Davidic Covenant

If you have your Bibles, turn with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 67 through 71. You might say, Doug, we've been going through the scripture verse by verse, first in 2 Samuel for about the last eight months. What in the world are we doing in the Gospel of Luke? Well, we're in the Gospel of Luke today because we see the prophecy of 2 Samuel chapter 7 fulfilled. And to me, this is a glorious thing and we need to rejoice over it this morning.

Starting at verse 67. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, today's message is centered around the Davidic Covenant. We hear that term and we don't get excited like we should. Instead of rejoicing, we apathetically yawn. We say, oh, that's just theology. That's just something for seminary students to banner back and forth.

God, forgive us for being shallow. Forgive us for not rejoicing from the depths of our being. The Davidic Covenant is not just theological jargon. It is a promise to all of God's children that we will not spend an eternity in hell, but will live forever in glory, face to face with our Creator and Savior. Lord, three thousand years ago, you entered into that covenant with David. You promised him that the Messiah would be born in his bloodline. Two thousand years ago, you fulfilled that promise by sending Jesus to die on the cross.

That's not just theological banner. That is heart-rending, life-changing, God-honoring, all-consuming truth. Father, help me preach this morning.

Please keep my lips from error. Help me exalt Christ. Help me to edify this flock. For it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. In a little mountain village in the hill country of Judea about two thousand twenty-five years ago, John the Baptist was born. His parents were elderly age.

They were more like grandparent age than they were parent age. This was, John the Baptist, a miracle baby. Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying and wanting a baby for almost four decades, and God had not given them one. And now, in their retirement age, they get a baby, a beautiful baby.

You remember the setting for the story. John Zechariah was a priest. He was performing his priestly duties in the temple, and as he was doing that, an angel appeared before him and gave him a prophecy.

Zechariah, you and Elizabeth are going to have a baby. It will be a son, and that son will be the forerunner of the Messiah. He will be the Christ. I mean, he will be the forerunner of the Christ. He will prepare the world for the Christ. Zechariah responded to that with cynical unbelief.

He kind of laughingly said, how can that be? And the Lord disciplined him. Immediately, Zechariah lost his ability to speak, and the angel Gabriel said to him, you will not regain the ability to speak until this promise has been fulfilled, until the baby is born. Six months after that, Mary, the future mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, arrived on the doorstep of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and made an announcement that she, as a virgin, was going to give birth to the Son of God.

Three months after that, John the Baptist is born. Eight days after that, they were going to do the circumcision, and Zechariah invites all the family and the friends and the neighbors to come and to celebrate with them in John's circumcision. And then the Lord did another great miracle. The Lord gave Zechariah his voice back, and he rejoiced and praised God, and with loud shouts of joy, he was praising the Lord. Verses 65-66 tells us what happens. And fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. That opens the door for Zechariah to prophesy, and he does. He's going to answer their question.

What shall this child be? And Zechariah explains it. But although he starts explaining to them about John the Baptist, he doesn't primarily talk about John the Baptist. He primarily talks about Jesus.

And brothers and sisters, that's the way it ought to be. And that's the way it was with John the Baptist all through his life. It was not about himself. He was about Jesus. He came and was the forerunner, and he came to just plow up the fallow ground and prepare the world for the Messiah. He was a great preacher. He was a great prophet, and he was extremely humble. I want to share with you some of John's testimony.

We see how humble he is. John 1, verse 19 through 27 says this. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.

And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. So they said to him, Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ or Elijah nor the prophet?

John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the strap of his sandal, I am not worthy to untie. John 3 verse 29 through 30, John says, The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. John's humility is one of the primary factors in his success. He didn't care what anybody else thought. And when praise came his way, he always reflected it back to the Lord. Now humility doesn't get a lot of good press in our society today, does it? But I want you to know the Bible says that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And he who is humble will be exalted. A.W. Pink was one of the greatest authors out of the last two centuries, Christian authors. And he was on his deathbed and his friends came to him and said, A.W., what do you want written on your tombstone? And he said this, just write this, A.W.

Pink, 1886 through 1951. They said, that's it? And they said, yep, that's it. Chuck Colson was one of the men who went to prison because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal with Richard Nixon. Right before he went to prison, a Christian friend of his gave him a book. That book was Mere Christianity by C.S.

Lewis. He started reading that book and he got to the eighth chapter. The eighth chapter is a chapter called The Great Sin. And as he began reading that chapter, God broke his heart.

The great sin was pride. And God showed him the condition of his own heart and how desperately he needed a Savior. And Chuck Colson was broken by God and trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He's with the Lord today, but I want you to know the rest of his life counted for Christ's sake. He started prison ministries all over the world and God has used him in a mighty and powerful way.

