The Old and Davidic Covenants

Alright.

So of course, you know, we're studying the the prophecies.

I don't had y'all like looked at that much before the Old Testament prophecies about Israel or thought about it that much?

I just always heard Israel's always going to be projected.

I mean that's always what we've always heard.

Yeah.

That's that's prevalent here, I think, because of the dispensational teaching pretty much took over Baptist churches.

Um it's a little strange because it um it didn't really that wasn't really a thing until like the 1830s.

Um but I mean premillennialism was the idea that Christ was going to come back and then there'd be a millennium.

That was really the early church view, uh, but it wasn't with like Israel as a physical kingdom or anything like that.

Um I did know that there were Jews that they would have to convert to Christian before Yeah, and and that really has been the that that has been the change I think that dispensationalists have made that makes sense.

I mean, you know, it's like when we read in Romans 11, it says, and all Israel will be saved.

Um they now will say that yeah, they have to convert to Christianity and then they'll be saved, you know.

Um there was a time when early dispensationalism taught they would be saved through the old covenant, but that they changed that, you know, more recently.

And they've actually moved, they they now call it progressive dispensationalism because it's moved more toward um what what I was calling remnant theology.

So there's they're more agreement than there used to be.

Um, but there's you know still some differences.

But anyway, we you know, we looked at the Abrahamic covenant and um and really I do think the covenants are the main thing we need to understand.

So tonight I was primarily going to do the old and the Davidic covenants.

Now, of course, we'd already talked about the old covenant some last time.

Y'all know about the old covenant, you know.

Um so it was connected to the Abrahamic covenant, obviously, but it uh it wasn't the same either.

It was more like an addendum, you know, kind of an add-on.

And God had told, of course, Abraham all the nations to be blessed through him, and that blessing would come through Israel if they kept the conditions of the old covenant.

And um I will turn to Exodus 19.

So this is when the nation is getting set up, you know, Exodus 19.

And here's what God says to Moses to tell them.

Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called him, called to him from the mountain.

This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites.

You've seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Now, if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my possession out of all the peoples.

Although the whole earth is mine, you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.

These are the words that you're to say, the Israelites.

So God, you know, tells them, I'm gonna make you a nation.

And of course, they started out again, you know, as a family, Jacob, Israel, go to Egypt, and um they're oppressed, and then they get delivered under Moses, and so by the time they come out of Egypt, you know, they've expanded a lot.

You know, that's one thing the Pharaoh was upset about.

They're getting so many of them.

Uh so when they came out, God basically is saying to them, You're gonna be a political entity now, you're gonna be a nation.

So he turns, you know, a family into a nation.

Um, and again, prior to this, and this is what we looked at last time, there were promises of seed and promises of land to Abraham specifically.

He said, you know, you'll have the seed and all the um world will be blessed through you.

Um, and you know, I pointed to the New Testament passages last time, and I I won't quote those again, but where I it seems to me it's really clear that you know ultimately the promises to Abraham were fulfilled in Christ for both the land and the seed.

Now, what I was quoting last time is in the old covenant, those three Old Testament passages, that God's promise of the land to Israel, it definitely extended to them, but it was conditional.

It, you know, God stipulated if you do this, then you can have this and that sort of thing.

Um, so it was different in a sense than it was to Abraham.

God made permanent promises to Abraham, but the old covenant made clear that those promises did not transfer to the nation unconditionally.

And I think that's what's key, and I think that's what the argument's about.

But I I mean, looking at those passages, you know, God says it, or the Bible says it was all fulfilled to Israel.

So I think that's a big part of it.

The the promises did not transfer to them unconditionally.

Um promises to the land of the land was for the faithful, and then Abraham was the father of the faithful, of course, and then that's what we saw from Romans that God's promise to Abraham as far as the permanency of the land was fulfilled in Christ.

You know, and really Paul says in a big way, you know, he uses the word world or cosmos instead of land.

So basically he's saying everything belongs to Christ, and you know, as being heirs and co-heirs, then um it's also belongs to us as well.

And of course, it's available to any Jew that becomes um, you know, believes in Christ.

