The Davidic Covenant

If you have your Bibles turned to 1 Chronicles 17, it's really good to be in the house of the Lord with you.

I am so thankful to the Lord for you, this church.

I'm so blessed by your prayers.

I had no idea how many of you are praying for me.

This is probably in the ministry I've been in the ministry, or this church is 23 years in the making.

And probably the last six months have been one of the more discouraging stretches of my ministry.

There's been difficult things to work through, and I would tell people what one of the old Puritans would say, I'm not tired of the work, I'm tired in the work.

The work is hard.

The ministry is hard.

It can be discouraging at times.

God has put a greater burden on my heart for the lost children in this church that sometimes is overwhelming to me.

And there's just been this or that issue to deal with.

You know, sometimes you think, well, I need a sabbatical.

Maybe a sabbatical would be helpful.

But, you know, getting potentially burnt out or in the ministry, it's not what you need. You don't need a two-week break at the beach.

Sometimes it's wonderful to be able to physically and not have to worry about emails and physically not have to worry about this or that and just for a couple weeks.

But every time I go on vacation, I come back to the emails.

You know, it takes two days back into the job before the weight and the pressure comes all suddenly back on you.

It seems like the vacation was good for two weeks or for three or four days or however long the trip was.

But you come back and the weight comes right back on you and you almost forget that you had a little lapry.

Well, as you know, I went to Brazil with my son, Martin.

It was the most glorious trip.

One, it was an amazing trip because God put me in front of 2,000 people and then 10,000 people live. So I was preaching to 12,000 people.

That was a great responsibility.

And we're preaching topics where a lot of the pastors, as a conference, a lot of the pastors all over Brazil were listening in.

And most of the many of the attendants were pastors that had come in to Franca, Brazil.

And it was a great responsibility.

And I think believe the Lord aided me and helped me in my preaching.

I felt God's presence. That was an encouraging.

Then I was encouraged by spending time with some of the speakers and having great fellowship.

But I didn't realize what I needed was your prayers.

And I asked the Lord to meet with me.

And I did something that I want you to do.

I read through the book of Matthew while I was there.

I just I'm reading through the Old Testament on my normal reading by pick up the book of Matthew and I prayed this prayer.

I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, you know how sometimes you'll read the Bible and you're looking for this.

You've got something in mind what you're searching for, which is fine.

You're looking for this verse or this emphasis or maybe it's that topic or that this topic.

I said, Lord, I want to know who you are.

I want to know you.

I want to know your son.

You know how you if you have a good marriage, you want to know your spouse and get to know them better and spend time with them to study them, to know them, to understand who they are.

I wanted to understand Jesus more.

So I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, will you would you show me your son?

Show me his character, his attributes, his behavior, his disposition.

Like when I read through it, I want to I want to focus on the person of Jesus and how he behaves.

You know, you can get to know someone you can kind of like, well, if the Lord was here, he would do this or he would think this because you've seen him in so many scenarios and you've seen how he acts and behaves.

So let me read the gospel of Matthew with a desire to know your son better.

So I begin to read Matthew one, Matthew two, and it was like every spare moment I had, it was it was just in the word.

I usually on these trips, I'll take a theological book.

I'm always reading.

I can't help but read.

I read, read, read, read and and I read my Bible, too, but I didn't think a theological book.

I just had my Bible.

And I just read the Old Testament and was reading particularly Matthew and and I found myself reading and reading and I see how Jesus is in a couple of things stood out to me that one of the things that stood out to me was the compassion of Jesus.

He fed the five thousand and later he fed four thousand.

And these are these are people that weren't believers.

He rebukes him later.

You just sought me because I fed you.

He knew their hearts.

Right. He knew that most of these people that he was preaching to weren't his sheep, but it said of him that he knew they were hungry.

He said he had compassion upon them.

You know, and it just it's just to see, you know, it is to see the Lord.

And it was amazing.

Sometimes God uses people to minister to you.

Sometimes God uses a nice word or a text message to strengthen you.

But I felt my energy being strengthened and my faith being strengthened every day is more and more, because I felt like it was amazing.

I felt like Jesus was walking right next to me.

That he was ministering to my soul.

You know, sometimes you get a critique here or there, you begin to question yourself.

And I felt Jesus smiling at me.

Loving on me.

You know, and then I realized because it was the joy of the Lord is your strength.

It's it's not you need to sit at the beach and recover yourself and not have emails and text messages and phone calls and counseling scenarios one after another.

You don't need to get out of that to be renewed.

What you need.

And this is what I'm praying for you because you prayed for me.

I'm praying. I've been praying for you.

I've been trying to mention your name.

It's not just pray for the church.

I've been trying to go through the directory and mention your names.

And I'm praying for you, church, that you can meet with Jesus.

That Jesus will meet with you, that your strength could be renewed, that you could that you could recover the joy of your salvation and your first love and remember, remember the simplicity of Christianity, that it is about a relationship.

It's about communion with God, knowing God, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not just about obeying a bunch of rules and duties and setting up straight.

