God does not see the sins of David later on. This recurrent cleansing that we have in the New Testament is said the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.
Well, blood has to flow to keep cleansing, and so it keeps cleansing us. And we see it here. God is not going to see David's sin later and say, "You know what? I take it back." You're just a knucklehead. You just can't get it together.
After all I've done for you, David, this is what you do: you kill the man, you take his wife. I mean, then you go. God doesn't do that. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville.
Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Second Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. God's gentle overruling is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be teaching in Second Samuel chapter seven. Verse twelve, he's saying, "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom." And that it happened with Solomon, but it isn't the greater fulfillment is in the Christ. The New Testament's all over this.
So is Isaiah nine seven, upon the throne of David, he shall sit upon the throne of David. And Isaiah came long after Solomon, a couple of hundred years after Solomon.
So of all the great men on the earth, God chose to associate His perpetual throne into the millennial reign of His the throne of His Son with this man David. We'll come to some more from the New Testament, and then in verse thirteen, He shall build a house for My name.
Solomon did that physically; Jesus spiritually. And I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. That ain't true of Solomon.
Solomon is not the one reigning in the millennial reign. David's name comes up, of course. Christ does. House here refers to the temple in its context in First Kings six. Also, it is the throne of Messiah.
It's messianic perpetual rule because the Messiah is, of course, God, and it speaks about the throne. Speaks of the right to rule. And finalized by a descendant of David in Christ, Romans chapter one verse three. Paul introducing his letter to the Romans, the Christians in Rome. Incidentally, Rome in the days of Paul was a very violent place to live.
It was high crime. It was a you know unless you could afford to live in a real nice neighborhood and hire bodyguards, which are usually Ex gladiators or military—you just didn't want to be out in the streets in Rome. Corruption was so heavy, but even the troops, the soldiers, and you know the police, the authorities would would mug you.
So this is old joke: of bad luck is having a police on a subway car with you at three in the morning, and he's moonlighting as a thief. If you've ever been on a subway at three in the morning, you know it's good to see a policeman. There's not many other people on there, but there, you know, it's good to see one. But when he's also a crook, you got problems. All right.
Anyway, Romans chapter one verse three concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Nobody's got that distinction. David and the Lord are associated, not Solomon, not Hezekiah, not Josiah, King David. And Solomon's throne is not going to be established forever. That would make his, that would make David's throne subject to Solomon's throne, and that's not how it is.
Verse fourteen. And I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
Now, of course, that is Solomon he is referring to.
However, Christ was chastened for us; he took our sins upon us, and the blows of men were put upon him. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity. Chastisement for our peace was laid upon him. Isaiah fifty three.
So there is that initial fulfillment. Then there is that climactic, profound fulfillment, and this is what we're getting here because the facts scream it out. There's no way to get away from connecting these dots to the old New Testament events in Christ Jesus. There's just no way around it. We can see it in the Old Testament fulfilled in Solomon, and then we see, wait a minute, this connects to Christ.
And it's just theologically sound. Yahweh here is promising to adopt David's offspring, and which is significant to those people. But Solomon, I had a friend ask me once at a conference, "Do you think Solomon is in hell?" And I said, "No, not at all." He became actually this person became an Anglican priest. Man, what happened to him? Because he asked those kind of questions, anyway, it's already a hint, right?
God referred to Solomon when he was born as Jaduthan, the beloved, and he's just he's saying right here, if he sins, I will forgive him. I won't treat him like he's going to say in a minute. I'm not going to treat him like I treated Saul because there's more going on here in the heart of Solomon. I believe when Solomon did the sins that he did, that his flesh was dominant, but he knew it was wrong, and. He knew it was wrong.
He did it anyway, and it was sin. But the Bible makes it clear that he gains forgiveness in Ecclesiastes twelve verses thirteen and fourteen, and just even to the end, he said, "God is the one to obey." He's jaded when he writes Ecclesiastes, but he's still spiritually alive. He's jaded when it comes to overthinking life. And he goes through. It's everything's just a waste.
It's just a vanity. It's just a bunch of waste.