Uh, but again, as far as Israel, God said, if you listen to me, keep my covenant, you'll be my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

And in that time there were kings.

Every group of people had a king.

And so God is basically telling them, I'll be your king, and you'll be the only nation, you know, in all the earth that has God as their king.

So that was a very special privilege.

Uh, they would be a nation among nations.

And then he says, you know, there's Exodus 19, you'll be a kingdom of priests.

So they were to mediate.

That's what priests do.

But again, a main feature of the old covenant is it's conditional.

The if comes at the very beginning, it's reiterated over and over again over again through the, you know, through the Pentateuch, you know, Exodus through Deuteronomy.

Um, we saw it in Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

Um, and I thought I'd read Deuteronomy chapter 29.

Deuteronomy 29 · chapter mention

Um, just a few verses there, 16 through 18.

Indeed, this is Moses talking to them.

Indeed, do you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations where you traveled?

You saw their abhorrent images and idols made of wood, stone, and silver and gold.

Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations.

Okay, so um and I I'm going to talk about modern day Israel on Sunday.

Um, so we're not talking about that at all.

Of course, Israel is a you know a nation, they're an American ally.

Um I we're just you know thinking about Israel's biblical standing.

And again, yeah, dispensationalists, and I realize that's probably what most of y'all are familiar with, do believe that their standing, Israel's standing remains over and above all other nations.

You know, that's what they think.

Um I would just say there's nowhere that I'm aware of in the old covenant that God says you'll be a chosen nation for all eternity, no matter what you do.

Um He doesn't say you'll be my special nation and my special blessing, irrespective of your behavior.

So at least from the Old Covenant, it's clearly conditional.

There's no issue, there's I mean, it's not even really debatable.

The issues come in with dispensationalism, I think, is that they believe the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant speak more to it.

Again, we talked about the Abrahamic covenant last week.

I'm gonna talk about the Davidic covenant here in a minute, which I think is more, you know, I have more um, what's the word I'm looking for, sympathy for the dispensationalist position with the Davidic covenant.

But anyway, we'll talk about it in just a second.

Um, you know, Jesus um I'd put down the Matthew 23, 37, where Jesus said, you know, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who sent to her.

How long I wanted to gather you together is a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing.

And then he goes on to say your house is left desolate.

Again, he's speaking of AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

So a bottom line with the old covenant is they disqualified themselves, they broke the covenant, and there were a lot of demands of the old covenant.

And I think there's other things that need to be considered with that.

I'm not going to go into that.

Obviously, they a lot was expected of them.

And I won't get into the why of all that.

Um, but just understand, and I think y'all know this, you we think of a covenant like a marriage, right?

Couples have their bad days, right?

We get grumpy, we say things to our spouse that we shouldn't say, and um shouldn't we're not as loving as we always should be.

But the only none of that is grounds for divorce, you know.

The the wife can burn the supper repeatedly, the husband can fail to take out the trash, uh one can crash the car, they can call each other names.

None of that breaks the covenant, right?

But if she goes out and sleeps with another man, or if he goes out and sleeps with another woman, then that's a that's a different that breaks it.

And that's how God viewed it with Israel.

They broke his laws all the time, but he kept, you know, that he gave them sacrifices for that.

But the main one they broke was having other gods.

So idolatry to God is kind of like adultery is to a marriage covenant.

And as you read Old Testament history, that's what you see again and again is that Israel is constantly turning to idolatry.

And when they when they're around any other nations that are worshiping other gods, they end up, you know, drifting into that.

And you probably remember even when the first time that Moses went up on the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, before he got down with them, they were already made a golden calf and they were worshiping that.

Um so basically, God sent prophet after prophet, as Jesus said, telling them, you know, if you don't stop, I'm gonna divorce you.

And he he really gave them a trial divorce and had them exiled to Babylon for 70 years.

But he did give them another chance.

And people, dispensationalists will point to this passage, Deuteronomy 30.

Um, when all these things happen to you, the blessings and cursings I have set before you, and you come to your senses, while you are all why while you are in all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and you and your children return to the Lord and obey God with all your heart and all your soul by doing everything I am commanding you today, then he will restore your fortunes, have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord has scattered you.