It's about loving Jesus, you know.

And then I read this parable that will not parable what Jesus said at the kingdom of God.

It's like it's like a man who finds a pearl of great price.

And I like the fact that this man who finds this pearl, which is Jesus Christ, by the way, he finds the pearl of great price.

And it wasn't like, whoa, is me.

I got to forsake my mother, my father, my brother, my sister, my whole life.

I've got to I've got to sell all that I have and give to the poor and grudgingly follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is said once this man seen the price, the value of this pearl, the beauty of this pearl, it's said that with joy, with joy, with joy, he sold all that he had.

It's like this is rubbish.

It's all rubbish.

You can have it all.

I'll sell everything I have that I might gain.

This is really valuable, precious.

Joel, that's Jesus.

So I want to ask you all to do a favor for me.

If you want to participate.

Matthew has 28 chapters.

Tomorrow read four chapters. Then the next day read four chapters, read four chapters with me every day for the next week.

But look, you know, there's so much to glean out of Matthew, so much to glean out of that.

But glean the attributes, the character, the personality, the behavior, the wisdom, the humility, the kindness, the compassion, the mercy.

Just glean more about Jesus as you read through this with me.

And I'm going to read it starting tomorrow and I'm inviting you to do that with me and praying for you that that God will meet with you.

And then I just was so encouraged and on the airplane ride back.

It's 10 hours, by the way, from Sao Paulo to Atlanta.

And it's a five hour drive from Franca to Sao Paulo, then another five hour wait in the airport, then a 10 hour flight back.

And then we waited for a while.

Atlanta. But on that on that flight to Atlanta, 10 hours, Mark and I got settled in.

You know how you sit on the tarmac for a while waiting for it to plane to move?

I mean, it's 10 hours once you get up in the air. It doesn't count the time you're sitting there.

And as soon as we sat down right behind me, a little screeching baby started screaming.

And I said to myself.

This is going to be a long flight.

And.

I prayed and the Lord, I don't think I would have ever prayed these words if the Lord didn't give me this prayer.

I don't think it was in my heart to word the prayer this way.

But normally, you know, like when I was in Kenya, I wanted the music to stop so I could sleep.

Remember me telling you about that, please.

And it went on four hours and God did not answer that one.

Well, OK, now I got a baby crying.

I would normally play Lord, please.

Please shut that baby for the sanity of everybody and myself.

That's how I probably would normally I prayed.

But I remembered being with the Lord Jesus like walking with Jesus through Brazil.

And I remember a moment when I saw him, you know.

I said, say, say to this apples.

Let you have any food.

He said he moved.

He was moved with compassion for the people.

And I prayed.

I said, dear Lord, dear God, if Jesus was here.

He would have compassion on that baby.

And as soon as I said baby, that child, that baby did not go, didn't gather itself.

It went from a full cry.

And soon as the board baby was out, it stopped.

The baby stopped.

And for 10 hours, I never heard from the baby again.

God is compassionate upon babies.

God loves the little children.

You know, and he said, well, that's a little prayer.

No prayer is little.

No prayer.

No prayer, especially when you know it was God that heard you.

That was so encouraging to me.

It was such a balm to my soul to know that the Lord is with me and hearing me and ministering to me.

And let me pray for you and for all of us that God would speak to us in such a way that God would walk with us.

Then we'll look at the Davidic covenant.

My God, you've been so good to me.

And I know that so many saints have been praying for me.

Heard from at least probably 20 people saying they were praying for me while I was in Brazil.

Lord, I pray that you would now be with the saints.

I pray for them.

I pray, dear God, that you would walk with them.

You would grow yourself strong to them.

Reveal your love and your kindness to them.

Lord, I pray that they would their relationship with your son.

Jesus would grow more intimate and closer and they would be filled with the joy of the Lord.

The relationship with Christ would be greater than all the other relationships of this world.

That they would seek you as a deer pants for water, that their soul would pant after you.

And Lord, I am convinced that you will come to them.

I'm convinced that you want to walk with them.

I'm convinced that Christianity is not just knowing definitions of scriptures and knowing Bible verses.

I am convinced, Lord, that it is experiential.

It is real. It is personal. It is heartfelt.

So I pray that upon our people.

Lord, I pray that those who will read Matthew with me, I pray that you will make your son even more precious to them as they go through these chapters.

Speak to them through your word. This we pray in your son's name. Amen.

All right. If you're in First Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 17 · chapter mention

Chapter 17, we're going to kind of interrupt right into verse 10 and get right towards the end of the verse 10.

And we're going to look at the Davidic covenant.

And this is where God makes a covenant with David and he makes certain promises to David.

He says, Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house when your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers.

I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever.

I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

And I will take I will not take my steadfast love from him as I took it from him who was before you.

That is King Saul.

But I am him in my house and in my kingdom forever in this throne shall be established forever.

Now, you got to understand David had just finished building his mansion.

He built him a beautiful house to live in.

