All right, turning to 2 Samuel 7, this is God's covenant with David. And we've looked at the Davidic covenant, but today we'll look at the Davidic covenant as a way into seeing the larger scripture story and also the books of Samuel and Kings. So David has established Jerusalem as Zion. So there's the heavenly city on earth now as the place where David will spiritually and politically rule and reign over God's people in Jerusalem, in Zion. That happened in 2 Samuel 5. In 2 Samuel 6, he brings the throne of God to Jerusalem. And the throne of God, remember, is that very presence of God, the power, the presence of Yahweh with his people. And so it's very important to remember that that's part of the promise that God would dwell with his people, that God will be a God to his people and that he will dwell with them. And so that's what's happening now in 2 Samuel. In 2 Samuel 7, David realizes in verse 1 that he lived in a house and he realizes that the Lord has given him rest, shalom, from his surrounding enemies. And that is a partial fulfillment of what God had promised, that the king of righteousness would lead the people into rest from their enemies. And that rest was so that Israel would not be threatened by enemies from without. The rest was so that they could then live holy lives of worship and service. And so David gets it and understands what his role is. And he says, I need to build the Lord a house. And so now that he's got Zion as a permanent location, and there's rest from his enemies, he realizes as king of righteousness at this point in redemptive history, he needs to build a house, at least that's what he believes or understands in his estimates, is there needs to be a permanent location for God to be worshipped and served. No more tabernacle, no more tenting, right? We need something more permanent. And so he decides that he's going to build a tabernacle because he doesn't want God to dwell in a tent anymore. And at first, Nathan the prophet agrees with that, but then God reveals to Nathan in a dream, this is not the way that God wants it to be. And let me remind you before we begin reading that this is where God is showing his initiating power and grace. It's God to, make the rules, it's God to direct and instruct, and so God tells David what David is going to do, and that's something we need to remember, that God is ultimately the king. That even though David is the king, he must submit to God's ultimate authority. So, beginning in verse, let's start verse 10 of chapter 7 of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 7, 10. I will appoint a place for my people Israel and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you, the Lord will make you a house. So David has this idea of building God a house. And ultimately God says to David, no, I'm going to build you a house. It's going to be my, my grace, my sovereignty, my power. And what I want you to notice, look at the link there in verse 11 between judges. and now the present with David. We're gonna look at that more fully in a few minutes. I wish I had had more time to look at Judges. I hope you got my notes. Perhaps, of course, the notes will go into more detail. But just to note the link now between Judges and Samuel is present here in this passage, is that from the Judges, the time of the deliverers, the savior deliverers of Israel, to David. is what's being told. David is now experiencing, Israel is now experiencing rest from enemies. Verse 12, so what God says to David, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you. All right, now I'm gonna comment as we go through this, okay? But that is the offspring, that is the seed. There's at least two promises you wanna think of there. the offspring seed there. You want to think of Genesis 3.15, right? The seed of the woman is being promised to continue through the Davidic line. And you're going to also remember what other promise with regard to seed. What's that? We'll get to that in just a moment. But the other one with regard to seed, what's the other promise? to Abraham. Yep, that's gonna be part of it in just a second, Steve. Excellent. Yes, so the seed going back to Genesis, the seed of the woman and Abraham, the seed of Abraham that will come, all right? So I'll raise up your seed or offspring. He shall come from your body. I'll establish his kingdom, all right? So there's the kingdom that will be established. 13, he shall build a house for my name. So he's gonna be the temple house builder. And the house is being used in at least two ways. The house is on the one hand a temple, right? It's a temple. On the other hand, it's what's known as a dynasty. Does anybody know what a dynasty is? So it's a theocracy, it's a worshiping, it's a place of, when he speaks of house, it has dual meaning. It means that there'll be a place for worship, but there'll also be a throne, a king, a kingdom, so a dynasty. So there's an everlasting house. that he's going to build that house also being an everlasting dynasty house. Like when we say the dynasty of David, we might also say of the house of David. All right. Or we might think of a great ruler and call it the house of so-and-so, meaning that that's his lineage or that's his kingdom. Verse 13. He shall build a house, a dynasty, a temple for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Forever. All right. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him. as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me." So there it is right there, the house and the kingdom, almost synonymous. Two things to mention with regard to house being temple or worship. the dynasty regarding the throne or the rule. So your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. Very important. And in accordance with all these words, in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So Yahweh spoke through Nathan the prophet to tell David of what he was going to do. Very important for understanding the book of Samuel and Kings, books of Samuel and Kings, but also very important to understand from redemptive history. Now go back to Deuteronomy 17. You can keep your finger there in 2 Samuel 7. We might refer to it again. But in Deuteronomy 17, And let me remind you of a couple of things that have been said in Deuteronomy up to this place. Remember, Deuteronomy is the covenantal sun around which the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings orbit. So we got to remember that to understand rightly the books of Samuel and Kings, we have to understand Deuteronomy. All right, so it's the center theology of the books of Samuel and Kings. And you remember in Deuteronomy 12, perhaps, where I'll just mention it briefly, that God says, when I give you rest from your enemies, I'll show you a location where I'll receive your worship. All right, so there was told through Moses to Israel that there would be a place that would be more permanent. where he would show where the worship was to be, okay, which will become Zion. All right, keep that in mind. Then in chapter 17, beginning in verse 14, Moses, God through Moses, tells us about laws concerning Israel's kings. And so since we're studying Samuel and kings, we wanna remember this, always be returning to Deuteronomy 17, whenever you're thinking about any of the kings of Israel, including the greatest king of all, who is Jesus Christ. So you read this by understanding particularly what it was the author of Kings was trying to get across when he was telling the story. Remember what we talked about the former prophets being a covenantal theological history, right? Well, we talked about it being an interpreted history. Well, how is it being interpreted? It's being interpreting according to the lines of Deuteronomy. All right. And so when it's when the story's being told, you know that the author's got his book of Deuteronomy open before him, so to speak. And when he's telling you certain things about the king, David, and especially Solomon, but then all of the kings of Israel and Judah after them, he's tracing it back to Deuteronomy 17. That's most important to know, right? All right, so let's listen. Chapter 17, verse 14, when you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, there's the land again that we looked at last week, that is a theme, a very central theme in Joshua and Judges, and you possess it, and you dwell in it and then say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me, you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. So the first thing is very important is that the king would be a chosen one, the chosen of Yahweh, all right? One from among your brothers. Number two, he's to be one who is a full-blooded flesh of Israelites. All right. You may not put a foreigner over you. So one from among your brothers, you shall set his king over. You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother. Only ready. He must not acquire many horses for himself. or calls the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses since the Lord has said to you, you shall never turn that way again and he shall not acquire many wives for himself. So when you're reading Samuel and Kings, you wanna take note of when the author says, and such and such king had more wives. Or such and such king took many wives to himself. Because the author is telling you, This king is not the ultimate king. This king is going to fail. And when he says that his stables were full of the most powerful horses, and he made alliances with Egypt and other of the nations, the author is telling you that this is a flawed king who will fall, who is setting himself up in his disobedience for tragedy. for himself and for all of Israel. And when you get that, you realize, oh, that's why, when I'm reading Samuel, right before it says these great things about David, it tells me that David keeps taking all these wives for himself. Got it. The author's saying, heads up, David is faithful, but he's also flawed, and he's not going to be the one who holds the kingdom together in unity and peace. Verse 17, he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. Now, who is coming to mind right now in your head? Solomon. And that's how Solomon's narrative is laid out. The story of Solomon can't be understood without this passage. So the author is looking at this passage. He's laying out the narrative of Solomon. He's telling the story of Solomon from a covenantal, historical, theological interpretation that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's Scripture interpreting Scripture, beloved, for those who know what that means. You know, it's just the one perfect, ideal way of interpreting Scripture is letting Scripture interpret itself. And that's exactly what the Old Testament authors are doing, particularly in the former prophets. All right. Verse 18. Listen to this very carefully. When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book, a copy of this law, a copy of this law. He's supposed to have the Ten Commandments all before him at all times. The law that they're talking about there is the summary of the law, the Ten Commandments approved by the Levitical priesthood. So he's not only a king that rules in righteousness according to God's law, he's accountable to the priesthood. All right. And verse 19, it shall be with him. He shall read it all the days of his life. So he should know it better than anyone else that he may learn to fear the Lord is God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them. So so the the question before you is, is will he have familiarity? Will the kings of Israel have familiarity with Deuteronomy and more particularly with the Ten Commandments? And will he learn to fear the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom? Though he can write about the fear of the Lord, will he be one who ultimately, to the end, fears the Lord? And then, verse 20, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel. Here we have the idea that the king, the anointed king on earth, not only for Israel, but especially for Israel, but for the ancient Near Eastern kings, they were not only thought of as shepherds, but they were also thought of as fathers to the children of Israel. And very important you think about when you think of David, he's a chosen shepherd king. He's to shepherd the people according to God's righteousness. Shepherding means guarding. You know, it means guiding. So it means to prevent enemies, protect, but it's also like a father to the children. And it's a father, father being revealed as the father heart of Yahweh, of God. So his point is to serve in Yahweh's place as an image of Yahweh. Let's get that again. The king's purpose is to to be not a replacement for Yahweh, but to be an image bearer of Yahweh, to have dominion over the earth. And to be fruitful and multiply spiritually, primarily, and so he's to have dominion, he's to rule as image bearer of Yahweh for one ultimate purpose, for the glory of Yahweh. And that's why he's a father to Israel. Now, another passage we wanna go to now is 1 Kings 3. And I don't wanna get ahead of us, but I do wanna dip into Kings for a moment because I'm doing Samuel and Kings together. And I thought it would be proper to read these scriptures first and then to go to looking at our boards together, okay? In 1 Kings 3, this is Solomon. David is dead. And in 1 Kings 3, 1, it says Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. All right, now you're reading it in light of Deuteronomy. What's the author telling you? Now, he could have said Solomon was a faithful but very bad man. And we'd have got that, but that's not the way narrative works. Narrative is to tell a story, and it's to tell a story that's interpreting history with a covenantal theological purpose, right? And so what is he saying? You should say, uh-oh, Solomon's gone back to Egypt, literally, and he's taken wives. He took Pharaoh's daughter, brought her into the city of David, all right, until he had finished building his own house. This is the typical hypocrite. He's doing a lot of religious work and building, but he's got an Egyptian girl on the side that's been strictly forbidden by the law. So while he's building the house of the Lord, the wall around Jerusalem, the people were sacrificing at the high places because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord. So people are sacrificing in a questionable manner here. Hopefully they're worshiping Yahweh, but we're not clear on that. That's the point. The king's supposed to be watching over those things. Verse three, Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David, his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. That gives us a little negative. There's something wrong with that. There's something not right. I won't go into all the detail, but I'm giving you a sampling of how we're going to read this by God's grace from now on. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there for that was the great high place Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. And then there's the place where you see Yahweh's grace. Yahweh knows that Solomon's heart is already drifting into apostasy. And yet Solomon loves the Lord. You know, this is simulustus et peccator in the Old Testament. This is at the same time justified and sinful. This is about as clear as you can get of simulustus et peccator. This is about as clear as you can get of Paul saying in Romans 7, what I want to do, I do not do. What I don't want to do, I keep on doing. And so Solomon's living hypocritically. He's living like the kings around him, forming alliances, going back to Egypt, making a strong power base that's not fully dependent on Yahweh, yet he loves Yahweh. And when he asked God a prayer for wisdom, God gives him wisdom. So we see that he is was he gets wisdom in verse eleven tells us of chapter three. God said to him, because you've asked this, you've not asked for yourself long life or riches or life of your enemies, but ask for yourself understanding to discern what is right. Behold, I now do according to your word. I give you wise and discerning mind so that none like you has been before me and none like you shall arise after me. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. And notice first fourteen. And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. The way we have to understand this, beloved, is God is always full of steadfast love and kindness. And when he does something like answer prayer, it's to cause Solomon and all of us to repent of what we know is wrong in our lives. His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, Romans 2.4. His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. So God continues to just lavish kindness and mercy on Solomon, though he knows his heart and he knows where he's going. He knows what direction his heart is already in to some degree. And, but then he gives this conditional statement at verse 14. We're going to look at it in a moment again. He says, but if you walk according to my, if you, if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes of commandment as your father, David Walt, then I will lengthen your days. So in other words, what's going on here? In spite of our sin, Yahweh is showing favor and grace, and Yahweh is making promises because of His love for His people. And he's also saying that this grace, this kindness is meant to lead them to a holy life, a repentant life, a life that is dependent upon Yahweh more and more. All right, so that's a reading opening with former prophets Samuel and Kings. That gives us a little bit of a taste, doesn't it? Of how the author of Samuel and Kings how they're writing their covenantal theological history with an eye toward Deuteronomy. Everybody see that quite clearly? Now what we want to do is we want to fill in a few things. Now, if you turn back to 2 Samuel 7 again, I want to just note a few things, if I may. As we go this direction, I'd like to show you a few things. with the promises to Abraham. What were the three promises to Abraham? Someone remind me. Okay, land, seed, blessing. All right, good, excellent. And so what are the three promises to David in 2 Samuel? What three promises do you hear him making here? a seed, right? And he uses different language, but for land, what do you think that he tells him? A kingdom, good, good. And these could be used interchangeably, by the way, the land and the blessing, because ultimately the land is special because God dwells there, and the blessing is for the nations because God, the true God dwells there. Okay, but let's do that. So the kingdom, and then what's the other? The house, the house, the house. And these are very similar promises. What's happening here is eschatological advancement, all right? There's a filling out because David himself is a partial fulfillment of this, right? Isn't he? David himself is a partial fulfillment of Abrahamic seed, right? The rest that David and the people are experiencing now is part of the second promise of the Abrahamic blessing, you see? That makes the kingdom possible, all right? Because now they're gonna have a power center, an economic center, a political center, a religious center, right? Based on the truth. And then the blessing, why would this be, why would the house be the blessing? God would be with them and this house would be a blessing to the world. Ultimately, this house would be, it would be, though Israel will make it a den of robbers, it'll be a house of prayer for all nations. It'll be the place where the prophets will say that one day, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon is going to come from afar. All the nations from as far as Ethiopia, they're going to come and they're going to listen to God's law and be taught. And they're going to come to the house in Jerusalem. And so in the Old Testament, remember, you have this magnetization, kind of spiritual magnetization. Israel was to live a holy life and show the people of the world how wonderful it was to live freely as one was created to live in Yahweh's presence and to invite others to come and be part of Israel. Now, with the coming of Christ, that goes the opposite direction, right? When it excatologically advances with the incarnation, we have the fullness of Jesus, we have the fullness of the time coming with Jesus, and then we have the mission to the world, you see? Go out and tell them that all these things are accomplished. Go out and be the holy temple blessing to the world. Go out and be the ones filled with the Holy Spirit, knowing I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So there you have that, the mission in a nutshell is right here, the house, right? All right, now, looking at King, Covenant, Tabernacle, Temple, Dwelling. One more, before we go there, we're gonna go over to that board in a moment, but from what I want you to note is, note with Samuel and Kings, what you have going on is an eschatological advancement in at least two ways. One with the promise, So the covenant promise is expanding, right? It's more meaningful. Not meaningful because it wasn't in seed form, but the people understand it a little bit more. There's progressive revelation. It's more meaningful. They understand a little bit more of God's will that he's revealed. So in Judges, as we looked at last week very briefly, You have these judges, savior, deliverers, right? That were raised up. And what you have with David is you have a king, savior, deliverer. And what was the line in judges? How does judges and what was the problem of judges at the end of judges? What does it say that Israel was doing right in their own eyes? But what was the reason that was given in Chapter 17, Chapter 18? And then right at the end of Chapter 21, there's no king in Israel. So these judges were temporal, judge-savior-deliverers. And so you have a king, a savior, a deliverer now, which is a more permanent position. And here's something cool, and I can't go into it right now. We'll have to do it later. But with David, you also see him legitimately sacrificing in a way that's honoring to Yahweh. And so you have the beginning of the priest game according to the order of Melchizedek. Where was Melchizedek? He was king priest of Salem and David is now the king priest of Salem. So you have this cool merging of two offices in the old covenant that are coming together to point forward to one who is to come. All right, Kings, very simply the book of Kings, if you want to call it something, it is the rise and fall of the Davidic empire. All right, so let's look over here now with these former prophets. Let me say a few things about the books and then look at this together on the board, all right? Any questions so far? It's really cool when you get eschatology because then you're not afraid to say, you know what's going on here? Is there something merging here in David, in the person of David? Saul was forbidden to sacrifice. Saul was not a regenerate man. Saul was a gifted man, he wasn't a regenerate man. Big difference, right? Between the Spirit's work of gifting and the Spirit's work of gracing. Every person is gifted, not every person is graced by the Spirit. Every single human being is gifted, not every single human being is graced, only God's people. So you see Saul, you see Judas. And you see a man who is greatly gifted. You see, you hear day of Jesus. Our Lord Jesus is a warning. Not, you know, many of you will say to me, Lord, Lord. And I'll say, I never knew you. So you can be gifted. You can serve in the church. You can do a lot of great things, but if you're not graced by the Holy Spirit, you don't know God. All right, so Samuel, how would we summarize the book? Let's do a few things with regard to the summary of the book. It's about the king, and particularly how the king, savior, deliverer, is come. So it's the story of Israel's king who will lead the people in righteousness and worship. The story of Israel's king, that's what the ultimate thing about, the ultimate meaning behind Samuel. The three promises to David are the seed, the kingdom, the house, and the promises that are made in the Davidic covenant. I wanna ask you, are they, and this is a good time to look at this together because this is where we see that tension. Are these promises that God makes to David and to Solomon, are these promises conditional or unconditional? And that's a trick question, so let me ask it better. Are these conditional, unconditional, or both? Yeah, both. Good, who said both? Yeah, I think throughout history, the church always wants to find out, is Yahweh being unconditional? Are these unconditional promises or are they conditional? And some are more unconditional, some lean in that direction, some are more conditional. But with David, you have very clearly that there is this unconditional promise that he will establish the kingdom, verse 12, he shall build a house for my name, I shall establish the throne of his kingdom forever. That's unconditional. Verse 14, I'll beat of him a father. He shall be to me a son. But when he commits iniquity, I'll discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul. And then your house and your kingdom shall be made sure before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So there's conditional and unconditional aspects that we need to allow to be intention throughout redemptive history. What do we make of that then? All right, what do we make of that? Well, remember, on the one hand, let's look at Psalm 89 together and look at a few things. Psalm 89 captures both the conditionality and the unconditionality of the covenant. And by the way, what we're looking at, beloved, with regard to the condition and unconditionality of the Davidic covenant is something we can use for every one of them, okay? For all the covenants. And I wanted to reserve that to this study because I think this will help us to understand why Israel goes into exile. Because, listen, while here's where you want to understand my relevance in teaching about the conditional and unconditional. The Book of Kings is about the rise and fall of the Davidic Empire. Well, wait a minute. I thought David got this unconditional promise that his throne will be everlasting. You see, that was the concern of Israel for 500 years. They were confused. The prophets told them clearly, as we'll look at when we get to the prophets, but they didn't quite get it. There's no king over Israel. When are God's promises going to come? And you remember the first thing the apostles that they're asking Jesus about after his resurrection is, is this the time that the kingdom is going to be given back to Israel? They're asking. That was in the air. Everybody wanted to know when's the kingdom will be given to Israel. So on the one hand, they got the everlasting covenant part, but they were also suffering because they had broken the conditions of the covenant. They had been dead in exile, dead, and still had then Greece or Persian Greece and the Romans ruling over them at the birth of Jesus himself. So when's the unconditional part gonna come to pass? That's why this is relevant. Listen to Psalm 89. It gets at the unconditional everlasting covenant and the conditional covenant part. Listen to verse... Let's read verses 33 to 37 first. The unconditional aspect. I will not remove from him my steadfast love. This speaking of David or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness. I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever. His throne as long as the sun before me, like the moon, it shall be established forever. A faithful witness in the skies. Amen. That's the unconditional part, right? Or maybe this will help us then to see why it is we struggle with figuring out, is it unconditional, is it conditional? It's both. Look now at verses 29 to 32 of the same. And by the way, chapter 89 of Psalm begins with verse two. pointing us to what it's about. Steadfast love will be built up forever in the heavens. Verse three, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David, my servant. So all of Psalm 89 is about the covenant with David particularly. All right, so verses 29, you ready? Verses 29 to 32, I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heaven if, that's conditionality, If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I'll punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. There it is, there's the conditions. So, how do those two fit together? There's a tension we want to appreciate, all right? You're not the first one who's had a concern about the tension. But let me quickly just tell you the good news. You ready? This is all about the gospel. Jesus Christ relieves the tension. I bet you knew I was going to say that. How does Jesus Christ? Because as God, he can make an everlasting, unconditional covenant. And as man. He can meet all the conditional requirements of that covenant on behalf of His people. Unconditional, conditional. If you don't have the conditional part, if that hasn't caused you any pain, if that has kept you up at night, you haven't got the incarnation. You don't understand the need for it. An Israelite seed of the woman, seed of Abraham, seed of David had to come not only to fulfill God's perfect unconditional requirements or unconditional promises, but to be the one as a substitutionary life and death and resurrection ascension on behalf of his people to meet all the conditions of the covenant of grace. So Jesus Christ relieves the tension. Let me let me say it again. As God, the covenant God makes with man is unconditional. It's an everlasting covenant. That's clear. As man, the covenant of God, the covenant God makes with man is conditional. And Jesus Christ fulfills all the conditions on behalf of his left. What was the life of Jesus for in its perfect obedience, but to meet all the conditions of the covenant and impute that perfect righteousness? When we're talking about the imputation of perfect righteousness that we get in our justification, what are we talking about but covenantal obedience? Jesus met all the demands of every one of the covenants. for us. So the distinction that I want to remind you of is remember a few weeks back, we talked about general election of Israel and particular election of a remnant of Israel or elect Israel. You remember that? Not all Israel is Israel, right? So there are times in Israel's history, like in the time of Elijah, where it looks like visibly that there's no church on earth. Am I the only one, Elijah asks? And God says, no, no, no, There's over 700 who are part of the remnant. You just don't see them. They're obeying my word. They love me. They're regenerate. They're Christ's own. All the covenant demands, they've believed. When Moses comes along, what does Moses do? But to put it in a poker terms, he raises the ante with the law. He calls the bluff of Israelites who think that they can live sinfully in the presence of God and get away with it. And so the law, then he calls their bluff and says, look at you, you're far from perfect, far from the glory of God. So then they would run to the temple, not as a religious exercise merely, but as something that in their hands would be blood, substitutionary atonement, the conditions of the covenant, because they had not met them, were required of a lamb in their place. And believers got that. So in the same way you think of the general election of Israel and then the particular election regeneration of Israel, true Israel, the remnant Israel, you also get the general promise. Ready? Going back to plug it into Davidic covenant now, plugging it into the Davidic covenant, is you get a general promise to David C. that he'll have an everlasting throne, but particular, that promise is made to Christ and his believing people. Everybody clear on that? So don't try to ask when you get to the condition, when you get to the covenants, don't say, is it conditional or unconditional? Some people want to rant all about unconditionality because they're Arminians, beloved. because they want to sneak in a little righteousness and so-called free will on man's part. Don't let them get away with that. No, there's a real tension because there's only one king, only one man who's ever kept the demands of the covenant of grace. And he gives us that covenantal righteousness by faith alone, through grace alone, in him alone, alone, alone. You see how covenant theology is very important to combat all the errors out there. You don't have to combat them individually, just go for the heart of the matter and that's the covenant. And if you get that and you see that Christ is both the God of the covenant and the faithful one who obeyed the covenant on my behalf, then you understand that it's all of grace and you worship him and you serve him and you praise him, amen? So there's a general promise to Israel that one of the Israelites, that one of David's seed, that Israel from Israel will, that the throne will rule over Israel forever and ever. But then the particular promise is to Christ and to his people. And that's why it's so glorious, isn't it? Acts 2, let's go to Acts 2 and look at the great fulfillment of all this. In Acts chapter 2, oh, it's wonderful. This is one of my favorite passages. You know, when the Holy Spirit was raising up Peter on his big day, on the Holy Spirit's big day, when Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, He pours the Spirit out, what does the Holy Spirit do to manifest His greatness and power? He preaches. He gets a man who has just denied him, an unworthy man, all right? And he sends him forth to take all the prophets and all the writings and on all of Moses and to preach Christ and him crucified in Christ's fulfillment. That's the spirit-filled preacher. And then verse 29, look at this. Are you ready? So Peter's preaching this unworthy guy that's made worthy by God's grace. Yes, ma'am. Acts 2, 29. I may not have mentioned it in my excitement. I get excited, and then I'll forget to say several things. I don't even end sentences sometimes. All right, verse 29. I just got two more sentences waiting. All right, let me calm down. All right, take a deep breath. Okay. This is good exercise up here. Verse 29. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. So how'd that promise to David's throne, to his son? being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne. Don't miss that. David was also what? Look at that. All right. So being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne. You ready? Ready? Who is he talking about? Come on now. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This God, this Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. And then he quotes David from Psalm 110, For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify. Now, Lord means righteous ruler, right? Leader of Israel. Christ means anointed one. That's why it's so important when you're reading about David, beloved, to remember that David, when you're looking at David, you imagine, you imagine looking through, the man in a transparent way. You can see him well in his historical reality, but you're looking through him. And so when you see David, for instance, or Solomon for that matter, but particularly David, you're looking at a man who is God's chosen, anointed, that is Messiah, who is a spirit, filled, psalm singing, psalm authoring, shepherd, king of Bethlehem. And it's harder to get, maybe in some of the prophets, but not in any one person, it's harder to get a more clear presentation of Jesus Christ. And that's what Peter's saying. When David's speaking, the Lord said to my Lord, David is acknowledging that he's not the final king. He's got a Lord, and he's Jesus Christ, his greater son. And when we see David as chosen, anointed Messiah, spirit-filled, psalm-singing shepherd king of Bethlehem, you get, wow. Jesus is clearly, clearly revealed in the Old Covenant, you know? So, all right, one other thing I wanna trace, and then we'll look at this together in the last 10 or 15 minutes, okay? Does that sound good? All right. Who is the first king of the world? Made in God's image and sent to be ruler. Adam. And so you want to see these themes when you're thinking of scripture is, um, you remember what we talked about about your, you know, when you're at a passage, uh, you want to look circumspectly around the passage. But then you wanna look retrospectively back. Just like we did today, right? We looked at Samuel, we looked at Deuteronomy. We were looking retrospectively. Then you wanna look prospectively. We just did that, right? So everything that we're learning, we're trying to plug in, right? You see that? All right, so here you would go retrospectively back. King, you go back to where, where'd the idea of king come from? Adam. Adam was God's first king and God's son. Who is the second king? And this will be a collective king. It'll be kings. Israel at Mount Sinai is called by God, my son, but also a kingdom of priests. They're priest kings. They're supposed to be little mediators to show God's gospel grace to the world. So Israel is God's second king. or King 1.5, if you will. Then there's David, who is God's son and God's king, his chosen anointed one from Bethlehem. And that ultimately points us to Jesus Christ, the second Adam. And that's how that second Adam ties to the first Adam. and gives us reason to meditate in contrast. So the first king failed, the second king was faithful. Israel, were they faithful as priest kings? No. No, even the greatest of their kings fell, right? It was flawed. He couldn't bring in the kingdom ultimately. How about Solomon? Even the wisest of the kings, did he succeed? No. Did any of the kings of Israel succeed at all? No. You know, it's a summary of Israel's kings in the Book of Kings. I don't know of one of them that was faithful. They were all apostates. And you could have some sympathy in that they weren't centered in Jerusalem. They were further away from the temple, perhaps. But the truth is, they were all apostate. There was not much of a remnant in Israel, the northern kingdom, when it split. How about Judah? Is it more faithful? Yeah, yeah. But even the second David, who's the second David of Judah? Who would you say? The reformer, the first reformer, not the reformers of the 16th century. Hezekiah, Josiah, particularly Josiah. Josiah is the second David. And did David brought great, I mean, Josiah brought great reformation, but could he bring in the kingdom? No. So at the end of Kings, what do you have? exile. And so let me say this, the book of Kings, what's it about? It's to tell Israel why you went into exile, why you're living in the grave, and why your only hope is resurrection. The nations have put you under their feet. It looks like the promises of God have failed. But the book of Kings, what we call first and second Kings, is to say the exile was because of your failure to keep the conditions of the covenant, though the unconditional aspects are still available for all believers. You see, that's where you have to remember when you're getting in the prophets, the prophets are saying, Israel as a whole, you have failed the conditions of the covenant and thus why you're dead in exile. Something just fell in my mouth. Yeah. Not sure what it was. Maybe it was a piece of me. I hope it wasn't a bug. The unconditional aspects still go on. That's why the prophets continue to promise Jesus Christ. The prophets continue to promise a king, the covenant, the dwelling place of God with man, right? So the gospel still preached, but Israel is called to repentance because they failed to the conditions. And so one author said this about Kings, it's the dead end of exile. That when we begin Kings, there's this wise Solomonic King, right? Who builds this beautiful paradisiacal house. So it's kind of like a return to Eden almost until you get to chapters 11 and 12 of Kings. And then you realize that it's a fall again from paradise over time to exile. And so it begins, Kings opens up in a wise or a paradise kind of setting with God, with the temple for God, with the covenant son who was promised, the initial fulfillment of the covenant son that was promised to David. He's sitting on the throne. He's attracting the nations with his wisdom from the very beginning. And this great and wise king will build a permanent place, but then it begins the rise or the, oh, no, no, no. You know what? This is not the rise and fall of the Davidic empire. No, no, no, no, sorry. Oh, it's a better title. Oh, I don't know what I was thinking. It is the decline and fall. Now the rise and fall is David, sorry. So, so, so let's just do that, all right? Yes, very good, excellent. Samuel is the rise and fall, almost, of the, I think I can use quotation marks for that, right? All right, sorry about that. Kings is the decline and the fall of that. All right. Okay, let's do this. I wanna do this to give some pictures here. So I've got more dates, lots of outlines. I've got a list of the kings and their apostasy, whether they were covenantally faithful. I've got the link with coming of Christ. We'll do that in just a moment, Lord willing. Lots of good things I think that might be useful for you, especially important for the book of Kings that I cannot forget. is the Book of Kings, like Samuel, is about king, covenant, and tabernacle. We're gonna look at that in just a moment. The covenant part is the heart of Kings, and it is chapter 17, 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 8, which is about two prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Now, it's at the heart, they're presented in the heart because two particular reasons. They're reminding the people of God's unconditional covenant. And they're calling people in light of that grace that God has revealed to repentance. And so there's a heightening of miracles. All right. There's a heightening of the word of God being preached. There's this powerful demonstration of the binding of the strong man or the devil. when Elijah goes against the priests of the prophets of Baal, right? So there's a heightening. And what you want to understand about the Elijah-Elisha cycles, as they're called, or the chapters, is they're in the center of Kings to show that there's still hope held out through gospel promise. And you want to see, basically, Elijah and Elisha as a preview of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Because when Jesus comes and he interprets John's ministry, he tells us that John was the Elijah who was to come. And the implicit teaching is that Jesus is the greater Elisha. He's the greater Elisha. And so there's a heightening of miracles again. There's the binding of the strong man, all these good things we're going to do in our New Testament class next year. Isn't that exciting? So we're going to go right from Elijah and Elisha, trace it down through the prophets, and we're going to get to Jesus. And we're going to find Jesus fighting evil, ruling his king, taking the land, bringing rest, all kinds of good things. Isn't that exciting? But Elijah and Elisha are important as central to the book. Literally, their ministries are in the middle of the book. to remind you that in the midst of apostasy and half-hearted covenant keeping of the kings of Israel, God's word was still the same. God had not changed. He was still promising unconditional grace to believers who would trust in Jesus Christ. Everybody see that? Isn't that wonderful? That he would even heighten the miracles to say, I'll send you Elijah, and he'll say a lot of neat things, but then I'll send you Elisha, the greatest of the prophets. And that's why. on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus is here, he meets with Moses and he meets with Elijah. And they have this really cool theological summit on the top of the mountain. So to remind us that Jesus is the fulfillment in everything that Moses and Elijah spoke of and pointed forward to, and Elisha especially. All right, that's all I could say about that. And by the way, read your Bibles at the end of Malachi, chapter four, verses five through six. What does Malachi say? Chapter four, verses four through six. Malachi says that there'll be one that will come and he will turn back. He'll turn you to Moses and the prophets. And then it says that Elijah will proceed that day of the coming of the Lord and his kingdom. All right, so let's do a few things here to overview. I think we can do this very quickly. We're gonna look at these three, king, covenant, temple, tabernacle, dwelling of God. Everybody ready? So in Deuteronomy, we find out about the king, right? from Deuteronomy 17, okay? And these are things we've talked about. This is more of a summary, beloved, okay? So don't think I'm giving you more stuff. This is a sit back and kind of, maybe it'll all come together, hopefully. So Deuteronomy king, and you remember the instructions for the king? One from among your brothers, I won't write all this down, all right? He's gotta be one from among your brothers. He's gotta be faithful, submissive, right, accountable, all those good things, right? But that's just to say reflect on what the king was to be. Moses reveals what the king is to be. In Judges, what's the repeated thing over and over about the king? No king, no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. A cool thing. I can't help but tell you all this fun stuff. But a cool thing to note is how Samson, the greatest of the spirit filled warriors, had his eyes burnt out to show the blindness of Israel. I mean, it's a spiritual thing, right, that God allows. And then remember, Eli, when he's at the time of the beginning of first Samuel, he's going blind. He can barely see. Remember, is to show that Israel is not completely blind, but she's almost blind and she's like Samson. She's got the power and presence and pleasure of God. And she's got her eyes burned out because she loves apostasy. She loves idols too much. She loves what God hates. So no king. David? David is the Messiah of the Old Testament. You won't get a better one. The chosen, anointed Messiah, Spirit-filled, psalm-singing shepherd king of Bethlehem. Is that good? That's a lot. But that helps you to get at it, right? Hyphenated stuff really helps you. To me, I think it tells you a lot. But what you have to do is with all that hyphenation, you gotta meditate on it. You just can't just spit it out. You gotta be thinking about each one of those. Think about Messiah being chosen. How would Jesus be chosen? Chosen before the foundation of the world by the Father, the eternal covenant. So Messiah of the Old Testament, lot of fun, lot of fun. Then Solomon, a wise king, but also an unwise king. So we get this in 1 Kings, basically let's just do three through 11. We see it coming, don't we? Messiah of the Old Testament, we see this in 1 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 7, that covenant with David. And then the revealed surprise. Oh, I love this part, don't you? Who's the surprise? Jesus. And Jesus is the wise, chosen Messiah, the wise king, who meets both the demands of all the conditions of the covenant for his elect, both in the time of promise and fulfillment, and he's the one who sets, who promises unconditionally as God. So he promises unconditionally as God, and he meets the conditions as man. So, kurdeus homo? Anselm? Why the God-man? For covenant theology? Why the God-man? Because there's an unconditional promise made by God that must be met perfectly by a man. That's why the God-man. Anselm goes into more detail on that, but if you want to read Kyrgios Homo, that's one of his ideas. Well, that's actually not his idea, it's the Bible. And Anselm's picking up on earlier church fathers. The early church fathers were on to some of this and they're quite brilliant. They didn't have the kind of greater knowledge that the reformers had many times, but they were on to some of these things. Especially Irenaeus and Tertullian were quite the biblical theologians, Irenaeus particularly. Alright, covenant. In covenant we have Deuteronomy chapter 12. that's telling us about the covenant that were made. We also have, or the place where God's people worship. We also have the blessings and the curses of the covenant, okay? Those are the conditions, right? If you do right, you'll be blessed. If you do wrong, you will be cursed, okay? So the covenants were there. What's the judges with regard to the covenant? They're breakers. They were apostate, primarily apostate, right? Living apostate lives. They were covenant breakers. In fact, at the end of Judges, we're left with basically Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin acting basically like Sodom and Gomorrah, right? All right, so the covenant under David, 2 Samuel, the covenant is expanded as we've looked at. Under Solomon, the covenant is partially fulfilled. the covenant with David and then partially fulfilled in Solomon. You see that? don't get stumped by, and I'm wrapping up, I'm wrapping up, I know it's getting, we're moving, that clock goes too fast, did y'all know that? It's just this clock in this place, I'm telling you. But it does that on Sunday mornings too, y'all. But the partially fulfilled is, I'm gonna honor you in just a second, I don't want to get pinched. The partially fulfilled, It has to be reminded with 2 Samuel 7 verses 13 and 14, where it says, if he sins, I will discipline him with the rod. So how was that ultimately fulfilled in Christ? The cross. The cross. All right, but it's partially fulfilled in Solomon. And then so here, the covenant, both Jesus's life and the cross where he experienced the wrath of God for our covenant breaking. So his life was covenant keeping, right? On behalf of believers, his cross was for covenant breakers. Was Jesus sinner? No. But was it pleasing to God to crush him for our sins? Yes, Isaiah 53. All right, and then finally, Deuteronomy 12 tells us that there will be a place where the tabernacle temple dwelling of God will be permanent. In Judges, their apostate, though God's in the middle, though God's in their presence, they still take, they basically, as the wilderness wanders, they take grace for granted. They take their, with David, He wants to build a house, but God will build David a house, a temple. Solomon is the great temple builder. That's what he's known for. And it's glorious, right? Beautiful temple, permanent temple. Will it last? No. And then Christ, this is most important. In the beginning was the word, covenant, that word of covenant, that word of promise made between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. That's the unconditionality and conditionality of the covenant. The word, the word that the Father promised to the Son that was made real and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit, that word of promise to give the Son a people That word became flesh and did what? John 1.14, tabernacled among us. Tabernacled or dwelled. Now since then, so many wonderful things. We could talk here about our union with Jesus Christ so that In Jesus Christ, we have a perfect righteousness that fulfills all the demands of the covenant. And because of Jesus Christ, we can sincerely, not perfectly, fulfill the demands of the covenant in our obedience. Everybody get that? Jesus Christ saves us from the penalty of our sins and perfectly gives us a perfect record for our lawbreaking and our justification. but he gives us his Holy Spirit to write the law in our hearts so that we can do what we can sincerely meet the demands of the covenant. Isn't that wonderful? That's why disobedience is so horrendous to God. That's why we want to live to please him. In our union with Christ, we have everything we need in our justification and our sanctification and we will enjoy our glorification. And beloved, I want you to understand that the Bible then goes on to interpret this further and tells us that we are the tabernacle temple of God. Tells us that we ought to live as those who have the very special presence of God living within us. The spirit of glory and of grace and glory lives within us. So he tabernacles in Christ and then in us through his Holy Spirit in our union with him. You abide in me. and I abide in you, you'll bear much fruit, fruit that will last. So Israel will finally be fruitful. Israel finally has a king who is faithful. Israel finally has a king who's met the covenant and gives the spirit to keep the covenant. And Israel has now the spirit who dwells with us forever and ever, amen. I'm gonna read Romans 8, three, four, three through four, and then we're gonna close. Listen to this. Beautiful, beautiful. This is one of these two of my favorite verses. God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. That's really the history of the Old Testament. The conditions of the covenant could not be met because of the flesh. God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. That is, he condemned sin in the flesh because Jesus took it upon himself to be our substitute. Verse four, you ready? In order that, everybody circle that, in order that. That's to teach you, in order that. With this purpose in mind, in order that, you ready? In order that, the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. All the conditions of the covenant will be fulfilled. Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So it's just a reminder, isn't it, that we have a great Christ who's done everything that we need for our justification. But if we're truly justified, we'll be those who are keeping the demands of the covenant as it's revealed in the Ten Commandments. We'll be seeking to daily live out by faith the Ten Commandments and fulfill the demands of the covenant. An unholy Christian is no Christian at all, beloved. It's true. And remember, you can be gifted and not graced, and that's horrifying to think about, isn't it? May our grace be as great as our gifts, and may the grace always equip our gifts with humility and gentleness and obedience to God. And may our grace, the grace of God, always make our gifts want to desire to please God and to glorify Him. And that's what we should see in our lives. Because He is the King and we're not. Our Father and our God, we're grateful for this time together. We're thankful for the former prophets, how they remind us of all these wonderful truths. We thank you that you've taught us today so many things about the Lord Jesus and about your history. You are a faithful God, and we thank you that in our union with Jesus, we are your tabernacle. We're your holy temple. We're the place where you dwell in the flesh, and we pray that The nations would see our neighbors would see our families would see our churches would see that power, pleasure and presence of the spirit that's in us through faith in Jesus Christ and that you would help us more and more to be conformed to Christ likeness, that we would love what you love and hate what you hate. and that we would be who we already are in Christ Jesus. You've taken possession of us, we're not our own, so help us to live for you. We pray in Jesus' name and all the church said, Amen.