Even if your exile is at the farthest horizon, he will gather you and bring you back from there.

So I think that's a passage that's often quoted saying, yeah, God will gather them back, and they'll point to 1948.

And again, I'm not gonna get into that today.

We'll talk a little bit more about it on Sunday.

But uh but the truth is God did bring them back just as he said, and there was a second temple that was built.

Um we'll look more next week again at the specific passages as far as why people think that the nation forming in 1948 is a fulfillment of this.

But it's very clear, this is very clear.

There's a number of passages like this one speaking to Jews returning to their land that and they did.

And so they they came back and they built the second temple that we see in Ezra and Nehemiah.

So I I'm not aware, I mean, I'll keep looking and y'all can look too.

I'm not aware of any prophecies after Ezra and Nehemiah that says they'll be brought back.

Um so I I know that what people think is that these, like this Deuteronomy 30 is referring, it's like a constant thing that it'll always just keep bringing them back.

Um I I'm not sure that's applicable, but anyway, I I think that's what they're saying.

But it was definitely fulfilled in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Uh, and after they came back, really, they didn't worship other gods.

Uh what the the problem then was they drifted so far from God they didn't recognize Jesus when he came.

And so they ended up killing their own Messiah.

And God's judgment then came on them as was indicated in A.D.

70, and Jerusalem was destroyed, the second temple was destroyed.

It was, I mean, it was horrible.

Um, because I've I've been reading some about it, it was just it's hard to imagine.

But um, but what Paul is talking about there in Romans is that, yeah, they they failed, they crucified Christ, but God was still going to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant and bring Christ into the world so that all the nations would be blessed, uh, even though they had crucified it.

Now, I want to talk a little bit, you know, about the Davidic covenant.

Because this is the third and and really only other Old Testament covenant I think we need to understand.

Um, and again, I I I think this one is more difficult to readily grasp.

So again, I I sympathize more with the dispensational view on this one, but there's for me anyway, there's still some problems with it.

Um this is a covenant, of course, that God made with David.

David had become king.

He was really eager to build a temple.

You know, you may remember for God, he wanted to build him a temple.

And uh because, you know, we talked about the tabernacle last week, is moving around, and David didn't think it was right for him to live in a big palace and God to be in a tent, basically.

And um, so he wanted to do that.

I didn't go back and read it.

I think the reason God wouldn't let him, I think what he said was he'd been a man of bloodshed.

Y'all remember?

Seems like that's what it was.

He said, You've shed too much blood.

Um, Solomon, you know, your son Solomon will build it.

So uh, but anyway, I want I just want I do want to read the the covenantal language that God has here.

So that's in 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

Um beginning in verse on the first Samuel, it's working.

Um I'm gonna begin like halfway through verse 11, I think.

Yeah.

So the Lord declares to you, the Lord himself will make a house for you.

When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his father, he will be my son.

When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals, but my faithful love will never leave him, as it did when I removed it from Saul.

When I removed whom I removed before you, your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne established forever, Nathan reported.

So God told Nathan to tell David this.

He didn't speak to him directly, but he told Nathan to tell him.

Um so again, like I mentioned the other covenants, and we've already talked about a little bit, you know, the first thing we want to do was there are conditions on this.

And I I don't think there are on this one.

It looks like it's unconditional to me.

And I think most people agree with that.

It seems like the covenant is unilateral.

God initiated it.

God uses this play on words here.

David said he wanted to build a house for God, and God says, I'm gonna build a house for you, but it's even more than that because David used it in the sense of a house like we live in, you know, like he would for God.

But God uses it in the sense like I'm gonna make a household out of you or family.

In this case, he's meaning a dynasty.

Uh so that's what's being said, David.

Your kingship will be a dynasty.

It's in contrast to Saul, you'll have a continual line.

Um and you know, I I had brought this down.

I'm not gonna talk about you know, the temple now, we talked about the type and anti-type Sunday.

The temple now is the church and not the building, us individuals.

That's the temple.

The temple where God lived in the old covenant, now the fullness of that is God living in us, you know, as we're born again.

