Davidic Covenant (Baptist Covenant Theology)

Okay, so tonight is week 10, Baptist Covenant Theology, and we're talking about the Davidic covenant.

What is that?

The covenant with David, okay?

So I actually have on your sheet 2 Samuel 7, 1 through 29.

That's the whole chapter.

I'm just gonna read the first 17 verses and David's response is 18 through 29.

It's important, but I think we can make it through initially just reading these first 17 verses.

So let's hear what the word of the Lord says.

Now, when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies,

the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a

tent.

And Nathan said to the king, go, do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you.

But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan, go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord,

would you build me a house to dwell in?

I've not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving

about in a tent for my dwelling and all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel.

Did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying,

why have you not built me a house of cedar?

Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts.

I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel.

And I've been with you wherever you went and I've cut off all your enemies from before you.

And I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth.

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and 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, listen to this, that the Lord will make you a

house.

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up offspring after you, who

shall come from your body 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 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 sons 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.

Your throne shall be established forever.

In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

So David says, I'm gonna build God a house.

He's still in the tabernacle.

I dwell in this nice palace.

I'm gonna build God a house.

And we kind of live this way sometimes.

We're like, I got a good idea.

I'm gonna do it.

And Nathan says, you know what?

That is a good idea.

Great idea, do it.

But God stops him, says, no, don't do it.

In fact, you're not gonna build me a house.

I'm gonna what?

I am gonna build you a house.

And he's talking about his kingdom.

And just to sum it up, the Davidic covenant is God's covenant with David

that his own son would rule a kingdom forever, okay?

Sam, ran a hand, it's on your sheet.

The Mosaic covenant anticipated the Davidic covenant.

I'll read this from Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellam.

The Davidic covenant carries forward in specific ways the intentions and purposes

of God expressed in the Sinai covenant.

And even further back in the covenant with Abraham.

So we're gonna back up a little bit and we're gonna look at the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with

Moses for just a moment.

So a couple of passages to mention.

Genesis 17, verse six and 16.

It says, I will make you exceedingly fruitful.

He's talking to Abraham.

And I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you.

Then he talks about his wife, Sarah.

This is verse 16.

I will bless her.

And moreover, I will give you a son by her.

I will bless her and she shall become nations.

Kings of people shall come from her.

So even in the Abrahamic covenant, there is an anticipation of kings.

In Deuteronomy 17, that was too much to put on your sheet.

So I'm just gonna flip there real quick.

This is in the context of the Mosaic covenant.

In Deuteronomy 17, verse 14 says, when you come

to the land that the Lord your God has given you and you possess it and dwell on it, then say, 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.

One from among your brothers, you shall set as king over you.

You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother.

Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to

acquire many horses.

Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again.

And he shall not acquire many wives for himself lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself

excessive silver and gold.

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book, a copy of this law

approved by the Levitical priests.

And it shall be with him and he shall read it in all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God

by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes in doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up

above his brothers and that he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or to the left so that he may

continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel.

Okay, so what you see in those passages is there's an anticipation already

in the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant for Kings.

So now we need to do a quick history.

We're gonna skip a lot of years and a lot of verses, a lot, a lot, but we're just gonna do a quick history of how we get

from Moses to David.

So after you have Moses, you have who?

Who leads after Moses?

Joshua, okay?

So you have Moses and you have Joshua.

After Joshua, we enter into the time period of the judges.

So you have the whole book of judges that covers judges and Ruth.

Ruth is in the context of the judges.

We're not 100 % sure which judge for sure, but you have the judges and you have Ruth.

And then you have the last judge, which is who?

Samuel, okay?

So that brings us to 1 Samuel.

So Hannah's song about her son anticipates a king, 1 Samuel 2 .10, it's on your

sheet.

The adversaries of the Lord, remember, Hannah is barren.

She prays for a son.

God gives her a son.

That son is Shemal El, Samuel.

Shemal here, El, God.

He is heard of God or he hears God, okay?

That's what Samuel means.

By the way, if you know a kid named Samuel, you can tell him that.

So the adversaries of the Lord, she says she has the baby.

