Bible Prophecy: Covenants — Scott MacLeod

A little tiny bit of review because there's a lot of detail on this chart. Trying to keep everybody up to speed. My brother mentioned in prayer, if you look at the chart, see that little tiny stone right there?

Now we went over this image the other day. This whole image first started with Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler, the first king of the Babylonian Empire. And what God did in the Old Testament is he laid out five, six, seven hundred years of history, Gentile history.

Daniel’s Prophetic Stone and the Everlasting Kingdom

And finally, if we read in Daniel, it goes to where a little stone, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus, strikes this image on the feet and this whole thing falls apart, blows away, and that little tiny stone becomes a mountain and fills the earth from river to river, shore to shore, and the Lord Jesus reigns as the mighty king.

One thing that is brought out in that little image is Babylon was replaced, Medo-Persia was replaced, Greece was replaced, Rome was replaced, and so on. It says very clearly in the book of Daniel that this little stone, nothing will ever replace it.

So as we've been saying, the word of God is very clear. In spite of what this world might think, God has a program, and it is to put his son upon a throne in a real city called Jerusalem, and his kingdom will last forever.

And that is very significant to see that from the word of God. So that's what we're working toward. We're going to get close to that tonight, but we're going to speak a little bit about the Lord Jesus, things that he said while he was on this earth.

Jesus’ Question About the Messiah in Matthew 22

And we're going to start in Matthew 22. It's always interesting to go through the word of God and find out the questions that the Lord Jesus asked people. He did a lot of teaching through questions that he asked, and I find this to be quite amazing.

They have been asking him all kinds of questions, if you were to read the earlier part of Matthew 22. But then when you come to the end, he asks them a question, and he literally stumps them because they didn't want to admit something.

So we'll take a minute to read Matthew 22, and then this is going to tie us into the covenants that we're going to look at here in a minute. So Matthew 22, starting at verse number 41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ?

Now, just pause for a minute. That expression Christ is equivalent to the Hebrew expression Messiah. So wherever you read the word Christ in the New Testament, you could just interchange and put the word Messiah.

And you know, from a Jewish perspective, they were anticipating their Messiah. It means the anointed one. And they had an understanding from the Old Testament that their coming Messiah was going to be a king.

He was going to deliver them and going to bring them into a tremendous age of grace and so on, right? So here the Lord Jesus. Now we know from the word of God that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Christ, but they don't want to believe that.

Okay, so just he's testing them. Look at 42 again. Matthew 22, verse 42, saying, What think ye of Christ? Notice, whose son is he? Now they're going to let you know something. This is what they know from the Old Testament.

Look at verse 40, the middle of 42. They say unto him, the son of David. Now that's interesting. Why would the Messiah, the anointed one, the coming future king, be linked with this king in the Old Testament, the son of David?

That's what we're going to discover here in a few minutes, okay? You might remember I told you the favorite title the Lord Jesus used of himself in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is a title son of man.

And that is linked to the future kingdom, okay? But the next favorite title the Lord Jesus used of himself is son of David. And that's going right to the king. So if the son of man brings you forward with the kingdom, son of David links me right with the king himself.

And here's what they knew from the Old Testament. Now look what the Lord says, verse 43. He said unto them, How then doth David, referring to King David way back in the Old Testament, in spirit, or by the Spirit of God, call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool.

Verse 44, quote Psalm 110, written by David. Verse 45. If David then called him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word. Neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

The Incarnation and the Son of David

Now what does all that mean? Well you see, there's a tremendous mystery in the word of God. Here's what's going on. They said, we know that the king that's coming, we know that he is going to be a son of David.

Now just think of that in a logical sense. If I'm a father, and I have a son, is not the father greater than the son? You say, well that makes perfect sense, of course. Because the father gave birth to the son, right?

Through the mother, of course. So here now is Psalm 110, where David, by the Spirit of God, is looking off into the future, and he sees a king that can trace his genealogy to him. Which is really his son in a figure.

And David looks at that son and says, he's my Lord. How is that? How could a son be greater than the father that produced him? This is what they didn't want to answer. Do you know what the answer to the equation is?