So the Bible makes that clear.

1 Peter 2, 4, verse 5, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, just a couple passages.

So you'll note that while God says, while David's house will endure, God will chasten the king if he does wrong.

And if y'all have read the rest of this, you know, 2 Samuel, 1st and 2 Kings, they're constantly, you know, most of the kings are bad.

Every now and then there'll be a good one that comes in.

Uh, but usually they're bad.

So, like Manasseh, for instance, was taken into captivity, Jehoiakim died in captivity.

Uh and I guess you could even say Jesus was disciplined in a sense because he had his sins on our sins on him.

Um God would discipline the dynasty, in other words, but wouldn't abandon it.

Now, what Jews understood this to be was a messianic promise.

And that's what we see in Jesus' lifetime.

You know, some of them are starting to ask, could this be the son of David because of all the miracles he's doing and the way he preaches?

Uh but the they really didn't understand that, of course, that they thought he'd be David's son.

They didn't understand that he would be God's son.

You know, you may remember that passage.

I didn't write it down where Jesus basically asked the Pharisees, well, if if the Messiah is David's son, why does David call him Lord?

If you remember that, and that throws them for a loop, they can't really answer it.

Um so, but he's pointing to them, you know, that it's that he's more than just a human being.

Uh, but the problem, the issue was they thought God was sending another David.

And David was a great warrior and conqueror, and he liberated them.

And so they thought that's what Jesus was going to do.

He's gonna, you know, or the Messiah, they thought the Messiah would do that, so that's what the expectation was of Jesus, that he would politically liberate them.

Um, as far as what's disputed about this covenant, um, again, you know, the debate is between the dispensationalists and the remnant people.

The the dispensationalists hold that there will be a physical fulfillment of this.

I I was a little surprised in studying some of their stuff.

They really don't think that Christ is on David's throne now.

I could kind of understand if they agreed with remnant theology saying, yeah, he's on the throne, he's spiritually reigning, but he will also physically reign.

That would make a little more sense to me, but they don't look at it like that.

Um anyway, but they do believe three things about the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, dispensationalists do.

And again, that's mainly Baptists.

The the first thing is that the covenant can only be fulfilled with a political throne in Christ, in the earthly city of Jerusalem.

And I'll talk more about this next on Sunday.

It's basically how you interpret scripture.

They interpret literal, everything as literal as possible.

And the only thing they don't want to interpret literal is when they.

You know, like in Revelation, they realize you've got things you just can't interpret literally.

But that's not really a great hermeneutic, I don't think.

You have to look at the Bible.

How does it interpret itself?

And we'll look at some of that language.

Like some of the language that's used in the Is Israel prophecies or used in other places to mean we know what they mean, and it doesn't mean something literal.

So they, you know, we have to try to understand what does the Bible mean when it says that, you know, that that again is the historical grammatical approach, which they say they use, but they just take a lot of things literally.

Um, which, you know, we want to if that's what God wants us to do.

It's just trying to figure out what he wants.

So really they believe, again, three things.

One, the political throne of Christ and the earthly city of Jerusalem.

Um it has to be physical and literal.

Um I'm gonna quote Wolver.

I quoted him about the Abrahamic covenant.

He says this about the Davidic covenant.

It is clear that Christ is not reigning on the earth in any literal sense.

That's correct.

Jerusalem is not his capital, nor are the people of Israel responsive to his rule at this time.

To attempt to find fulfillment in the present age requires radical spiritualization and denial of the plain factual statements related to the kingdom.

Okay, so they think spiritualizing it is just, you know, you're just missing the whole point.

Okay.

Um, all right, the second belief of dispensationalists about the Davidic Covenant is that its fulfillment was postponed.

And it was postponed because the Jews didn't follow Jesus at his first coming.

Uh, I'm going to quote Darby on this, and again, Darby's the one who came up with dispensationalism, unless, I mean, of course, if you think it's biblical, you may say you rediscovered it, but he's the one that, you know, made it a theology.

And he says, quote, we know John was beheaded and the Lord crucified, and the kingdom present in him was rejected by Israel.

By and by, the kingdom will be set up visibly and empowered.

