They wrote, although my house
be not so with God, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, ensured. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although He make it not to grow. I've been
thinking about that a little bit this morning. Of course, I can relate with
David whenever he says, although my house be not so with God,
I think all of us at some point or another has experienced family
members and friends who have yet to believe the true gospel
of Jesus Christ. We have a lot of religious family
members and friends that follow a gospel of free will, a gospel
of free choice, a gospel of God being at the mercy of everybody's
decisions and we have to let God do this, let God do that.
That salvation hinges upon whether or not we repent and believe.
That we're not justified before God unless we do this or do that.
That Christ has died for everybody. And if you'll just accept His
salvation or come to Him or whatever the condition might be, then
He'll give it to you. He wants to give it to you. He
has the power to give it to you, but he won't do it because he
ain't gonna override your free will, your free choice. He's
not gonna force himself on you, as Adrian Rogers and Charles
Stanley used to say. He's a gentleman. He won't force
himself on you. So, we have friends and family
that believe this false gospel, and it does break my heart. It
does... cause us to go before the Lord
and pray that He would grant in their repentance and faith
on the Lord Jesus Christ, not this one that's made by the fashion
of men. But David here says, you know,
although my house be not so with God, yet He hath made with me
an everlasting covenant. I think about how the Bible talks
about how when the Lord saves His people, He saves them not
only out of every nation, tribe and language, tongue, whatever,
group, but he also saves people out of their families. He saves
them and sometimes there may be some that are saved within
the family and some that are not. I couldn't imagine what
it would be like to be married to a woman who didn't believe
God. I couldn't imagine what it would
be like to be married maybe to an atheist who just totally rejected
the thought of a God whatsoever, you know. But yet David here, he said,
you know, despite the fact that it's not so with all my family,
and we definitely know that David had some problems within his
family, especially his children. There was a problem among them.
Yet what was it that was, to me, as we see in the last part
of that verse, you know, this is all my desire. This is, you
know, the thing that I desire more than anything is this salvation,
is that despite our love for our family and our relationship
with them and things like that, there is this deeper love, this
deeper desire that we get as being the children of God. There
is a bond or a union that is fuller, deeper, more important
than even family, you know. Jesus himself even said, you
know, that I'm going to cause division among mother and daughter,
father and son, brother and sister, you know. There's going to be
this division that comes whenever one becomes a disciple or a follower
of Jesus Christ. And that division comes because
we believe the truth. We believe the gospel. And that
gospel, whenever it's narrowed down to its, to me, most simplistic
discussion, it's on where does our righteousness come? Does
our righteousness come from the sovereign hand of God laying
that to our account apart from any condition that we do Or does
that come by us responding, coming, doing this or whatever? Is our
righteousness truly a righteousness that came to us irregardless
of us doing anything? It came to us and was given to
us. And is enough. That's all we
need. We don't need a righteousness
of our own. We don't need to perform before
God at a certain level for God to continue to keep us and to
love us and to want us bless us. You know, that is the
gospel of religion that says that we have to maintain this
level of righteousness before God. David here, he says, God
hath made me an everlasting covenant. Now, the first thing that kind
of pops out in that is that he says, He hath made with me an
everlasting covenant. Now, there's a lot of people,
and I think we've talked about this before, When God makes a covenant, he
doesn't make a two-way covenant with his creation. So whenever
David says he has made with me an everlasting covenant, David
wasn't involved in the saying, okay, well, if you do this, then
I will do this. Now I've preached that. I've
taught that before, that a covenant is between God and us. And God
says, I'll do this. And if you'll do this, I will
give this to you. And that's kind of the mentality
most churches today. that Jesus will die for you,
He will forgive you of your sins, and He will do all this if you
will do this. So there's where the covenant
is. It's a two-way partnership. And we know, I mean, men know
that a contract or a covenant is a contract between two parties. But whenever it comes to God,
it's not so. With God, a covenant is a unilateral
covenant. God is saying, I will do this. Why? Well, because known unto
God are all His works, the end from the beginning. He says,
I will do all my pleasure. Okay? He's not going to do your
pleasure. He's going to do His pleasure.