Well, that's true with the cursed world under the sun. But yet he's still writing about this because it's meaningful to him, and he's still pointing the Jews to God. In the end, anyway, I didn't want to do a whole thing on Ecclesiastes, but that is the Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and the Proverbs are testimony to Solomon being forgiven. And there's more. Hebrews chapter one verse five.
For to you, which of the angels did he ever say, "You are my son"? Today I have begotten you, and again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
So my point is, the writer of Hebrews is saying that this verse applies to Jesus Christ. Yet here, where he's drawing it from. Second Samuel seven verse fourteen. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him.
It is a dual application: one to Solomon, and one to the Christ. Both of them adopted by Yahweh. Paul also applies this passage in Second Corinthians collectively to the church. That God does this with us too, just like He did with Solomon. He does with us.
And so, Psalm chapter two is the the very same thing.
So, what am I saying?
Solomon did sin. Yeah, he sure did, big and bad. And God forgave him, and he'll be in heaven. God made provision for this; otherwise, you can't have this verse. You can't have God.
So, let's take verse fifteen. But my mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. My mercy shall not depart from him. That is an explicit response to all that Solomon is going to do. I think when we get to heaven, if we are allowed to look back, we will say this life was worse than what we thought, and God's mercy and grace were greater than what we thought.
Verse, well, let's see here in verse sixteen. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever. That is without end. There's no part of that forever there that doesn't mean forever.
No matter what horrible things you're going through. Why did the Jews not the his descendants not pay attention to this?
Well, why did they not pay attention when Christ came was doing miracles? They could just walk down to the temple, say, "This guy is a descendant of David, and he's doing these messianic things. This is a deal maker." Why didn't they do that? They didn't want it. Critical to the New Testament understanding of Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this Davidic covenant.
Understanding Second Samuel seven is very helpful to understanding such verses as this Revelation twenty two verse sixteen. I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. I am the beginning, the source of blessings, the source of his life. I am everything; he was nothing without me.
And I am the offspring of David. How does that happen? That's what the Lord said to my Lord. I mean, how does David become subservient to his son? This is how.
Verse seventeen. According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
So Nathan comes and shares the vision as mentioned earlier.
Now, if you say you lost me in a lot of this, no, I lost parts of you, maybe, but you got this part. God is all over the life of David, and it works its way into the life of Christ, and it is to our glory, the glorification that awaits us. That God is very busy and still is getting people into heaven. One of my complaints to God is, "You grant the devil too much," and God's response is, "Who asked you?" True story. Verse.
Verse eighteen. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, "Who am I, O Yahweh, O Lord Yahweh, and what is my house that you have brought me this far?" Man, you got this.
So he he cannot go in the tabernacle and into the tent. It should be sectioned off. If any, he's sitting outside, and there is a tent before him. All of the work that Moses put into the tent on the inside, the people didn't get to see that. They just knew it was in there.
They were part of that process, but they could not go in. The synagogues, of course, were the assembly places for the people, and the priests and all. They would teach in the courts or the precincts of of the temple. But here, David sits before the Ark of the Covenant. And we get this great lesson of gratitude with humility.
It's not just thankful. It's it's I really don't deserve this. In a very big way, wasted on the arrogant and sin-filled descendants of David and many others. Had the kings embraced this one chapter. The history of Israel would have been drastically different for the good.
Verse nineteen, and yet this was a small thing in your sight, O Lord Yahweh, and you have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of God? Pardon me, of man, O Lord Yahweh. This verse nineteen, of course, connected to verse eighteen in David pouring out his thanks to the Lord. He says, "Is this the manner of man, O Lord Yahweh?
Is this how it is? You bless those who cannot bless themselves. Is is this how it is? Yeah, you know, we hear people who don't know what they're talking about. God blesses those who." Bless you know I don't even remember how it goes.
I'll help themselves.
Well, there is elements of truth in that, but that is not the absolute truth. The prayer of Jabez he could not bless himself, and he calls out to the Lord, and the Lord blesses him in a grand way. God does not see the sins of David later on. This recurrent cleansing that we have. In the New Testament, it said the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.
