For free audio or video download of this message, visit https://www.treasuringgod.com/sermons-by-scripture or my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DarrellFerguson.
2 Samuel 7:11 …"'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will make a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'"
Introduction: Now that’s a house
There is an old movie about a man from the Australian outback who visits his friend New York City and as they are out walking at night a mugger comes up and pulls a knife on them. The friend is scared to death and says, “Give him your wallet.”
“Why?”
“He’s got a knife.”
“That’s not a knife. This is a knife.”
Then he pulls out this huge, giant knife that he uses to kill crocodiles and the mugger runs for his life. In 2 Samuel 7 David unveils the blueprints for the spectacular Temple he was going to construct for God and says, “God, look at this house I plan to build for You.” And God takes one look at David’s blueprints and says, “That’s not a house. This is a house…” And He goes on to describe the house He is going to build for David. The word house can refer to a building or to a dynasty, so this is a play on words.
“You want to build a building for Me?”
“No, I’m going to build a dynasty for you.”
What we give to God is not impressive. What is impressive is what God gives to us. And that is a principle that should pervade every nook and cranny of our lives. Divine workmanship, not human, is best for both glorifying God and for benefiting people. Nothing we give to God or to others or to ourselves is of any value unless it is the product of divine workmanship.
So we strive to seek divine workmanship in all we do. What if your marriage had more divine workmanship and less human innovation? What about your career? Or ministry? “How do I do that? How do I make my marriage or work or ministry a product of divine workmanship?” By following God’s will. That is why we seek God’s will. We do not seek God’s will so that our lives will go more smoothly. Many times God’s will is the bumpiest, most trouble-filled path there is. The reason we seek God’s will, and the reason we want to walk on the path where God guides us, is so that all that we do ends up being a product of God’s workmanship.
I think a lot of people say, “God show me Your will” and what they really mean is “God show me which decision will be the most profitable financially.” Or “Show me which option will end up with the least problems.” If that is what a person means by “Show me Your will” then that person is not really seeking God’s will. “Show me Your will” means “God, I want to be doing nothing but the things You call me to do, so that You will be at work in all I do. I want all of my life to be divine workmanship.” Well that is what we are seeing here in 2 Samuel 7 – divine workmanship in David’s life.
Messianic Hope
Conditional and certain (Righteousness of the Messiah)
God is going to build a house for David – a lasting dynasty so that David’s line of descendents will reign on the throne forever. But that brings up the tricky question of who this prophecy is referring to, because David’s son Solomon did not hold on to the throne forever. He did build a temple, but most of the kingdom was taken away from him.
1 Kings 11:10-11 Although [God] had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD's command. 11 So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.
Now, out of love for David God didn’t tear it away completely. But for the most part it was taken away because of Solomon’s sin – which is exactly what God said He would do in verse 14.
14 … When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.
That points to a descendent of David who would be a sinner. So this promise is conditional. If a particular king failed to measure up, he was out of the covenant. Listen to how the Davidic covenant is stated in 1 Kings 2:4:
1 Kings 2:1 When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. 2 "I am about to go the way of all the earth," he said. "So … 3 observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that …4 the LORD may keep his promise to me: 'If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'
And then God Himself stated it that way to Solomon:
1 Kings 6:11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon: 12 … “if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.”
And later on Solomon described the covenant in the same conditional terms:
1 Kings 8:25 "Now LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me as you have done.'
Then later, after the temple was built, God said it again:
1 Kings 9:3 The LORD said to him: "… 4 "if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.' 6 "But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple
There is zero question as to whether this is a conditional covenant. As each new king took the throne in the Davidic line, that king either measured up and met the requirements, or he failed to measure up and fell short of the requirements. And if he measured up, for as long as he measured up God gave him and the nation of Israel the benefits of the promise to David. But when he felt short – for that particular king, the deal was off.
But in spite of all those clear biblical statements, there are some people who still insist that the promise to David is unconditional. And their argument is this – “God makes it very clear that this promise is ultimately going to be fulfilled. It does not say the throne of David might endure forever and ever depending on the various kings. It says it absolutely will endure forever. And that is true. The Prophets definitely do look forward to something much greater than the on-and-off situation of the pre-exilic kings who sometimes measured up and sometimes did not. So that makes it sound unconditional. If someone says, “It is absolutely 100% guaranteed that I am going to do this” then that seems pretty unconditional.
But what those folks fail to understand is that it is possible for a promise to be conditional and guaranteed at the same time if it is certain that someone will come along who will meet the condition. Whenever God says, “I am only going to do this if these conditions are met” and then goes on to say, “I will for sure do it,” that means God Himself will see to it that the conditions are met.
