The King Will Come

Move the bus. These are great words of hope and comfort in American culture. Maybe you're not familiar with them, as I was not, but these words come from the lips of Ty Pennington, the host of the TV show Extreme Home Makeover. And as I can tell, many of you need an explanation of how these words are of great comfort, as I needed to learn. See, the basis of the show, the idea of the show is that the TV show takes a family who's down and out, a family who either has a financial crisis, a health crisis, an emotional crisis, whatever it is. It's a family who is in need of some hope, some peace, some comfort. And they take their home and they remodel it. Or sometimes they destroy it and they build it all up. And they give it the finest and the nicest new TVs and luxuries and technology. And what they do is they put the family behind the bus. And when Ty Pinnon declares, move the bus, the bus rolls away and the family gets to see their new house. And the storyline, the idea behind the TV show is that whatever trouble this family was in, this new house is supposed to give them comfort, new hope. new peace. Well, while I think this is a good thing, helping people with their physical needs, I fear it's giving false hope, false peace, and false comfort. You see, that house is not going to have the cutting-edge technology within months. That house is going to begin to deteriorate and fall apart and need maintenance. And all those old emotional or physical or financial problems that this house temporarily distracts them from, they're going to come back into their minds and they're going to continue to burden them. The house that Ty Pennington and Home Depot and Extreme Homemaker presents to these families who need hope and comfort, it's only temporary. It's only a temporary distraction from the real pain. Friends, this morning we're not going to talk about a house like this, a house like Ty Pennington presents. No, we're going to talk about a house that does give us true comfort. We're going to talk about a house that does give true peace. It is the house that God makes. Our passage this morning is 2 Samuel 7. If you're using one of the Bibles we provided in the pew, it's on page 223. Read with me, 2 Samuel 7, verses 1 through 17. 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 have not lived in a house since the day I brought you up, brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In 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 the following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel and I have been with you wherever you went and 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 that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your 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, in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. This is an extremely important passage in redemptive history. There's an extremely, extremely important passage as we understand how God's plan of salvation has unfolded. You see, God's plan of salvation, his redemptive history is like an onion. There's multiple layers to it. In the center of that onion is Jesus Christ. When we fold back all the layers, what we see clearly, what we today get to look at in the New Testament, is the clarity of who the Messiah would be. But if we put all the layers of the onion back on, if we go back to the very beginning, we see that that greatest layer, well, it's a promise in Genesis 3.15. God promises to Eve that one of her offspring would destroy Satan. would destroy sin, would destroy death. That's the first layer of the promise that God says, I'm going to fix what we have broken. And see, the promise to Eve is that one of her offspring, and we have no idea who that could be. She's the mother of every human being. That could have been anybody. But then in Genesis 12, God pulls back a couple of different layers of the onion there. And he chooses a certain man of Ram. He says, through your offspring, I'm going to bless the entire world. Through your offspring, I'm going to send the Messiah. And so now it's not just any child of Eve, but has to come through a particular people, the children of Abraham. And then we have Isaac. And then we have Abraham's grandchild, Jacob, whose name becomes Israel. And we know that the promise now is through Abraham, through Isaac, through Israel. And then in Numbers, we see that it's through the particular tribe of Judah. Another layer of the onion gets pulled back. Now we know which tribe of Israel the Messiah is going to come from. And here we see one more layer of the onion of a thick layer, because it's not just from the it's not just the trouble of Judah that we know the Savior is going to come from. It's from the lineage of Jesse. It's one of Jesse's sons, David. David is the king of Israel. He is the first true king that God chose for Israel. And it's through his lineage. that God is going to save the world. It's through His offspring that God is going to fulfill all the promises to Abraham and that first promise to Eve. This morning, we get to look at this key text in redemptive history, because this is really a turning point in how focused redemptive history gets. 2 Samuel 7 is a key turning point, and let's look now to the setting of 2 Samuel 7, verses 1 through 3. Now, when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king, David, said to Nathan, the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. So we have here David. He's going up to battle. He has rest. He secured