And after he's looking at his house, he's looking at the tabernacle and he started feeling guilty.

Why should I live in this beautiful structure when God's dwelling in a tent?

So he had it in his heart and it was a good desire that he would build God a temple.

He would build God a house.

So he began the preparation of building God a temple, a house, a dwelling place on earth.

And God stopped him and says, No, you cannot build me a house.

You have too much blood on your hand. You're a man of war.

And in this covenant, I'll make this covenant with you.

It's quite strange is that David wanted to build God a house.

But God told David, No, your son will build you a house.

Now notice it didn't say it's all about, you know, that God would the sun and we may think of Solomon.

That Solomon would build the temple. But really the promise was that God, not Solomon, that God would build a house for David.

Now think about this. David wanted to build a house for God.

God said, No, I will build you a house.

Now, what's important is to know what this word house means.

It means a lot of things.

You could say under this promise is that there would be a son who would be a king.

Your son would be a king and his kingdom would be forever.

But this really this word house speaks in scriptures as a as a family lineage.

Remember when God Jesus told Israel, your house is left to unto you desolate the word house there.

It means your family tree or your family lineage.

The house of David is talking about all the descendants of David.

So this promise, I'll build your house. It's it's implying that he's going to have descendants.

You have this family lineage and ultimately that that there would always be a son who would set upon his throne.

I mean, that's a great promise because you can look at any kingdom and you can see that in all kingdoms of this world, you have this they have diagnoses where you have a father, whose son, whose son and son rolling a house.

But then eventually someone else comes in and takes over power and it's his son.

And it lasts two to three to four generations, but it doesn't necessarily last forever.

But God is promising David that you will always have a seed.

You'll always have an offspring upon your throne.

That's a great promise.

So it ultimately is kind of promising him a kingdom.

But this house is is is implied that David wanted to build a temple.

So in this house, he's saying that that your descendants will be a house for God.

Now, we're going to have to understand that in a way, the Davidic covenant promised a temple.

A temple and a temple is where God would dwell on earth with man.

So all these things, a people, you know, his descendants would be the children of God, if you would, and he would be a father to his descendants and his descendants would be unto him like sons.

And this would be a everlasting kingdom, everlasting throne, a throne that it says in verse 14, that lasts forever.

A eternal kingdom.

What amazing promise.

But I'm here to tell you that the Davidic covenant and all these promises were conditional.

It was this covenant was an administration of the covenant of works.

Now, we've talked about how the covenant of works, which is based upon God's moral law, do and live, is the foundation of all of God's covenants.

All of God's covenants are based upon the law and the law is based upon righteousness.

And you can't have life unless you're righteous and death is the penalty of unrighteousness or sin.

So if you want to understand your Old Testament, you've got to understand the Old Testament is built upon the moral law and the covenants, each covenant, each covenant, if it be the endemic covenant, if it be the Abrahamic covenant, if it be the Mosaic covenant or the Arionic covenant or the Davidic covenant are kind of like trees.

Think of a tree coming out of the dirt. The dirt or the root system, the roots are getting its substance from the dirt.

The dirt is that moral law of God. It's the covenant of works.

And here comes the tree and those branches are what we call the positive law, like don't eat of this particular tree or have to be circumcised or can't eat pork.

You've got all these laws and these laws are various administrations, if you would, of the moral law.

The moral law is the very fabric that holds these covenants together.

And each of these covenants demands perfect righteousness for the fulfillment of the covenant.

That is, unless the seed of the woman or the seed of Abraham or the child of Judah or the son of David obeys the law perfectly, all these promises would be null and void.

God says, I will do these for you. I promise this will happen, but your children, your seed, your offspring has to obey me.

And not just a little bit of obedience, but perfect obedience.

He said, well, how could God promise to fulfill these things, knowing that man is wicked and already dead and their trespasses and sin?

Well, I think God knew he had Jesus Christ in mind.

So all these covenants in the Old Testament are covenant of works or administrations of covenant of works.

So if you want to understand your Old Testament and how it relates to the New Testament, you've got to understand that basic concept.

So we're going to look at why the Davidic covenant was a covenant of works.

And the first reason why is because it was conditional.

In Psalm 132 verse 11, it says this, the Lord swore an oath or covenant to David and he will not revoke one of your descendants.

Psalms 132:11

He didn't say all of your descendants.

One of your descendants I will place on your throne.

If your sons, all your sons, all your descendants keep my covenant and the statues I teach them, then their sons will set on your throne forever and ever.

Listen, I'm going to fulfill the promise I made with David, but your sons have to fulfill the covenant of works.

You have to keep the covenant and the statues that I teach them.

Now this is the condition that was given to David.

And when David was on his deathbed and when he was given his speech to Solomon and as Solomon was about to be anointed to King, David told Solomon, God made me this promise, but you've got to obey the condition.

In 1 Kings 2 verse 1, it says when David's time to draw near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, I'm about to go the way of all the earth.