She sings a song, 1 Samuel 2 .10.

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces.

Against them, he will thunder in heaven.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to his king.

Now, is there a king in Israel at this point?

No.

So she anticipates a king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

The anointed is the Messiah.

Then you have a turn of events and you have people asking for a king.

I know it's like, God says you can ask for a king, but then they ask for a king and they're asking for it wrongly.

So this 1 Samuel 8, four through seven.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him,

behold, you are old.

That's biblical.

You can tell people that, right?

Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways, which that's sad.

Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.

But the thing displeased Samuel.

And when they said, give us a king to judge us.

And Samuel prayed to the Lord.

The Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you,

but they have rejected me from being king over them.

Okay, God's intention was for a king, but he is the king.

And we'll get to that later.

A .W. Pink has a great quote about this.

God accomplishes his holy councils or his plans by the free actions of sinful men.

That's so important, the way we understand the sovereignty of God.

The way we understand the sovereignty of God is not God forcing people like robots

or whatever.

Men choose, men do what they want.

They ask for a king, and yet God is in governance even over that and is bringing about exactly

his plan.

It's a beautiful mystery, but it's a glorious reality of God's sovereignty.

Now, let me just pause for a moment and remind us where we're at.

We have people come in and out.

I understand, Wednesday night's a little hard.

So remember something, God had a plan for a people to be over the whole earth.

That's in Genesis 1, to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill

the earth.

Adam and Eve, if you're here and you're missing this, I'm sorry, it is a spoiler, sorry, but they

failed, okay?

God promised one to reverse the curse in Genesis 3.

But listen, in 1 Samuel, it's been nearly 3 ,000 years

from Genesis 3 to time 1 Samuel, plus or minus, 3 ,000 years.

It's been almost 1 ,000 years now since Abraham.

Now put yourself, let's put ourself in 1 Samuel.

How is that looking?

God's gonna have a people over the whole earth.

God's gonna have a kingdom.

So is God's kingdom in 1 Samuel right there?

Are we on the cusp?

Are we on the precipice?

Is the kingdom of God in 1 Samuel about to expand over the whole earth?

Yeah or nay?

Yeah, maybe you say yes and no, but in one sense, it's a very much no, because

it's not even in one sense expanding throughout physical Israel, is it?

And think about all the rest of the world.

So what I'm saying here is, it seems as though the prince of darkness is

winning, but we have to trust God's timing, okay?

We have to trust the big picture plan.

We live now some 3 ,000 years since

after Samuel, and we can see the big picture now.

But when Israel asked this in 1 Samuel 8, they are wanting the kingdom of God to operate

and function like the kingdom of the world, because that's what they want.

Their priority, their prerogative is on the temporal, and it's on the carnal.

Give us a king.

We don't want God to be king over us.

We want a king like the other nations.

I think that should serve as a warning to us.

At times, we're really prone to say, we want to be just like the world, but the kingdom of God is spiritual.

It's not a kingdom like the worldly kingdom.

Does it have impact on the world?

Of course it does.

But our king is better than worldly kings.

You can look at Jeremiah 10, seven, for example.

Now in Israel's history, we move to the first king, which is Saul, and we're just gonna mention that.

Okay, Saul.

Now we move from Saul to David.

Because you could spend weeks on all of that.

A lot of history skipping here.

But what we're gonna try to do now is get to the substance of the Davidic covenant.

I know we kind of moved a little fast.

Questions, you know, but anyway, we're just trying to get from Moses to David.

So now we got Moses, or now we're Moses, now we're all the way to David.

Questions, comments, skipped a lot, but now we're at David.

Okay, now here is the substance of the Davidic covenant.

And I'll put some passages here.

Psalm 132, 11 and 12.

The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back.

One of the sons of your body, I will sit on your throne.

If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also

forever shall sit on your throne.

Psalm 89, one through four.

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever.

With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever.

In the heavens, you will establish your faithfulness.

You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one.

I have sworn to David, my servant.

I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.

Selah.

And then there's a couple other passages you can look at, Psalm 2, 1 Kings 2.