Incarnation. Let me give you a verse, 1 Timothy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. The very one who is in the future going to be a son of David, we know from the Bible, is the very God of eternity.

He's the one that stepped out of eternity. He's the one that stepped into the womb of the Virgin Mary. And that's why Matthew chapter 1 is so important, and Luke chapter 3, because you will trace the genealogy of Joseph and Mary right back to David.

That's why it's so important. See, in the Hebrew language and in the Greek language, there's no word for grandfather or grandson, okay? There's just the word for son, and there's just the word for father, okay?

So whenever you read in the word of God, which was the son of, which was the son of, which was the son of, it's just showing a link back. And that's the only reason it's doing. So these Pharisees, these religious rulers, with all they knew from the Bible, they knew that there was a tremendous mystery here.

But they were looking at the Lord Jesus, this man from Nazareth, and you know what they didn't want to admit? He is the fulfillment of what David was talking about. That's what they didn't want to admit.

But all I want you to pick up, that was kind of a bit of a sideline, all I want you to pick up is how the Lord Jesus picked up that title, son of David. Now, it's very interesting when you go through your New Testament.

David’s Cities, Titles, and Messianic Fulfillment

Go through your New Testament, take time and search out every expression of David. You'll read about the city of David, just on that one point. It's very interesting. Did you know that there's only one man in the Bible who's linked with two cities, other than the Lord Jesus?

That's David. David is linked. Bethlehem is called a city of David in the Old Testament, and Jerusalem is called a city of David in the Old Testament. You say, why is that important? Well, the Lord Jesus is linked with Bethlehem.

That's his lowly birth. And the Lord Jesus in the coming day will be linked with Jerusalem. That's the idea of him ruling the sovereign king. Another thing that's interesting about David is, as you know, there's many names in the Bible, right?

There's a couple of Josephs. There's a couple of different names. There's only one David in the Bible. One David, all right? There's only one Lord Jesus Christ. There's something so unique about this man, David.

And the Lord Jesus constantly links himself to David. I'm gonna explain that to you in a minute, why that is. So when you go through the New Testament, you're gonna find the city of David. You'll read about the keys of David.

You'll read about the house of David. You'll read about the son of David, the sure mercies of David. Everything is linked with David. And there's a reason for that, because it's constantly bringing before us, Christ is the fulfillment of promises made to David.

Another interesting thing for you to consider, this shows us the inspiration of the Bible, along with many other things that we've already said. Matthew chapter one and Revelation 22. You ever notice how the Bible starts the New Testament and how it ends?

It ends with a divine name, starts with a divine name, ends with a divine name, Jesus Christ. Do you know the human name it starts with and ends with? David, David. It's like two bookends. Matthew, wait, verse one, Jesus Christ, son of David.

Go to Revelation 22 right to the very end of the Bible. And once again, you're linked to Lord Jesus Christ and you got the David is brought in again. So over and over again, of all of the kings that the nation of Israel had, the Lord Jesus is never linked with Solomon, never linked with Saul, never linked with Josiah, because there's something very unique that God did.

And we're gonna read about it in a few minutes with this man called David. You might remember from Acts chapter 13, you'll read this expression that David was a man after God's own heart. What does that mean?

Some people think it means this, which I do not believe it means this. Some people means that David made God the object or the goal of his heart. Some people think that. That's not what it means though.

I'm gonna show you that. What you're gonna discover from the Old Testament in a few minutes is this, is that David was always the king that God wanted for the nation of Israel, always. He was the one that God had his mind focused on, because David is going to picture God's greater son in a coming day.

Saul, David, and God’s Choice of Israel’s King

Now, just for a little bit of history before we actually get into this in the Old Testament, do you remember who the first king of Israel was? So test your brain, maybe some know that. Saul, Saul, King Saul.

Do you remember what tribe Saul came from? Tribe comes from the, Saul comes from the tribe of Benjamin. Now you go back to Genesis 49 when you have a man by the name of Jacob and he's on his deathbed and he's dying and by the spirit of God, he pronounces these prophecies and he goes through his 12 sons.