the borders and the boundaries of the kingdom. It's at basic rest. In many ways, the commission to Joshua has somewhat been fulfilled. He's at rest. He's putting his feet up. Maybe he has a snuggie on. He's sitting in Jerusalem and he says, I'm at rest. And he looks around and he sees, look at this beautiful palace I'm in. The palace of cedar. The palace with royal trappings all around me. He looks outside and he says, There's the Ark of God. It's in a tent. And the word here actually isn't the normal word we'd see for tent, it's more like curtain. It's in a shanty. It's in this, it's under a sheet, kind of like what your kids make with forks. It's temporary. It's shabby. It has nothing to do with the royalty or the holiness that God deserves. And so it appears that David has a good desire. He says, I'm in this wonderful, beautiful house of Cedar. Why is God dwelling? In the shanty. Under a curtain, you see here, there's already keywords presented for our entire passage. House and dwelling. These two words go together. Where is God going to dwell? What is the house that God needs? for a proper dwelling. And so, David the king gives his desire to Nathan. And Nathan says to the king, because it seems logical, God has always been with David. God has always blessed David. David is a man after God's own heart. This seems like a good thing. So, Nathan says logically, go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. And so, they start thinking about plans. Well, that very night, God corrects Nathan for his advice. God corrects David for his fault. And this is where we're going to jump into our sermon text. Our first point this morning is that God does not need a house to be Israel's God. God does not need a house to be Israel's God. This is 4-7. Hear what God says. For the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, Go and tell my servant, David, very intentional language. He's not referring to go and tell King David, go and tell my servant, David. Would you build me a house to dwell in? Now, I don't want to get into the Hebrew grammar and you don't want me to get into the Hebrew grammar. But there's a way that the Hebrew is written here that is emphasizing, would you build me? A house to dwell in. Who do you think you are that you could build me a house to dwell in? Here is the holy, almighty, all powerful creator of everything, including David. He's challenging David. Because David has undermined the proper authority structure. David has not submitted himself properly to God as a servant. He has told God where and how he's going to dwell. And God is saying, you don't have the credentials to build me a house. You don't have the qualification to tell me where and how I'm going to live. There's a problem here because God is the Creator. He is holy. He has absolute freedom to live and dwell as He desires. And here it's obvious that he is offended by David telling God where and how he's going to live. He goes on to make the argument in verse 6. I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling." You see, the first case God makes is referring to the exile, the exodus from Egypt. God put Israel in Egypt as an incubator so they would grow great in number and so that he could prove that he is the one true God. You see, in the exodus, God proves that he is greater than the greatest political power of the world, Egypt, by destroying every god that they have and overcoming the king and giving them a glorious exodus out of the nation. God did not need a house to exercise his power. God lived in a tent while he exercised his power. Secondly, in 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, I never said have. Why have you not built me a house of cedar? The judges of this key. Section of Israel's history of God's redemptive history, where the theme is there is no king in Israel, so everyone did what they wanted. So God continued to lift up a judge and then a judge and then a judge. And God always exercised his might and his power to deliver Israel. God did not need a house. to exercise this power. See, the basic problem that God is emphasizing here in verses four through seven is that David is not qualified to tell God where he's going to live or how he's going to live. He's not qualified to build God a house. God is the infinite Spirit. God is the Almighty, Holy, most beautiful being in all the world. How can David ever think he can build a house? proper for God in His glory. Well, friends, we think about this challenge that God gives to Nathan and David both. Let's think about the way we worship. There's a real lesson here in terms of how we approach God, because what we always must do is realize we're servants of the king. We're creatures seeking to worship the holy creator. See, our problem is we have the Machiavellian complex. We think we're little kings. We think we're little queens. We think we have the authority to approach God however we would like. See, we're not just creatures of God. We're rebellious creatures. If we want to worship Him in true worship, we must worship Him as He has declared and instructed us in His word. And so, as we as a church are committed to worshipping this God who has saved us, let us be faithful to His Word. Let us cling to the clear prescriptions of Scripture. Let us not always be concerned about the way it always has been or the way we personally want it. But let us talk freely about what the Word prescribes. And let us cling to those things that are absolute and clear in Scripture. Our second point this morning comes from verses 8 through 11. God promises David prosperity and peace. God promises David prosperity and peace. Look at verses 8 through 11. 