If your pleasure lines up with His pleasure, what a wonderful
thing that is. But whenever our pleasures, whenever
our desires, whenever our thoughts are not the same as God's thoughts
in what He plans to do, then there's conflict and it's on
our part. But when David, who says that
he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, it is that he consulted
with David and said, if you'll do this, I will do this. No,
he told David, this is my covenant with you. So he, yes, did he
make the covenant with David? Yes, he made it with David, but
he didn't made it on the grounds that David would perform something
so that he would be able to give it to David. And he said, he
hath made with me a covenant. So that means that God made the
covenant, then the covenant was lined out by God. That the covenant
was thought up by God, outlined by God, drew up. The contract
was written up by him. He was the underwriter of it,
or whatever they call him, that draws up the terms of it. He's
the one that drew up the terms. This covenant, I made. He made with me a covenant. Second thing I've seen in there,
or third thing I've seen in there, is that it's an everlasting covenant.
This covenant didn't begin with David. Whenever David was there,
hearing the Lord speak with him. This covenant wasn't something
that began in this time of Earth's history. This covenant was an
everlasting covenant, meaning that this covenant that he made
with David was a covenant that he drew up and made before anything
was ever happening. If it's an everlasting covenant,
then it means that it's a covenant that has always existed. It didn't
come into being at the cross. It didn't come into being at
faith. It didn't come into being when the patriarchs lived. Whenever he spoke with Abraham
before David, he didn't The covenant didn't come into existence then.
It didn't come into existence with Moses. It didn't come into
existence with David. It didn't come into existence
with Isaac and Jacob and all the others. Name them all. It's
an everlasting covenant. The covenant that God made with
David is an everlasting covenant. Therefore, just because David
was involved in the activity of this covenant, This covenant
was made irregardless, necessarily, if you'll allow me some leeway
here in explaining this, irregardless of David, the everlasting covenant
was in regards to Christ. That's who the center of the
everlasting covenant is. I have loved a people, and I
have given you a people, and these people are in you, and
therefore I will bless you. And they are blessed because
they are in you. And that everlasting covenant
of salvific blessings is all based upon the elect who is Christ. We're elect because we're in
Christ. And we receive all spiritual
blessings because we are in Christ. But He is the one who received
those blessings and all the promises beforehand. The everlasting covenant
is with Christ. And as the mediator of that covenant,
He's the one who is bringing that covenant about,
right? He's the one who is working out the terms of that covenant.
It's not David who's doing the working of the covenant. It is
Christ coming. Why? Because He's our proxy.
He's the mediator. There's only one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Jesus Christ, right? So if there
was a covenant between David and God, and David had a part,
then David is the one who's doing the mediating. I'm having to
mediate my end of the covenant, right? There is joint mediation. God does his part, I do my part.
What's the big theological term we use for that? Synergism, right? Well, it's not. It's monergism.
It's monergistic. It's one work, God's work. He's
the one who is doing the work. And he did that by taking on
flesh, and coming as the mediator, Christ Jesus. He is mediating
the terms of His own covenant. Because there's only one person
that can mediate the divine aspect of the covenant, and that's God.
And there's only one person that can mediate the human or man
part of the aspect, and that's Christ Jesus. So God has to take
on flesh and become Christ Jesus to mediate this covenant so that
man, because the Bible says that the terms of this covenant is
that sin has to be condemned in the flesh. The sins of his
people have to be condemned in the flesh and therefore flesh
has to be condemned, or sin has to be condemned in flesh. Christ
had to come in flesh so that sin could be condemned. So his
people, whom he predestinated to be sinners through Adam, Their
sin would be mediated by Christ Jesus. And that sin would not
be imputed to them. Why? Because they were in Christ
Jesus. He is their mediator. That's
why we can't mediate the covenant. The reason we can't mediate the
covenant is because the natural man can do nothing on the spiritual
level. The natural man cannot keep the
law of God. The natural man cannot pay for
his sins or that God's justice would be
satisfied. I mean, that is exactly why, in my estimation, I could
be corrected on this if it's not according to Scripture, but
in my estimation, that is why there is eternal damnation is
because sinners cannot pay the full debt of the price that they
owe for their sinfulness Therefore, that punishment continues on
and on and on and on. They cannot ever fill up the
justice of God by their persecution, by the judgment that God has
put on them. Therefore, they experience that
eternal punishment, that eternal damnation. Again, I'm open for
correction on that and everything. But Jesus, He was able to take
on all of our sin. And it was enough. If it wasn't
enough, God wouldn't have said it was enough. He would not have
raised Christ from the dead. He would not have said that by
His death He justified the many. We would not have been justified
had not God said, My justice is satisfied in His sacrifice. So therefore, The everlasting
covenant was mediated not by God and David, but by God and
Christ, whom David was a picture of. Oh, surely. The covenant is an everlasting
covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, all the terms
of the covenant has to be carried out and fulfilled by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he did that. He did every
bit that was part of that that covenant. Now, I will also say
this. I don't think that that covenant
of the Lord was, if you'll Jesus go down and do this, then I will
do this either. I believe it was this. This is
what I will do. I will send my son. He will be the mediator. Jesus said, I will go. Not that
if you will send me, I will do it all for you. No, he didn't.