1 Kings 2:1

Be strong and show yourself a man and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statues, his commandments, his rules and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and whatever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he has spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons pay close attention to their way and to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their souls, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.

Listen, I'm going to make sure that you're going to have a son and your son, son and son, son will always be on the throne.

You're going to keep this kingdom alive if you obey my covenant.

Jeremiah years later reaffirmed this to the heirs of David.

Jeremiah 22 verse 1, hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah, who sets on the throne of David, do justice and righteousness.

Jeremiah 22:1

For it will indeed, for if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of the house kings who set on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on the horses and they and their servants and their people.

But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself declares the Lord that this house shall become a desolation.

So he promised David that his house would endure forever.

His kingdom would endure forever.

But then he and Jeremiah says to the kings of Judah, if you don't obey, your house will be a desolation.

You got to understand that when you get to the Davidic covenant, the hope of humanity has been reduced down to a single tribe, not just to a single tribe, but to a single lineage of one man of that tribe, son of David.

Now, it began with the seed of the woman.

The seed of the woman in Genesis 3, 15 and 16 would curse and crush the head of the serpent.

So that could be any of the seeds of the women.

That brought humanity as a hope.

There's going to be one of us out of the human race that's going to undo sin and overcome Satan.

But then that got reduced down to one of the seeds of Abraham.

From Abraham, it went down to one of the tribes, Judah.

And from Judah, it was reduced down to the son of David.

And we see that there to be any hope for a restored kingdom in this world, because now all the kingdoms of the world were under the rule and power of Satan.

All the nations of this world belong to him.

The whole world was in blindness and darkness.

And so the whole human race was dependent upon a child of David.

But as we go from the Davidic covenant and read through the rest of the Old Testament, we read failure, failure, failure.

First, even before you get to David, you see the failure of King Saul.

Moses warned in Drudeonomy, when you have a king, he predicted that they would have a king one day.

He says, when that day comes, make sure that your kings don't do two things.

Don't heap to themselves a lot of gold.

Secondly, don't accumulate a lot of wives, especially foreign wives, because Moses says, if that happens with the gold and wives, your heart would be drawn away from my commands.

But then Moses warned the future kings that they must obey the Mosaic covenant, the laws, the statues.

We see that in Drudeonomy 17 verse 18.

He says, when he sets upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a book of a copy of the law approved by the Levitical priest, and it shall be with him.

And he shall read it all of his days, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all his words of this law and these statues by doing them.

That his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel.

So this was the terms. When you have a king, make sure that they obey God and keep the covenant.

But what did Saul do?

Saul made two major mistakes. One, he got tired of waiting on Samuel, and he himself, who's not a priest, he made an unlawful sacrifice.

And when after that happened, Saul, Samuel came to Saul and said, what have you done?

He says in 1 Samuel 13 13, you have done foolishly.

You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, which we he has commanded you.

For then the Lord would had established your kingdom over Israel forever.

But now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept the Lord, kept what the Lord God commanded you.

Then a little bit later, if that wasn't enough, God told Saul to go and destroy the Amalites and not just win, but put everything they have to destruction.

But Saul feared the people, and he took the best sheep and the best goods and kept the king of Amalite alive.

And Samuel come to them, said, what have I, what have you done?

You've disobeyed God.

Finally, Saul said in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel, I have sinned before, for I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I fear the people and obey their voice.

Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I might bow before the Lord.

And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

So you can see in order to be a king of the people of God, you've got to be righteous. You've got to obey his law.

And in one sense, the king was the federal head of the whole nation of Israel.

As the king went, so did the people go.

If the king was holy, the people would be blessed.

If the king was unrighteous, the people would be cursed and be thrown into wars and pestilence.

So God based the prosperity of the kingdom based upon the righteousness of its king.

So this is why the king had to be holy.

He was a representative of the people.

But Saul fell. Therefore, God took the kingdom away from him and gave the kingdom to David.

And God made a covenant with David as we had read, but this covenant says you've got to be holy.

You've got to keep the commandments.

Now we know David was a man after God's own heart.

He was a good man.

But let me ask you, was he a holy man perfectly?

No. Remember the sin of Bathsheba?

Remember he had to cover up his sin and what did he do?

He took his husband and put him on the front lines that he would be killed.

And when he was confronted by Samuel, this is what Samuel said to him.

And 2 Samuel 12. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uri, the Hittite, to be your wife.

From that point forward there was going to be nothing but war after war and difficulty plagued upon the house of David.

Here comes Solomon. Again, David told Solomon you've got to keep the commandments.

And for a while Solomon behaved pretty well.

But we know Solomon married a lot of foreign women and he collected a lot of gold and in so doing his heart was turned to worship false gods.

And the Bible says in 1 Kings 11 that the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord who had appeared to him twice.

And he had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statues that I've commanded you I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.

So basically this is why the kingdom devided.

It was split apart. God gave 10 northern tribes the bulk of the kingdom.

Most of the kingdom to the servant Jeroboam.

And he left Solomon's son to have two smaller tribes Judah.