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. From following the sheep that they usually printed for my people Israel. And I have 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. God's giving a very particular correction here. And I think this gets a little bit more into David's motivation for wanting to build God a house. Now, on one level, I think David had a desire, a good desire to build God a house. He wanted to have a glorious place for God's dwelling to be. But on another level, I think with this correction that God presents to David, And Nathan, I think David's trying to get a little security for himself. I think David sits on Jerusalem, he sees that his borders have been given to him, given rest by God, and what he wants to do is he wants to make sure the presence of God and the power of God never leave him. He's trying to cling to security that God will always be with him by building a house, by building a permanent structure. See, if we get into the mind of David a little bit, who was the king before David? Saul. What happened to Saul? God forsook him. God left Saul. And you can see throughout all the writing, we're going to see it even in this promise later on. We see in David's Psalms, this is always in the back of his mind. He loves Saul. He loves Saul's children. He loved Saul and wanted to keep him as the king and honor him and respect him. And he was very moved, I think, by how God moved the spirit off of Saul. I think David is having a lapse of faith. David here has fear that now that he has the great kingdom built up, now that he has his border secure, is God going to remain with him? And so he does what we often do. He tries to create security. He tries to build a permanent structure so God no longer will move to and fro in a tent, but that God's ark will be protected and find a permanent home there next to his home on the Mount of Zion. I think David here has a lapse of faith in wanting to build this house for God. Not only is he breaking the order of the authority, but he is desiring to secure his power, his prosperity, and his peace. And notice what God does to remind him that he doesn't need to secure this. God starts reminding him of all that he has done for him. I took you from being a shepherd boy, and I've made you the prince of my people Israel. And that's understating it a bit. If you go back to 1 Samuel 16, read it today, or this week, Samuel is told that the king is going to be from the family of Jesse. Well, when Samuel goes to Jesse and he says, all right, I need to see your sons. One of them is going to be the king. Jesse presents the seven big ones. In the Israel family, seven is the perfect number. Once you have seven boys, anything beyond that, well, to say it nice is to say they're extra. To say it the way the Israelites really looked at it, leftover. And so, when Jesse's told, one of your sons is going to be the king, he lines up the seven. And as Samuel walks by each one, he's mesmerized by the strength and the might and the height of a couple of them. And the Spirit says, do not look to the big one. Do not be overwhelmed by how big and mighty they are. And he goes to one, and then two, and then three, and all seven of them. And with each one, the Spirit tells Samuel, no, this is not the king. So Samuel has to ask Jesse, is there another one? Did God make a mistake? What's happening here? Samuel says, oh yeah, well, there's that eighth boy. We've got him out in the flock. He doesn't stay home. He's out with the sheep. So Samuel goes and, well, he's the king. You see, God took David from very humble origins, from being nobody, even in his own family. to being the mighty King of Israel. God reminds David what great mercy, what great grace He has shown to him. Then further, in v. 9, the second part of v. 9, "...and I will make for you a great name." If David was worried about his peace and his prosperity, God makes it very clear. I will give you a great name. And what you should be hearing right now is Genesis 12. This is an Abrahamic kind of promise. David knows who Abraham is. David knows Abraham is the greatest of all men because God called him out from being a pagan to being the man of promise. And part of the Abrahamic covenant is that I will make your name great. That's who the great ones are. So God gives him a sweet promise. I will make you like Abraham. You will be one of the key founders, one of the key men in the redemptive history of my plan of salvation. Finally, sprinkled throughout the text, is God promising He's going to give him peace. God promising He's going to give him rest. God promising that He's going to be with him. He's going to fight His battles for him. That one day the people of Israel will be planted. They will dwell in peace and prosperity. They will have final and ultimate rest. Friends, as we think about this passage. We often have lapses of faith. We often have lapses of faith like David, and what we should do is counsel ourselves as God counseled David. in our desire to find some way of physically capturing the promises of God, physically wanting some kind of physical declaration that God is with us. In the midst of my greatest trials, I usually say, God, if you would just lift the couch up in midair, show me some sign that you're with me. I need something to know. You're going to make everything