The Davidic Kingdom — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of the late Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. This radio program is a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, Pastor Chuck continues with the Davidic Kingdom, as he picks up in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 4. And now, with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck.

Isaiah 11 and Christ's Righteous Reign

So, with righteousness he will judge the poor, and he will reprove with equity the meek of the earth. There will be no favoritism, and then he will smite the earth with the rot of his mouth, equivalent to the wicked, in the next phrase, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

When they come before him for judgment, his judgment will be decisive, and he will use the word of his mouth to speak the judgment, and to the wicked he will slay with the word of his mouth. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, wrapped around in righteousness, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

The Kingdom of Christ Versus the Human “New Age”

So, the two characteristics, the righteousness and the faithfulness. Remember, his name in the book of Revelation is faithful and true. Now, during the time of the reign of Christ upon the earth, and when you pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven, this is what we are longing for.

And as I said, as we proceed through Isaiah, he will give us a lot of insights into the new age. Now, the people are saying that we are in a new age now. Don't you believe it? God has much better than what's currently going on.

And the new age is not going to be brought to pass by man or by channelers, but the new age will be brought about through the return of Jesus Christ, and that's the age of his kingdom and his reign upon the earth.

Now, during that time, it's interesting, I was reading where 5 ,000 people gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, to think good thoughts and project these positive thoughts towards the situation in the Middle East, and how people are trying to, by meditation, come into this God consciousness, and declaring that they have entered into the next realm of the evolutionary process of man.

And in tying it together with evolution, they say that evolution actually is an evolution of consciousness because you have a greater consciousness than a worm. And so, man is on the verge, mankind is on the verge of making this next evolutionary change.

And they say that some have already entered into the new level of the evolutionary chain, and that is this level of consciousness, which is that God consciousness. And the whole idea is for you, through meditation and all, to make this transition and the evolutionary change, and you can come into the universal consciousness.

That, of course, comes directly out of the Hindu religion, bringing men into this new level of consciousness, and thus you can actually have an evolutionary transformation, and we're going to change the world by our thinking and by this consciousness, and we're going to save dear Mother Earth.

And it's a whole thing that man is talking so much about the environment and saving the environment and all. It's true that our whole environment is suffering tremendously because of man and because of man's greed.

But man does not have the capacity to save his environment. We can't change it. Only Jesus will be able to make the changes that are described here. For during the time that he reigns, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling will be together, and a little child shall lead them.

Peace in the Kingdom Age and the Restoration of Creation

That ferocity of nature in the animals will be removed. They will all be peaceful and docile, and it'll be just the world as God created it, not a world that is suffering as the result of sin and the curse of sin.

So, the beautiful picture of a little child leading a lion around and probably just grab hold of the mane and pulls the lion in the direction he wants it to go. The cow and the bear shall feed together, and their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, no longer carnivorous but grazing in the fields.

And the nursing child—and it's interesting that the children are brought into this picture of the Kingdom Age—we are told in another passage of Scripture that they will play in the streets in safety, that the little children, the nursing child, will play on the hole of a poisonous snake, and the weaned child will put his hand upon the cockatrice's den, which, of course, is another poisonous snake.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And so a glorious time when the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

The Davidic Promise and Christ’s Universal Rule

Psalm 2 comes into play here, where God says to His Son Jesus, ask of me, and I will give to you the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And it tells how the kings of the earth had gathered together against God, the scene that we read in Revelation 19.

But it says, the Lord who dwells in heaven shall laugh, for He shall have them in derision, and He will establish His righteous King upon the throne. So it all ties together. The future day when Jesus comes to reign over the whole earth, and it will be an earth that will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

And in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse. God's promise to David will be fulfilled. David's seed, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will sit upon the throne. And as we read in Revelation, He shall reign forever and ever.

And so in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for a signal of the people. And to Him will the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious. Now when Jesus comes to reign upon the earth, He will reign in the holy mountain, Mount Zion, in Jerusalem.

And we read that the kings of the earth will gather each year to present their gifts unto Him. Now who are the kings of the earth that will be gathering in Jerusalem? Well, you're looking at one. In Revelation chapter 1, as He is describing Jesus Christ for us, He tells us, verse 5, and in giving John to the seven churches grace and peace from God, and from the seven spirits.

And as we mentioned, that is a reference, they feel, to the 11th chapter. Here's sevenfold working of the Spirit. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.

To Him be glory and dominion forever. So He has made us to be kings. In chapter 5 of the book of Revelation, when Jesus opens or takes the little scroll to break the seals, in verse 9 it declares, and they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals, for you were slain, and you've redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and you have made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

So you'll have a free trip to Jerusalem every year to bring to Him the gifts and to just sit and worship and enjoy. Now, the Church of Jesus Christ has this promise to be kings and priests, reigning with Christ upon the earth.

The Parable of the Talents and Faithful Stewardship

You remember that Jesus gave us a parable that dealt with the master who went away, and when he came back again to the kingdom, he gathered together the nations, and he separated them as a those on his right hand, he said, Come, ye blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundations of the earth.

But to those on his left hand, he said, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Now, he gave another parable in which he said that the Lord went away and entrusted the servants with different amounts of money.

To one he gave five talents, to another he gave four talents, and to another he gave one talent. And when the Lord returned to find out how the servants had done, to the one to whom he had given five talents, he said, Lord, I took your five talents and I invested and used them, and I have now ten talents.

And he said, Well done, good and faithful servant, I will make you ruler over ten cities, enter in to the joy of the Lord. And the same with that of four, he brought back eight, enter. To the one who had given one talent, he said, Lord, I know that you're, you know, you're a hard businessman, and you really want to exact where you haven't sown and all, and thus I was very careful with the talent you gave me.

