Let's start this morning's worship
by singing hymn number 36 in the hardback hymnal. A mighty
fortress is our God, we'll stand together. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing. Our helper He amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth
seek to work us woe His craft and power are great And armed
with cruel hate On earth is not his equal Did we in our own strength
confide our striving would be losing? Were not the right men on our
side the men of God's own choosing? Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He, Lord Sabbaoth
His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle. And though this world with devils
filled Should threaten to undo us We will not fear, for God
hath willed His truth to triumph through us The Prince of Darkness
Grim We tremble not for him His rage we can endure For lo, his
doom is sure One little word shall fell him That word above
all earthly powers, no thanks to them abided. The Spirit and the gifts are
ours through Him who with us sided. Let goods and kindred go, This
mortal life also, the body they may kill. God's truth abideth
still. His kingdom is forever. Be seated, please. Good morning. I don't know if we have, we will
look at some of the verses if you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to 2 Samuel chapter 8. 2 Samuel chapter 8. That was a very appropriate hymn for
us to open this hour with because I want to try to bring a message
this morning on the reign of our God. I've titled this message,
Our God Reigns. And the Lord Jesus is clearly
pictured in our text in the life of King David. And I hope the
Lord will give us eyes to see Christ in this passage and more
importantly, in our lives, in our hearts. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the grace that
enables us to sing and rejoice in knowing the body they may
kill Thy truth abideth still, for thy kingdom is forever. Lord, we ask that you would bless
this service, bless our hearts, bless your word, the power of
your spirit, enable us to set our affections on Christ, to
look to him, to rest in him, to rejoice in him, in the victory
that he has gotten for us. Our reigning king, Lord, might
he reign supreme in our hearts as he does in truth. Father, we pray this morning
for Anne Neal and ask, Lord, that you would help her physically
and spiritually and that you would comfort her heart and give
her grace and reveal your hope and peace to
her. Give those ministering to her
the wisdom to know how to treat her. We ask it in Christ's name,
amen. As most of you know, Ann Neal
has been in a nursing home for several years. And her son David
called me last night and said that they've admitted her into
the hospital. And last few times we've seen her, she's been very
frail. So we'll be going to see her
this afternoon. But Lord enables you to remember
her. been a very special part of our
fellowship for many years. And when we first started, I'll
just tell you a little story briefly about Wayne and Ann. I was working in St. Petersburg
and I found out about a primitive Baptist church over in St. Petersburg.
I was doing part-time work over there for my brother while we
were transitioning from the Reformed church to this church. And Don
Fortner told me about a primitive Baptist church in St. Petersburg,
and I went there. And as the primitives do, I walked
in the door, and they found out in conversation that I was a
pastor in the church, and they wanted me to preach. Just off
the bat, didn't know me from Adam. And I said, well, no, we're
not going to do that today, but I'll be happy to do it when I
come back. So I went back and I preached.
And Wayne and Ann were going to that church. And for the next
three or four years, they drove from St. Petersburg here every
Sunday. And then they eventually moved
over here. And of course, Wayne went to
be with the Lord a few years ago. And it seems like now maybe
the Lord be taking her home. They've been a blessing to our
church and I'm very thankful for them. Second Samuel chapter
eight. Old Testament national Israel
was a nation that was always subdued by its enemies. Whether it be the Philistines,
the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks,
the Romans, they were always either in slavery or in servitude
and they never enjoyed national sovereignty and they never had
political power until David. Everything is gonna change now. David's going to establish what
Israel had never known and what they would never know again.
2 Samuel chapter 8 summarizes King
David's military campaigns and the success that he had in establishing
the nation of Israel as the greatest nation in the world. There's no wonder why the Jews
venerated David and his reign. Even the disciples on the Mount
of Olives thought that the Lord Jesus had come to reestablish
the kingdom of David. Of course, the Jews were under
the reign of Rome at the time. And the disciples, just before
our Lord ascended into heaven, said, is it time now for you
to establish your kingdom? And the Lord, of course, told
them to go back into Jerusalem. The Holy Ghost would come upon
them, and they would become his witnesses, and that the kingdom
was not an earthly kingdom. It was not an earthly kingdom. The disciples didn't understand
even then what the Lord was saying until the day of Pentecost when
God gave the Holy Spirit and Peter was able to stand and declare
in clarity what it was that the Lord Jesus came to do, to fulfill
spiritually what David accomplished physically. And so Peter gets up in Acts
chapter 2, let's turn there. This is the significance of this
chapter, 2 Samuel chapter 8 is a summary of David's military
campaigns and his victories in conquering the enemies of Israel.