I want to share with you just a few of the things that C.S. Lewis said that spoke to his heart so powerfully in chapter 8 of the book Mere Christianity. Lewis said this, There is one vice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else, and of which hardly any people except Christians ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice.

And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone who was not a Christian who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking of is pride or self-conceit, and the virtue opposite to it, Christian morals, is called humility. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil.

Pride leads to every other vice, and it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Do not imagine that. If you meet a really humble man, he will be what most people call humble nowadays. He will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a very cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility. He will not be thinking about himself at all.

If you think you are conceited, it means if you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. Humility was the trademark of John the Baptist, and it didn't happen by accident. His dad helped develop that humility in him. And we see it even in this answer to the little crowd who have raised the question, What shall this child be? And when Zechariah responds, he responds giving three-fourths of the answer about Jesus and not about John.

Let me ask you something. When someone brings up your name in conversation, do people think about Jesus? Chip Saloon led me to Christ when I was twenty-one years old. Chip and I were pretty much raised up together. He was a very dear friend. We played little league ball together. We went to school together. We played football together. He went on to Clemson on a golf scholarship. Very good in golf. And we played tennis together at Clemson.

We were good friends. But when I think about Chip, I don't think about little league. I don't think about baseball or football. I don't think about his golf. I think about Jesus.

Let me tell you why. Chip came to Christ. And about a year after he did, he'd been witnessing to me, but one day he sat down with me, looked me in the eye, and he said, Doug, are you a Christian? And I said, Well, yes, I think I am. I said, I go to church every Sunday. I said, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for sinners. I believe that he was raised from the dead. I believe that Jesus was the Son of God. I believe that the Bible is God's word.

Yes, I believe that I'm a Christian. And Chip looked right back at me. He said, I don't think so. I said, What do you mean, you don't think so? You can't look into my heart. He said, Jesus said that he would know those that are his by their fruit. He said, I don't see any fruit in you. He said, You drink like a fish.

You curse like a sailor. He said, I don't see any spiritual desire in your life whatsoever. And he said, Doug, if you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will go to hell when you die for all of eternity. I can remember feeling this great burden. And I went back home that night and I could not sleep.

I was in my bed rolling around until about two o'clock in the morning. And I got up. I went and got on my knees beside my couch. And I began to pray. I said, Lord, I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm not sure I know even how to pray.

But in the best way I know how. I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins and be my Lord and Savior. I'm repenting of this junk in my life that is displeasing to you. And I knew before I got off my knees that I would never be the same again. I knew that I belonged to the Lord and He belonged to me. I knew where I was going when I died.

Brothers and sisters, when I think of Chip Sloan, the first thing that hits my mind is not about what we used to do. The first thing that hits my mind is Jesus. You know, that's so important for us to understand that. And that was true of John. And Zachariah, his dad, planted those seeds of humility into him.

We see it right here. So when we read this passage of Scripture that's called Zachariah's Song or the Benedictus, when we read this, the first thing that Zachariah talks about is the Davidic Covenant. And he tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of that covenant.

Now I've got five points that I want to share with you today as we look at this passage. The first one is the power behind the prophecy. Look at verse 67. And his father, Zachariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, What was the source for Zachariah's prophecy?

It was the Holy Spirit of God. What does the Holy Spirit of God use? He uses the Word of God.

In this prophecy of Zachariah, there are 33 Old Testament references. So the Holy Spirit is using the Word of God and he takes it and he inspires Zachariah to write these words so that Zachariah can help us to understand who John the Baptist is. And he says to us, You cannot understand John the Baptist without his connection to Jesus Christ. John is the forerunner. Jesus is the Messiah. John is the prophet. Jesus is the Lord. John is the storyteller.

But Jesus is the story. John 16, verse 13 through 14, Jesus explained to us one of the miracles of the Holy Spirit. He said this, When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit works in tandem with God's Holy Word.

I said this to you last week and I'm saying it again today. Folks, we need to quit getting our guidance from our feelings and we need to get our guidance from the Word of God. Point two, the purpose of the prophecy, verse 68, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people. The word visited in the Greek can be translated as looked after. In Matthew chapter 25 and verse 36, Jesus said this, I was sick and you came to visit me. Now the word came to visit me doesn't mean just a little visit. It means to be looked after, to be cared after as if you would care after a sick person. And that's what that word means, how important that is.

So let's kind of look at it this way. You're up in the hospital and a buddy comes by to see you and he brings you a funny card to read and he pats you on the back so hope you get well soon and he walks out. But your wife comes in and she sits down beside your bed and she takes a cold rag and puts it on your head to help lower the fever. And she calls the nurse any time you say that you're in pain. And she brings chicken soup up there that she has made in order that you might have something that you can get down that you can eat. That's the word visit here.