all right. I don't need a physical sign from God. I don't need to create some kind of physical representation that God's with me. No, what I need to do is remember, I need to remember that God has made mighty promises. God has made promises that He will be with me, that I have nothing to fear if He is with me, that He will not forsake me, that He loves me, that He cares for me, that He is my protector, my defender, my friend. I need to remember the great promises of God throughout all of history, just as he just said earlier with the Exodus and with the judges. God has been mighty in his acts throughout all of history. We remember that God is able. And more so, I need to remember that God has been mighty in my own life. You remember what God has done for me in my salvation. If I trust God to save me from my own sins, can I not trust him to give me peace? and prosperity and rest. Church, what we need to do is help one another remember these things. What we are called to do is help one another remember God's mighty words by always proclaiming them to one another. And we need to help others remember the great work of God in our present situations by confessing our sins, confessing our trials, confessing our weaknesses and doing it in a way that the gospel is magnified. Doing it in a way that God is glorified. While we're going through trials, we need others who have been through similar trials to come alongside us and love us in the midst of those trials. But this prophecy is not about David. This prophecy is moving into the real focus of the morning here. Our third and final section will be 11 through 16. God promises David an eternal kingdom. Look at 11b. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your 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. Now, notice what happens in 11b. Key transition. Remember, this all started with God, with David saying, I'm going to build God a house. Well, as God corrects David, no, you're not qualified to build me a house. I don't need a house. Trust me, trust my promises, trust the words of salvation I've given to you. No, what you're going to receive is a promise that I'm going to build you a house. And there's a turn of phrase here. This is classic Hebrew storytelling. When David says house, he's thinking of a physical structure, a physical permanent building. But there's a double meaning for the word. It's not just the physical structure here, God isn't referring to that, no, he's referring to the other meaning, the household, the lineage, the children's children's children's children. What God says is, I'm not going to build you a house because a physical dwelling is not going to do you any spiritual good. No, I'm going to build you a dynasty. I'm going to give you a lineage that's going to bless you and most importantly, well, it's going to bless us. See, God promises to David, I'm going to build you a dynasty, an eternal kingdom. And God says, when you die, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come for your body and I will establish his kingdom. And so this is where the promise gets more narrow. It's not just the son of Eve. It's not just the son of Abraham. It's not just from the tribe of Judah. No, it's from the lineage of David himself that we're going to see the promised Messiah. But there's other qualifications for this king. Who will he be? Well, there's kind of a bookend here. It repeats it over and over again. Verses 13 and 16. He's going to be a forever king. He's going to be an eternal king. His reign will have no end. Another qualification or another promise. He will be like a son to God the Father. God's steadfast love will not depart from the Son. Another promise is that he will be disciplined for his iniquity. He will be disciplined for his sin. Now, the promise is that it's going to be an offspring and it's a singular here. We're looking for one son from David. We're looking for one king who's going to come from the line of David. And if you're an Israelite, well, they're probably like us. We want it now. So what they want to know is who is the son of David? Let's put our hope in the fact that hopefully, maybe the next son, the next offspring will be the king forever, the king who will give us peace, the king who will give us a glorious kingdom. So who's the next son of David? Well, it's Solomon. Solomon who has an interesting coming forth. His mother is Bathsheba. But Israel puts their hope in Solomon. And Solomon has a lot of good qualifications. Solomon looks like he may be the king because he actually extends the boundaries of Israel. Solomon is blessed with great wisdom to lead Israel. But we know Solomon was not the king forever. Well, we know it because he's dead. But Solomon sinned. Solomon committed iniquity. Solomon married hundreds of foreign wives and worshiped their foreign gods. Solomon failed. And because of Solomon's great sin, the nation is even divided between the North and the South. And if you're to read through Israel's history, as you're supposed to do, what you'll see is King after king after king is described as, and he was evil. He committed sins like his father. What you're supposed to read is son after son after son. King after king after king. Thale. Thale. Thale. And it's interesting, the Hebrew Bible ends with a book of Chronicles. That's the ending for the Israelites' redemptive history. And if you turn there, it's astonishing. It's a big, fat exclamation point of failure. Because the king that rescues Israel from their captivity, his