And now, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter will
stand on the day of Pentecost and we'll begin reading in verse
19. I'm sorry, not verse 19, verse 29. Verse 29. Men and brethren, Let me freely speak unto you
of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and
his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a
prophet and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that
of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne. The promise, we looked a couple
of Sundays now at chapter seven, and the promises that God made
to David to establish him a house. And David understood that to
be a spiritual house, and that Christ would come through the
lineage of David's flesh, but that the promises were fulfilled
in Christ. and for his church. Look at verse
31. David, seeing this before spake
of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in
hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Now that was a, Quote from Psalm 16 that we see in verse 27 of
this passage. So Peter had already quoted Psalm
16.10 and now he's explaining the fulfillment of that quote. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses, Therefore, being made the right
hand of God, exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which you now see
and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou here at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footspool.
So Peter, in the first sermon after Pentecost is identifying
the promises that God made to King David. These Jews, they
remembered that David lived a thousand years before Christ and they
remembered the reign of David and they had imagined this earthly
kingdom coming again. And so now the Lord is making
it clear to us that the kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom.
It's a spiritual kingdom. The Lord Jesus himself said that
to Pilate when he said, if my kingdom was of this world, my
disciples would fight, but my kingdom is not of this world.
The fulfillment of all that God promised to David and the fulfillment
of all that David accomplished in 2 Samuel chapter eight and
the establishment of this sovereign nation and the political power
that they enjoyed is the reality of what Christ does in the hearts
of his people when he conquers for us our spiritual enemies. That's the hope, that's the picture. And Peter now is making that
point as clearly as it can be made. In verse 36, therefore, therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. So here's the fulfillment of
all the promises made to David. They were fulfilled in the son
of David. They were accomplished by his work in his life and in
his death. And they are enjoyed by his people
who have a God now who is both Lord and Christ. He is the reigning
king of their lives and of all their hope. And what a, what
a glorious, what a glorious, right? Peter's saying clearly
the Lord wasn't making these promises. David's still in a
grave. It was for Christ. He's the anointed one. Don't
look for an earthly kingdom. Look for a spiritual kingdom.
They that are after the flesh, they're the ones that do mind
the things of the flesh, but they that of the spirit, the
things of the spirit. May God give us spiritual eyes
to see beyond the fleshly things that we would otherwise be drawn
to. We'd be just like those disciples
if the Holy Spirit didn't minister grace to our hearts and give
us spiritual eyes to see. We would be doing what all the
other religious people of the world do. And you listen to them
preach. And what are they doing? They're
using the gospel to benefit them in the flesh. To be some sort of profit to
them. To be, you know, the message of the Bible and the message
of the gospel is primarily for the purpose of helping them in
this world. You know, be more successful
and be more, you know, to have more power and more authority
and more peace and more, you know, that's what you hear. Oh
Lord, deliver us. Deliver us from mind and the
things of the flesh and enable us, enable us to see the promises
for what they are, and the victories that David accomplished for what
they were. Because the truth is that just
like Israel, just like national Israel, and we are the spiritual
Israel, and all the promises that God made to national Israel
are fulfilled in Christ for spiritual Israel. But like Israel, we have no hope
of being delivered from our enemies, lest the Lord Jesus, as the son
of David, becomes our king, our Lord and
our Christ, our deliverer. And so, here's what we're, Here's
what we're looking to Christ for. Do we have trials and troubles? Do we have, yes, even enemies
that are of the flesh in this world? Yes, yes, we do. God has ordained every one of
those things. These things are purposed of
God in order to cause us to see that this world is not our home. This world's not our home, brother. There's a spiritual kingdom that
the Lord Jesus has established for us. And the enemies that
keep us from there are not the physical troubles and trials
that we experience in this world. The enemies that keep us from
there are spiritual. And unless the Lord Jesus, like
David, defeats those enemies, we'll not be saved. Oh, we might
find in the Bible some trinkets of truth to help us make this
world a better place like the religious people do. But we'll not find salvation
for our souls unless the Lord gives us eyes to see who the
Lord Jesus is in truth. as he relates to and fulfills
all that David fulfilled, all that David accomplished. The Philistines, we're not going
to read Romans 2 Samuel 8, I would encourage you to do it on your
own, but there are at least six nations that are mentioned here
that David conquered. and made subject to Israel. And the first one mentioned is
the Philistines. And the name Philistine translated
means immigrant. And they tell me that the Philistines