Meanwhile, the church is set up because the kingdom is not set up in a manifested way.

So I don't know if you've heard this.

This is where the idea comes in from dispensationalists that the church is like a parentheses, you know, which came at least in part because God postponed the kingdom because it was rejected by Israel.

Israel rejected it, so okay, God will work with the church now.

He's not working with Israel.

That's why they say there'll be a rapture and get the church out of the way, and then you go back to working with Israel.

Okay.

Um, so uh the idea is again, it's got to be a physical fulfillment.

Um then the other, so okay, so the first, the three main ideas they have about this.

First, Jesus is on a political throne, will be ruling on a physical political throne in Jerusalem.

The second is the coronation got postponed because Israel rejected him.

And then the third, of course, is the millennium.

So when Jesus comes back, there'll be this millennium kingdom and millennial kingdom.

We talked about the thousand-year millennial, you know, we talked about that son.

So what do we say about all this?

Um, well, again, this is uh it's not a salvation issue.

Um, you know, people are free to believe what they want.

I just urge you to know to look at all of it.

I I would just say that yes, I think he's on the Davidic throne.

I'm gonna give you some passages with that.

So I think them saying that's a little strange.

Um so I think Jesus is on the funk throne.

So he is reigning spiritually.

I don't think there's any doubt about that.

But now whether there's a physical fulfillment, you know, I I that makes more sense that there'd be some debate about that, I think.

Um and I really think he'll be reigning.

Uh I guess the question is is it going to be in the millennium or what we call the eternal state?

You know, is it there's this debate about whether it'll even be a millennium, the way that we tend to think about it sometimes.

Um I again, I think he'll be reigning.

I just the problem, the biggest problem I have with all of it is this idea that we're going back to the old covenant.

I I just don't think that makes a lot of sense.

Um but anyway, you know, there's a lot of people that believe it.

And that is the uneasy truth for me about dispensationalism.

It focuses on Israel.

And I don't I don't know how you look at the New Testament and come up with that.

You know, one of the reasons I've never taught on this before is that there's very little in the New Testament that would compel me to even think about it.

I mean, there's uh, you know, there's revelation, you could argue, I guess, and then there's just a verse or two maybe in the Gospels.

And then I've talked about Romans 9 through 11.

There's a debate about that, but you know, most of the teaching has nothing to do when it talks about Christ coming, there's no issue about a millennium or Israel ruling, and there's it's never mentioned.

Uh so anyway, again, I do want to be fair to dispensationalists, and they say, but here's a couple of things.

One of them says, David's son, the Lord Jesus Christ, must return to the earth bodily and literally in order to reign over David's covenanted kingdom.

The Davidic covenant indicates he must come and reign in the millennium.

And then Ryrie says this the goal of history is the earthly millennium, which is the climax of history and the great goal of God's program for the ages.

I would just say, if that's true, if uh God has in mind a Jewish Israeli kingdom for his great program, I wish that had been a little more descriptive in scripture.

There's just especially in the Old Testament.

I mean, I understand where they're coming from to some extent in the Old, I mean, in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, when it talks about these things, it's not pointing to that at all.

So I like I said, last time we'll go over some specific passages Sunday, and uh, I will look to see what I can find.

I know of one New Testament passage they would quote in support of a Jewish millennium.

So we'll look at that.

Um I'll tell you what what the New Testament says, as far as I can tell, about the Davidic kingdom.

We'll try to take this quickly.

Uh John, I'm gonna start in John.

John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs that you do unless God were with him.

Jesus replied, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now, I always thought that was kind of weird when I was thinking about it.

Uh and I read some other people, they thought it was weird too.

So Nicodemus here basically makes a statement, but Jesus seems to be answering a question.

And so I guess if you think about what Nicodemus says, and think about what Jesus says, Jesus is answering a question that he knows is on Nicodemus's mind.

So based on his answer, Nicodemus is saying, What can you tell me about the kingdom of God?

Because that was their focus, you know.

When are we going to be liberated from this Roman rule and when is the Messiah coming and all that?