Well, blood has to flow to keep cleansing, and so it keeps cleansing us. And we see it here. God is not going to see David's sin later and say, "You know what? I take it back. You're just a knucklehead.
You just can't get it together." After all I've done for you, David, this is what you do: you kill the man, you take his wife. I mean, then you go. God doesn't do that. He never takes back a word from this. Man, what a thrust of faith that should lend to all of us when we become sloppy and snarky and short-tempered with others, and judgmental and self-righteous, and all the things that we can do.
Well, mostly you. We remember God is not giving up on us. He already sees it. And that encourages us to serve harder and better. At least it does me.
It encourages me to love the Lord when I don't feel like singing songs of praise. I know my Redeemer lives. I don't have to be in the mood to know my faith is in operation. I don't wait for my feelings to dictate to me how I'm going to do this or that. I've tried to find out what is my duty and do that.
And if I can feel good about my duty, that's a bonus. Let's say you're in the military and you have to guard the trash dump.
Well, I mean, people can rummage through trash and look for things they shouldn't be.
So let's just say that's your job. Or and it's in the middle of summer, high humidity, and hot and miserable out. Or you get to guard something inside where it's air conditioned and nobody is. You see, one you you both of the cases you're doing your duty, but in one of them you're just actually a bit happier about it than the other. Such is life.
There are certain circumstances you get. I mean, that you know you don't want to do this, but you know you got to do this, and you are blessed because of it anyway. This spirit of grace that I'm talking about, Job's friends missed it. All they could do is pick on Job. You did this.
You must have done something. We're going to find something. They were like U.S. attorneys going after somebody with all his authority, and nobody could stop them. And boy, Job is just getting bludgeoned by these guys.
But he didn't put up with it. I mean, I love your forges of you know lies and. You know, surely wisdom will die with you. And Job, Job didn't take their mess. You got to love him for that because he was right.
Psalm eight, verse four: What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him? See, it goes back to: Is this the manner of man, O Lord Yahweh? Is this what happens with us when we are with you? What are we that you're mindful of us? Especially since I am now less than what you created me to be.
You didn't create me to be a sinner, but I am one, born in it, less than what I was born again to be. That's what I am. When I became born again, I thought I was going to get the upper hand on me, and it's just been a wrestling match ever since. And you have to go through phases of you know disillusionment.
Okay, it's not what I thought, but it is the truth. Is the truth? I can't get away from it. I'm not going anywhere. I was, you know, like Peter said.
Where else we going to go? We don't like what you just preached. But where we going to go? Because you've got it together. The whole is greater than these things we don't understand.
Love never fails. Verse twenty.
Now, what more can David say to you? For you, Lord Yahweh. Know your servant for verse twenty one. Your word's sake and according to your own heart, you have done all these great things to make your servant know them.
So David is saying, I can't even express what I feel. George Herbert in the seventeenth century said in one of his poems, "Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one thing more—a grateful heart." That's the only thing I know about this guy. Pretty much, oh, I've looked at some of his poems. I just can't get into poetry. I'm still, you know, if they don't rhyme, I don't like them.
I'm not smart enough to pick out other little things from them. But it's very true. You've given me so much. Can you make me grateful? Because my flesh will suppose that I'm owed this, and the proof of that is when I lose it.
When I have something and I lose it, who do I get angry? I mean, sometimes I get angry with God. That was the whole problem with Jonah. God, God didn't give him shade, and it dies, and then he turns on God. God is trying to teach the boy something, and he learned the hard way.
It would have been better if he perceived it, would it not? Like, you know what? If I mess with God, I'm going to lose. Who has hardened their heart against God and prospered? It is in the Proverbs.
I've asked myself that when I've been upset with how could Lord you how could you let this happen?
Okay, what are you going to do? Harden your heart? No, that's a lose lose situation. Verse twenty two. Therefore, you are great, O Lord Yahweh, for there is none like you.
