a great power and that the gospel is effective in changing people's lives.

[13:03] But we pray for the rest of the world as well. We ask, Lord, for where we know people who are working in various areas and where our church has had a prayerful interest.

[13:16] We think, O Lord, of countries in South America today. We think of Manuel Reagno in Colombia. We think of the work that he is doing and ask, Lord, that in a dangerous place that you will guide him and his wife and his family in that area.

[13:38] We think, O Lord, of the Collegio in Lima. We think, O Lord, also of the Lima Seminary where Donnie Smith is. We ask that you will bless the work that he continues to do and ask that there may be continued transformation and that you will continue to influence and change people according to your own glory.

[14:03] We pray once again for where there is awful trouble in the world. O Lord God, we pray for the family of the gentleman who was executed in the Middle East even yesterday.

[14:19] Father, we do not know what it must be like to have to think of such a, not only that he is gone, but the way in which he was taken from this world.

[14:30] Lord, we think of the barbaric way in which people can act towards their fellow human beings. And, O Father, we pray for those who are involved in such killings, for those whose hearts appear to be so hardened that they think nothing of taking a person's life.

[14:51] But yet we, there must be some pangs of conscience. There must be some voice left bringing discontentment and that sense of wrongdoing to them.

[15:04] Lord, all we ask is that you will work within them and somehow or other change their hearts to transform them from being killers to being repentant.

[15:17] We know you've done it in others, people who've at one time lived lives full of darkness and yet they have now come to see the light of the gospel in Jesus Christ.

[15:29] And so, O Father, we pray for all that is going on in the world. And we want to remember our own country here and particularly this week and a week when the future of Scotland will be decided one way or the other.

[15:46] Our Father in heaven, we ask for wisdom and for discernment. We ask for your people as they seek your guidance in all of this, that you will give us, Lord, to be examples in how to conduct ourselves in such an emotionally charged discussion.

[16:03] We ask, Lord, that you will give us to be witnesses in all of these things, Lord. Whatever we feel and whatever way that we are inclined, we pray that we will prayerfully and humbly go about our business and take part in the democratic process, asking that you will guide and that you will bring the result according to your will and your purpose.

[16:29] And so, Lord, we pray that you will own our people and our communities and our nations. We pray, Lord, that you will bless your word.

[16:40] We ask, O Father, our prayer is that whatever the result is this week, that it will be for the benefit of the gospel. And we ask that your word will continue and indeed even to a greater extent have even more influence in our society and in our world.

[16:59] O Father in heaven, we pray that you will give us the peace of God that passes all understanding in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing one more psalm before we return to the passage that we've been reading and that's Psalm 89.

[17:14] We're going to sing it once again. It's on page 3, 4, 5. We've already sung part of it. We're going to sing verse 13 to 16 and the tune is Arlington.

[17:25] Page 3, 4, 5. It's Psalm 89 and it's Psalm number 13. Thou hast an arm that's full of power. Thy hand is great in might and thy right hand exceedingly exalted is in height.

[17:38] We're going to sing four stanzas, 13 to 16 and we're going to stand to sing.使제�ans. Thou hast an arm that's full of power. O light and time exceedingly exalted is in height.

[18:01] God's great delight, and thy right hand exceedingly, and thy right hand exceedingly, exalted is in light.

[18:29] The sins and judgment of thy throne are made in dwelling place.

[18:45] Mercy, a company with truth, shall go before thy face.

[19:09] O faith in lest the people are, the joyful sound thine know.

[19:25] In brightness of thy face, O Lord, in brightness of thy face, O Lord, in heaven alone shall go.

[19:49] In thy name shall all the day rejoice exceedingly, and in thy righteousness shall live.

[20:14] And in thy righteousness shall live. In thy name shall be, O Lord, in brightness of thy face.

[20:35] Let's turn back to 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

[20:59] And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come. And this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God.

[21:18] If you were here last week, and you will know that we were looking at the previous chapter, 2 Samuel chapter 6.