1 Kings 2 is when, Psalm 2 is talking about the son, Jesus, the

anointed one, the nation's rage, but the exhortation is to kiss

the son lest he be angry with you.

Then 1 Kings 2 is when Solomon is taking over, David is dying,

and David reminds him of this promise.

But here's a question I have for us tonight.

Davidic covenant, conditional or unconditional?

Yeah, I mean, in one way we could say yes, because it's kind of similar to the Abrahamic covenant.

Like, is God gonna let this covenant fail?

No, he's not.

Yet at the same time, are there clear conditions that must be met?

Yes.

So in some ways, as I was studying for this, it reminds us of the Abrahamic covenant, right?

There's an unconditional aspect here.

God is going to do this, but there's also a clear condition.

The offspring of David must keep Yahweh's covenant and his

testimonies, okay?

So O. Palmer Robinson writes this.

Under Abraham, the uncircumcised male was to be cut off.

Under Moses, the disobedient would not enter God's arrest.

Under David, the sinful king was to be beaten with the rod of men.

In each case, full participation in the blessings of the covenant had a condition.

Only as this condition was fulfilled would blessing be assured.

Are you, and you can be honest here, and if I need to go over something, I can.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

Abrahamic covenant, there is a condition.

Mosaic covenant, there is a condition.

Davidic covenant, there is a condition.

What's the pattern?

The condition must be met, right?

Adam failed the condition.

Under these covenants, condition must be met.

They are, therefore, not administrations of the

covenant of grace.

Rather, they point us forward to what the covenant of grace is gonna be all about.

They show us, these covenants show us the need of someone to meet these

conditions.

Now, think about this.

I'm gonna set you up.

This is a softball, right?

I'm just gonna throw a big old beach ball up there to you, and you just smash it over the fence.

Who could possibly fill all these covenants?

Who could keep all of these conditions?

Who could meet the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant?

Who possibly could complete the covenant of works with Adam?

Who could do all this?

Christ, Christ.

All of these covenants are pointing us forward to what we need in Jesus.

So, I might add this as well.

David understood this.

He was like, no, no, that's too much.

Now, listen, just hear me out.

Ultimately, David's hope was in the Messiah.

How do I know this?

I put this on your sheet because David says it, and then Jesus quotes it in

Matthew 22.

And that's Psalm 110, verse one.

David says, the Lord says to my Lord, that's interesting.

Yahweh says to my Adonai, sit at my

right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.

So, Jesus says in Matthew 22, whose son is the

Messiah?

And what do they say?

Of course, it's David's son.

Jesus says, then why does David call the Messiah Lord?

Why does David call the Messiah Lord?

Because he understood his need for the Messiah.

You understand?

This is salvation in the Old Testament.

The saints in the Old Testament were saved by looking forward to these promises.

If you want to think of it as retroactivity of the covenant of grace, maybe that's kind of

clunky and complicated, but by looking forward to the new covenant and the

ratification thereof in the blood of Christ, this covenant would apply to them, even though

outwardly they were still members of the old covenant, they were saved by virtue of the promise

of the new covenant.

I hope that makes sense.

Not saved by the Abrahamic, Mosaic or Davidic covenant.

They're not saved by trying to keep the covenant works.

They're only saved by Christ.

That make sense?

Okay, so let's consider some things this Davidic covenant shows us.

Number one, these are just kind of general observations.

Number one, it's obvious.

David's son will be of David's lineage.

And I would add this, not only will he be of the physical lineage of David, but this must be a man

after God's own heart, like David was, except even better,

because David failed, didn't he?

Two, David's son will build the temple.

I mean, that's what we all got back, back in 2 Samuel.

That's the whole point.

David's like, I'm gonna build you a temple.

God's like, no, you're not, okay?

So does David's son build a temple?

Yes, Solomon builds a temple.

He builds the physical temple.

Then you have later, Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel was in the lineage of who?

David, and he builds the temple.

So the temple is built by Solomon.

It's destroyed.

Zerubbabel rebuilds the temple.

And then thirdly, David's son is going to have an established kingdom

forever.

