The Deity of the Son of David (Selected Scriptures) | Worship Service

The Davidic Covenant and the Hope of the Eternal Kingdom

Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This morning we're going to begin our worship service and sing together, Angels We Have Heard on High.

Angels, angels, shout descending.

You turn now to 2 Samuel chapter 7 for the scripture reading, 2 Samuel chapter 7, and we're going to begin reading at verse 8, referred to this last week in the message.

This is the covenant that God makes with David concerning his throne and his lineage and one who would come after him, who would reign on his throne forever, establish an eternal kingdom. 2 Samuel chapter 7, beginning at verse 8, and we will read through the end of the chapter.

Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make you a great name like the names of the great men who are on the.

Earth.

I will also appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies.

The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I'll be a father to him and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but my loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul whom I removed from before you.

Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord and he said, who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me this far?

And yet this was insignificant in your eyes, O Lord God, for you have spoken also of the house of your servant concerning the distant future and this is the custom of man, O Lord.

God.

Again, what more can David say to you for you know your servant, O Lord God, for the sake of your word and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness to let your servant know. For this reason, you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you and there is no God beside you according to all that we have heard with our ears.

And what one nation on the earth is like your people, Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people and to make a name for himself to do a great thing for you and awesome things for your hand before your people whom you have redeemed for yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods.

You have established for yourself, your people, Israel, as your own people forever. And you, O Lord, have become their God. Now therefore, O Lord God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and his house, confirm it forever and do as you have spoken that your name may be magnified forever by saying, Lord of hosts is God over Israel and may the house of your servant, David, be established before you.

For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to your servant saying, I will build you a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. Now, O Lord God, you are God and your words are truth and you have promised this good thing to your servant.

Now therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken and with your blessing, may the house of your servant be blessed forever.

Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads. Our Father, you have revealed to us in your word things pertaining the distant future, things distant to David, things distant even to us, at least we think.

We belong to the group of your called out ones who still wait expectantly and long expectantly for the return of our Messiah, our King. We long for that day when the world will be ruled and reigned in righteousness and the son of David will establish that throne that you promised to David and will rule and reign over it forever.

That is our hope today, that is the hope of generations past, that is the hope of Israel. We thank you that you have brought us to salvation and now placed us in the salvific blessings of the new covenant in which we wait expectantly for those final eschatological blessings, the blessings of the end times when Christ shall return and triumphantly put down all opposition to His rule and His reign and even death itself shall be destroyed and you will gather us together with you for all of eternity.

It is because of what you have done in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are even able to pray this way and to wait upon you. We pray that you would fix our hearts and our minds upon your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that our hearts would be filled with affection for Him and that our minds filled with your word and our souls sanctified and conformed by your truth.

And we pray that you would work and accomplish in us every good deed, everything that you desire for us, conforming us to His image and giving us that great expectation and fixing our hope upon Him. May that be the end result of our meditation here today and our worship before you today.

Be honored and glorified, we pray, through us, your people, as we worship together in spirit and in truth, around your word. Be glorified, we ask it in Christ's name, amen.

Jesus, ride on my heart, tell me the story of Jesus, the death, tell of the days that are ours since He was tempted, yet was triumphant and last, tell of the years of His life, tell of the sorrows despised, let's reject the story of Jesus, the story of anguish and pain, that story so tender, paid the ransom for me of Jesus.

In Psalm 24, verses 7 to 10, it says, lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? Yahweh, strong and mighty, Yahweh, mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift yourselves up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is He, this King of glory? Yahweh of hosts, He is the King of glory. We're going to end our music service this morning and sing Prepare Him Room.

The mystery now unfolds. See the star shine on the virgin foretold. Angels sing and light up the sky. Hope rings out in a newborn's cry. Swing wide, you ancient gates, for Christ is born today. Prepare Him Room, prepare.

Let the King of glory enter in. God with us, the promise has come to be. It's the one the prophets were longing to see. In the darkness a blazing light, to the hungry the words of life. His kingdom now is here, for those with nears to Him.

Prepare Him Room, prepare. Let the King of glory enter in. Say there's no room in old cross and grave. See the love of God displayed, now He's risen. Praise the name above all names.

The Incarnation, Sinless Humanity, and the Deity of Christ

With your Bible open, or with your Bible in your lap, I would say, we're not going to open it just yet, but with your Bible in your lap, let's bow our heads and ask the Lord's blessing upon our study before we open His Word.

Our Father, as your people, we love your Word because it is truth, it is wisdom. In there we see the righteousness of our Savior revealed, His infinite power to save to the uttermost all who come to Him by faith.

We thank you for His humanity, His pure humanity, sinless as it was, and His obedience to all of your law on our behalf. We thank you for the deity of our Savior. He was fully God and thus able to save forever all who come to Him.