And so this promise here in 2 Samuel 7 becomes the primary beginning point for Messianic hope. This is where Israel’s attention is turned toward the future to look in hope toward a coming Messiah.
Attributes of the Coming King
When we learn later that this covenant was conditional it brings up the question – why weren’t the conditions mentioned in 2 Samuel 7 when the covenant was first given? When God said these things to David through Nathan we know that the conditional part was included, and yet the writer of 1 Samuel leaves them out. Why? Evidently he does not want us to focus on those. He is writing to people who knew about them, but he leaves that part out because he wants all of the focus to be not on the conditions but on the certainty that the conditions will be met. By whom? Solomon? No – he will sin and be punished. And so would king after king who followed Solomon. But someday a child would be born and a son would be given who would meet every condition and fulfill every requirement and that King will enjoy the full, total, ultimate fulfillment of all the promises in the covenant and be established forever and ever. And the writer of 2 Samuel wants our focus to be on that King, and on that King’s relationship to God the Father.
"'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will make a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Sandwiched in between two statements about establishing his kingdom forever God throws in the quick little comment about David’s son building the Temple. He mentions that, but that is not the focus.
“I will establish his kingdom (he will be the one who will build the Temple), but the point is I will establish his kingdom.”
Clearly the author wants our focus to be on this descendent of David whose kingdom will be established forever. And so that will be our focus this morning. The purpose of this sermon is nothing more than for us as a congregation to fix our gaze on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is healthier for you – nothing will improve your spiritual health and mental health and emotional health more than seeing and delighting in the glory of Christ. Nothing is more beneficial, and nothing magnifies His glory more. So let’s look at the five facets of His glory that are emphasized in this text – five attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning we will just take the first three.
Righteous
The first is the fact that He will be so righteous that He will perfectly meet all the conditions forever. And so this great descendent of David will be righteous.
Isaiah 11:1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. … 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat…
Isaiah 53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
This king would die as a criminal, but He would be totally innocent.
11 by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
That is what the prophets predicted about the Messiah. Did Jesus measure up? In John.8:46 Jesus issued an amazing challenge to His enemies.
John 8:46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?
Jesus said that to the Pharisees, who were experts at finding sin. Can you imagine saying that to anyone? “Find one sin I’ve committed in my lifetime.” And then have a whole group of Pharisees who can’t find a single thing?
How about this – what if you asked your little brother if he could think of any sin in your life? Jesus’ brother James referred to Jesus as “Our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” and worshipped Him as Almighty God.
Even the wicked ruler who sentenced Jesus to death said this:
John 19:4 I find no basis for a charge against this man
1 Peter 2:22 He committed no sin
1 John 3:5 in him is no sin.
Jesus was able to give His life to pay for our sins because He had no sin of His own – none. He was the spotless lamb. He never did anything wrong. He never uttered a single sinful word. He never had a sinful thought. He never had a sinful impulse or attitude or desire or motive. Not even when He was two years old. There was never even a split second when an impulse of greed entered His heart. Never one single lustful thought or glance. Never one moment of sinful anger. Never any time of sinful apathy or laziness.
And all that is just on the negative side – things He didn’t do. But righteousness is much more than just avoiding sins. Righteousness is not just not doing bad – righteousness is doing good. Righteousness is carrying out love and generosity and submissiveness to authority and honesty and zeal and every other virtue in the Bible.
James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
It is a sin to do nothing at all if at that moment you know you are supposed to be doing something good. That never happened in the life of Jesus. He never once failed to do anything that He should do. There was never a moment when He should have been praying but wasn’t – or should have been serving and wasn’t or should have been quiet and wasn’t.
He served the people around Him even though He was the Lord of all creation. He honored the authorities in His life and obeyed His parents – even though He was the One who created their brains. He loved His God and Father with all His heart and with all His soul and with all His mind and with all His strength every moment of every day. There was never a moment when He had any reason for regret. When he laid His head on His pillow at night and thought of all the things He should have said and done – He had said and done all of them. He never grieved the Holy Spirit. He never angered the Father.
And yet He never got puffed up with pride. He was meek and humble and gentle and a servant. He washed people’s dirty feet. He took time to pay attention to and bless little children. He paid His taxes, He taught His disciples, He memorized Scripture, He fought against the devil, He had compassion on those who were in trouble, He touched the untouchables, He was not ashamed to be friends with the outcasts, He never treated attractive people better than unattractive people, He always did the will of His Father in heaven.