In the south where Jerusalem was where Rehoboam the son of Solomon would take in.

And the reason God kept a small portion because he promised David.

He made David this promise. So he's going to keep the promise to David.

But because of Solomon's failure he tore the covenant.

I mean he tore the kingdom in two.

But then you have Jeroboam in the north and God entered into a covenant with Jeroboam.

He made the same deal.

He says if you obey me I'll bless your kingdom and you'll have a son who rules.

But if you disobey me I will destroy you.

It says that in 1 Kings 11 38.

If you listen to all that I've commanded you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statues and my commandments as David my servant did.

I will be with you and will build you a sure house.

But Jeroboam I mean immediately he was anointed king.

Immediately what did he do?

He built idols.

He was afraid that his people would be going down to the temple and be persuaded by their travel to the temple.

So he didn't want them to go down to Jerusalem to worship.

So he built some idols and out of gold.

So the the nation of Israel the northern tribes could worship in Israel.

And God says listen you have already broken my covenant.

And he came back to Jeroboam says I'm going to cut you and your children off.

Do you know that I think there is no more than three successive kings in Israel.

You know a king would have a son. He would reign and maybe he had another son and then that would be the end of that diagonality.

And there was not one righteous king in the northern tribes of Israel.

Not one.

In fact they all go back and says you're just like Jeroboam Jeroboam set the trajectory of the northern tribes of Israel and every king that set upon the thrones in the north or evil kings.

So in that side it's just failure.

But what about down south in Judah.

Well again Reoboam set on the throne of David.

But he too sinned.

And though there are about five righteous kings in the south.

A son. There's some good kings.

Most of the kings were wicked.

In fact the ultimate demise of the southern kingdom happened with the failure of a has a has did not trust the Lord but went into a treaty with the Syrians and God says I'm going to use the Syrians to judge you.

And after a has came Manasseh and Manasseh was a wicked wicked wicked king.

In fact he was more wicked than the kings that surrounded them.

And the wicked kings twenty one tells us that because Manasseh king of Judah had committed these abominations had done things more evil than all the Amorites did who were before him and has made Judah also to sin with idols.

Therefore this says the Lord I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish wiping it and turning it upside down and I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies.

And they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the days their fathers came out of Egypt even to this day.

So what we're seeing is we already look in the Mosaic covenant how the nation of Israel was sinners.

They were unrighteous nation. They were a nation of that. They were stiff neck. They were wicked. They killed the prophets.

It wasn't a holy nation unto God.

We must understand that.

There were a few righteous people in the midst. There was a remnant according to election.

You had Moses and Joshua and you can look at the prophets. You can look at some really good people in the Old Testament.

And they believe Christ and the promises by faith and God saved them.

But the bulk of the Israelites were ungodly people.

And as a people they broke the covenant.

Here is their king who is the representative of the people. The king is supposed to be a savior if you would.

Their hero, the one who goes into the battle and wins the battle on behalf of the people.

But we see here that at the end of the Old Testament all the kings are felled.

They fell to obey the covenant of works.

Now the Old Covenant, the Old Testament has a lot of promises. It has the gospel.

It pointed to the Messiah, to Jesus.

But if you just read the narrative of scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, what you find when you get to the end, to the end is human failure.

You see the utter failure of the seed of the woman.

The utter failure of the children of Abraham. The utter failure of the priest of Israel.

And now we see the utter failure of the house of David.

Truly there is none good, no not one.

Truly among humanity all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Every Old Testament covenant promised hope, but it placed its respective membership under the covenant of works.

Again the covenant of works is the foundation of every Old Testament administration.

Each covenant or each administration may have added positive laws.

But the root of that covenant, if it be the Adamic, Mosaic, or the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Arionic, Davidic, is law.

Do and live. Encurse it as the one who does not obey. All that is written in the book of the law.

You see we come to the end of the Old Testament and the covenant of works has been broken.

Each attempt to mend it has ended in utter failure.

The children of Abraham have proven to be the children of Satan. That's the words of Jesus.

Don't say to me that your father is Abraham. You are the children and the sons of Satan.

The house of David itself laid in ruins.

The mighty tree has been cut down to its roots.

The Old Testament ends with man's utter failure, but there remained a glimmer of hope.

Because the seed of Abraham is still alive.

The seed of David was still alive.

In fact, as they would say, unless God had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.

He would have destroyed Israel and the house of David.

He would have destroyed them, but the reason he didn't because he made a promise.

That's what that promise kept Israel alive. That promise kept the seed of David alive.

So we come to the end of our Old Testament. We see failure, failure, failure, but we see a little light, a little limer of hope.

You see the Davidic Covenant thirdly is a covenant works because the fulfillment would be based upon the works of Jesus Christ.

You see, God made David a promise.

It would go back and if you're back in 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Chronicles 17, verse 10, just insert Jesus in this and see how Jesus is the actual intended promise.

1 Chronicles 17:10

More of what declared to you that the Lord would build you a house.

When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you.