It wasn't a, if, if so, if this, if that, or if this, no, it was,
this is the purpose of God. The purpose of God was, this
is what I declare. This is how I'm going to perform
righteousness. This is how I'm going to show
righteousness. This is how I'm going to show all the attributes
of who I am to my creation. Justice, righteousness, holiness,
goodness, mercy, grace, all that's going to be showed on a people
who doesn't deserve it, who is sinful people, but because I've
given them to Christ and He is their proxy and substitute, He
is going to, on their behalf, obey the law for them, on their
behalf, die for their sins, and experience all the wrath of God
that is due for that sin. And therefore, in grace, I will
count it to them, even though they didn't do nothing for it,
and they didn't deserve it, because I did that to my son, then they
will be the recipients of it. So they see all that aspect and
characteristic of God. But to this group, the vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction, God says, I will not show grace,
I will show hatred, I will show justice, I will show wrath, I
will show, again, holiness and righteousness is shown in the
destruction of the wicked. Whenever we see the wicked being
judged in their sins, whenever we see the wicked being tossed
into everlasting darkness and damnation, we see the justice
of God, we see the holiness of God. God is not going to accept
any sin. is not going to accept any man's
attempt at righteousness. And therefore, his justice is
fully seen. God would not be a just God if
he winked at it, if he let it go, if he lessened the amount
of judgment or wrath upon it. He would not be a just God. And so, when we look at this,
we see that when David seen or become aware of this everlasting
covenant, what did it do? He said, This is all my salvation
and all my desire. This is all I desire to know.
This is all my salvation. Now, with that being said, David
understood this everlasting covenant and everything that's entailed
in this, this man who's going to come from my loins, so to
speak, this man who is going to come as a root of Jesse or
out of root of David, this man that's going to be brought forth,
this man is all my salvation. It's all in Him. David understood
that all of his righteousness was in this man, not anybody
else. That this man, the covenant man,
Jesus Christ, was his salvation. And that was all he desired to
know. He didn't desire to know any other kind of salvation but
that kind, because it's an everlasting salvation. But look what it says there,
an everlasting covenant ordered in all things. Now brethren,
I don't know how else to take this, but meaning that everything
that had to do with the covenant, God ordered it, predestinated
it. So that means whether it's election,
me being chosen to salvation, whether it's sin coming into
the world, and the need for salvation, whether it's Christ being born
and coming into this world, whether it's wicked men taking the hands
and crucifying Jesus Christ, whether it's God forsaking His
Son and pouring out wrath upon Him, whatever that is that's
part of this salvation, the end time causing us to repent and
believe, giving us a hope, all these things was ordered by God. Everything
from the first to the last, the end from the beginning, all of
these things, God has ordered it. And if God has ordered it,
there is no way that it's going to veer away from it. David was
sure here that this everlasting covenant has been ordered by
God. And it's, what did he say? It
is ordered in all things and sure. That word sure means that
there's no deviation. that it's a promise that you
can keep or that you can bank on because God does not lie.
He's promised it. And it's sure because, again,
He's the one who is carrying out the terms of the covenant.
He's the one who is fulfilling the mediatorial role. He's the
one that's doing all the work and not us. See, the terms of
the covenant, the fulfillment of the covenant, all lies within
the hands of God and His faithfulness. See, our salvation is only as
sketchy as God is sketchy. Right? It all comes down to whether
Christ is faithful or not. Not whether or not you're faithful.