Well, this lets us know it's not Solomon, it's not Zerubbabel, because their reigns

went, Zerubbabel really was like a governor instead of a king.

So he's gonna reign on the throne.

I put those together.

He's gonna reign on the throne of David, which I'm arguing, just like the temple points to something greater,

okay?

But it's important to mention here that the Davidic covenant intertwined the fate of God's

people with the fate of the king.

So now because of the Davidic covenant, as goes the king, so goes who?

The people.

And you see that time and time again in the book of Kings and

Chronicles, the books.

So let me just read.

Let me explain to you from a biblical standpoint.

First Kings nine, verse four.

And as for you, if you walk before me as David your father walked to Solomon with integrity of heart and

uprightness, doing according to all that I've commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will

establish your royal throne over Israel forever.

As I promised David your father saying, you shall not like a man on the throne of Israel.

But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes

I've set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them.

Look at the language here.

Then I will cut off, who?

Israel.

So King Israel, now they're intertwined.

Understand?

I'll cut off Israel from the land I've given them and the house that I've consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight and

Israel will become a proverb and a byword among the peoples.

All right, so here's the conditions.

I'll just give you four.

Number one, he must keep the law of God.

This on your sheet.

He must do all that God commands.

This is the son of David must do these things.

Number two, he must guard the worship of God.

He must have a zeal for the Lord's house because the King is responsible for

proper worship.

You see it time and time again.

The Kings of Israel and Judah lead the people into what?

Idolatry.

Thirdly, he must rule the people of God.

He should be a just, he must be a just and righteous King with the blessings of God ruling over the

people of God.

And by doing that, fourthly, he ushers in the blessing of God upon the people of God.

So when the condition is met, God's blessing follows.

Now there are ebb and flows in Israel's history and you see good Kings and bad Kings, but you never see

this even come close to being fulfilled.

You understand?

That's, and if I couldn't make it plain enough already, let me read this quote from Jeff Johnson.

The new Adam would be the son of Abraham, the royal child of David, the new

prophet, the holy priest and the righteous King.

The kingdom of God will triumph over the kingdom of darkness for this is the central message of the

Old Testament.

In some, the Old Testament redemptive history ultimately points to the coming of one person,

Christ Jesus.

I don't know why precisely God allowed so much to happen in the Old Testament,

but one thing we know from the Old Testament, it doesn't matter how long you let these Kings come, ain't none of them gonna fulfill these

requirements, right?

King after King after King, even the good Kings, they ultimately fail.

So now we go to the New Testament.

Now, when you get to the New Testament, both Matthew and Luke include genealogies.

Why?

Yeah, but why is that so important?

Yeah, this man is from the line of David, which

is from the line of Abraham.

Paul says in Romans 1, 3, that Jesus is descended from David according to the flesh.

So like wrapped up in the gospel.

Now for us, maybe we lose this sometimes, but really wrapped up in the gospel is not just that Jesus is born of the

virgin.

Like, let me put it this way.

Sometimes we forget to include Joseph in the gospel, right?

I'm guilty of that too.

Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus, but Joseph stands in the line and

lineage of who?

David.

And Jesus is a descendant of David in that sense.

We could talk about the hypostatic union.

Jesus had, how many chromosomes are you supposed to have?

23.

Is that right?

Sound right to you?

You're the science guy.

Back there.

Oh, you're not helping me.

Anyway, Jesus' DNA would have been made up of Joseph and Mary,

right?

Because, but he is conceived by the Holy Spirit, right?

Understand?

So he's free from original sin.

And he is in the lineage of David because he has to be.

And so there's some things to consider carefully from the New Testament, a few verses.

Luke 1, verse 32, 33.

And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne

of his father, David.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

And of his kingdom, there will be no end.

Acts chapter two, we need to turn to that.

A little bit longer.

Acts chapter two, turn to that in your Bible real quick.

This is at the preaching Pentecost.

On Acts chapter two, verse 29.

Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried,

right?

It's kind of funny.

He's like, I can say to you, look, I think he had a sense of humor maybe.