One of your own sons and I'll establish his kingdom and he should build a house for me and I will establish his throne.

Forever I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son and I will make I will not take my steadfast love from him as I took it from him who was before you.

But I will confirm him in my house in my kingdom forever and his throne shall be established forever.

And this is why Jeremiah, even though he's pronouncing a wall upon the kings of Judah, says this in there, even though the house of Judah is in ruins.

Even though the mighty tree of David had been cut down to its root down to its stump.

Jeremiah 23, verse 5 says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.

Jeremiah 23:5

Think of a tree that's been cut down. It's just the stump.

But in that stump, there's still life because there could be a little sprig, a little branch, a little bit of new tree sprouting out of that.

And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land and his days Judah will be saved and Israel will be dwelled securely.

And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

And this is why Isaiah says he predicted this for a child will be born to us.

A son will be given to us and the government will be on his shoulders.

In his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government on the throne of David over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

The Zill the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

And this we must understand Jesus is the son of David.

The son of Joseph, the son of Mary.

And Jesus Christ obeyed the covenant works, the Mosaic covenant perfectly.

You see, Christ, not David.

Christ, not even Solomon is the one who built a house for David.

David did not build God a house. Solomon did not build God a house.

The house that Solomon built was long destroyed. It's not a everlasting house.

That temple has been gone long ago.

But the house that God's going to build for David or did build for David is forever.

You see, Christ is the king.

He's the son of David.

Luke 1 tells us, verse 32, he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High.

And the Lord God will give him a throne of his father David.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

You see, Christ has come to his kingdom.

We're not waiting. We're not waiting for that kingdom to be established.

John the Baptist and Jesus Christ both came preaching. The kingdom of God is here.

He didn't say the kingdom of God will be here a long time from now.

He says it's at hand.

And we learn this is true because we learn that John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet.

But Jesus says he who is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

So here everybody that comes at every believer that comes after John the Baptist is in the kingdom of God.

And this is why Jesus said in another place since John the Baptist.

The kingdom of God is taken by force.

Those who enter in it come in by force.

So the kingdom has been established with the coming of the King.

This is why Jesus says if I cast out demons with the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

You said, but I don't see this kingdom. Neither did the Pharisees.

They were looking for Jesus to overthrow the Roman Empire.

They were looking for political freedom and liberty.

And at one point they wanted to make Jesus King by force after he fed the five thousand.

Jesus perceived this and he said I'm not interested in becoming a political leader over unbelievers.

I'm not interested in being the king with natural laws and legislation with an army with a police force over unbelieving people.

He says my kingdom is not of this world.

When the disciples were confused about this kingdom, where is this kingdom?

Jesus said in Luke 17, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say look here it is or there.

For behold, the kingdom of God is not in a geographical location.

It's not with a big army. It's not like other kingdoms.

He says the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

It's a greater kingdom.

The kingdoms of this world rule you by external laws.

And we learn in the Old Testament external laws can't change your heart.

It can't bring you into willing submission.

Outward laws can suppress your behavior.

It can manipulate your behavior, but it can't change your heart.

And God's not interested in a kingdom that only has external rules over unbelieving people.

His kingdom is great because it changes lives from the inside out.

This is why in John 3 3 Jesus says you cannot see the kingdom of God and you can see the Roman Empire.

You can see the kingdoms of this world, but you cannot see the kingdom of God, Jesus says, unless you're born again.

You have to have faith to see this one.

You have to have faith like Abraham, who was looking for a city, a kingdom whose builder and maker was God, was looking for something more eternal.

The things of this world are physical and temporal.

They're going to end.

This whole world is going to end.

And if this kingdom was just a geopolitical kingdom, it would end at the destruction of the world.

But if it's an everlasting kingdom, it would be something that he would rule, not on a throne over a geographical area where you have to submit if you want to or not.

He makes you willing in the day of his power by giving you faith and subduing your thoughts.

Listen, some of you are outside the kingdom of God.

You're still in the kingdom of this world.

You're enslaved to the principle of the air.

You say, and you're not going to be able to bow to King Jesus.

You're not going to be able to come into his kingdom unless you're changed from the inside out.

You have to be made a new creation.

But if you're made a new creation, you become a willing servant.

You become a willing subject.

You'll sell all that you have for the joy of this precious prize.

This is the type of subjects Christ is looking for.

This is how his kingdom is built.

His kingdom and built is not by legislation.

This is why he says, my kingdom is not of this world.

If it was, I would raise up an army.

I would fight.

I would go after the Romans, but I'm not trying to defeat the Romans.

I'm trying to to subdue Satan himself, and you can't beat Satan with an army.

You can't overcome wickedness and the powers of darkness with a political kingdom.

I'm not here to destroy Rome just yet.

You'll get to that one day.

I'm coming to get the one who's controlling Rome.

I'm coming after the prince, the power of darkness.

No weapon is going to kill Satan.

This is why when we advanced the kingdom of heaven, we do it with sowing seeds of the gospel.