I buried it, and now I've dug it up, and here it is. And he said, You know that I want interest and all on my investments. And he said, Take away the talent and give it to one that has ten. And so to him that hath is given, but to him who hath not is taken away even that which he hath.

In other words, we're to use what God has given us, and my faithfulness in what I do with what God has given me now will determine the degree in which I will reign in the kingdom age. And so here is a prophecy of that time when Jesus will be reigning in Jerusalem, and it will be a signal really to the world, and the Gentiles will gather unto him, and his rest shall be glorious.

Rest in Christ’s Finished Work

Oh, the peace. The Bible in another place says that in that day there will be peace like a river, and the earth will just be filled with peace, and his rest will be glorious. Today we look at a world that's filled with strife, filled with chaos.

There's no rest in the world today except for the righteous. And the world is like a troubled sea driven to and fro. There's no rest, the Bible said, for the wicked. But our rest even now is in Jesus Christ, and he has a place of rest for you.

And they who have entered into that rest have ceased from their own labors. The rest that we have in Christ is that rest of faith, where I am trusting in him fully and completely for my salvation and for my righteous standing before God.

I'm not trying to work to be righteous. I'm not trying to present my works to God for righteousness. My righteousness is something that is already established. It's established in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for me, and in my faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

God is resting in the work of Jesus Christ. He died once and for all. And having ascended, he is sitting at the right hand of the Father until the Father makes the whole setup complete and makes all of his foes his footstool.

And so he's just waiting for that day when the Father will say, OK, son, go down and take control and take over. And so the Father is resting. The work is finished. Jesus on the cross said it's finished, the work of redemption.

And he's God is resting in that. And you need to rest in that. The work of your redemption, the work of your righteousness is a finished work that God imputes to you by your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

And we have promised in us a tremendous, glorious future when Jesus, our Lord and King, comes back to this earth to establish God's kingdom. And in that day, his will will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven.

The Second Gathering of Israel

It shall come to pass in that day. And so now he's going to tell us a lot more about that day, that day when Jesus is reigning as King on the earth. In that day, the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of the Jews, which are left in Assyria, and Egypt, and Pathos, and Cush, and Elam, and Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the coast of the sea.

There will be, when the Lord returns, a second gathering of the Jews back into the land. Now, in Matthew's gospel, chapter 24, Jesus, in talking about his coming again, speaks about this gathering together of his elect from the four corners of the heaven.

And it's the same reference to the gathering together of his people, the Jews, from all over the world. Now, there are many Jews that have already gone back to the land. This will be the second gathering.

And thus he speaks of it, that he will again gather in that day, the second time to recover the rest of the people. There are a lot of Jews here still in the United States. There are a lot of Jews still in Europe.

There are a lot of Jews still in Asia. And so there will be that second gathering when the Lord returns of the Jews back into the land. And he shall set up a signal for the nations, and will assemble the outcast of Israel, and he will gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

And in Matthew, it's four corners of heaven. Now, the envy also of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off, and Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

The End of Israel’s Division and the Subjugation of the Nations

Now, this is the division that took place in the nation of Israel. The northern kingdom, headed by the tribe of Ephraim, rebelled against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. And the southern kingdom, headed by Judah, there came great jealousies, great vexations, even wars between the Jews.

The northern, headed by the tribe of Ephraim, and the southern, headed by the tribe of Judah. And this will end. It won't come up again. And of course, even now, as they have gathered together, they are not interested in whether or not you are of Judah or Ephraim.

There is that unity already that is there in Israel today. And so, they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west. They will spoil those of the east together. They will lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Amman shall obey them.

So, Jordan, Saudi Arabia are mentioned here, as well as the Palestinians in the area of the Gaza Strip. They will all be subjected to them in that day. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.

So, there will be a geographical kind of a change that will take place, and the Red Sea, that tongue of the Red Sea that comes up there, will be destroyed. And with his mighty wind, he will shake his hand over the river and will smite it in the seven streams, and men will be able to come over dry shod, even as when God brought them out of Egypt under Moses.

The Highway for the Returning Remnant

And there shall be a highway for the remnant of the people which shall be left from Assyria, like as was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. So, God will prepare the way for the Jews to return from all over the world.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse venture through the Bible in our next broadcast, as Pastor Chuck continues to guide us through the fascinating book of Isaiah. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us.

But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message, simply order Isaiah 11, verse 4, when visiting thewordfortoday .org. And while you're there, we encourage you to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck.

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And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time, as Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible.

That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today. And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing comments.

Loving Fellowship With Jesus Above Mere Works

Spend some time sitting at the feet of Jesus this week. Be careful that you're not so engrossed and involved in works that you don't have time for love. It is love that He longs for, and that loving fellowship with you.

That's more important to Him than the works. He wants to come into His garden to enjoy the fruit. And thus, may you have that time of sweet communion with Jesus, as you pour out your heart to Him, and as you receive His love for you.

Have you ever had a friend who's not a believer, and they ask you a question about the Bible, and you're thrilled? Finally, they want to know about God, but then you go blank, because you can't remember the Scripture that would answer their very question?

You're not alone. It happens to me all the time, and I think, if only I had a quick Scripture reference that would help me right then and there, that would be perfect. Well, guess what I found? Pastor Chuck's Old and New Testament study guides are available to download as e-books instantly to your phone or mobile device.

Now, whenever you need to find the meaning to a Scripture reference quickly, you can. Pastor Chuck has written great little Bible commentaries to help anyone come to a better understanding of God's Word.

To find out more and to read a book preview, visit thewordfortoday .org and click on the link to download the Old and New Testament study guides by Chuck Smith. Or, if you would like to order these books in print, call the Word for Today at 800 -272 -9673.

This program has been sponsored by the Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.