Nor is there any god besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
So He's really pouring this on. This is so energizing when we when we verbalize this to God in times of any time. There's no one like you. I know where my compass points. Deuteronomy four verse thirty-five.
To you, it was shown that you might know that Yahweh Himself is God, and there is no other besides Him. You can't move forward in Christ without this foundation. Isaiah forty-five. He says it no less than six times. There's nobody else, and in six verses, and some of those verses double up.
There's nobody. Like you, verse twenty three, and who is like your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people to make for Himself a name? I've got to pause there when He is saying, "Who is like your people?" He is not saying they're super saints. He is saying, as a people, they're the only ones chosen for this task that you have outlined in your Scripture. Nobody's close.
This is why they are, as a people, the chosen people. But what they do with that on an individual level will either damn their soul or save it. It comes down to who do you say Christ is. You cannot say that Caiaphas is in heaven because he's a Jew.
So that's what's not said. He says, continuing verse twenty-three, and do not do for yourself. Great and awesome deeds for your land before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, the nations and their gods. Verse twenty four: For you have made your people Israel your very own people forever, and you, Yahweh, have become their God. Yes, He made them His own people, but He added to this the church.
And these are great facts about Israel. Which only increased Satan's hatred for them. This is something that revisionists of history, those who would like to change history, would like to rewrite the story, and and they cannot. Verse twenty five.
Now, O Yahweh God, the word which you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as you have said.
So David is receiving the blessing, which is not always easy to do. You know, sometimes we feel we don't want to owe somebody something, so we don't want to receive something. You know, there's a whole bunch of reasons why we can be uncomfortable with someone giving us something. But there are times when we have to learn it's improper to say no. Anyone ever want to buy a new truck for me?
First, get with me on the specs. And then watch me receive it, but don't go buying what you think I like. Does that sound bad? All right, verse twenty six.
Well, people do that with art; they just buy you. Say, "Hey, you'll love this." You're like, "Man, I can't wait for you to move to another state so I can throw this thing away." It's taking up space in my garage. I get nightmares looking at that. That is not Moses, anyway. Don't buy people artwork.
Just you know, arts you're risky and very risky. I bought John Connor's art one time, and I could tell on his face he hated it. But I was young. What did I know?
So I get a pass. Anyway, verse twenty-six.
So let your name be magnified forever, saying. Yahweh of Hosts is God over Israel, and let the house of your servant David be established before you. Magnify His Lord. This was what was the Church in Acts was all about. Then it faced opposition from outside and then inside.
That's why we have the letters to Corinth and Galatia and Colossi, Second Peter, First John, the seven churches. Five of them, in particular, is because the enemy was had infiltrated the church. Verse twenty-seven. For you, O Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to your servant, saying, "I will build you a house." Therefore, your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to you.
So, this second section in chapter seven is David's just outpouring of gratitude to to God, because God is love, and man is made for God to love, and man is made to love God back. This is what we're looking at in this chapter. We're looking at David love God. I want to do more for His presence. We're looking at God love him back.
He can't do that, but I'm going to do this. Then we hear David say it with awe. Just thank you, verse 28.
Now, Lord Yahweh, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this goodness to your servant. Verse 29.
Now, therefore, let it please You to bless the house of your servant that it may continue before you forever. For you, O Lord Yahweh, have spoken it, and your blessing, with your blessing, let the house of your servant be blessed forever. Two things in closing: We can bless God the same way an infant or a small child can bless a parent by just doing nothing but being the child. We can bless God. We close with Psalm 89, verse 35, the Psalm of Ethan about this chapter and this covenant.
He says, "Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David." This has been the latest edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is teaching through the Book of Second Samuel, which details the reign of David as king of Israel. There are so many life lessons to be learned during these years of David's life. We're glad you've tuned in to hear more from God's Word. This radio ministry comes to you from Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
If you're interested in Accessing more messages, just like this one, you can listen online or download these messages at crossreferenceradio dot com. You can also subscribe to our podcast by going to your favorite podcast app. We can't wait for you to step into the next teaching that Pastor Rick has for us.
So come back next time for Cross Reference Radio.