All of us are not faithful, brethren. We might be given by God a grace
to be faithful in this or that, here and there, once in a while.
But we are not faithful. We are faithless. Faith is a
gift of God. Faithfulness is a gift of God. It is a grace of God. But brethren,
listen, we are not faithful and we do not keep things and God
rewards us for keeping those things or preserves us for keeping
those things or grants to us salvation because we keep it.
Now, listen, if salvation was based on our faith or our faithfulness,
Then our salvation is on very, very, very, very shaky sand. On shaky foundation, it's on
sand. It's all coming down to Christ's faithfulness. So our
salvation is as sure as His faithfulness. And we know the Bible says that
faithful is He who calls you, who also will what? Do it. That's right, brother. He will
do it. He's the one who's going to fulfill
those terms. of the covenant. And David was
sure about these things. He was convinced of these things.
He knew this is all my salvation. My salvation doesn't come in
me being a child of Abraham. My salvation doesn't come in
me being the king of Israel. My salvation doesn't come in
my adherence to the law. God knows that I have completely
messed it all up. And look at the offspring that
I've brought forth and how they're mixed up. I mean, even the good
son Solomon, he had his issues. Brethren, David knew that his
salvation was sure because the faithfulness of the one who was
mediating that everlasting covenant. He says, ordered in all things
and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire. The natural man, he doesn't desire
Christ alone for salvation. The natural man likes to pat
himself on the back for doing a good job and doing all these
religious works and all what we're going to do. The natural
man is fired up about how much we're going to invade this world
and take over everything. Well, like we talked about a
while ago about the post-millennial viewpoint, you know, that the
church is going to become militant and take over everything. The
gospel is going to prevail over all the world and it's going
to subdue it into a peaceful time. all this sort of stuff,
I don't see that in the scriptures anywhere, brethren. Not that
the gospel isn't going to be stifled. Not that the church
is going to be stopped. But brethren, it's not going
to, the Bible says that things are going to grow worse and worse.
That we're going to be persecuted. And we're going to be the ones who experience hardships
and turmoil And see, we don't get out and do anything as far
as advancing the kingdom of God. We think that we advance the
kingdom of God. We think that we are the ones who hold this
doorway into the kingdom of God, and that God has given us that.
The Bible says that it is Christ who opens and no man shuts, and
that he shuts and no man opens, right? It's Christ that does
that. He's the only one. that has the
keys to death and hell. He's the only one that has been
given power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as has been given to him. He's the only one that has been
given a people and that people doesn't increase or decrease
in number. God's not got an eraser in the Lamb's Book of Life and
he's erasing names and adding names. How many of y'all have
ever sung, there's a new name written down in glory and it's
mine. That's the most unbiblical song
that's ever been put in handbooks just about. There's not new names
written in heaven, there's a bunch of old names that were written
in heaven and they've never been taken off that list. There's
never been names taken off that list, brethren, and there's not
new names being written as time goes by. He said, this is all my desire. But David also seemed that thing,
this last phrase, this kind of got me a little bit. I tried
to look and see what other commentators were saying on the thing. I had
my thoughts about what it might be and trying to see, and there
was a plethora of comments about this. Although he may get not
to grow, I'm at least given to understand,
and I might be wrong in this, He's talking about this salvation
that he sees and that he hopes in and has a desire for knowing
only this salvation is not yet taking place yet. As far as the
one coming and performing the terms of this covenant. He's
still looking to Christ. His root that has not yet grown.
His seed that has not yet come forth to be Christ Jesus. Although
He is not made known, and this goes back to all these Old Testament
saints that even though the cross had not yet happened, they were
saved or saved just like we are. They were saved by the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. And they had a hope given to
them just like we have a hope given to us looking back on what
Christ did. They had a hope given to them
that there would be one who would come in their stead. that one
would come and give them a righteousness that they could not ever keep
of their own. All these Old Testament believers,
all these Old Testament saints, they looked to Jesus Christ as
their hope and their salvation. Now, they didn't know all the
things fully as we know it now, but they surely knew this thing.