invaded the land of Israel, they immigrated into Israel from Crete. And the Bible tells us about
Crete and about the Cretans. When the scripture says of the
Cretans that they are liars, evil beast and of slow bellies. Now that's your spiritual enemy
and that's my spiritual enemy. It's not an immigrant coming
in from a foreign land. It's the liar and the evil beast
and the slow belly. The belly in the Bible is a picture
of the flesh. And we're reminded of the weakness
of our flesh several times a day as our belly tells us that we
need to feed our flesh. There's the enemy. And David, the scripture says,
conquered these Philistines. And the only way that the lying
spirit of our old man who would lie to us about who we are, lie
to us about who God is, lie to us about how it is that we're
to be saved. The only way that the evil beast of sin can be
subdued and the only way that the bellies can be held in check
is by our reigning King. The second nation that's mentioned
in 2 Samuel chapter 8 is the Moabites. Now Moab was the son
of the insetuous relationship that Lot had with his daughter.
And Moab translated means of my father. Did we not inherit through an
incestuous spiritual relationship the nature of our father? Did
we not come into this world with our father's nature? And the
only way that we can have a new nature is by our reigning king. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, must put to death that old man. He's dead. You and I came into
this world spiritually dead, but because we have no spirit,
all we are is flesh, we don't know that we're dead. We're like
zombies. The problem with zombies is they
don't know they're dead. And it's not until we get the
new nature that we're able to say, that old man has always
been dead. He's never been able to produce
anything of life. He was born in shame and he was
of his father. And we didn't know we had an
old man until we got a new man. That's the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what David did. He conquered
the Philistines, he conquered the Moabites. The next nation
mentioned in 2 Samuel chapter eight is the Syrians. And the
Syrians by definition, the word Syrian means exalted, exalted. Oh, brethren by nature, we have
such an exalted view of ourselves, do we not? Is there not a spirit
of Syria in our hearts that needs to be conquered? Does our old
man not have to be identified for what he is? And it's not
until the Lord Jesus comes and speaks to our hearts like he
did to Job that we're able to say, behold, I see something
I've never seen before. I am Baal. I am not exalted. I would exalt myself. I would
exalt myself above men. I would exalt myself above God. I would make God dependent upon
me for him to be able to save me. That's what I would do by
nature. I would say that God's hands
are tied. God's given me a free will. God can't save me unless
I let him. I would put myself on the throne
of God, except David, the Lord Jesus Christ come, and conquer
that Syrian and put him to death so that I say, in me, in me,
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Israel was conquered by the Syrians,
they were conquered by the Philistines, they were conquered by the Moabites,
just as you and I are. The fourth nation mentioned in
2 Samuel chapter 8 is the Amalekites. The Amalekites were the ones
that attacked the children of Israel all through their wilderness
wanderings. Those 40 years in the wilderness
and the scripture is very clear, the Amalekites would come and
they would attack the rear guard of Israel. Now who's in the rear
guard? Well, the slower ones, the left
behind, the weak and the crippled would be dragging behind and
the Amalekites would come and pick them off. And this is the
nation that the Lord sent Joshua down into the valley to fight
against. When Moses was up on the mountain
and Moses' hands, when they were raised, Joshua got the victory. And when Moses got tired and
his hands came down, the Amalekites got the victory. What a picture. What is the hope of us, these
Amalekites? And the Lord said to Israel,
these Amalekites will never be destroyed. They will always be
your enemy. They will always be there to
pick off your weakling. And the only time they were conquered
was during the reign of King David. And the only time they'll be
conquered in your life and in my life is through the sovereign
reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Peter preached and saw,
excuse me, in Acts chapter two, And after he said that last verse
that we read, this same Jesus whom you crucified, God has made
both Lord and Christ. The next verse says, and they
were cut to their hearts and said, what shall we do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn to him. This is what he came to do. Bow to him. He didn't say make
Jesus Lord of your life. He's already Lord of your life. Bow to him, trust him, believe
on him, rest in him. He's a reigning king. No nation, no nation has any
power over him. By the way, the word Amalekite
translated means dwellers of the valley. You and I are walking
through the valley of the shadow of death and there are dwellers
in this valley. And they're just waiting, watching
and waiting for our weak moments to pick us off. What is our hope? Raise our hands to heaven in
prayer like Moses did and Joshua gets the victory. And we get
tired, weak, The Amalekites get the victory. Child of God, you
know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? This is your
experience, isn't it? My experience? You see, this is not a physical
reign. This is a spiritual reign. The
last nation that's mentioned is the Edomites. Now, the Edomites were the descendants
of Esau. Esau the firstborn. Esau a picture
of our flesh. Esau a man of the field, a man
of the earth. And this is our old man. Scripture says the older, Esau
shall serve the younger Jacob. Jacob is our new man in Christ.