[21:37] And I'm sure that what strikes you in the very first instance in this chapter is how massive the contrast is between it and the previous chapter.

[21:50] In the previous chapter, of course, you remember how David was in procession. He had thousands of people, men and women, around him, crowding around him as they escorted the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Abinadab and from the house of Obed-Edom into Jerusalem once again.

[22:11] You remember how grand and magnificent and public this procession was, how noisy it was. You remember that David danced before the Lord.

[22:27] That was David, King David, in public. In chapter 7, we get to see a glimpse of the same King David, except this time it's in private.

[22:46] He's in his room. He's where nobody else can see him. I know that this man Nathan is with him, but yet, most of the chapter is David and God alone.

[23:04] Now this is important for two reasons. First of all, it's important because it shows us that there was no hypocrisy in David whatsoever.

[23:15] What you saw in David was what you got, and what he was in public, he was the same in private. There was no difference between him.

[23:26] He was a man after God's own heart, and it didn't matter where he was, even when he was on his own, or when he was in front of other people. Now that's hugely important, because there's nothing worse than a person who in public claims to follow the Lord, and yet, in private, you know that he's something different.

[23:47] There's something false, there's something wrong with a person like that. Something has gone wrong. But not so with David.

[24:00] But the other reason is this, that somebody said once, that what a man is on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more.

[24:12] Let me say that again. What a man is on his knees alone before God, that he is and nothing more. Because when you're alone before God, everything else is stripped away from you.

[24:26] And you know that God sees everything that's in you. You can't pull the wool over his eyes. And it would be foolish to try. And so what we see in chapter 7, is the real heart of David, the secret of his success as a king.

[24:44] What it means to be a man after God's own heart. And it begins with a private conversation between David and God. That wasn't the first time, and it wasn't the last.

[24:57] All the way through, if you want to get to the heart of David, you read the Psalms, and there we get a glimpse of the man who loves God and follows him. He's not perfect.

[25:08] We've already seen that he's not perfect. We've already seen him falling a few times. And we'll see him falling again. And yet, despite all of that, here is a man who comes to the Lord again and again in faith.

[25:23] And he wants because the Lord means everything to him. So it's not surprising then, that if God means everything to him, and he's already taken the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem, that the time came when David, having built his own palace, his own residence, and I guess that wasn't a three-bedroom semi, it was a palace, fit for a king.

[25:49] But I guess having done all that, he wanted now to make sure that the Ark of God was properly housed. For one thing, it was a witness. We saw last week how important it was to take the Ark into Jerusalem as a witness to the people, as a way of him saying, God is the king over Israel.

[26:08] He belongs, he's our God, and we belong to him. And here is another way of David wanting to give God the glory and the honor and the place, the status, that he wanted to build a temple for the Lord.

[26:24] And so he told Nathan, he confided in Nathan, that these were his plans. And Nathan, naturally, being a man of God himself, the prophet, he said, instinctively, of course, perfectly natural, it's the next project.

[26:37] Go for it, he says, at the beginning of the chapter, verse 3. Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. So far, so good. Until Nathan took the matter to God himself.

[26:52] And God's response was perhaps the last thing that David ever imagined he would say. Because first of all, God said no to him.

[27:05] He said, I don't want you to build a house for me. But it was when God gave the answer and the thinking behind his refusal, his rejection of David's plan, that all of a sudden, David got to see something that he had never realized before.

[27:27] Something that took his breath away. Here's what happened. David came to God with the plan to build a house. God said to Nathan, go and tell David, no, he is not the one who's going to build this house.

[27:42] But I want you to tell him this from me. Here is my message to him. Don't just say no, because it's not just a straightforward no. I have a message for him.

[27:55] And here is what the message says. First of all, 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.

[28:07] But I've been moving around in a tent for my dwelling in all the places where I've moved with the people of Israel. Did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel when I commanded to shepherd my people?

[28:18] Why have you not built a house of cedar? Therefore, this is what you're going to say to David. I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel.