The kingdom of God is like a farmer, so seeds.

It's not that we pick up our our our weapons.

I'm all for boycotts, awful political rallies.

Let's do that, but that doesn't advance the kingdom of heaven.

You know what advances the kingdom of heaven?

Preaching.

The power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God changing lives from the inside out.

You're born again.

If you're born again, you'll live forever in the kingdom of heaven.

You're brought out of the kingdoms of this world.

You're ushered in or transferred into the kingdom of God's dear son.

He is now your master, your Lord, your king.

And that will never end forever and ever and ever.

Brothers and sisters, a group of us went and watched The Sound of Freedom on Friday.

I don't know if you've seen that movie.

I don't know if those statistics are true, that there are more people, more children enslaved today than there's ever been enslaved throughout all of history.

I don't know if that's true or not.

I don't know if it's true that there's children trafficking to harvest their organs.

Is that true?

I don't know.

I don't know about the idea of taking little children and doing what.

But I tell you what, I've never heard of more of a satanic evil in my life.

Our world is he full.

The eyes of the Lord are everywhere beholding the good and the evil.

There's such evil in this world.

And before you get self-righteous sinner, unbeliever, you who don't know the Lord, take a good look into your soul.

A good look into your heart.

What darkness do you see?

What evil is in there?

What earthly government is going to change that?

We just need new politics. We just need a good president.

That's not going to fix this problem.

The Republicans are not our hope.

It's not our hope.

You know what we need in this land?

Revival.

We need the advancement of the kingdom of heaven.

We're to pray for that.

That kingdom come.

Do you not want the kingdom to spread?

It doesn't spread through earthly means.

It comes with the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's the beauty of the kingdom of God.

It changes lives from the inside out.

The kingdom of God is not advanced by an army or weapons, but simply by the word of God.

The goal is not to Christianize the kingdoms and nations of this world.

The goal wasn't to Christianize the Roman Empire.

Rather the goal is to build the kingdom of heaven by calling a people out of every tribe and nation and kingdom.

He's told us to go into the world, go into the nations.

For out of every nation, every tribe, there's His people.

We're going to go with the gospel and we're pulling out people from the kingdoms of this world, from the power of Satan, and they're being converted and brought into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

Now this is miraculous, and this is because King Jesus is on His throne, so doing all things to Himself.

You see the crucial battle in all of human history is already behind us.

This is when the son of David faced all the forces of darkness, even Satan himself at the cross.

Now think of child trafficking and just whatever other evils that you can imagine.

You know what's behind those evils? Demons.

Some of these evils are so unnatural that they have to come from the very pit of hell.

Unimaginable darkness.

And all that darkness, and I can only imagine that Satan says, I need all my dominions, minions.

I need every demon with me at this battle.

And when Jesus was walking to Calvary, every, I would believe, I would imagine, every demon was attacking Him.

All of sin, hate, idolatry, witchcraft, adultery, lying, murder, theft, abortion, child trafficking, all these evils that we can possibly put my mind around, in things that we can't even imagine.

In fact, I don't want to know how evil things are.

My mind can't handle it.

But all this, all funneled down to the point that where Jesus is in His last hours.

There Christ, our last chance, our only chance.

You understand this.

The man Jesus is the only hope we had.

Old Testament showed us that there's no other man around.

And here's our hero.

All of evil is upon him.

This is worse than the Roman army.

He could have defeated the Romans with a snap of his finger, but Satan, he had to die.

He did die.

And I would imagine Satan thought he won.

And for three dark days, he lay in the tomb.

And there in the tomb, he was thoroughly examined by the covenant works, looking to see if he had sinned once, if there was just one evil motive, if there's just one bad thought, if he had broke one little command, and as it looked, it went through the commandments.

Love God with all your heart, my soul, check.

Thou shall not covet.

He did not do that.

Working through the commandments, death examined him thoroughly from head to toe.

And after a thorough examination, when there was no sin to be found, he triumphantly rose over hate.

Over lies.

Over murder.

Over child trafficking.

Over sin.

He come up out of the grave and he overcome Satan.

He overcome the world.

He won the battle.

He defeated sin.

He defeated all the enemies and he was resurrected as the son of David.

And this is why when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he goes back to the Davidic covenant.

And he and he says, I saw the Lord all.

And this is what he's preaching for David says concerning him, Jesus Christ.

I saw the Lord always before me, for he's at my right hand that I might not be shaken.

Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.

My flesh was also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one seek corruption.

You have made known to me the paths of life.

You have made me full of gladness in your presence.

And this is Peter saying brothers, may I say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that both he's both dead and was buried in his tumors with us today.

So this is not David.

David is not ruling upon his own throne forever because he's dead.

He didn't raise from the ground.

He is still here.

His tomb is still here.

So he's not talking about himself.

But therefore being a prophet, Peter says, knowing that God has sworn with an old to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne.

He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ.

This is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

When did Jesus set on the throne of David?