Do you remember the son that he mentioned where the kings would come from? Judah, the fourth boy. And it says from Judah will come the lawgiver, Shiloh, whose right it is to reign. Why then did God give the children of Israel a king from the Benjamite tribe where the king should never come from?

You see, what happened to the nation of Israel is when God brought them out of captivity, you might remember the story, and he brought them into the promised land and you remember that God told them don't become like the nations around you.

But you know what they wanted? Do you remember they wanted a king. We see all these nations around us with kings and we don't have a king and we want a king. So you know what God did? God gave them a king.

But God gave them a king not after his heart, after their heart. They wanted a king because of fleshly motives. Do you remember the first thing that's said about Saul when he's mentioned in the Bible?

He was head and shoulders above everybody else. He was just a big mountain of flesh. That's what he was. And God gave the people just what they want and God told them, I'm gonna give you this fella and he's gonna take from you.

He's gonna take, take, take, take from you. Now just, you can learn lessons from that dear child of God. Often a ruler in power is a reflection of the very people that put them there. That's a principle that runs through the word of God.

Listen, I'm a Canadian, okay. You know that. You probably can tell that from my accent. And your American politics is absolutely fascinating to us. Our politics is boring. Not even worth watching or paying attention to.

But your guys is just like a whole TV show right there, right before you. You know what I mean? Nobody's getting paid to do it. They're all spending money to do it. But this is kind of a, it's a negative comment but I leave the powers to be with God as I've been shown to you.

Do you wanna know why so many people love Trump? He's rude. He's obnoxious. He's in your face. Because that's the attitude of our hearts today. No respect for nobody. That's a principle I learned from the Bible.

Often someone who is at the head of the pack, he just represents the pack. That's all. And it fires people. Anybody that incites rebellion, he's just representing a group of rebels. Is really what you, you get that principle in the word of God.

So here's this man Saul, head and shoulders above everybody else. When the people wanted a king, check your date, David wasn't even born. See the people were pushing God. God wasn't ready to give them a king yet.

And you remember that God through Samuel, God says, look Samuel, go to them, protest and tell them you're turning against God and so on and so forth. And there's quite a bit of lessons that we can learn from that.

But finally what you read in the book of the Acts and we'll read tonight back in the Old Testament. You know what God says about Saul? He says, I removed him. I just removed him. God just let him rule long enough.

And then finally when David was ready, that little boy, then God brought him forth. Do you remember the first thing that's said about David? This is where it comes after God's own heart. You remember Samuel was sent down to anoint one of Jesse's boys.

Remember how many boys Jesse had? He had eight sons. And you remember the oldest one came before him and he was a big strapping lad. And you remember Samuel was thinking in his mind, he said, surely the Lord's anointed is before me.

What did God say? Don't look on the outward. Look on the heart. God doesn't see as man sees. I'm looking at the heart. And those seven of those eight sons come by and none of them. And then finally, do you have any more sons Jesse?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's just one little fella out there looking after sheep. That's where we're introduced to this lovely man David. And all of a sudden David comes in and what does God say to Samuel?

There's the man. Anoint him. So what's being emphasized there is this. God was interested in the heart of David. And that's what's meant when you read that expression in Acts 13. David was a man after God's own heart.

This is the one that God had his focus upon because he would ultimately picture the Lord Jesus and so on. Now, let's go back into the Old Testament, First Chronicles, and let's read a little another interesting thing.

First Chronicles, Solomon, and the Throne of the Lord

This is going to show us in the book of First Chronicles the entire purpose of God, okay? We're going to look at the first book of First Chronicles and then the last book of First Chronicles and I want you to notice a name and an expression.

And what we're going to teach tonight from the Word of God will also show you the importance of that little nation of Israel. It is the center of this world. If you ever have an opportunity to look at ancient, ancient maps, old, old maps, these were maps that were drawn up by people that believed the Bible.

Do you know where they always put the nation of Israel? Right smack in the middle. And everything around it. And then right up at the top they had an eye, the all-seeing God. I find that quite interesting because that's just exactly the way the Bible would portray things.