[28:35] And I've been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 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.

[28:51] From the time I appointed judges on my people and I will give you rest from your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you, now listen to this, that the Lord, here it is, the Lord will make you a house.

[29:08] Now, do you get the contrast here? Do you get what's happening? Here is David, it starts off, this conversation starts off with David and his plan to build a house for the ark of God.

[29:18] And in so doing, he wants a place where the glory of God will dwell because that's what the ark was all about, the glory of God. But God's message to him is, no David, it's actually the reverse.

[29:34] What I want to do is the reverse of what you want to do. You want to build me a house, but my message to you is, I want to build you a house.

[29:51] Now, what does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean a house of bricks and mortar the way that David wanted to build a house for the Lord. The word house in verse 11 doesn't mean a literal building, it actually means the best word that we could use for it in our language is dynasty.

[30:09] a succession of thrones, a kingdom that will last from your days, David, onwards to your son and his son and his son and his son throughout every generation.

[30:26] But listen to this, here's where it really blows you away. This kingdom, this dynasty, this succession of kings will never end.

[30:44] Now, how's that? For an earth shattering message, and I really mean that, I'm not exaggerating, that was the most earth shattering message that David was to hear.

[31:02] Because it was one thing, God was absolutely right, saying through Nathan, that he had taken David from following his father's sheep. He was the very youngest of a tribe that was unknown in Israel.

[31:13] He was a nobody. And that was, that youngest son of Jesse was the man that God chose to be king over Israel.

[31:23] Now, that was amazing enough. But God was now announcing to David that his plan was even greater than that. that he was, that his plan extended beyond David's lifetime.

[31:41] And it would never end. And so, it's no wonder then that we read in verse 18, and this is the verse I want to come to, after David, after God had promised David what he, what he promised between verse 11 and verse 17, to raise up your offspring, to establish his throne, to discipline him, but never to remove my steadfast love for him, and your kingdom will be established forever and ever.

[32:21] Look at what we read in verse 18. This is David's reaction. If David was a, a selfish human being, only thought about his own interests, he might have been quite hurt that God had rejected his plan.

[32:37] After all, this was a good plan. This is the plan that I've made for the Lord. It's not for me. I've already got a house to dwell in. I wanted, I wanted to do something for the Lord. You might think that if he was going to, if he was going to be childish about it, the way we very often are.

[32:58] And yes, very often when God, when it becomes apparent that God is rejecting what we want to do. How many times has that happened in your own life as a Christian, where you've set out to do something, and when you've even prayed about it, and then it becomes apparent that that's not going to work.

[33:15] That's not God's way. And you start feeling annoyed, and resentful at what God is doing in your life. That he's taking you on a different path from the way that you thought was best.

[33:34] It's happened to many, many Christian people. With the best will in the world, with the best intentions, they've laid their plans before the Lord. Of course, that is what we should do.

[33:46] We should commit our ways to the Lord. The Bible tells us to do that. But you know what happens very often when we come to the Lord, we say, Lord, here's my plan, now bless it. What we should be saying is, Lord, you just show me whatever is in your will.

[34:07] Now, that's a different thing altogether. Nobody has any right to demand of God. Now, that's not what David was doing. In fact, it was the very opposite. In fact, the rapidity with which he changes his mind is quite startling, isn't it?

[34:24] When he hears God's voice, even although it's in a way, it sounds like a rejection, God's rejections mean that his way is superior to ours.

[34:38] And we must always say, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. is that not right? That's the way we live as obedient Christians.

[34:55] I'm sure many of us are old enough to look back, at least I am, to look back at our lives and the plans that we had when we were 20 years old bear no resemblance to what has actually happened in our lives, to the way that God has led us.

[35:13] If anybody had told me when I was 20 years old that I'd be standing tonight in a pulpit in Stornway Free Church, I would have thought you were off your head. But I still said to the Lord, Lord, take my life and let it be consecrated to thee.