It means to look after, it means to take care of, and that's the word that is used. God has visited His people and for what purpose? Well, verse 68 tells us so we don't have to guess, for the purpose of redemption. Now brothers and sisters, what kind of redemption is this? Is this political redemption? Has God sent Jesus to this earth in order that He might be a political redeemer? In order that He might be a political savior? In order that He might come and break the yoke of Roman oppression? In order that He might come and make Israel the strongest, toughest nation on the face of the earth so that they can whip their greatest enemy, greatest enemy being Rome? I want you to know that Israel's greatest enemy was not Rome.

Israel's greatest enemy is our greatest enemies, and they're the world, the flesh, and the devil. Yes, redemption was needed, but it was not political redemption. What was needed was redemption of the soul. How does the Bible describe a lost person? The Bible says a lost person is dead.

A lost person is totally unresponsive. A lost person is a person who is by nature a child of wrath. He is a person who is controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is a person who is a slave, and he's a slave to sin. In John chapter 8, Jesus said, And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Folks, redemption means being bought out of the slave market. It means being bought, purchased by Christ, out of the slave market of sin. There's a great verse in Psalm 107, verse 2. It says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Well, what are they supposed to say? They're supposed to say this, I am redeemed. The blood of Christ has redeemed me and purchased me out of the slave market of sin for all of eternity. Remember all this news is told to a little group of neighbors that are living in a remote village up in the mountains of Judea. Little did they know that 2025 years later, that here we would be at Grace Church in Harrisburg, North Carolina, and we would be praising God over the same prophecy that they were hearing by the old prophet Zechariah. And why are we praising God? Because we have redemption, and we need redemption just like they needed redemption.

People, God intended for us to utilize this passage for our lives. We hear about redemption. What does redemption mean? The definition is this, to purchase a slave out of the slave market. Alright, that's the definition, but I want to give you more than that. I want to give you a picture.

I want you to remember this. Here's a picture of a Hebrew slave. He's living under Egyptian tyranny, and this is during the time where they were building the pyramids, and so this slave is out with a number of the other Hebrew slaves, and they were having to push one of these huge blocks of stone, and it's hot, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The sun is just beaming down on them, 110 degrees, and they haven't had water in a while, and they're becoming terribly dehydrated, and their strength is lessening, and so they're pushing that hard block, that huge block of stone, and the taskmaster is screaming at them to hurry up, to do it faster, and his mouth is just, tongue is just swollen up in his mouth because of all the dehydration.

Finally, the taskmaster takes his whip and brings it down across his back, and he winces and shivers in the pain, but he knows that nothing's going to change anything until finally the sun goes down, and he gets to lay down for a little bit and get some rest, knowing that the next morning he's going to get up to the very same thing. I want you to feel that pain. I want you to feel that hopelessness. I want you to feel that frustration, because, folks, that's a picture of us before knowing Christ. We were slaves to sin. We had addictions and habits in our lives that had us in bondage.

We had desires that were sordid and wrong. We had consciences that were filled with guilt and shame, and when we looked into our future, all we could see was a destination in an eternal hell, and then came Jesus, and then came Jesus, and his precious blood washed away our sin, and he imputed his righteousness to us. He appeased the wrath of God against us. He reconciled us to a holy God, and then he took the addictions and the habits in our lives and put us in bondage and broke the power of those habits. No longer is the world the flesh and the devil.

No longer are they our taskmasters. Now Christ is our master, and he's kind, and he's glorious, and he's compassionate. Folks, these are not just words. This is not just a sermon. This is reality, and this is the most glorious truth in the world.

The old song says it well. Oh, how well do I remember how I doubted day by day, for I did not know for certain that my sins were washed away when the preacher tried to tell me I would not the truth receive, but I endeavored to be happy and to make myself believe. When the truth came close and searching, all my joys would disappear, for I did not have the witness of the Spirit bright and clear. If at times the coming judgment would appear before my mind, the fear before my mind, it may be so uneasy for the Lord's smile I could not find. So I prayed. I prayed to God in earnest, not caring what folks said. I was hungry for the blessing.

My poor soul, it must be fed. When at last, by grace, he touched me like sparks from smitten steel. Just so quick, salvation reached me, and praise God, now I know it's real. It's real. It's real.

Praise God, the doubts are gone, and now I know it's real. That's what Zechariah's song ought to do to every heart that's in this room today. Point three is the person of the prophecy, verse 69, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. The word horn in this verse is used as a metaphor to describe power and strength. It's a picture of a big buck or a ram with these huge antlers or horns on his head, and they lift them up, and when they do, every person or animal around sees the power that's there. You might remember several years ago the Ram Tuff commercial, where there were two rams up on the mountain.