So, First Chronicles right after 1 and 2 Kings. First Chronicles chapter 1, just notice the first word, Adam. Now that takes us right to Genesis, doesn't it? There's the first man that ever stepped foot upon this earth, Adam.

And then we read a number of individuals that follow him. Now come to the very last chapter of First Chronicles. Is it 29? Yes, First Chronicles 29. Now we come to the end of the book. Now we're introduced to another man, all kinds of men in between.

And you'll see, this will make sense to you in a minute. I'm just trying to just build it a little bit here for you. Look at verse number 22. David is now coming to the end of his life and his son Solomon is going to be coming to the throne and Solomon is only a picture of the Lord Jesus in a very small, small way.

But I'll show you that in a minute. First Chronicles 29. Here we come to the last name. So we started with Adam. Now we come to Solomon. Look at verse 22, the middle part. And they made Solomon the king, the son of David, king the second time and anointed him onto the Lord to be the chief governor and Zadok to be priest.

Notice this, verse 23. Then Solomon sat, now underline this, on the throne of the Lord. What? Did Solomon go to heaven? Well, keep reading the verse. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father and prospered and all Israel obeyed him.

No, no, no, Solomon didn't go to heaven. Well, you say, I always thought that the throne of the Lord is in heaven. No, the throne of the Lord is in earth, right in the city of Jerusalem, right on the very throne, the literal throne that David was sitting upon.

That's what the word of God says. And Solomon, when David passed the reins of the government over to his son, which is only a picture of the Lord Jesus. I'll show you that in a little bit. Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord.

Now you go to Jeremiah, you go to Jeremiah chapter three. And do you know what? Jeremiah by the spirit of God, he will call the city of Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. You see, that was always God's intention.

God, through the nation of Israel, administering his will in this world. That was always his purpose. Now come back to this chart for a second. I'll show you what happened. You see this little expression I mentioned to you, the times of the Gentiles, which you see it running along the bottom.

You read it actually in Luke 21 and verse 24. You see the times of the Gentiles running, running, running, running, running. And right here, it comes to an end. What happens right there? That's when David's greater son, the Lord Jesus, sits on the throne of the Lord in the city of Jerusalem and starts to now administer God's will upon this earth.

Israel’s Temple, Exile, and the Departure of God’s Glory

Why did this happen? You see, prior to Nebuchadnezzar, prior to the children of Israel being carried out of the land of Jerusalem, Israel, and carried off into captivity, what existed in Jerusalem? God's very presence was in the temple.

Right? We know that because we can read it in the Old Testament. When that tremendous building was built, God's presence, just like in that little tent affair, where the tent for 40 years as the children of Israel wandered through the desert, and God himself actually dwelt in the holies of holies, that little 15 foot by 15 foot cube little room, the very presence of the Almighty God was right there with his people.

And then when finally things were set up in Jerusalem, and remember, we're going to read it, David wanted to build a temple, but no, Solomon built the temple. And then we read, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

That was always God's intention. Here I am on earth, surrounded by my people, and through them I am administering my will and my purpose. What happened? Because of the great sin of the children of Israel, they started worshiping idols.

They turned from that glorious sight and they started worshiping idols. And God sent prophets and God warned them, if you don't stop, I'm going to leave. And that's just what happened. You go to Ezekiel, the glory of the Lord leaves the temple.

And do you know what you read in the book of Ezekiel, just as this captivity thing is starting to happen, you see the glory of the Lord leaving the very center of the temple and he goes out to the edge of the temple.

Then he goes to the gate. It's almost like God was very hesitant to leave. But God and sin cannot coexist. And the children of Israel had gotten to a point where they did not want to break from their sin.

And do you know what happened? Finally, the glory left. God's presence went back to heaven and God's people were carried off into captivity. And ever since then, even though the children of Israel have come back into the land here, actually right here they come back into the land and they built a temple.

Do you know what you'll read in the Old Testament? God's presence never came back into that rebuilt temple. And it's not even back there today. Well, they don't have a temple. They're trying to build a temple.