He will reign on David’s throne forever and ever and will receive all the fullness of all of God’s promises in the Davidic Covenant for all eternity. And by the way – that was the righteousness that is credited to your account when you became a Christian. If you have any doubts whatsoever about how delighted God is in you, get the CD of this sermon and listen back through that description of Christ again and realize that every single line of that description describes the righteousness that is credited to your account if you are in Christ.
Eternal
So the first attribute of the Messiah is His righteousness. The next attribute we see in this passage is His eternality.
13 I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'"
Jeremiah 33:20 This is what the LORD says: 'If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with David my servant … can be broken
Now maybe your first thought is, “So what? Won’t all Christians be around forever? Don’t all Christians have eternal life?” Yes, but only because of Jesus Christ.
John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
John 6:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
John 6:54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
So eternal life is not just automatic, as though it were inherent in us just because we are Christians. We only have eternal life because Jesus gives it to us, which means you will only last as long as Jesus is on the throne.
John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life
John 17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "… Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
It is not like when you get to heaven God gives you a pill that makes you suddenly have the power of self-existence, so that you could keep yourself in existence forever. Even in heaven, if the Lord Jesus Christ let go His grip on you for one second you would instantly cease to exist. So we will need grace from Him every second of eternity. And our blessings will continue only as long as He remains in power.
So the promise of His eternal reign is an exceedingly wonderful thing. And if you doubt that just think of how often you are concerned about how long the supply of something you need is going to last. What happens in your heart when you hear next week there is going to be another round of layoffs? Your job might end. Some of you know exactly how this feels – others have to imagine; what would it be like if you found out this afternoon your spouse was thinking of leaving you? What if the doctor said your good health is coming to an end, and the months to come are going to be spent in the hospital – or you will never walk again? One of the most well known proverbs in our culture – and probably the most untrue of all proverbs there is, is the one that says: “All good things must come to an end.” That would be the case if it were not for the great Son of David and His eternal kingdom. But because of the Father’s promise of an eternal kingdom everything about that proverb is false. No good things will come to an end. And all bad things must come to an end. Nothing bad will be able to survive in this Kingdom, and everything good will continue and increase forever.
So this promise of eternality has a lot to do with your joy on a daily basis. The things we are worried about losing really do not supply as much security as we imagine. That job you don’t want to lose – you could keep that job until the day you die and still lose every penny you have. You could keep your Cadillac health insurance benefit and still have some sickness or injury wipe you out financially because of a loophole. None of the things we are so afraid of losing really guarantee us anything.
The reason we are afraid of losing those things is because we are so needy. We need to constantly be supplied with food and shelter and clothes and protection and love and companionship and a thousand other things. But it is not the security of your job or the strength of your insurance company that will guarantee those things. They are supplied by the Lord Jesus Christ, and you get them only as long as His kingdom stays in place.
“His kingdom is forever” means your security is forever. It means your supply of blessing is forever. It means you do not have to fret about losing your job or losing your health or losing anything, because you have endless supply of everything you need for as long as Jesus Christ stays in power.
When I was a kid I would get knots in my stomach from about the mid-point of summer on every time we drove past my school. I would see the school building and it would remind me that my summer break was going to be over soon (and I absolutely hated school). But if I would have understood this principle I would not have had to go through that anxiety. The anxiety you feel when a vacation is almost over, or any wonderful thing is almost over or might be over, or some loss seems to be looming - you do not need to fret over that. Whatever it was that that thing was supplying for you – if it was supplying you with money or a sense of security or love or pleasure or joy or happiness or whatever – whatever it is you were getting from this thing you stand to lose is guaranteed endlessly from the king of the great, eternal kingdom.
Sovereign
So this king will be righteous and He will be eternal. The third attribute is He will be a king, which means He will be sovereign. He will be in charge. He will be in control. He will be the highest power and the highest authority. That is what “king” means.
It would not do much good to have someone who is eternal and righteous but who is not in charge. What good would that be? He must have supreme authority.
Our culture reacts against authority in general because of their stupidity and blindness, but the truth is there is nothing better than a benevolent dictator if that dictator is also powerful and wise. It does not do much good if he is benevolent but does not have the power to do anything. But if he is good and wise and powerful, that is a great thing. It is a great blessing to be under the authority of a king like that.
But the sinful human heart always wants to be its own god, and so it resists the idea of being under any other sovereign. That is why the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is so offensive to so many people. If God is ultimately in charge then they are not – and that is unacceptable. If God is the ultimate determiner of who is saved and who is lost, then we are not the ultimate determiners. If He ultimately decides what is going to happen, then I am not the captain of my own destiny. And so human religion invents gods that are nothing but responders to man’s free will. We ultimately decide everything and the obedient god of our imagination just ratifies what we decide.