And David had this hope of this man that would be to come from
his loins. This man that would come that
would sit upon his throne. This man who would come and be
the true king of the true Israel. And David looked at that and
said, even though he hasn't yet made it to grow, he hasn't sprung
this root or this branch yet, this is still my salvation. This
is my hope. This is my desire. The everlasting
covenant falls upon his faithfulness. And what a joy it brought to
David to know that. What a joy and a comfort that
brings to all of us children of God, right? It's our comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Speak unto them the things that have been done on their behalf.
What God has done for us, what Jesus has done for us. See, it
is a comfort. Now, it does tickle the flesh
a little bit, but it's not comfort whenever you tell me what I have
to go do. You tell me what I have to get up and maintain and keep
up and what I need to do for Jesus or some resemblance of
holiness or some resemblance of righteousness or something
like this. Brethren, that becomes disparaging. That becomes very,
very discouraging and depressing because as Paul said, I see in
my flesh there was no good thing. So what do we look to? We look
at the things that was ordered and all things that which is
sure. My upkeeping of righteous things
is not sure. It is, like I said, at the very
least, a very shaky foundation, if not utterly nothing, just
nothing. So brethren, I pray that we,
like David, look to those things that were ordered in all things
and should. And that we have hope by the Spirit that He is
our salvation. Anybody have any thoughts or
anything you'd like to add to that? Corrections or reviews
about that? Other thoughts than what I had
on that? Father, we again thank you so
much for all that you are in Christ Jesus. And we thank you
for the salvation that we have in him. Thank you for the everlasting
covenant and the mediator of it. We thank you for the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ as our proxy, as our substitute, as our representative,
Lord, who has gone before us and fulfilled all the righteousness
that you required, but has also went to the grave and has come
back. Lord, and we now have life because
of him. We now have hope because of him.
We now have righteousness because of him. We have forgiveness,
reconciliation. Father Lord, one of these days
we will have true personal fellowship face to face. with our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. What a blessed hope that is.
Hope not built on anything that we do or accomplish, but a hope
built on the work of Christ alone. And may we, like David, may this
be all of our desire. May all that we look to and hope
for is that which Christ has performed for us. And Lord, we
just pray that you would keep us in the gospel, that you would
keep us, Father, in the faith, that you would protect us from
strain from your doctrine and your ordinances. Lord, we know
that we are feeble people, that we are fallible people, that
we, in our nature, can be tossed to and fro, back and forth by
the thinking of carnal mind and by the wisdom of men. But Father,
we pray that you keep our minds set upon Christ Jesus and that
the Spirit of God would teach us and to convict us and to draw
us more and more into the grace and the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Him being our only hope and our only foundation. Father, we again thank you for
all these brethren that you've gathered here today. We pray
that you'd be with them as they leave this place and as they
go home this week. Lord, that you would minister
not only to them, but Lord, that they might also be a witness of Christ Jesus in all
that they do and they say, Lord, that the gospel of Jesus Christ
will be shared with those that they come in contact with. Father,
we know that you are the shepherd of the sheep and that you bring
in all those that you have and that you build your church as
you see fit and everything. And so, Lord, we just pray that
you might continue to bring those that you have to your fold, whether
it be here or whether it be anywhere else, Lord, that the people of
God are gathered Lord, we just pray that you'd be with them,
that you would have your presence among them as you promised, and
Lord, that you would just strengthen them, especially in these evil
days. We know that this doesn't surprise
you, Lord, you're in control of all things, but Lord, we see
the world waxing worse and worse, and that
the evil, even in our country, Lord, has become so great than
we've ever seen it in our lifetime. And Lord, we know that you have
a purpose in that. We know that Satan and all of
his devils and demons, Lord, we know that they are not over
your control. But Lord, we just pray that you
would keep us in the midst of these things while we be in the
world. May we not be of the world and
that you might protect us and that you might grant to us a
safety in our doctrine, safety even in our physical lives, Lord. But even at that, though we may
perish, though we may experience tribulation and persecution and
hardships, Lord, we know that you are faithful and that even
though they may be able to destroy the body, they cannot destroy
the soul. And we are grateful for that.
And we just ask, Lord, that you just might continue to encourage
the brethren and to strengthen them in the grace and knowledge
of Christ. It is in His name that we pray, Amen.