You go over to Israel there, you can go and visit right down in the middle of, I was there, right in the middle of Jerusalem. You can go to what's called the Temple Institute. And these are a group of Orthodox Jews.

They are not Christians. They are believers in the Old Testament. They don't believe in the New Testament. But they've got every piece of the future temple ready to go. I remember being there and this woman was up front, the class, you know, there was about 40 of us on the tour, and she was giving us this little discussion of, you know, just telling us about the Temple Institute.

And you know what she kept doing? Every 20 minutes in her little talk, she would be talking and all of a sudden she'd stop, just like that to get your attention. Everybody, whoa. Our Messiah could come right now.

And then she'd keep on talking. Now, she's not referring to the rapture, which the New Testament teaches. You see, those people believe that the Lord Jesus is coming back, which he is, but we know what the New Testament teaches.

They're actually going to receive the man of sin in place of their Messiah. And then 20 minutes later again, she'd look at people and go, and to think that our Messiah could come right now. You see, what we don't realize is how close we are to the end of the world.

Prophecy, the Days of Noah, and Modern Self-Absorption

Do we believe that in 2016? I mean, we're so asleep over here. That's the meaning when you read the expression, as it was in the days of Noah. They were eating, drinking, nothing wrong with that. Marrying, giving, nothing wrong with that.

Do you know what the meaning of that is? Everybody was taken up with their own little world. Self-absorbed. You know, we're in the selfie generation, aren't we? You know, you got to take a picture of you eating a burger and send it to all your friends.

Like, who cares what you're eating, really? I got to tell everybody when I'm going to bed now, I'll see you in the morning. Big deal. Like, the world will get... I don't need to know that information.

But that's the self-centered world that we're in. Everything's about me. Me, me, me, me, right? That's called I-itis, an infection of self. How many people know what's going on in the Middle East? How many people care?

They don't care? See, that's the days of Noah. There was judgment coming. There was a man preaching judgment coming. The ark was being built. People, we don't have time for that. Listen, I'm getting excited here now.

I've got to slow down. My wife is always telling me, slow down. 425 AD is when the Romans were still in power. You know what they did? They completely just eradicated Jerusalem. And they disbanded what was known as the Sanhedrin.

That was 70 rabbis that were kind of a governing body that the Romans allowed over the Jewish people. 425 AD, okay? Do you know what happened in 2004? The Sanhedrin reconvened. 70 rabbis have come together.

Ever since 2004. They meet once a month now. Since 2004. And they're trying to look after Jewish affairs in this world. Do you know what happened in 2009? That very temple institute I was telling you about?

In 2009, they laid a 13-ton cornerstone of this rebuilt temple. You say, why is that important? Listen, right now in Jerusalem, there's no temple for the Jewish people. Do you know what the book of Revelation teaches, our Bible teaches?

There has to be a temple built here. You know why? Because halfway through the tribulation period, the man of sin, the devil, is going to put an image in that rebuilt temple. So when I see a nation that is the rabbi who looks after the temple institute, who is now part of the coalition government of the present prime minister there, and he's got a number of people that are actually on his side to push for a rebuilt temple.

Okay? When I see that happening, I go, my man, we must be close. You know another thing that's interesting? You'll notice between the rapture, this is for those that might know a little bit more about the Bible, between the rapture and the start of the tribulation period, there's a space.

You go back into the book of Daniel, we might spend a night just on the 70 weeks here because that's the backbone of the process, but I might not have enough time. You go back into the book of Daniel, don't you discover?

The tribulation period after the church is gone, the tribulation period does not start until a peace treaty is signed with a nation of Israel. Now you Americans, can you remember your first president who brought a peace treaty onto the table with a nation of Israel?

That's only been in the last like 50 years, less than that. You've had a number of presidents who didn't care about peace with Israel, and ever since, is it about, is it Camp David? All of a sudden now, before the world leaders, United Nations, there has been a peace treaty constantly on the table trying to get it enacted.

There's another little piece that tells us, by the way, things are near. Things are moving. So when we look at this chart, this is not just a pretty picture. I want you to understand, this is taken from the Bible.