They looked at each other, and it was going to be a fight, and they lowered their head down, and then they come flying at each other, and they crash against each other, and when they do, you can hear that sound just echoing all across the mountain. Folks, that's a picture of our Lord Jesus. He is the horn of our salvation. He is the captain of our salvation.

He is the Lord of hosts. Where will this horn of salvation, where will it come from? The scripture leaves no doubt. It comes from David's bloodline, the house of David. For a thousand years, Israel had been waiting for the Messiah, and they knew one thing.

They knew that David's bloodline would be the Messiah's heritage. Jeremiah 23 verse 5 says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulders, and thou shalt call his name Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from this time on and forever.

Then when the angel Gabriel came to Mary in Luke chapter 1 verse 30 through 32, the scripture says this, 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 womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And here in this verse, Zacharias alluding once again to the Davidic Covenant. David was the greatest king that Israel had ever had. He was the slayer of giants. He was the apple of God's eye. He was the man after God's own heart.

He was the mighty warrior. He was the writer of psalms. He was the shepherd king of Israel. He was the man that stopped every attack against Israel and defeated every enemy that Israel had. The golden years of Israel's history were the 40 years where David was reigning as king. Israel's pride and glory, humanly speaking, was David. And the prophecy that Zacharias heralding here is that the Messiah will come in his bloodline. Alright, point four is the prophets of the prophecy. Verse 70, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. Now we've already seen that Jeremiah and Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be a blood descendant of David.

But where did it start? Well, the first time we see it is in 2 Samuel chapter 7. David had built a beautiful palace for himself and for his family. And it was probably the most beautiful building in the entire world at that time. And David is looking out his window one day. He looks up at the highest elevation in Jerusalem, which is Mount Zion. And there's the tabernacle of David. In that tabernacle there's the Ark of the Covenant that represents the very presence of God. And David looks up and there are the worshipers all around it. The priests and the singers and the dancers and the musicians. They are there worshiping the Lord with all their heart.

That goes on for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And David looks up there and the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent. An animal skin tent. It's plain, it's simple, it's even dirty. And all of a sudden David gets under great conviction. He said, wait a minute, this is not right. This is not right that I'm living in this beautiful palace.

It's luxury, it's ease, it's glory. And here's the presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant. And it's in an animal skin tent. He said, this is not right. He said, I know what I'm going to do. I want to build a temple to the Lord. I want to build a monument to God's glory.

I want to build a temple that will make, so beautiful, that will make my palace look like nothing but a shack. And he runs and he tells Nathan his idea. And Nathan hears what David has to say. And Nathan, he's a prophet now. He says, man, that's a great idea, David.

I think that's exactly what we need to do. He did not consult the Lord, but he should have. The Lord had to rebuke Nathan and say, no, Nathan, this is not God's will. This is not my will, God said to Nathan, for David to build this temple. It's my will for David's son to build the temple.

That son was Solomon, wasn't even born yet. He said, he will build the temple. But then he said this in verse 11. He said, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

What did he say? The Lord said to Nathan, David will not build me a house. I will build David a house.

What did he mean by that? He meant that he, through David's bloodline, would see the Messiah be born. And that Messiah would set up an everlasting kingdom with an everlasting throne for us for all of eternity. The last point is the product of the prophecy. Look at verse 71. That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.

Our Davidic King, our Lord, our Messiah, will save us from all of our enemies and all those who hate us. In the year 2010, Taliban terrorists killed 10 Christian missionaries in Afghanistan. They said that they killed them because they were spies. They knew they weren't spies. They killed them because they were Christians.

Those 10 missionaries went immediately to be with the Lord. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. They are right now with Jesus in heaven and will be with Him forever.

As we speak right now, they are there. But I want you to know there's coming a day of reckoning where every enemy of God and every enemy of God's people are going to be defeated. What kind of enemy? Death, disease, depression, demons, and the devil himself. And all those, all those who hated God and hated God's people. And where will we be? We will be with the Lord and we will never know anything else ever again but joy unspeakable and full of glory.

People, this will come to pass. God will not forget His covenant with David. God will not forget His covenant with Jesus. And God will not forget His covenant with us.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are a covenant keeping God. As Paul told us, all your promises are yes and amen.

You will not forget about what you have promised. Lord, help us to remember your perfect integrity when we consider your promises. You didn't promise an easy life. You didn't promise us no persecution. You didn't promise us a godly environment.

But you promised us eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Help us to be strong in a rapidly changing environment. Help us to be loving but uncompromising. Help us to be more concerned about your glory than about our reputation. Help us each day to be more like Jesus. For it's in your precious and holy name that I pray, amen.