name was Cyrus. Cyrus isn't from the tribe of Judah. Cyrus isn't from the nation of Israel. Cyrus is a Gentile. If you read the Hebrew Bible, you're supposed to have it end with absolute, complete frustration because you heard God promise that a king is going to come from the line of David, that one of his sons is going to come and he's going to have a forever reign. He's going to have an eternal kingdom. He's going to bring peace and prosperity and salvation. And then every king after him failed. And they had to be saved by a Gentile? If we read the Old Testament the way we're supposed to, it's going to frustrate you. And that's what makes the Gospel all the more sweeter. Because we see in Matthew that Jesus comes from the line of David. David is the center of that genealogy in chapter 1. So he fits the qualifications. More importantly, he is an eternal King. As John read in Peter's sermon in Acts. He's an eternal King because He died and rose again. He was the eternal King who could lip death in the face, who could take upon the sins of the world and destroy their power. He rose again, and that's why He is the King forever. He's not just like a son and receives steadfast love. He is the Son of the Father who has existed from before creation. And it was committed to every promise we see in Scripture. Friends, as we look towards the birth of Christ, let us think about how sweet this promise is that God has built a house for us. It's a lineage from David through which he has brought us the Messiah. Now, one of the more interesting verses here is the second part of verse 14. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. Now, it's easy to see how God applies that passage to all the kings that fail. When they sin, God punishes them. See, we confess that we believe in a sinless Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ was obedient to the Father in every way. And so how does this passage relate to him? Friends, Jesus was under God's discipline. Jesus did receive the rod of men. Jesus did receive the stripes of the sons of men, but it wasn't for his iniquity. It was from ours. You see, when Jesus goes to the cross, He is under the wrath of God. He is under God's just judgment. Not for His own sin, but for ours. When Jesus Christ dies on the cross, He's not under the judgment. He's not under the discipline of God for what He has done against God. No. He is dying. He is dying because He is taking upon our wrath. He is taking upon Himself our sin. He is taking upon Himself the rebellion that we have against God. And what He is giving to us in exchange is His righteousness, is His obedience. You see, the King in Israel is the man who is supposed to stand between God and His nation. God and His church. The king is supposed to lead the people according to God's right ways. And the king is supposed to lift up the people so they can truly worship God. No Israelite king was able to do this. No human was able to do this because every human failed. That's why God Himself came down and took upon flesh so that He could properly lead His people in worship. So that He could properly lift us up to God. And the only way He could do that was to remove our offense. Remove our rebellion. See, if we were to come into God's presence, apart from Christ, if we walked into God's front door, if it smells. And our rebellion against Him would be offensive. Our rebellious lifestyles, our shaking our fist at Him, our refusing to accept that we are creatures and He is the Creator, our refusing to accept that we have sinned against Him and need a Savior. Our rebellion against God would be offensive to His righteous and holy senses. When He takes a whiff of us, He would be offended. He would remove us from His presence. His wrath and His judgment would be upon us. But if we walk up to God's front door with Christ, with Christ having taken our sin on Himself, with us placing our faith in Christ that He had died for us, with Christ putting His righteousness upon us, God would smell a sun. God would be pleased because he doesn't smell our sin. No, he experiences the son who is obedient. He would say, come home. Friends, our sins are offensive to God. That's why he disciplines iniquity. We need Jesus Christ. We need that eternal King that has gone to death and destroyed it. We need that eternal King that has died for our sins so that we can have righteousness and life. As we look to Christmas, let us recognize that we are worshiping the God who became man so that we can have eternal life. Friends, I pray that we We'll commit ourselves to placing our faith and to worshiping the one true King, that we will pray and confess that He is not only a King, but He is the God. He is our only Savior. He has died for our sins and He has risen again. And He is coming back to take us home. Let us pray. Almighty God, we come before You. Thank You, Lord, for allowing us to come into Your presence. Thank You, Lord, for allowing us to come into Your home, Your holy temple, through Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, that we no longer have to fear a judgment and a wrath for our rebellion against You. Thank You, Lord, for Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. Thank You, Lord, for Your King who reigns forever. Thank You, Lord, that we can put our absolute faith in Him and know that we will be brought home as Your children. We wait for that day that You will return to renew us and to make us Your own. In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.