[35:33] But if he had told me at that point, well, if your life is consecrated to me, then this is what I'm going to do to you, I would have been shocked. I would have been horrified. But the fact is that every one of us has to surrender ourselves.

[35:51] That's what the Christian life is, one of complete surrender to the Lord. And he does it day by day by changing us from one day to the next, slowly working in us, changing our desires, changing our personalities, changing our dreams and our ambitions, and changing them from being our ambitions to ones that will glorify him.

[36:14] And we talk less and we listen more, don't we, the older we get as Christians. And that's the way it should be. Well, here is what the effect that it had on David. David was absolutely incredulous.

[36:27] He sat before the Lord. Lord, I heard somebody saying the other day that the reason he sat before the Lord was because he couldn't stand any longer, he was just so weak at the knees. That's possibly true. He just couldn't, he could hardly believe what he was hearing.

[36:41] And he said, Lord, who am I? Because all of a sudden he discovered afresh what we now know as the grace of God. That he had done absolutely nothing to deserve the kindness and the love, the extravagant love that God had showed to him.

[37:04] Who am I? He says, O Lord, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord.

[37:16] Now, why is he so blown away? Why is he so taken aback by all of this? Because all of a sudden something occurs to him that he's never realized before and that's this.

[37:27] that the language that God is using is the same language that he used to Abraham and Moses and all of a sudden David realized that this wasn't just a privileged position that God had given him as king over Israel, but that he stood in the line of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and the prophets and here was God telling him something not just for himself, but for the rest of the history of his people Israel.

[38:03] What he was promising him would extend long after he was dead. In fact, what God was promising him literally would never end.

[38:16] It would extend thousands of years all the way through into the 21st century. glory. So, because what God promised David in chapter 7 of 2 Samuel is still coming to pass.

[38:34] He's still doing it. He's still fulfilling it. And he will one day fulfill it when he brings the world as we know it to an end and he brings his people to glory.

[38:46] God because this wasn't confined to just one ethnic group of people who lived in Jerusalem a thousand years before Christ.

[38:58] This was something which was going to one day affect, this promise was going to extend over the whole world. And that's what David said in verse 19.

[39:09] verse 19. These are amongst the most loaded words in the Bible. Verse 19. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come.

[39:23] And this, listen to this, this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God. Did you notice that as we read it?

[39:34] This is instruction for mankind. David is realizing that what's happening at this moment in time is going to have a bearing, not just on him and his family and the Israelites that were in time to come, but all of humankind was going to benefit from this.

[39:57] What David is saying here is, here is your plan for humankind. Here is your plan. I am part what you're saying to me right now is, is your plan for the whole world.

[40:14] And it was a rewording of what God had said to Abraham that in your seed, all nations shall be blessed. In other words, this was God renewing the covenant, the promise that he had made all those hundreds of years ago to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses.

[40:37] It was a promise that wasn't just for Israel. It was a promise that was for every nation of the world one day. And it was a promise in this case, in David's case, that centered around his throne.

[40:53] It was a promise that focused upon his kingship. And it began with himself being the king of Israel. And then his son would come after him.

[41:05] And then his son would come after him. And God was literally saying that your throne will last forever. Your dynasty will last forever. Now here's the question.

[41:17] Because we know that the time came when first of all Israel was divided and it became Judah and Israel. That was after Solomon. Babylon. And then we know that in time to come, the Israelite kings, they disobeyed God and they wandered after other gods and God allowed them to be taken into captivity, into Babylon.

[41:39] And the same thing eventually happened with Judah as well. Jerusalem was destroyed. And Nebuchad Neser came and he took them all into captivity and that was the end of the monarchy.

[41:52] There was no king left. the line was cut off. Now the question is this. If God promised here that David would always have someone, a son on his throne, then what happened when the people of Israel and Judah were taken into captivity?

[42:12] What happened to the promise? Good question. One of the most important questions we can ever ask when we're trying to read through the Old Testament, trying to understand it.

[42:23] it's a question you have to grapple with. There's only two choices. Either David would always have a son on the throne, there would always be a king in Israel.

