Davidic Covenant (Part 2)

You have your Bibles with you. Turn with me if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 7.

We're going to be looking at verses 11 to 17. And I will establish His kingdom. 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 Son of men. 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. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Lord Jesus, two thousand years ago, a father who had a demon-possessed son came to you and begged you for help. You said to him, All things are possible to those who believe. And he responded to you, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. We understand that man's plight.

He knew that you were his answer. He knew that you had power to deliver his son from demonic bondage. But he also knew that his faith was weak. Lord, we confess to you this morning that our faith is also weak. So help us not to focus on the smallness of our faith. Help us to focus on the greatness, the magnitude, and the grandeur of our Savior. Father, as each day of my life passes, I realize more and more that I am nothing and Christ is my everything. Father, give me the grace to be more and more dependent on Christ. In this passage we see prophecy given. In the rest of the scripture we see that prophecy fulfilled. Lord, convict us of ever doubting your word.

Make us ashamed for not trusting you more. Use this passage to make us more like Christ. Please empower me to preach this morning.

Keep my lips from error. Help me to exalt Jesus and edify your children. For it is in the precious, wonderful, and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Two weeks ago I preached a sermon entitled, When God Says No. David had a great desire to build a temple for the Lord. David had built for himself and had great help from the architect from Tyre and Sidon to build this beautiful palace for himself and for his family.

It's probably one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. It was a beautiful palace and everybody looked up to that. One day David looked out up on Mount Zion and when he did he saw the tabernacle of David and inside the tabernacle of David there was the Ark of the Covenant representing the very presence of God. David looked up and he saw that it was nothing but an animal skin tent. It was plain, it was simple, it was dirty.

David felt deep conviction. He said, this is not right. Why should I be living in a palace in luxury and all this glory and the God of the universe, the presence of that God is in an animal skin tent.

He said, this is not right. I want to build a temple to the Lord. I want to build a temple for God's honor and for God's glory.

I want to build a temple that will be so beautiful that will make my palace look like an absolute shack. And then he went to Nathan the prophet. He shared his heart with him. He said, Nathan, this is what I want to do. Nathan heard that and he thought, man, this is a great thing, David.

This is, I believe, a right motive, a righteous motive. Without even consulting the Lord in prayer, Nathan said, let's do it, David. This is what God would have us to do. God dealt with Nathan and rebuked him and said, no, it is not my will for David to build the temple. It is my will for his son to build the temple.

That son was Solomon and he wasn't even born yet. He said, I will build, David will not build a house for me. He said, I will build a house for David. David is a man of war. David is a man of blood. I will build David's house.

Now what did that mean? It meant that God was entering into a covenant with David. And in that covenant, he was telling him that the day was coming when the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords would be born in the tribe of Judah and we would be a direct blood descendant of David himself. Last week we went to the Gospel of Luke. And in the Gospel of Luke, Zacharias is in the temple and he is going through his priestly duties. The angel Gabriel comes to him and the angel Gabriel tells him that he is going to have a son and that son will be none other than John the Baptist. And John the Baptist will be the forerunner of the Messiah. And if you go through that passage, it is unbelievable to see all the great prophecies that are fulfilled in that particular prophecy that Zacharias gives. Folks, when I hear pseudo-intellectual liberals calling the Bible an ancient dusty book that just can't stand up to our modern science and our pseudo-psychology, it makes me want to scream.

And what I want to say to them, if you think the Holy Scriptures are antiquated and untrustworthy, then explain to me how all those Scriptures that were given by God were perfectly fulfilled, some of them perfectly fulfilled 1500 years later. When Jesus died on the cross, 33 Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled to the letter. And I've heard people say, well Jesus just kind of manipulated those things to make it appear to be so.

Is that right? How did Jesus manipulate the place where he'd be born? In Bethlehem, Micah chapter 5 verse 2. How is it that David could prophesy how Jesus would die? And he did it a thousand years before crucifixion was even a means of execution. How is it that Jesus was prophesied that he would be buried with the rich man in Isaiah 53? And he was buried in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. What did he have to do with that?

Absolutely nothing. How is it that Jesus was prophesied that soldiers would gamble for his clothes? Did he have anything to do with that? Did he manipulate that?

Absolutely not. Listen, when people start whining about the Bible being an untrustworthy book, I ask them to explain the fulfillment of prophecy with absolute 100% accuracy. They can't explain that. Folks, the fulfillment of Scripture is not just hit and miss educated guesses. It is the sovereign Word of God who knows the future as well as he knows the past. So today I want to jump back into 2 Samuel chapter 7 and let's see how the Lord orchestrated the Davidic covenant. How he opened David's heart so that David could not only understand it at least partially, but that he would love it.

Three points I want to share with you. Number one, God's covenant promise to David, verses 11 through 12. 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. 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. Our God is the covenant giving, covenant keeping God.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and they sinned in the garden of Eden, they ate of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God immediately established his covenant of grace. And he spoke to the serpent who had deceived Eve, and he said this to the serpent. He said, I will put enmity between you and her, between your seed and her seed.

He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel. The theologians call that verse the proto-Uongelion or the first gospel. It is the promise that the Messiah will come and destroy the works of the devil. And in the Davidic covenant we get further information about who that Messiah would be, about who is that seed of the woman.

We find out that it is the Messiah and that it is going to be a royal seed. You remember Abigail? Abigail was married to Nabal, a hard-headed fool. Nabal had criticized David, cursed David, challenged David. David got mad, and he was going after Nabal, had plans to kill him. And Abigail came to David and his men brought a great feast and fed them all, and then got David off to the side and said, David, my husband is a hard-headed fool. He said, please don't hurt him or kill him, because that will do nothing but hurt your reputation and hurt your fellowship with God.

Leave it to God. God will deal with my husband, David. And David realized that she was exactly right. And so David did nothing.

Ten days later the Lord smote Nabal, and he died right there on the spot. David went on to marry Abigail. And I want you to think for just a minute about what Abigail said to David as she was trying to persuade him not to kill her husband. She prophesied, and she prophesied about the Davidic covenant.

In 1 Samuel 25 verse 28 she said this, Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house, because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord. I don't think that David fully understood that at that time. But when Nathan stood before him, and Nathan prophesied, and Nathan said, God says this, David, you will not build him a house, but he will build you a house. I have a feeling that all those things that Abigail had said to David came rushing back into his mind, and he came to this understanding that yes, Abigail understood that his bloodline would be not only royal, but it would be heavenly royal. It will be the messianic bloodline. Before we move to point two, let me remind you that the Davidic covenant was not established because of David's merits, because David was good.

We need to understand that. This covenant was not made to honor David for killing Goliath, or for being a man after God's own heart, or for writing over half the psalms in the Psalter, or for winning all the battles against his enemies. Folks, God did not establish the Davidic covenant because David was good. God established the Davidic covenant because God is a gracious God. David puffed up his chest, and he said, I will build God a house. And God said, no, you won't. I will build you a house. I want you to listen to what God said to David, and listen to how God is showing David his sovereignty here.

He says, I took you from the pasture, David. I have been with you. I will make your name great. I will give you rest. I will raise up your offspring after you.

Brothers and sisters, that's exactly what God is saying to us as Christians. How many times do you hear a Christian say, I made a decision for Christ. I'm the one responsible for this. I was wise enough.

I was smart enough. I repented to my sins. I am living a holy life.

No, you're not. You aren't doing a thing that God didn't give you, the grace, the strength, the mercy, and the power to do. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. He didn't say, without me, you can give it a good shot. He didn't say, without me, you can do a little bit. He said, without me, you can do nothing. Brothers and sisters, that ought to humble us.

It ought to deeply humble us. Before you were saved, you were what? You were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were by nature a child of wrath. You were controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil.

You were headed for an eternal hell. But God, who is rich in mercy, hath quickened you and set you in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Paul explained this to us by using Jacob and Esau as his examples in Romans chapter 9 verses 11 through 18. He said this, Though they were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?

By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. Brothers and sisters, that's how we need to view our salvation.

We ought to be humbled and broken, not arrogant and proud. And when David is having this Davidic covenant explained to him, David realized that it was God's work and not his. Point two, the promised son, Solomon. Look at verses 12 through 13. 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.

He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. This is a theological instrument that God uses here and many other places in the Bible. It's called telescoping.

Now what is telescoping? It is God giving us a dual prophecy, where he prophesies about one thing that will happen in the near future and uses that to point us to another thing, probably and most of the times a much greater thing, that will happen sometime down the line and way out into the future. For example, Psalm 22 is a partial picture of David and what he would go through and the persecution that he would experience and the tribulation and the hardship. But then that is used to point us further down the road to the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be crucified, nailed to the cross, to pay our sin debt. I think of Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is telling them something about what was going to take place in the near future, within 40 years, that Jerusalem would be destroyed and that the temple would be completely knocked down. And he then uses that to say, yes, that's going to happen in your lifetime, but use that to look down into the future and see that Jesus is coming back a second time and when he comes back the second time, history will end and we will be with him for all of eternity.

That's telescoping. The primary person in the Davidic Covenant is the Lord Jesus Christ, but we see another person that is spoken of here and that other person that is spoken of is David's actual son and his actual son is Solomon. Now Solomon was not even born at this time.

David's not even married to Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, at this point in time. So God gives us a short-term prophecy concerning Solomon that would be fulfilled in less than 50 years. He prophesied that Solomon would build the temple. The real temple, the brick and mortar and cedar temple, that's what he would build and he did that.

So Solomon and the stone temple are symbols and types and pictures of what would come later, a thousand years later, as Jesus Christ would come to this earth to be the Messiah and then the temple would be a picture of the church of Jesus Christ, the people of God. Listen to what Paul says to the church in 1 Corinthians 3, 16-17. Do you not know that you are God's temple, that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.

For God's temple is holy and you are that temple. The Apostle Peter gives even more insight. Peter's sharing with the people of God, said when the temple comes down and the temple is destroyed, said that's okay, said the temple is temporary, it's not supposed to last.

But it is prophesying something that will last and will last forever. Peter says this in 1 Peter 2, As you come to Him a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So let's go back to Solomon. God tells us that Solomon will actually build the temple. He did build that temple. And it was more beautiful than David probably had ever imagined. It was a monument to God's glory.

And people from all over the place came just to look at the temple. I think of the Queen of Sheba who came to sit down with Solomon to just see if he was really as wise as people said. She asked him all kinds of questions and the Lord gave Solomon the wisdom to answer those questions with God's wisdom behind it. And then she went and she looked at the temple and she was absolutely enthralled.

In fact, she became speechless. So Solomon fulfilled that prophecy of the building of the temple. But there was another prophecy concerning Solomon. It was prophesied that he would be chastened by God when he sinned. That prophecy was also fulfilled to the letter. God had warned the leaders of Israel, the kings of Israel, not to marry strange and foreign women that worship false gods because they would turn the hearts of those kings away from God if they were to get involved with these strange women.

Well, you talk about a heartbreaking story. This wise man Solomon forsakes his wisdom and acts like a fool and is purposely sinful and disobedient against God. 1 Kings 11 1-4 says this, Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women. For the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn your heart after their own gods. Solomon clung to these in love.

He had 700 wives who were princesses, 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. Because of this, the Lord chastened Solomon, and when Solomon died, his son Rehoboam came to reign, and it wasn't long before the kingdom split. Judah and Benjamin, those two tribes, went with Rehoboam, and the other tribes said, No, we will not follow you, and the kingdom was split.

Men, let me stop here and give us all a warning. The man who wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs is Solomon. When Solomon was first the king, the Lord spoke to him, came to him, appeared to him in a dream. And in that dream, he asked Solomon to ask for anything he wanted. When Solomon gave him his answer, the Lord was very pleased.

Let me read you that. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind, this is what Solomon is saying, to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this, your great people? It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this, and God said to him, Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life, or riches, or the life of your enemies, but having asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you, and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. That's the way to start off a kingship.

You put God first, you put others second, and then you put yourself way on down the line. That's what Solomon did. He started off amazingly well. How could he possibly mess up? This is how he messed up. He messed up because he was tempted with sex. And the lure, and the excitement, and the thrill was so powerful, it overrode his wisdom, and it destroyed him. Two weeks ago, news came out that a great theologian, minister, and Christian speaker, who died a few months back, was found guilty of sexual sin with numerous women. This stuff that he was doing took place over decades. It was not a situation like David with Bathsheba, where it was a one-time thing, and David was broken and repentant. This was something that was perpetually going on. It was habitual sin. My heart broke. This man was a powerful apologist, an engaging preacher.

He was an unbelievably good author, and he threw it all away to enjoy his lust. Men, listen, this is war. This is not a game.

We can't play with fire. I know what people say. Well, look at the congressmen. Look at the senators. They're committing adultery.

Look at the great business executives. They're getting in all these sexual liaisons. So what? They don't belong to Jesus.

They belong to the world, and they're just doing what the world does. You're a Christian. You're called to better than that. You are called to come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. Men, don't think you're above temptation because you're not, and the only way you're going to defeat it is to prepare for war. Don't put yourself in areas of temptation. Don't think that you can rationalize your way out of temptation.

We're not that smart. The only way to defeat sexual temptation is to flee, to run, to get as far away from it as you possibly can. Men, you need accountability. You need to have men around you who care about you and love you, who will push you toward purity. Stay on your knees. Stay in the Word of God.

If you play with fire, you'll get burned, and I don't care how close you think you are to God. Your flesh is weak. If this can happen to Solomon, it can happen to us. Go to war, men.

Take a stand. Don't let the devil steal your testimony. Back to the text, verse 15. God says, My steadfast love will not depart from him, referring to Solomon. Richard Phillips said the following, Why did God promise never to remove his steadfast love from David's line? The reason was his grace to keep his covenant promise.

If so great and solemn a promise involving the eternal glory of the covenant-making God relied in any ultimate way on man's performance, then it could rest on the shakiest of grounds. But the fulfillment of God's promise did not rely on David or any of his wicked descendants. Rather, God's promise relied on the sovereign purpose of God's gracious will. And this grace ensured his faithfulness to David's heirs. God is permanently and unconditionally committed to David but flows from David for Israel's future. God's sovereign commitment takes the form of steadfast love not only for David and Solomon but also for those who enter into covenant with Jesus through faith in Him. Point three, David's royal son who is Jesus.

Verse 13, then verse 16 and 17. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 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 and in accordance with all this vision Nathan spoke to David. Now remember what's happening.

This is called telescoping. It's obvious that several of these prophecies are referring to Solomon. Solomon did build the brick temple exactly as God said he would do. Solomon did sin. And Solomon was chastened by God. Did Jesus build the temple? He did not build the brick temple but he built the temple of God which is the people of God. Did Jesus sin?

Absolutely not. But he became sin for us who knew no sin. Was Jesus chastened? He was not chastened for any sin that he committed but he was punished for the sin that he became. He was punished for our sin.

He suffered our hell for us. Now verse 13 can only be referring to Jesus. For the promise is an everlasting throne and an everlasting kingdom. Solomon's rule was an earthly rule. It lasted for less than four decades from 970 B.C.

to 931 B.C. The reign of Jesus is eternal. When Jesus ascended back to heaven he went back to heaven.

He was seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is there right now. But the day is coming when he is going to return. And he is going to return and with us with him he is going to establish the eternal kingdom. And brothers and sisters it will be forever and ever and ever.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father we praise you for the Davidic Covenant. Through it we see prophecy fulfilled over and over again. This proves to us that your Word is true. Jesus you said that every jot and tittle of your Word is true.

Paul said all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, instruction in righteousness. The writer of Hebrews said the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints in the marrow as a discernment of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Help us Lord to trust your Word not our feelings, not our heart, not our politics, not our culture, but your Word. Help us to build faith through a radical dependence on you. As we look at Solomon today we should all be challenged to realize that we are on a battleground not a playground. The enemy wants to destroy our testimony and harm the name of Jesus in the process. May we be reminded that if a man with Solomon's wisdom can fall, so can we. Father help us to stand for our good and for your glory. For it's in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.