The Charter Of Covenant: God's Past And Promised Glory - 2 Samuel 7:17-21 Series

How to Respond to a Promise

King David Pt.7

9-13-2009

Summary: David received the promises through the faithfulness of Nathan who did not mind telling every word of a vision that contradicted what he had already said. David also submitted, and that caused gratitude when David meditated on what had been given, what was promised, his own lowliness, and God’s greatness.

Introduction

The past few weeks we have been studying the promises God made to David in 2 Samuel 7. We found that this is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible, as it is the foundation for almost all Messianic hope. So we are not surprised that the writer slows his pace way down and devotes a large amount of space to describing this covenant with David. What is a little surprising, however, is the fact that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the writer of 2 Samuel devoted even more space to David’s response as he devotes to the promise itself. From verse 17 all the way through the end of the chapter we have a long prayer from the heart of David in which he responds to the promises God gave and this prayer teaches us how to respond to God’s promises.

Now, what I just gave you is not the greatest introduction to a sermon, because probably none of you walked in here thinking, I am dying to know what is the right way to respond to a promise. I think by the time we get to the end of the sermon you will very likely be convinced about how important it is to know how to respond the right way to God’s promises. But that will be too late, because by then you will have already listened to the sermon with a not-so-eager heart. The purpose of an introduction is to help you start out with an eager heart, so let me show you at least one reason why this is so important in your walk with the Lord.

This is a very familiar passage.

2 Peter 1:4 Through these (his glory and goodness) he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to …

- and then he goes on to tell us some things we need to do to make that happen. Let’s apply some logic and think that through for a moment. The goal is to obtain two amazing things: Participation in the divine nature; and Escape from the corruption of the world. Start with the first one – participation in the divine nature. I do not have time to preach a whole sermon on what all that means, but for now can we agree on this – whatever it means, it is something really, really, really good? Can you think of anything more valuable or more important for your spiritual life than participation in the divine nature? I think it would be fair to say that there is nothing more important or more valuable than that.

The second one is not hard to understand at all – escape from the corruption of this world. We all certainly want that!

So Peter mentions two things that are supremely important and valuable. And both are available to us. They can be obtained. How?

2 Peter 1:4 …he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption …

It is through God’s promises that we get these two amazing things. But how does that work? Is it automatic? God just promises these things and we get them no matter what? Look at verse 5.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith …

Obviously it is not automatic if it requires that we make every effort.

So you put all that together and what you get is this: You can escape from sin and participate in the divine nature if you respond the right way to God’s promises. And David’s prayer in 2 Samuel 7 teaches us the right way to respond to God’s promises. That is why this is important. A huge portion of the success of your spiritual life is riding on how you respond to God’s promises. So let’s see what God has to teach us here.

Receiving the Promises - verse 17

It starts with David receiving the promises, and that involved two parts. The first part came from Nathan’s faithfulness as a prophet.

Faithful proclamation

2 Samuel 7:17 Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

The word “all” and the word translated “entire” are the same word in the Hebrew. Nathan reported to David according to all these words and according to all this revelation (or vision). So there is a strong emphasis on the fact that Nathan reported every last word and accurately described every bit of the vision. Nathan is a faithful prophet. His initial reaction to David’s desire to build was to tell him to go ahead with it, and that surely God would be on board. And then He finds out that the Word of the Lord says otherwise, and instead fudging the truth or adjusting the vision to fit a little better with what he thought, he faithfully reported it with complete accuracy even though it was the exact opposite of what he naturally assumed.