Fully able to provide infinite and unblemished righteousness to those who call upon your name. So it is these things that we are grateful for, it is these things that we reflect upon at this season when we are thinking about the incarnation of our Lord and His life on our behalf, His death for us.

We pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to your Word now and convince us of these truths and help us to see the glory in them and the grace and grandeur of Christ our Lord, who lived for us and died for us and rose again that we might have eternal life.

We ask your blessing upon our time and that you would open our eyes and our hearts to your Word in Christ's name. Amen. One thing that consistently set Jesus in opposition to the religious leaders of His day was not that He was a political revolutionary and was calling for the overthrow of Rome, but rather He made claims to be God.

He made claims to divinity, to deity. And these were not subtle and enigmatic claims that you kind of had to sort of parse out and find out, is it sort of a double meaning that He has in mind there? What exactly is He alluding to?

Some of them were very overt and very clear, bold declarations of His own divinity. In John 5, Jesus claimed that He and the Father do the same works. Pharisees confronted Him because He was healing on the Sabbath and He said, the Father works on the Sabbath and I work on the Sabbath.

They said, what was the Jews' response to that? John 5, verse 18. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him because He not only was breaking the Sabbath but also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Now that's John's commentary on what Jesus said and why the religious leaders were trying to kill Him. He was not just claiming that He was the Son of God in some generic universal sense in which all people who have ever lived are the sons of God by virtue of us being His creation.

But He was claiming a unique relationship with the Father so much so that He does the same works as the Father. The Father works on the Sabbath and I work on the Sabbath. And they searched around and looked for stones to stone Him.

They wanted to kill Him because He was not just claiming that God was His Father, but He was making Himself equal with God. They understood exactly what it was that He was claiming. And what was Jesus' response to that?

Did Jesus back down and say, no, you misunderstood me. I think if you just kind of parse out what I'm saying a little bit, you'll understand that I'm really not making that kind of a bold claim. He didn't do that at all.

In fact, He doubled down on some of those claims. And He claimed not just to be working on the Sabbath, but He claimed to do all the works that the Father does. And this is John 5, by the way. This is right on the heels of verse 18.

He claimed to do all the works that the Father does. He claimed to know the secret things of the Father, to be the judge of all men, to be worthy of the same honor, reverence, worship, and obedience that men render to the Father.

He claimed to be able to give eternal life and forgiveness of sins to any and all who put their trust in Him. He claimed that He is the proper object of faith and trust and confidence, and then claimed that He has the power to raise all men on the last day and consign some men to eternal life and others to eternal damnation based upon His own authority.

And then He claimed that everything in the Old Testament was written about Him and that Moses wrote about Him and that His words were as authoritative as Moses' words. Now, this He did in the face of them picking up stones to stone Him.

He didn't simply say, I think you've misunderstood what I meant. In fact, He knew that they understood exactly what He meant, and so He said He doubled down on it. He did the same thing in John 10. Later on, He claimed to be the Good Shepherd,.

Which, by the way,.

If He was not Yahweh in human flesh, that was blasphemy, because who is our shepherd? Psalm 23, verse 1, Yahweh is my shepherd. And onto the scene, in the temple steps Jesus and says, I am the Good Shepherd.

They go, hey, me, I am the Good Shepherd. They understood exactly what He was claiming. And then He went on to say that He had authority over His own life, His own death, His own resurrection. He claimed again to be the proper object of faith, trust, confidence, and obedience.

And then He claimed to be the one who would grant eternal life to His people. And then He capped it all off with this statement, I and the Father are one. And what was the response of the Jews to that?

John 10, verse 31, the Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning Me? The Jews answered Him, for a good work we don't stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.

Did Jesus then back away from that and say, hold on, I think we have now a second time that you have misunderstood what I've said. No, not at all. In fact, He went on then to claim that He is in fact God, He is in fact the Son of God, and He is in fact God the Son.

Jewish people today, by the way, respond to the same way to Jesus of Nazareth that the Jews in Jesus' day does. They claim that He is a liar and a fraud and they claim to be the Messiah and they claim to be God and they hate Him for that.

In some Jewish homes, you are not even allowed to say the name of Jesus Christ unless it is a swear word.

And by the way,.

If Jesus was not divine, then He was a liar. Those are really your two options. He either was God in human flesh or He was the greatest deceiver who has ever lived because He claimed to be God in human flesh.

So the question then comes to us, this raises for us this question, should the Jews have expected deity in their long-awaited Messiah? Did the Jewish people have reason to expect that this Messiah who was promised in Genesis 3 and promised to David and promised by the prophets and predicted through all of the Old Testament and symbolized and typified through all of the sacrifices and the feasts and in the tabernacle, should the Jews have actually expected one who would step onto the scene and claim to be deity?