Tozer: (People of our day) suppose that His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan is thwarting His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest He invade the citadel of man’s "free will." … The "god" of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. …they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God, and no God at all. A "god" whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nothing but contempt.
Many Christians today will claim to believe in the sovereignty of God, but then if you ask, “Do you believe that it is ultimately God who determines the outcome of human decision making?” they say, “Oh no – He keeps out of that. He leaves all that up to us; but He is definitely in control of everything else.” And then you say, “Well, do you believe He is in direct control of the creation?” And they say, “No, the scientist tells us that the creation operates on its own by natural laws that power themselves. So if a tornado hits or a snowstorm or whatever – that is just the chance happenings of nature. God does not necessarily have anything to do with it.” So they say God is in control of everything except things that involve human beings or nature. What does that leave? Nothing. Tozer is right – they might as well be atheists.
One of the big reasons why people object to the sovereignty of God is because they cannot stand the thought of God being behind painful things. They cannot stand the idea that God ordained 9-11 to happen. Or that God took the life of a loved one. Or that years and years of unbearable suffering came from the hand of God. They would rather believe in a weak, impotent, powerless, inert god than in a sovereign God who is in full control of even the bad things that happen.
But they only think that way because they do not trust His goodness. If you trust God to be perfectly good, then the doctrine of His sovereignty is absolutely the most comforting and delightful truths in all of Scripture. Nothing brings me more comfort in times of suffering than the knowledge that God is in full control of that suffering. If I lose a loved one and you tell me, “God had nothing to do with it” then that loss is meaningless. It is just bad luck and nothing more. There is nothing good about it, no hope, nothing but despair. But if I suffer some terrible loss and know that it was the action of an almighty God who only does good things, then I know for sure that what happened is ultimately good.
If you are a Christian – every loss, every disappointment, every heartache, every sorrow – every bit of it came from the hand of a God who only does good things. In fact, not only good, but best. Which means, it was better for those horrors to happen to you than for them not to happen. And you can know that with absolutely certainty even if you cannot imagine how it could be a good thing - if the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is true.
So is it true? It almost sounds too good to be true – that every single thing that ever happens is the best possible thing that could have happened for you. Is the Lord actually sovereign over everything?
Job 23:13 who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases.
Psalm 115:3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
Psalm 135:6 The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.
Daniel 4:35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?"
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
Ephesians 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will
Just to make sure we don’t miss it He says it over and over and over throughout Scripture.
He controls everything and only does good things for His people.
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
If you are an unbeliever then your suffering is just suffering – there is no meaning and no guarantee that anything good will ever come of it. But if you belong to Him He has promised…
Romans 8:28 that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
And if your boss or husband or all the powers of the whole human race and all the denizens of hell combined their strength and attacked Him it would be like spraying a mist bottle on the rocks of Gibraltar. That person you are afraid is messing up your life does not have the power to mess up anything. This King is so powerful, nothing they are doing will phase His plan for you.
Authority
And along with all that omnipotent power is supreme authority. If He is the King then He is the Lord – the supreme authority. I just got an email this week about someone who was pushing what they called the “free grace movement” as opposed to “lordship salvation.” People who use that kind of lingo believe that free grace is the opposite of lordship. Those people say, “You don’t have to submit to Christ in order to be saved. You don’t have to have any willingness to obey God. You don’t have to recognize Him as any authority in your life. You don’t have to repent of anything. Just agree with the fact that Jesus died for your sins and bingo - you’re saved.” And that is their idea of grace.
And in their thinking you cannot have both free grace and lordship. They cannot coexist because where you have lordship – where Jesus Christ is actually Lord and master and the authority over you – that cannot be grace because grace requires nothing of you. They think any requirement that we acknowledge His authority over us would be salvation by works.
I am convinced there will be millions of people in hell because of that teaching. And hell is exactly where that teaching comes from. Grace is not opposed to lordship. Jesus Christ is the supreme authority in the universe. That is the truth about Jesus Christ. And if I tell someone that they must believe that, that is somehow salvation by works? That is not works – it is faith! Faith is believing the truth about Jesus Christ. And the truth is He is Lord. So if you do not regard Him as Lord you do not believe the truth, which means you do not have faith.
The false teaching that portrays grace as exemption from obedience is as twisted an understanding of grace as it is possible to have. The word “grace” means gift. Grace from God is when God gives you something. If I undergo conversion and my rebellious heart remains just as rebellious against God as ever, what has He given me? They would say, “He gave you salvation and forgiveness of sins.” But the Bible says God gives you a whole lot more than that. He gives you a new heart. It is not the anti-lordship people who have a high view of grace. They have a low view of grace. They believe in a grace that is so weak and powerless that it does not even transform your heart.