So Jesus says, You must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

And while we're in John, look at John 18, verse 36, when Jesus is before Pilate, Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world.

John 18:36

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews.

But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.

Um the old covenant, again, God had said to Israel, If you obey my voice, you'll be my kingdom of priests.

But now Jesus is saying, It's not that way anymore.

My kingdom is not from here.

And Jesus has said, You can't see it unless you're born from above.

Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Um, Luke 17, verse 20.

Luke 17:20

When asked, he was okay, he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come.

Because again, they're they want to know.

He answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming with something observable.

No one will say, See here or there, for you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

So the Pharisees, again, they're looking for the Davidic kingdom.

And Jesus says, You're you're not gonna see it like you're looking for it.

And my translation says, in your midst, yours may say within you.

Um, but Jesus says, it's not coming with observation.

The Jews thought there was going to be a big show.

Jesus says, you know, really, it's already here.

And Paul makes a comment that indicates that as well.

Romans 14 and verse 17, Paul writes, The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Spirit.

Um, so again, the Jews were looking for a political kingdom, and Jesus brought a spiritual kingdom, certainly at his first coming.

And dispensationalists will say, well, what about Jesus' coming?

You know, that's gonna be observable.

Well, I get that, but Jesus just said it won't be observable.

So I don't think by the time Jesus comes, he's gonna be enforcing it.

The thing with God's kingdom is that it's not forcing, he doesn't want to force people, he wants them to come to him by persuasion.

I mean, he loves us and he loves people and he wants them to love him, he's not forcing them to worship him.

When when Jesus comes, the enforcement will start as far as separating who's on what side.

But that's really, I think, for our benefit, as much as anything, he'll establish those clear boundaries.

But he's not his kingdom is not to force people, his kingdom is to woo them, you know.

Come, he loves us and he wants to reach us in that way.

Um, okay, so that's really the idea about his uh about the kingdom, the physical rule.

I that doesn't preclude that he would come and rule physically, but certainly the point is made in the New Testament that the kingdom is here now, you know, the Holy Spirit living in you and God, you know, expanding.

And uh and I'll talk more about that.

Really, the kingdom is expanding.

I mean, Christianity is actually growing.

I mean, we we have a tendency, you know, in America, because of all crazy stuff going on here, to think everything's bad, but it's not.

It's really there's lots of good going on.

Anyway, uh, so what about this idea that the Jews rejected Jesus as political king?

Well, they certainly rejected him as Messiah.

Um, but there's at least a couple instances that indicate they they would have been willing for him.

If he wanted to take over, they would have definitely been okay with that.

I guess maybe some would say for the wrong reasons.

But John 6 and verse 14, the feeding of the 5,000, you know, the when the people saw the sign he had done, they said, This truly is the prophet who is coming to the world.

Therefore, Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king.

He withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Um, so they wanted to make him a political king.

And it's indicating they were going to take him by force, which means they knew that he wouldn't just do it.

They probably already talked to him about it.

He was, he's like, No, that's not why he was there.

You know, pretty much sent him home.

Being king at his first coming was not on his agenda, not physical king.

So again, he wasn't offering a political kingdom.

And you know, you may remember Palm Sunday account.

They're calling out to him the King Jesus, King of Israel.

There's no doubt he could have started an insurrection then if that's what he wanted to do.

But that's just that's not what he wanted to do.

And of course, because he didn't do it, they killed him a few days later because he wasn't liberating them the way that they wanted to be liberated.

So um, okay, so again, how about the millennial, the idea of a millennium?

Well uh we'll look more of that again on Sunday.

Um, that the one issue I think that comes from that that's also a little disconcerting to me is that it's almost like they have two gospels.

I don't know if you've heard this.

Uh one is the gospel of grace that the church teaches, and then the other is the gospel of the kingdom that they say Jesus taught, and that references the millennium.

Um I I'm just gonna I'm gonna quote uh look at Acts 20.

This is more just to give you an idea of I don't what Paul says here about it.

Um verse 24, Paul says, The ministry I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God's grace.

And now I know that none of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

Now you would have to decide, is he using those interchangeably or is he using those separately?

I mean, I think there's only one gospel.