Should they have anticipated that? To borrow the illustration that I started last week, you remember the Old Testament is like God over the course of centuries putting on the table various puzzle pieces that we can put together and get a picture of the Messiah.

Well, should the Jews, I don't do puzzles because I hate puzzles, but my wife, when she does puzzles, she isolates all the similarly colored ones into one area and then all the ones from another color in another area.

She has the patience for it.

I don't.

Should there have been.

A collection of puzzle pieces on the table that said deity all over them, all the same color? You have the puzzle pieces that said he was going to be man, that he would have a lineage, that he would suffer as a man, that he would die as a man, that he would live as a man and obey the law as a man, that he would come from David's line.

There were all of these puzzle pieces that said that the long-awaited Messiah would be true humanity. He would be a real man. But were there a group of puzzle pieces when you pull them off to the side and you say this one who is coming looks a lot like Yahweh.

We might even call him Yahweh. Were there those puzzle pieces?

In other words,.

Should the Jews have expected to see amongst those puzzle pieces puzzle pieces that identified him as Yahweh in the flesh? And the answer to that question is yes. There were a lot of Old Testament puzzle pieces that indicated that this one to come was not just true humanity but he was full deity as well.

Last week, we looked at three of the many evidences that the Messiah would be a real man. His lineage, his sufferings, and his reign.

And today,.

We're going to look at the evidences that the long-awaited Messiah would be God, that he would be Yahweh. There are heresies throughout church history that have denied the humanity of Jesus. There are heresies that have denied the deity of Jesus.

And there are heresies that have denied in some fashion or some measure both of those and claimed that he is some mongrel.

Amalgamation.

Of divinity.

And humanity that is neither.

Fully human.

Nor fully divine but some third entity. And orthodoxy Christian teaching says that the Messiah would be fully man that he would be fully God and that these two natures in their fullness would reside in the one person Jesus the Nazarene.

The Messiah’s Origin in Bethlehem and His Eternal Preexistence

Now turn,.

If you will,.

Please,.

To Micah chapter 5. We're going to look at the first of three evidences and we're going to go through all three of these today. We're going to see that the origin.

Of the Messiah.

Demonstrated his divinity that the names.

Of the Messiah.

Showed his divinity and that the reign.

Of the Messiah.

Demonstrated his divinity. And we're going to go, we're going to work our way backwards starting in Micah 5 and then we're going to go back to Isaiah and then we're going to go back to Psalm chapter 2.

We're going to sort of start later in the Old Testament and work our way back to Psalm 2. Micah chapter 5 and we're going to be looking at verse 2. Micah 5, verse 2.

I'll give you.

A second.

Because unless you're.

Looking for it on your electronic device it's going to take you a bit maybe. Micah 5, verse 2.

But as for you.

Bethlehem. Ephrathah.

Too little to be.

Among the clans.

Of Judah.

From you.

One will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago from the days of eternity.

Does that verse.

Sound familiar? You've probably got at least half a dozen Christmas cards by this point in the year that have that on the front or somewhere inside of it. It is a glorious promise. In fact it is one that sort of shines with the brightness of a thousand suns and even that without understanding the context.

But once you.

Catch the context of the book of Micah and the verses immediately surrounding this that verse takes on a whole.

New level of hope.

And expectation.

And longing.

And I want you to jump for a moment just into the context so you can see how dark this period of time was in the nation of Israel's history and once you understand the backdrop against which this promise is made.

You're going to say.

Wow that's quite the hope of expectation. Look if you will please to Micah. Chapter 3 just turn back a couple of chapters I'm going to read.

A few verses I'll show you.

The context. Micah 5 verse 2 is a prophecy that is given in the context of judgment upon the nation for their disobedience. Look at chapter 3 verse 1. Here's how Micah addresses the rulers. And I said hear now heads of Jacob.

And rulers.

Of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice?

In other words.

Rulers, leaders civil leaders shouldn't you know.

What justice is?

Verse 2.

You who hate good.

And love evil who tear off their skin from them this is the skin.

Of the people.

That they lead.

And their flesh from their bones who eat the flesh of my people strip off their skin from them and break their bones and chop them up as for the pot as meat in a kettle and they will cry.

Out to the Lord.

And He will not answer them instead He will hide His face from them at that time.

Because they have.

Practiced evil deeds.

In other words.

The leaders of the people.

Had abused their power and oppressed the people and this had been the case for decades this had been going on.

Wicked evil rulers.

Who ruled over the people for their own benefit and their own profit and their own power.

And the prophets.

Of the land were no better.

Look at verse 5.

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray when they see something to bite with their teeth they cry peace but against Him who puts nothing in their mouths they declare a holy war.

See what he's saying. Somebody comes and offers them something to eat some bribe.

They say oh peace.