And in spite of everything that the media is saying and everything else, this is what's going to happen. This is happening before people's eyes. I mean, the Bible, the book of Revelation, we think it's almost a joke.

Years ago, they did. Buying and selling without money? I mean, if you robbed me right now, you're not going to get no money. You just get credit cards. I don't care. I carry a little bit of cash in my wallet for emergencies.

But it's terrible when I go someplace, you don't get a credit card? What's your problem? Do you know what I mean? We are so getting used to dealing without physical money. It's only a short stint. You realize they're experimenting with chips?

Embed it. They even got tattoos now that are RFID, radio frequency emitting. And they're that thin. And they actually take energy from the heat of your body to make them work. And they've got people now, they just scan.

That's all around us. And we're sitting here like, oh, yeah, the world's going to go on forever. No, it's not. No, it's not. Because as I've been telling you, God has a program. And do you know what it is?

I am going to set my king, the Lord Jesus, on a literal throne in Jerusalem. And that little nation over there that is literally despised and ridiculed and blamed for everything in the world, do you know what the Bible teaches?

Every Gentile nation will acknowledge her and give glory to her. So the Jew is still very important to God. But God at this point, and I'm going to show you that tomorrow night a little more, God at this point during the church age is not dealing with the Jew at a national level.

They've got no claim upon God whatsoever at the national level, like they once did in the Old Testament because of their rejection. So back here to 1 Chronicles. I need to keep on going here. Time is going quick.

The Millennial Kingdom and the Nations’ Recognition of Christ

We start 1 Chronicles with the very first man that stepped foot upon the earth, and we ended up at the end of 1 Chronicles. It's almost like a little overview of all of history. We've got a son of David sitting upon the throne of the Lord in a literal place called Jerusalem.

What happens a few years after this? It's a picture of this millennial reign. There's a woman, remember Bathsheba, the queen of the south? She actually comes up to Jerusalem to see the glory of Solomon.

You read it. You read it in Kings. You read it in Chronicles. You know what she says? Bless it because God has put you upon the throne of the Lord. You know what that's picturing? When the Lord Jesus sits and sets up his kingdom in Jerusalem, do you know what the effect of that will be?

It will have such a transforming effect upon this world that the Gentiles will just come into Jerusalem and acknowledge Christ as king, pictured in this woman, the queen of the south. The Bible is not some random, scattered, oh, I'll just take a little of this and a little of this and a little of this.

No, no, no. God, the author of the Bible, is a very ordered, very structured God. There are pictures and patterns that are constantly being emphasized as we go through the Word of God. With that being said now, let's go to Psalm 89.

The Davidic Covenant and the Permanence of Christ’s Throne

We're going to read why David is so important. This is where we introduce the topic of covenants. Covenants of the Bible. Now I need to give a little explanation on covenants because there's an awful lot of confusions when it comes to covenants.

So we'll just take a minute here and try to make it as clear as we can. But first of all, let's go to Psalm 89. Let's read the word covenant and then we'll, just so that you know it is a Bible word, and then I'll explain to you what a covenant is.

Psalm 89, we have a wonderful psalm here. Here's what we have, verse 3, and God is speaking. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Notice, thy seed will I establish forever.

Do you see why when I read the end of 1 Chronicles, I know that we're just not ending with Solomon? Because we are told here in Psalm 89 that part of this covenant that God made with David, it's going to go forever.

Ever. What did we learn about the stone? It's the only kingdom that goes forever. So there's only one person in mind. When God is writing this, He's thinking of ultimately His Son, this covenant. The Lord Jesus will be the fulfillment of this covenant with David.

Verse 4, thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. Verse number 20, I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed him with whom my hand shall be established.

My arm also shall strengthen him. Verse 27, here's taking us to the millennial reign. Also I will make him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

His seed also will I make to endure forever and his throne is the days of heaven. Verse 34, my covenant will I not break. Verse 36, his seed shall endure forever. 37, it shall be established forever as the moon.

Now I read that for a reason. Did you get how many times the word forever and evermore came up? This is not something hazy with God. This is something that's permanent. It's never gonna come to an end.