But those of us who believe in the Lordship of Christ have a high view of grace. We believe in a grace so powerful that it does transform the heart. In fact, that is what Scripture refers to as the New Covenant. The New Covenant is a promise that God will turn our hearts toward Him.
Jeremiah 31:31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
The New Covenant will be different from the covenant with Moses. But how will it be different? Will it be different because in the old covenant you had to obey God and now you don’t? No – it will be different because in the New Covenant there will be grace that will change the heart so that it wants to obey God. And the fascinating thing that I realized this week as I studied this is the fact that when Scripture speaks of the New Covenant versus the old, the old is always the covenant with Moses – not the one with David. In fact, when Scripture points forward to the New Covenant it points away from the covenant with Moses and toward the covenant with David. The Davidic Covenant is not associated with the old; it is associated with the new. The New Covenant is first unveiled in Jeremiah 31, mentioned again in chapter 32, and then again in chapter 33, except in chapter 33 it is all language right out of the Davidic Covenant.
And as we saw the last couple weeks – the Davidic Covenant promises a King whose reign will be such that the hearts of the people will turn toward God under Him.
Ezekiel 37:24 My servant David will be king over them, and they will all … follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.
Hosea said Israel will go astray but then they …
Hosea 3:5 will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.
Zechariah promised that God would grant a spirit of grace and supplication to the house of David and they would mourn over the one they had pierced (Zech.12:10). The Old Testament promises that someday hearts will be changed – that is the New Covenant; and it is always couched in the context of the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.
So all this to say – if you do not have a heart to submit to this King’s authority then you are not in the covenant. You are still on the outside looking in. That song we sing “Oh Great God” has a line that is so poignant: “I was blinded by my sin; had no ears to hear Your voice. Did not know Your love within; had no taste for heaven’s joys. Then Your Spirit gave me life…” Think about that. What peril we were in before grace came to our hearts! We had no taste for heaven’s joys. No love for God, no love for His Word, no desire for His nearness or His grace – no taste for any of the things we need so desperately. But then all that changed when His Spirit came and gave us life. By His grace He changed our hearts, and now we delight to follow His ways.
Every true Christian, deep down, wishes he or she were more obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who wish they could be free of His authority are not true Christians. As His subjects we delight in His sovereign authority. And we look forward to the day when He exerts His omnipotent power to enforce that sovereign authority in the elimination of all evil.
He has given us pictures of that power. This King is the one who gave the command and made the Red sea stand up in walls so the Israelites could walk through on dry ground. He is the one who commanded the earth to open up and swallow up Korah and his followers. He is the one who made the sun stand still for Joshua, and go backward for Hezekiah. He is the one who sent down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices in front of the priests of Baal. He walked on water, stilled the storm, fed the multitudes, cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead, and conquered death itself by rising on the third day. And when He returns He will use that same power to bring about the paradise that the saints have longed for throughout the ages.
Those are going to be great days. When the kingdom of the Messiah arrives in all its fullness, and the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas, and the wolf and the lamb lie down together and the curse is eliminated, and the great King of kings rules on the throne of David with a rod of iron enforcing perfect justice and righteousness, those will be glorious days. It is going to be great! You are going to have a blast. Whatever joys and pleasures and excitements you have experienced in your lifetime will be nothing compared to what it is going to be like to be ruled and reigned over by a king like Him. And you will never even think of disobeying Him because you know that He is always leading you to someplace wonderful. He will conquer every rebel power starting with our own hearts and extending to every created thing.
Conclusion
That is the house that God will build for David. Now that’s a house! That is why there is so much emphasis on the descendent of David on this chapter. Just compare it to the description of David’s palace.
2 Samuel 5:11 They built a palace for David.
Back then that palace was no doubt a wonder to behold. And if the people knew it would only get a half a verse in the portion of Scripture devoted to cataloguing David’s greatness they would have been shocked. But God looked at that palace and said, “That’s not a house; this is a house” and pointed our attention to the kingdom of the descendent of David. David’s glorious palace is buried in the dust. No trace of it remains. But the house the God would build for David’s offspring will endure forever and ever in glorious splendor.
. There are two attributes left. I really wanted to put them all together in one sermon, but I would have to skim across the top in order to do that and that would defeat the purpose. So next time we will plan on looking at the last two. For now let’s just rejoice over this kingdom’s great King.
Benediction: Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."