[42:36] We know that that didn't happen. Or a son would arise who would be a king and who would live forever.

[42:57] That's what happened. Let me prove it to you. I'll prove it to you from the Bible. You don't need to look this up. You can look it up when you go out. Those who are taking notes, here's a reference.

[43:08] Isaiah chapter 9, the well-known passage in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6 and 7. Unto us a child is born. We all read this at Christmas time, don't we?

[43:18] Unto us a child is brought to, as a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

[43:34] Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. Listen to this. We don't very often stop at the bits, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

[43:49] And we all know that these are prophecies about Jesus. Look at what he says then. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it.

[44:06] Psalm 89. Why do you think we sang Psalm 89 twice tonight? Because Psalm 89 gives more information about what God said on this very occasion. It's absolutely fascinating.

[44:18] You have to read 2 Samuel chapter 7 and Psalm 89 at one and the same time. He says this, I have found David my servant with my holy oil.

[44:33] I have anointed him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him and in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.

[44:44] He shall cry to me, you are my father, my God and the rock of my salvation. I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings in the earth. It's about Jesus.

[44:57] It's a prophecy about Jesus occupying the throne of David. Let me continue. Luke chapter 1, the passage that we read.

[45:09] Again, we read this passage at Christmas times about the birth of Jesus. He will be called great and he will be called the son of the most high said the angel Gabriel to Mary.

[45:23] And listen to this, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. Last reference, Acts chapter 2, Peter, on the day of Pentecost, verse 30, being there for a prophet about Jesus and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne.

[45:51] He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades and his flesh did not see corruption. In other words, what God was promising David on this occasion was that he would see to it personally that there would always be one of his descendants on the throne.

[46:15] His ultimate purpose was that not for David to have just a natural, ordinary man as a son to sit on the throne, but that he himself, God himself, would actually become a son of David by taking to himself our nature, by being conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and being born God and man in order to give his life as the ransom that paid for our sin.

[46:53] Therefore, we read, the apostle Paul tells us, therefore, God exalted him after he rose from the dead three days later, God exalted him and made him to sit at the right hand of the father and give him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

[47:18] No wonder David was absolutely taken aback. No wonder he had to sit down. His breath was taken out of him. He was left almost speechless.

[47:31] All he could do was wonder at the grace and the love of God. Not only that had taken him from where he had been one time and given him the throne of Israel, but he was going to continue.

[47:45] In other words, you haven't seen anything yet. What I'm going to do is going to be way above and way beyond your wildest expectations.

[48:02] And that's what Jesus coming into the world is. It was above and beyond anyone's expectations. God becoming a human being and giving his life for our sin in order to redeem us and to make us a people, his people.

[48:21] The fulfillment when we read here in this chapter about God's promise for his people Israel, we're to remember that we are that people. We are that chosen people of God who have been redeemed by the blood, not this time by the blood of the lamb at Passover, but by the blood of the lamb of God that gave himself at Calvary.

[48:44] And so God's promise to his people in this chapter is just as relevant, just as precious, just as real as it ever was to David.

[48:56] And we can lay hold upon that promise when his children commits iniquity, I will discipline them with a rod of men. Isn't that the case?

[49:07] It was the case in David's time and it's the case now as well. But when we go astray, God lovingly disciplines us for our good. Don't expect things to be easy.

[49:19] If you choose, after having followed Jesus, if you choose a course of life in which you are rejecting him and wandering away from him, then he will. Sometimes it can be very painful to be brought back to the Lord as David would one day himself find out.

[49:45] The one thing that we have this evening is the ongoing certainty of that promise. A promise that was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and a promise that is even today still being fulfilled in that Jesus, the son of David, is still today on the throne where he ever lives and ever reigns and rules over us.

[50:23] I think that chapter is so relevant for the time in which we live. There's one word that sums up where we are this evening politically.

[50:39] It is the word uncertainty. eternity. If ever we could say that we don't know what the future holds, it surely is today.