And when Esau raises his ugly head, and we are able by God's
grace to lift our hands to heaven and call upon the Lord Jesus
as our reigning sovereign, as our King David, to conquer this
enemy. then the older ends up serving
the younger, doesn't he? The Lord Jesus was successful
as David was in conquering all of his enemies. And we were successful in him. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Colossians 2. Colossians 2. Look at verse 9. For in him, in the Lord Jesus,
dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the God-man,
born of a woman under the law to redeem them that are cursed
by the law. God became flesh and dwelt among
us. The fullness of the Godhead bodily,
the sinless one. And you, verse 10, are complete
in him, which is the head and the principalities in power. David conquered all principalities
and he had the power of God. And there's a passage over in
1 Chronicles chapter 14 that says, the fame of David went
out throughout all the world and the fear of David fell upon
all the nations. Oh, might the fame of the Lord
Jesus go out, conquer our hearts and cause us to bow in worship.
That's what it is to fear God. You're complete in him. For he's
the head and you're the body. In whom, verse 11, also you are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ. The Lord Jesus was circumcised
on the cross. His flesh was cut away. We are the true circumcision
which worship God in the flesh, worship God in the spirit, rejoicing
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. What is it to experience
the circumcision of the heart? It's for the Holy Spirit to cut
from our hearts any hope of salvation that we would have in anything
that we do in the flesh. It is the trusting Christ alone
who himself was circumcised. He had his flesh cut off from
among the living that we might have life. This is where he succeeded
in accomplishing his conquering. He came forth as a conqueror
to conquer our enemies. Revelation chapter six, writing,
upon a white horse." The first of the four horses of the horseman
of the apocalypse in Revelation chapter 6 is the white horse,
the Lord Jesus sitting upon him. And the scripture says, and he
came to conquer and conquering. And he had a bow in his hand.
and he takes the arrows of his grace and he shoots them into
the hearts of his people and they bow, they bow. Verse 12 of Colossians chapter
two, buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised
him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins
and in the circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting, of ordinances that was against us, which were
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the
cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them." This is what we're reading
about in 2 Samuel 8. David conquering his enemies,
establishing Israel as a sovereign nation, giving them power in
the world like they never had before. And other than Solomon
enjoying a few years of the fruits of David's labor, when Solomon
dies, his sons go to battle and the nation divides and they never,
you see, they never had peace before and they never had it
after. It was during David. It was all
purposed and ordained of God as a message of hope for me and
you. To know that the Philistines,
the Moabites, all the enemies, of our flesh conquered. David, he's still in the grave.
The son of David, according to the flesh, God has raised him
and made him both Lord and Christ. Oh, here's our hope, brethren. Scripture says that when he ascended
on high When the Lord Jesus ascended on high, he led captivity captive,
and then he gave gifts unto men. What does that mean? When the
Lord Jesus ascended back into glory, back there on the Mount
of Olives, when the disciples thought that it was time now
to establish this earthly kingdom, he went back to heaven, and the
word of God did not return unto him void. The living word of
God took with him the names of those for whom he lived and died.
And he took his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high. And he ever lives to make intercession for his people.
And he sent his spirit. He told us, he said, it's expedient
for you. It's necessary for you. It's
good for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come. But when he comes, When He comes,
He will convict you of sin because you believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go to my Father, and of judgment because the Prince
of this world has been judged. I have conquered your enemies. And only by the power of the
Holy Spirit can we have eyes of faith to look to and rejoice
in These Jews rejoiced in David, the whole world rejoiced in David. The father said to his son in
Hebrews chapter one verse eight, here's what God the father said
to the Lord Jesus when he ascended back into glory and took his
rightful place. As our surety, as our substitute,
as our sin bearer, as our conqueror, The father said to his son, thy
throne, oh God, is for ever. The father called his son God.
Just like in the book of Isaiah, the Lord Jesus is called the
father, the everlasting father. And we're not saying that we're,
God, our God is three distinct persons, but they're all God.
They're all God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. They all possess the full nature,
attributes and characteristics of Almighty God. And the father
says to his son, sit for thy kingdom. Thy kingdom was not
as the Jews were looking for. It wasn't an earthly kingdom,
it's a spiritual kingdom. Thy kingdom is forever and a
scepter That's the imagery of your reign, a scepter. The scepter of righteousness
will be thy scepter forever. And faith looks to the Lord Jesus
Christ for all its righteousness, for all its hope. for all its salvation. I've got no place else to go.
The Lord Jesus himself is my reigning king. He has conquered
Satan. He's opened the grave. He's conquered
death. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul
writing about the victory of the Lord Jesus actually mocks
death. When he says, oh grave, where
is thy victory? Oh death, where is thy sting?
Where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ, the law's been satisfied. We've been given victory
over all these enemies. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Just as these Jews were
looking for David, we look through spiritual eyes to the son of David and we rest
all the hope of our victory, all the hope of our victory in
him. He put away our sin. He established
an everlasting righteousness. He turned the darkest hour the
world has ever known into the only light the world will ever
have. The greatest shame Calvary's
cross became his and our greatest glory. Oh, what a conquering king. He didn't come to conquer the
things of this world. He not only took away He not
only conquered the grave, he took away the fear. He took away
the fear of death. Matter of fact, he made death the believer's
gain. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. To die is gain. In Ecclesiastes chapter seven,
it says the day of death is better than the day of one's birth.
Here's what the Lord Jesus did. This is what he accomplished. An everlasting salvation on behalf
of his people. Here's our hope. Brethren, we'll
never learn to live until we have hope in Christ in death. He didn't just fulfill the law,
he glorified it. He made the law of God to his
people, holy, just, and good, so that we're able to say, to
that one that would judge us. And that's all the law can do.
The law only judges, the law only condemns, the law can't
save. But knowing that we are not under the condemnation of
the law because the Lord Jesus has fulfilled the law. He said,
I did not come to destroy the law, I came to fulfill it. We're able to say, oh, I love
God's law. Love God's law. Not because I
see the fulfillment of it in my life, but because I see the
fulfillment of it in my Savior. By bringing heaven to earth, he brought those who are otherwise
bound to this earth to heaven. Isaiah chapter 26, O ye gates. He's talking about the gates
of heaven. O ye gates, that the righteous nation that
keepeth truth might enter in open. Open. Don't you love the picture of
the strong man? That's Christ. He's the strong
man. We see him in all throughout the scriptures
where he tears down, he tears down the gates. You remember
that story of Samson? Samson goes down to Gaza. Gaza, yeah, same Gaza that we
see in the news today. And the word Gaza translated
means strength and Samson the strong man went down to the city
of Gaza And he took the gates of that city and he put them
on his shoulders and he carried them away. And the scripture
says that the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against
him. And he went into the very pit
of hell and he led those who were captive to sin captive to
himself. He's our reigning king. Oh ye gates of heaven! open that
the nation which keepeth truth might enter in." What is it to
keep truth? It's to believe that the Lord
Jesus himself is the truth. The truth. John wept. when he saw that there
was a book in heaven, and that no man was found worthy to open
the book, until the angel said to John, John weep not, the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus himself, hath prevailed. And he is able to unloose the
seals and open the book. Without the opening of the book,
there's no salvation. Only the Lord Jesus could do
that. Oh, we have a king and he reigns. He reigns sovereign over the
armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants of the earth.
And by God's grace, he reigns in the hearts of his people. All right, let's take a break.