I can say to you, I'm pretty sure David's dead and he's buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

Being there for a prophet and knowing that God is sworn with an oath to him, that he would set one of his descendants on his

throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.

You understand?

You understand that this text is telling us that David spoke, foresaw and

spoke about the resurrection of Christ.

So don't come talk to me about, they didn't have the gospel in the Old Testament.

Don't tell me that, well, we didn't really know what the gospel was till the New Testament.

Guys, Peter is saying David foresaw and spoke about the

resurrection of the Christ and that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

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.

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, Psalm 110, one,

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.

See also Ephesians 1, 20 through 23, he's highly exalted above all earthly powers.

Revelation 19, six, calls Jesus King of Kings, sorry, Revelation 19, 16,

King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So here's what Kim Riddlebarger writes.

He says, it was in Christ's resurrection and ascension, therefore, that God fulfilled his

promise that David's greater son would rule the nations with an

everlasting kingdom.

I'm gonna say this here, I'll put my cards on the table.

We're not waiting for Jesus to ascend the throne of David.

He's on the throne.

I'm not saying we're seeing everything in its fullness.

The kingdom is in one sense already, but not yet.

I get that, okay?

But we're not, man, I just can't wait.

So many people got their eyes on physical Israel thinking, well, you know, we're just waiting.

Oh, Jesus is gonna sit on the throne of David one day.

No, he's there, he's ruling, he's reigning right now.

And by the time we understand the Davidic covenant and we piece these promises together,

we see Christ.

We see all he must do.

He must fulfill what Adam failed to do.

He must keep God's law as the righteous offspring of Abraham.

He must be the perfect prophet, perfect priest, perfect king given to us in the

Mosaic covenant, fulfilling all righteousness under that old covenant.

He must be the king promised to David and usher in the kingdom of God.

He says in Mark 1 15, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

He must die for God's people.

God's law demands, recommends, recommends.

He must bear the curse of the law for us.

He must be buried, tasting the full measure of death.

He must rise again from the dead in victory.

He must ascend to the throne and be seated until all his enemies are defeated.

And he returns to bring in the new heavens and new earth, judging the nations in righteousness.

Christ is king.

But did he build the temple?

Forgot about it.

We left that off a little bit, didn't we?

The son of David is gonna build the temple.

Did he build the temple?

The New Testament says he is the temple.

And he says in Matthew 16, 18, right?

I will build my church, right?

So the temple that he is building today is the church.

It's greater than the temple Solomon built.

It's greater than the temple Zerubbabel built.

And the Bible says this of the church in 1 Peter 2, 9.

Listen very carefully.

Oh, wait, it's on your sheet.

Follow along with me and listen carefully to this language.

Peter says to the church, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation, a people for his own possession.

I'll just stop there.

What are these words, race, royal, priesthood,

nation?

What does this sound like to you?

It sounds like Israel.

You know what I'm saying?

And Alex is right in those things he said, but it sounds an awful lot to me like Israel, but it's being applied to New Testament believers.

Why is that?

Did the church replace Israel?

No, the church is the fun word to say.

Anytime you can say the word eschatological,.

You should say it.

The church is the eschatological fulfillment of Israel.

And important for tonight's lesson, the church is the kingdom of Christ.

Christ is sovereign over all.

He's sovereign over every government, over every nation, but it's through the church that his kingdom is

expanding in the sense of that promise from the beginning, having a people over

all the earth who recognize the righteous rule of Jesus and rejoicing.

So what God planned in the garden of Eden, what he promised in Genesis three, what he made provision

for in the Noahic covenant and foreshadowed in the covenants of promise has now come

to fruition.

It has been realized in Christ.

And listen to this.

It's happening right before our eyes and through the church as we proclaim the

kingdom of Christ.

As we call upon sinners to repent of their sins, to put their faith in the prophet, priest

king, the God man, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one sitting on and ruling

from the throne of David, this is the kingdom of Christ and it's

expanding all over the world today.

And so this leaves us with one final covenant to discuss next week, which is what?

The new covenant.

All right.

And that's enough for today.

We'll now go to questions and answers.

Well, at least questions.