[50:55] We don't ever know what the future holds, but I think that the forthcoming events and all the lead up to that has reminded us afresh that we live in a fallen world in which we simply don't know what is around the corner.

[51:18] And that makes us feel vulnerable, doesn't it? Makes us feel insecure. And it drives us to the question, is there anyone that knows the future?

[51:30] Is there any such thing in this world as certainty? Well, if you look to history, it all seems to be such a random collection of events.

[51:43] And if you look to the political parties, whichever ones they are, all they can do is promise you this and promise you that, but you know that they don't know what the future holds. But there's one place where there is absolute certainty, and that is the word of God.

[52:07] And tonight we can rejoice. not in what may or may not happen on Thursday, but our real rejoicing lies in God's promise.

[52:24] When he says, heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will not pass away.

[52:36] when he says, on this rock, I will build my church. I will build my church. And the gates of Hades or hell will not prevail against it.

[52:52] That's a rewording of the promise that God made to David here in this chapter. when he promises that the gospel will be preached to every nation in the world, and then the Son of Man will come.

[53:08] That is the certain promise of God. When he tells us, behold, I come quickly, that's a promise that we can lay hold upon.

[53:20] Our citizenship tonight is in heaven. It doesn't mean that we don't take part in the choices and the decisions that are there for us in the world in which we live.

[53:33] It doesn't mean that we take a back seat or that we go into our homes and we close the door or we become recluses or monks or nuns or take no part in society or in politics.

[53:44] Of course it doesn't. But it means that we have a certainty. And it means also that we have something to pray for.

[53:59] I want you to notice in closing, I know the time has gone, but I want you to notice what David prayed for here. It drove him to prayer.

[54:10] It says, he said in verse 25, now Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house and do as you have spoken.

[54:32] Our prayer tonight is the same. Lord, bring it to pass. Fulfill your promise. Continue to change lives.

[54:45] take me and use me in your kingdom to share the gospel with someone, to live obediently for you, to let my light shine.

[54:59] Do as you have spoken. Build your church. Add to the church. Touch people's lives. Prove to this world once and for all the promises of men are empty.

[55:14] They're here today and they're gone tomorrow, but your promises will one day be fulfilled. Lord, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[55:34] Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we pray tonight that you will give us to rest in your promise, not as a way of escaping the perplexities and the choices that lie before us, but as a way of reminding ourselves of the big picture.

[55:56] Nations come and nations go, and God's word stands forever. And long after we and our generation have left this world, you will still be working, you will still be operating, and your word will still be opened, and lives will continue to be changed.

[56:19] We rejoice in that this evening, Lord, and we pray that that is where our energy and our hope may lie. In Jesus' name, Amen.

[56:32] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Psalm 48, it's on page 64.

[56:51] It's 48b, and we're going to sing the last three stanzas. Psalm 48b from verse 8.

[57:05] It's on page 64, Psalm 48b. As we have heard now, have we seen it so? Within the city of Almighty God, the city of the Lord, which by his grace he makes secure. Within your holy place, your never-failing love we seek to know.

[57:22] O God, your name is known throughout the earth, and to his farther shores your praise goes forth. Your strong right hand is filled with righteousness. To Zion, your great deeds bring joyfulness, and Judah's villages are filled with mirth.

[57:37] Verse 8 to the end of the psalm, Psalm 48b, we'll stand to sing. As we have heard now, we have cheated so.

[57:54] Within the city of Almighty God, the city of the Lord, which by his grace he makes secure.

[58:13] Within your holy place, your never-failing love we seek to know.

[58:26] O God, your name is known throughout the earth, and to his harvest your praise goes forth.

[58:42] Your strong right hand is filled with righteousness. To Zion, your great deeds bring joyfulness, and Judah's villages are filled with mirth.

[59:06] For this God is our God eternal.

[59:36] And to the end of the psalm, we'll guide us to. Now may the grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest on and abide with each one of us, both now and always.

[59:58] Amen.