There's no doubt that Jesus is coming back to the earth as king.

The issue is whether his kingdom has already begun and whether it will extend to a physical kingdom in this kind of quasi old covenant environment.

Um Matthew 21.

I'm gonna wrap up here in just a second.

Matthew 21 verse 42.

Matthew 21:42

Jesus said to chief priests and Pharisees, Have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?

This is what the Lord has done, it's wonderful in our eyes.

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit.

Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whoever it falls it will shatter him.

So when the chief priests and Pharisees heard these parables, he knew they were speaking about them.

So uh it is true there, it does say the chief priests and Pharisees, and I think dispensationalists say, well, he wasn't he didn't mean all of Israel, he just meant the spiritual leadership of Israel.

Uh but you may remember we looked at John 8, and he he was talking to the all the Jews at that time.

He said, You're uh your father, the devil, you're not the true Israel.

The true Israel is a faithful remnant.

And again, this is nothing against the Jews.

The Jews started the early, they they were the earliest Christians.

They they were there, you know, at Pentecost, it was all Jewish for the most part, I would think.

So 3,000 and some.

Um but as a nation, as a political nation, you know, they rejected Christ.

It's just what they did.

It's not, it's it doesn't mean that there should be any anti-Semitism or anything like that.

I'll speak to that too Sunday.

But Acts 2, verse 29.

Acts 2:29

Uh Peter's preaching here.

Brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David.

He is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us this day.

Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seek one of his descendants on his throne.

Seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah.

He was not abandoned in Hades and did not experience decay.

God has raised this Jesus, and we are all witnesses of this.

Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and received from his father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.

Um so, uh, for it was not David who ascended to the heavens, and therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom he crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

Now, Peter is saying, you know, David would have one that came after him that reigned, and this is Christ.

And he's saying he's been exalted to a throne.

Dispensational say, well, it's not the Davidic throne, he's just by God.

Well, it doesn't say Davidic specifically.

I I mean, it seems to me that's definitely what he means, but he doesn't say it.

Acts 13, um, Acts 13 and verse 20.

Paul, this is that was Peter's first sermon.

This is Paul's.

It's interesting.

I I'd heard this before and I was thinking about it going through this.

You the early church didn't really preach, I mean, they did speak about forgiveness of sins, but it's like their initial message was hey, and this is understandable, I guess, to a Jewish audience, Jesus is king.

Jesus is the king.

So you need to become subject to his kingship.

That's pretty much what their message seems to be.

Paul stood up and motioned with his hand, fellow Israelites, and you who fear God, listen.

The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors, made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, and led them out with a mighty arm.

And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan.

He gave their land as an inheritance.

This all took about 450 years, and after this he gave judges until Samuel.

Then they asked for a king.

God gave them Saul.

Then after removing him, he raised up David as their king and testified, I have found David, the son of Jesse, man after my own heart, who will carry out all my will.

From this man's descendants, he promised God brought to from this man's descendants, as he promised, God brought to Israel the Savior Jesus.

Before coming, and then he says down in verse 34, as to raising him from the dead, never to return to decay, he's spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure promises of David.

So clearly the Davidic promises are fulfilled in Christ, and Christ is king now.

I guess the only issue is is he coming back as something to have to reinstitute some of the whole covenant and you know be over a kingdom uh with Israel as a leading nation.

Uh, so we'll we'll talk more about that on Sunday.

Um sorry it was so few, but thanks for coming.

And we got plenty of food, so take it.

That's your you get you get the blessing of the excess food.

All right, let's pray.

Uh Father in heaven, thank you for your word.

Uh, Father, we just we want to understand it.

Every all your people do, and we don't agree on things, but we all love you, and we just want to um honor you as best we can, and but of course, let's be gracious to one another and loving one another in these matters that are not uh you know foundational.

So we just thank you that Jesus um that in him, Father, we have all the blessings all of us do.

And so we we praise you for that, Father.

Thank you for it.

And please let uh the folks here be safe going back home, and we pray for the rest of our members to be here tonight and just uh uh thank you and pray you'd be with us this week.

And yes, it's in Jesus' name, amen.