When he was rose from the grave that he was not abandoned in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption that this Jesus God raised up and that we all are witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And he has poured out this that you yourself are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into heaven, but he said himself, the Lord said to my Lord, said at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

And back to Peter, let all the house of Israel, therefore, know for certain that God has made both Jesus.

Christ and Lord.

Jesus is Lord of lords.

He is King of kings.

You see, Christ has established the throne of David, the house of David.

And what's glorious, God told David, I'm going to build you a house.

I'm going to build your house. And what is this house?

I mean, David wanted to build him a temple.

But it would be the son of David who built God a temple.

And Jesus is the builder of the true temple because we learn in the New Testament.

God doesn't dwell with buildings made by man's hands.

Old Testament temples were just types and shadows of the true temple.

But what is the New Covenant temple? Well, Jesus Christ is that temple.

He says, I am the temple. Destroy this temple.

In 30 days, we rebuild it, talking about his resurrection.

But Amos predicted this back when the kings of Judah were failing.

Amos 9 11 says in that day, I will raise up the fallen booth of David and will and the wall up its breaches.

I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it in the days of old that they may possess the remnant of Eden and all the nations who are called by not by my name declares the Lord who does this.

And then in Acts 15, after the Gentiles are incorporated into the kingdom of heaven, into the kingdom of God and they're beginning wondering, hey, the gospel is going to the Gentiles.

It is written. This is an agreement with the prophet Amos as it is written.

After this, I will return and rebuild the tent of David that has fallen.

I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who makes these things known from of old.

You see, the true temple of God is the people of God were made not out of physical stones, but out of living stones, and we are the dwelling place of God on earth.

You see, the David covenant actually promised the church, the temple of God, where God dwells on earth.

We are the house of God.

The Bible tells us that the church, I write these things to you so that you know how to behave in the household of God, the church, the pillar and ground of truth.

It is a conclusion.

You see, Jesus is the seed of the woman.

He is the child of Abraham, the Israel of God, the high priest.

He is the line of the tribe of Judah and he is the son of David.

The Old Testament may end in failure, but the New Testament begins with victory.

And as we'll see next week is a covenant of grace because it is the fulfillment of the covenant of works through Jesus Christ.

Let me close with three applications or four applications.

If you're lost, you're still under the kingdom of darkness.

There's no hope for you, but to be destroyed when Christ comes back.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, he must reign until he puts all of his enemies under his feet.

And he is reigning. He is subduing.

And what now he's doing is a people for himself.

But there's coming a time that he's going to destroy all the nations.

He's going to destroy this world, even death itself.

But right now is the day of salvation. Now is the offer.

Turn away from serving Satan and serve the living God by faith.

And this is the essence of the Old Testament is you've got to obey.

Now promised a Messiah who would do it on our behalf.

But we learned that none can obey.

That the way of works leads to death.

The law brings condemnation.

So let's not go back to the law as a means of life.

Let us not trust in our works, our efforts, our abilities.

That's looking to a covenant of work.

Some of us, even as Christians, we get back in that mindset that I must be good.

I must do this. I got to do better.

And you start working in the flesh because you're trying to overcome sin by your own abilities.

And you find that you're failing and you're not measuring up and it's defeating and it's discouraging.

And you're you're just you can't overcome these things.

You don't begin the Christian life with works.

You don't even maintain the Christian life with works.

What you must do, all of us must do is remember we begin by faith.

It's not like what I can do. No, you give up on what you do.

You look at the one who has already done it all.

And that righteousness is not just to get you into the kingdom.

That righteousness keeps you in the kingdom.

And so we live by faith.

We maintain our walk with the Lord, not by showing our righteousness to Christ and say, are you pleased yet? Are you pleased yet? No, we renounce all of our self-efforts and say, hey, I can do this. No, we're constantly relying upon the finished complete works of our hero.

He did it for you.

That's why if you're heavy laden.

That's why if you're if you're if you're you're burdened down, you can rest.

You can rest from your labor.

You've already got the A plus.

You've already passed.

You're already perfected in Christ.

You just rest in him.

You live by faith.

You look to Christ.

He's the hero.

He's the righteous one.

Paul told the Galatians you begin by grace and faith.

Are you so foolish to go back to works?

It's by faith.

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Trust the Lord, relax and lean in on him.

You can have victory over sin, but it's it's faith in the victory you already have through Jesus Christ.

My last application.

Many of you have talked to you.

I know some of you.

I know there's many problems and hardships in your life.

Physical illness issues in your marriages, concerns for your children, worries, problems.

Whatever problem you have.

Remember.

The Old Testament teaches us that we can't do it.

You can't handle your problem yourself.

It's too heavy.

It's too weighty.

It's too hard for you.

You say, you know, you get your pride.

You say, no, I can handle this.

I got this.

I can do this.

I'm tough, resilient.

Then a little more comes on you and visually there's a point you have to say mercy.

Mercy.

Well, no matter what you're going through, you don't get through it through self confidence and strength.

You get to it by casting your cares upon Jesus Christ and walking in faith.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord,