Turn with me if you would this morning as the Lord will enable us to the second portion of God's word that we read together in first chronicles chapter 3 and we wish this morning to take us our text verse 9. These were the sons of David beside the sons of the concubines and Tamar their sister. These were the sons of David. We are looking at the chronicles, we're taking a look at it because very often when you read through it you sometimes don't get out of it what perhaps we would like to get out of it. But we discovered that as we are seeing here that there is a divine purpose in why uh the chronicler gives us the genealogies that we have here. In verse nine he speaks about these were the sons of David. Now there were 19 sons altogether that are mentioned here, 13 of them in Jerusalem and six of them in Hebron before he comes to Jerusalem. Six of them uh while he is king over the the reduced tribe of Judah, but then he has another 13 while he's in Jerusalem as the king over the whole of Israel. And we saw the last time, did we not, that it wasn't the children that were born in Hebron from which the Messiah would come, but rather we discover that it is Bathsheba, perhaps the last one you would think of. You would have maybe thought that it would have been Abigail and the lovely woman that Abigail was. But the difficulty was that Abigail and those that were there in Hebrew were not from Judah. Bathsheba was. And it's a wonderful picture as we saw of the Messiah who comes in whom there would be forgiveness. Now we see in David's household here more than just a family household. It's a wonderful family this. There is no family that you will find throughout the whole of the Old Testament like the family of David, but it's not just a family, it's a royal family. This is a royalty. It's like going to Her Majesty the Queen and looking back the the genealogy of Her Majesty the Queen, you will go right by. Well, here you have a wonderful throne in the midst of this family tree. It's all centred around the throne, the King. Just like Her Majesty, we are told that she takes her role very seriously. And everything to her is the fact that she is the Queen and she is the centre of the House of Windsor. Now David here is the centre of everything here and the King's Shimmer, we'll see that in a moment. And there are four things that we want to be able to say today. First of all, a throne under threat. There is a throne under threat. Secondly, there is a throne that is maintained. A throne that is maintained. Thirdly, a throne that is flawed. a throne that is flawed and then fourthly a glorious throne, a glorious throne. Four points then that we wish to look at this morning and the first point is a throne under threat, a throne that is under threat, that's the first point, a throne under threat. Now when you come to think on on the throne of David and the kingship of David, what you discover is that his throne is always under threat. The king, the kingly throne of David is under threat and that is because this is God's throne. This is God's throne. The devil has his eye in bringing down David the king and the throne. it's always under threat. And that threat is not always from outside. Very often it is the biggest threat is from within. The throne of the Lord Jesus Christ is always under threat because the devil has his eye in taking Christ off the throne. His attitude is to get Christ removed from the throne room of your heart. He wants to always undermine and remove Christ from the throne. And very often it's not from without that is the greatest threat even within the church. It's not so often the threat from without it's the threat even within the church. That is the biggest threat to the throne of David. You take for example when you come to his eldest son Amnon. He is the eldest son. Now we know that Absalom slays Amnon and Amnon in many respects gives Absalom justification for putting him to death. He had treated Tamar, his sister, Tamar is the only daughter of David that's mentioned and it's because of the role that she has here. Amnon It behaves in a way that towards Tamar, the sister of Absalom, in a fearful way. And you can understand Absalom coming and putting his older brother Amnon to death. But you see, I don't think that Absalom is needing an awful lot of encouragement to put Amnon to death. Why? Because Amnon is the eldest son. Amnon would have a claim to the throne before Absalom would have a claim to the throne. Absalom doesn't need that much of, I don't think, that much of an encouragement to put Amnon to death. Because with Amnon out of the way, Absalom has a clear view of the throne. And you notice later on how Absalom rebels against David. Here is the throne of David that is under threat. And it's not just under threat from Absalom, you discover then later on that Adonijah, you might think of the second son, Daniel there of Abigail, but it would appear that he is no threat and very possibly that his name, Restraint, he takes after his mother perhaps with Restraint. I don't know, but Absalom now, with Amnon out of the way, has a clear shot at undoing David. But it's not just Absalom, it's Adonijah as well. He's got his eye on the throne. He's pronounced king. When Solomon is the one that David has already announced will be king. This has been revealed by the Lord. You see, this attack by Absalom and this attack by Adonijah towards the throne is really an attack upon the Messiah, upon God's Word. upon the one who ultimately will be the king of his people. It's ultimately an attack. When there is an attack upon the throne here, it is ultimately an attack upon the Messiah. It always is. So you see right at the beginning when you look down Chronicles, there is a wonderful throne, there is a wonderful royal family, a royal tree, but that is always under attack. My friend, was that not true when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world? Herod slew the children under two years of age in order that he would slay the king, the king who has come, the king who was born in Bethlehem. He sought to slay the king. Later on you discover that it is this very royal kingship that is mocked by the soldiers. They dressed him as a mock king and bowed before him. Kingship is under attack. You see it when he's put to the cross, the king of the Jews above his head. And my friend, is it not true today that the kingship of the Lord, the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ is under attack by even the world who say We will not have this man to reign over us. We will have everything to reign over us. We will have everyone to reign over us, but this man will never reign over us. It is the lordship of the Lord of glory that is under attack. And it's not only under attack by Absalom. Can you see in verse 9, these are the sons of David. uh besides the sons of the concubines. Now the sons of the concubines here are not mentioned anywhere else in terms we don't know who they are their names are not written but they are also the concubines themselves are regarded because they sided with Absalom against David. If you remember Ahithophel counseled Absalom to go into David's concubines They were with Absalom, you see, against David. And for Absalom to go in to David's, the king's concubines, there was no way back after that. That was such, and Ahithophel counseled this, he knew that once that had happened, there was no going back. What a fearful counsel, but then even the concubines of David are siding with Absalom. The throne is always under attack. The Messiah is under attack. His lordship is under attack. It is under attack even today. When there are those who will say, we will listen to the fathers, they take precedence over the word of God. We will listen to what this person says or that person says. We will listen to what the church says and whatever Christ himself is relegated to the second place. It's Christ's lordship that is always under attack. Here is a throne that is under attack. Think of the psalm that we're going to finish with. He that sits in heaven, enthroned in heaven, he sits and laughs. He scorns them all. Here is a throne that is under attack. But the second thing you will notice is that here is a throne that is maintained. The second point. a throne that is maintained. Now when you see the throne that is met, you see how the throne of David is under attack, even from within. And when you think of the time in which the writer here is speaking, chronicler's writing here, you think of all the great nations that there were, who came and who went. The kings of Egypt, the kings of Assyria, the king of Babylon, the Persians, Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. Even in the northern kingdom, with the divided kingdom later on, even in the northern kingdom, a servant would put the king to death and the servant would become the king. things so unstable. It's not like our royal family today that's been there. The house of Windsor has been there and they're the royalty, they're the house of the day. But if you go back into the time of David and his successors, to have a king, and I want you to notice this, from verse 9 onwards, verse 10, you have a list of the kings of Judah. It is absolutely unique. And Solomon, what son was Rehoboam? Abiah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, and so on right down until you come to verse 14, Amon his son, Josiah his son. 17, if you include David, 17 kings without a break. One king, followed by his son. The next king, followed by his son. The next king, followed by his son. You can go to the royal family today, you've got the House of Windsor that begins at the beginning of the last century. You've got the House of Hanover. You even go back as far as the House of the Stuarts, James I of Britain and the 6th. If you go right back to James, isn't that number of, you just won't get it. This is a unique, how can that be? How can it be when the throne is so threatened even by David's own, within David's own household? Yet we discover that 17 kings including David, David's son Solomon, Solomon and his Rehoboam and that's all it says. Joram his son, Isaiah his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son. My friend, this is absolutely unique. This is a unique royal family. And if you, as we've said, if you consider the times in which they lived, how easy it would have been for this throne to have crumbled. When you think of the thrones of Egypt, the thrones of Persia, the thrones of Babylon, and then you see this small, tribe of Judah not even the whole nation but the tribe of Judah and within it there is a succession of kings unrivaled. How can that be? How can this throne be so maintained? My friend there's only one answer to that and that is that God himself has an eye to the promise that he had given. The scepter shall not depart out of Judah nor a lawgiver from between his knees What maintains the kingdom of David's royal household? It's not David. It's not the wisdom of Solomon. It's not the power of David. It is the divine, the divine God who maintains David's kingdom and his house. Write down. What a wonderful, what a wonderful, picture we have here of God's church being maintained in the Old Testament, the throne of Messiah being maintained and my friend that was maintained right down until you come to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ and then he establishes a kingdom and my friend is it not true today that what was true of God's kingdom in the Old Testament his preserving of the house of David right down the way he does here, is that not true even today? You think of the church of Christ, how weak the church is in the midst of an evil world, a world that is against the Lord Jesus Christ, a world that seeks to destroy the church and would love to see the church obliterated and taken away out of the land and yet for over 2,000 years Here you have the gospel being preached. Here you have God's church still there. Nations come, nations go. The Roman Empire that was there at the time of the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer there. The United Kingdom and all of its glory and its wonderful heyday, it's no longer there. The United, the Great Britain is no longer great. It has faded. But yet, the church in the midst of this dark world, where the devil would seek to extinguish the church, where the heart of man is at enmity with God and his Christ, yet the gospel is preached. The church is still there. And how can that be? There's only one reason. And that is that God is looking after his own cause. It's not because of me, it's not because of you, it's not because of great men like Martin Luther or John Knox or John Calvin. These are not the men that have held the church great as they may be. God is looking after his own. What an encouragement we get in the midst of Chronicles chapter 3 when you see these kings following one after another. Unbroken. 17 generations. father, son, father, son, father, son. God is looking after his own church and my friend that's true even today. God is looking after his own church. The King, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Glory, he is looking after his own church. He is prospering his church. He ever lives to make intercession for his church, he it is that is keeping his church going day after day. Why? Because God has entered into covenant with his people. There is a covenant that has been made in eternity, a covenant of redemption between the father and the son and that covenant it cannot be broken. The devil will seek to destroy the throne of David but he cannot do it because God is keeping his own house. The devil will seek to destroy the church today but he cannot do it, any more than he could destroy Job. He could tempt him, he could try him, but he could not defeat him. And that brings us to the third. If we have first of all a throne maintained, we now have as well a throne that is flawed. a throne that is flawed. Think of all that we've said so far about the wonderful, a throne that's under threat, continually under threat, down the Old Testament it's always under threat. But think of how God himself has maintained that throne right the way down, 17, including David, 17 times, one son following after his father, another son following after his father, until you come down to the day of Josiah. Then what happens? You discover that there's a flaw. You discover that this is not the ultimate kingdom. You come to Josiah, and at Josiah, the chain is broken, as it were. The sons of Josiah were the firstborn, Johanan, the second, Jehoiakim, the third, Zedekiah, and the fourth, Shalom. Shalom is reckoned to be the one who is first of all elected by the people but he's taken away down into Egypt and ultimately you have Jehoiakim and Zedekiah and what are they? They are but puppet kings. They are vassals of another king. Yes the throne is still there and Josiah the great reforming king is no longer there. When you come down into here, you discover that there is now a breach that is made. God's people are going to go into exile. Zedekiah would be nothing but a puppet king. You see, there is a great flaw that is to be found in this throne. What is the flaw? Well, it's the same flaw that is there in every single, it's there in every single authority, power, whatever it is. It's the same flaw that is there with the Roman Empire, it's the same flaw that is there with the Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, the Egyptian Empire and the Pharaohs. There is one flaw and that flaw is Adam. Solomon, David comes from Adam. Solomon for all his wisdom, he comes from Adam. And all the kings down this line, do you know where it ends up? It ends up where every single, even though this is God's king, even though God will keep this kingdom, until the throne and the scepter passes to the true king. The one fatal flaw is Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't descend from Solomon. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't descend from these kings. Joseph does. That's where this line ends up From David a wonderful king to Joseph a carpenter. What a difference. David and all his power, Solomon and all his wisdom, and you go down the line, where do you come to? You don't come to the second Adam, because the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, does not descend from Solomon. On his mother's side, it is from Nathan. Now, think of how wonderful it is, how David must have thought of Nathan the prophet. One can imagine him naming one of his children, one of these children after Nathan the prophet. Because it was Nathan the prophet who came to him and rebuked him for his sin. He rebuked him for his sin. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, from whom Jesus would be born, the Messiah would be born, of the very womb of the Virgin Mary, the very material of the Virgin Mary, it's Nathan that Jesus would descend from. But his father was not Joseph, after the flesh. He was born of the Holy Spirit. So that as wonderful as this line of kings is concerned, they ultimately come to Joseph. And my friend, that's true of everything. You know, it doesn't matter what church it is. It doesn't matter what religion it is. It may have all the splendor. It may have all the outward power. It may have all the going for it. But my friend, they all end up the same. They end up just like a carpet, because David, Solomon, and all these kings down to Josiah, to Zedekiah, until you come right down, and the end result of it all is that that kingship could not save. Any more than the temple could save, the outward couldn't see it. It needed a king to come who would break, who would be of the tribe of Judah, whose father would be of the tribe of Judah, but that he himself was not connected with the first Adam. It's wonderful when you look at the Old Testament, how the Old Testament kingship was but a type of the true king who would come but the true king would be descending in the flesh from neither. His kingship, his father would be descended from Solomon in his kingship but when it came to this king, this king would not be associated the first Adam but he would be the second Adam and therefore he would be uh he would he he this throne that David is set up here although a glorious throne although David is God's anointed king yet it has the flaw right in the middle of it and that is the first Adam. The first Adam that's the flaw my friend that's always the flaw isn't it? Adam who was a king in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the Garden of Eden, sorry. Adam who was a king who ruled over the very beasts of the field. What a king. He was able as the king in the Garden of Eden to be the king over all that he surveyed. But when he fell, he became nothing but a mock king. Man today is nothing but a mock king. As we've said often before, when they dress Jesus up as a mock king, he is simply being one with his people. Because we think that we are kings, we think that we can rule, but every day in life you discover that man cannot rule himself. Man cannot rule himself. What a glorious day when the King of Kings enters into the throne room of the heart and where he establishes his rule, his kingship. My friend, that's a kingship that is associated not with the first Adam, which will deceive us and will make us just to be like the carpenter, but rather the second Adam. whose kingdom and that brings us really to the fourth point and that is a glorious throne. If the third point is a throne that is flawed, the fourth is a glorious throne. The first throne that David set up had its flaw. It even had its flaw in David himself. He was a sinner. He was associated with the first Adam. He sinned with Bathsheba. Here, these concubines. And right down, you will see it best, all these kings were associated with the first Adam, they failed. But the second Adam, who is associated with that kingship because his father after the flesh, Joseph, descended from them, but he was not his father in reality. The Holy Spirit was. And now the Lord Jesus Christ has established a glorious throne. It's a throne that is in glory. It is a heavenly throne. David's kingdom, David's throne, David's royal household was in Jerusalem. But the Lord Jesus Christ's royal throne is in the heavenly Jerusalem. This is a heavenly kingdom. His father was but the carpenter. He himself begins, not like David, in all the pomp and glory, but rather he begins by coming into Jerusalem on the back of the ass, and the colt of the ass, behold thy king cometh unto thee. But my friend, out of that, Out of him being made a mock king, out of him being crucified with the sign above his head, the king of the Jews, so it is that he has established a glorious throne in heaven. And he establishes his throne in the hearts of his people. And once he has established his throne in the hearts of his people, he will never be dethroned. The devil may come and seek to tempt God's people. He may come and seek to draw them away. But my friend, once Christ is in the throne room, he will not be removed. And what a glorious King the Lord Jesus Christ is. It's a throne that's always under threat. The devil will come with his armies to try and unseat the Lord Jesus Christ from his throne. But he can't do it. Because God maintains that throne. He that sits in heaven shall laugh, the Lord shall scorn them all. What a vain thing to think that they can unseat the Lord Jesus Christ. And while the throne of David was one that was flawed, here is a throne that is flawless. There's no flaw here, there's nothing here. This is a glorious throne. And my friend, when he establishes his kingdom, all God's peoples become kings and priests in him. All God's kingdom, all God's people become kings and priests in him. He lifts them up and makes them princes among men. That's what the gospel does. That's what this glorious king does. He has established a kingdom that not even the very gates of hell will ever prevail against this king. He has established a kingdom. And my friend, every day in life, the Lord is drawing sinners out of the world into his kingdom. Every day. The victory is with the Lord Jesus Christ, not with the world, the flesh, with the devil. The world, the flesh, and the devil are defeated. I was reading just yesterday that BBC have got someone, no doubt now, to replace Attenborough. great naturalist. Now look at someone else and he said this week, he said, when you look at nature, when you look at all that surround you, how we must now bow and worship science. My friend, what folly, what stupidity to worship science rather than to see the hand of the Almighty and to see that Christ has established his kingdom. and not even the very gates of hell will ever prevail against the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Well then, when we think of this King, do we bow the knee before the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we bow in the presence of this King? Do we give reverence to this King? And do we say, Thou art our King. the crown rights belong to thee and we will give to thee the crown rights that are thine alone. Let us join together in prayer, let us pray. Gracious and ever blessed Lord we thank