May peace be upon you. But if nobody offers them anything against that person they turn around and declare a holy war. In other words they were prophesying.

And speaking.

Quote unquote.

From the Lord.

For their own sake for their own benefit. Verse 6.

Therefore it will be.

Night for you.

Without vision and darkness for you without divination the sun will go down on the prophets.

And the day.

Will become dark over them the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed.

Indeed they will.

All cover their mouths because there is no answer from God so the spiritual leaders.

Were as wicked.

And corrupt as any of the civic leaders. Liars and frauds. So chapter 11 or sorry. Chapter 3 verse 11.

Look at that.

Here they're all.

Lumped together. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe her priests instruct for a price and her prophets divine for money.

Yet they lean on.

The Lord saying oh it's not the Lord.

Among us.

In our midst calamity will not come upon us therefore on account.

Of you.

Zion will be plowed as a field Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest. Micah is promising desolation destruction ruin.

And judgment.

Would come upon them for their rebellion. This is the immediate. This is the immediate.

Reality.

That the people faced at the same time that he is announcing.

All of that.

To the nation Micah throughout the book looks forward beyond their present time to give them hope of something in the future. Look at chapter 4 verses 1 -3 and it will come about in the last days in other words not immediately but in the last days.

That the mountain.

Of the house of the Lord will be established.

As the chief.

Of the mountains.

It will be raised.

Above the hills.

And the peoples will stream to it.

Many nations.

Will come.

And say.

Come.

Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob.

That he may.

Teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths for from Zion will go forth the law every even the word of the Lord.

The word of the Lord.

From Jerusalem.

And he will judge.

Between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train for war.

So Jerusalem and Zion will eventually be the center of everything the center of worship the center of commerce the center of praise the center of learning. All of that will happen on Mount Zion.

They will go up.

To Yahweh.

To hear Yahweh speak to them the word of the Lord.

All of the nations.

Will at some point that's going to happen but in the immediate look at chapter 4 verse 9.

Now why do you.

Cry out loudly. Is there no king.

Among you.

Or has your.

Counselor perished.

The agony.

Has gripped you like a woman in childbirth. Writhe and labor and give birth daughter of Zion like a woman in childbirth. For now you will go out of the city dwell in the field and go to Babylon.

There you will be.

Rescued.

There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies and now many nations have assembled against you who say.

Let her be polluted.

And let our eyes gloat over Zion. They do not know the thoughts of the Lord and they do not understand his purposes for he has gathered them like sheaths to the threshing floor. This is the darkest point in Israel's history.

All of the nations were licking their chops over coming to Jerusalem and plundering it and it looked as if it would be the end of the kingdom the end of the nation.

And the end.

Of the people and Micah says you have every reason.

To fear.

You have every reason to be terrified of the judgment that is about to fall because it is coming and it is going to be swift and it is going to be severe and it is going.

To all but.

Destroy you but.

Chapter 5 verse 1.

Look at this.

Contrast. So Micah addresses the leaders of his day and says now after pronouncing.

Judgment.

Now he says.

Muster yourselves.

In troops daughter of troops.

They have laid.

Siege against us here is the destruction.

With the rod.

They will smite the judge of Israel.

On the cheek.

So after laying out this whole destruction plan of how they are going to be judged by other nations Micah says. Now.

Ruler of Israel.

Go ahead.

Muster your troops. You trust in your army. Muster them up. Call them up daughter of troops. Get all the army navy, air force, marines.

National guard.

Bring them all out there and see if you can withstand this judgment because the judge of Israel that is the one who is leading in Micah's day that judge of Israel is going to be struck on the cheek the ultimate insult.

That was basically.

A way of saying you can muster all of your forces and it is not going to stop the judgment that is to come the ruler of our city is going to be destroyed and humiliated and utterly conquered. And guess what.

Spoiler alert.

He was.

Here is where.

Chapter 5 verse 2.

But as for you.

Bethlehem Ephrathah too little to be among the clans of Judah.

From you.

One will go for me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth from long ago and from the days of eternity. Here this ruler is contrasted with all of the.

Wicked rulers.

Previously the Lord is promising there is coming a ruler for the nation a ruler for this kingdom who is going to come out of Bethlehem but his days have actually been from long ago from ancient days from days without number from all of eternity.

Chapter 5 verse 4.

He will arise.

And shepherd his flock and the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord is God and they will remain because at that time.

He will be great.

To the ends of the earth. So in the midst of that judgment Micah promises this ruler who would come forth and he will grant Israel and his people security he will be the one to care for them he will protect them he will teach them he will be a king he will be strong.

In Yahweh.

Look at the details of his origins. Chapter 5 verse 2.

But as for you.

Bethlehem Ephrathah too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth to me to be a ruler in Israel. These are his origins two of them from Bethlehem and from long ago.