Alright brethren, Psalm 132, our subject tonight is the sure
mercies of David. Now Solomon is praying, he's
dedicating the temple, and he's asking God to remember David,
to remember David's afflictions, remember how David vowed and
He did the work to retrieve the ark and to restore worship in
Judah. And he is doing this, it's a
picture of us coming to God and in the name of our Lord Jesus.
Coming to the Father and asking the Father to remember Christ,
remember his afflictions and his work. And the reason Solomon
is asking God to remember David is because God made a covenant
with David. And the covenant that God made with David was
entirely concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and what Christ
would do and how Christ would fulfill all the promises of God.
We saw Sunday, God said He gave Christ to be a covenant to the
people. Everything's fulfilled in Christ. Now this time we're
going to hear the sure mercies of David. We're going to hear
God's covenant to David and we're going to hear the promises to
David and these are all in our Lord Jesus. Let's just begin
in verse 11, and I'm just going to go a little at a time here,
but he says in verse 11, the Lord has sworn in truth unto
David. He will not turn from it. Of
the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. God's covenant
to David had some temporal promises and it had some spiritual promises.
In a temporal way, the promise was to David and his throne and
the children of Israel, and it involved some temporal things
that God would do for them. But God was doing all of that
for Israel in a temporal way as a greater picture of the spiritual
promise. And that's what's the important
thing here is the spiritual promise. These promises were in Christ,
the covenant is Christ, and the promises are all in Christ. They
were to David, and they're to God's elect church. That's who
they're to. David's true children, just like
Abraham's true sons are the spiritual sons of Abraham, David's true
Israel was the spiritual Israel that God saves from Jew and Gentile. You who are resting in Christ
by His grace. And God worked all the temporal
to give us the picture of the spiritual. That's how sovereign
God is, to paint us this picture of all these spiritual blessings
we have in Christ. Now first of all, God made covenant
with David and with his children. He said here in verse 11, the
Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from
it. God cannot lie. And he swore
in truth to David. He made a promise to David. He
confirmed it with an oath. And God will never break His
covenant to David. He'll never break His covenant
to the Lord Jesus or to any of His people. Now, temporally speaking,
God promised that from David would come a long line of kings.
That was going to come to pass in a temporal way. Verse 11,
He said, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. temporal earthly king was Solomon,
and David gave God the glory, forgiving him Solomon. David
said in 1 Kings 1 and verse 48, he said, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this
day, mine eyes even seeing it. Solomon, you remember he built
the temple where the ark we saw last time, he said there in in
verse 8. Arise, O Lord, into thy rest,
thou and the ark of thy strength. That was at the dedication of
the temple. He had built that temple and
they were taking the ark of the covenant up into the holiest
of holies where God promised to make His presence known to
meet with His people over the mercy seat. But the promise Now
this was all fulfilled because God made this covenant to David.
Now all these temporal things happened because God made this
promise to David. But the promise that God made
to Israel required obedience to the law. Look there in verse
12. If thy children will keep my
covenant and my testimony. That's the law. If they'll keep
my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their
children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. God promised
to teach them and God fulfilled his side of the covenant. God
promised and God did everything he promised. He gave Moses and
the prophets, God did that. He gave them instruction. He taught them the law. He sent
Moses and he taught them what the law said. He used his prophets
to teach them what the law said. Remember at Sinai when Moses
came down and he talked about this law and this covenant and
the children of Israel said everything the Lord commands we will do
it. They entered a covenant. and said, we will keep the law.
We will do all the law and the testimony. But they didn't keep
their side of the covenant. They broke the law. They had
broken it when Moses came down with the commandments. Now brethren,
that was no surprise to God at all. Some blasphemously teach
that that that was plan A and then God had to go to plan B.
That's not so. God gave the law at Sinai to
give a knowledge of sin. He gave the law at Sinai to give
a knowledge of sin. Scripture is so clear on that.
By the laws, the knowledge of sin. We'd already broken the
law in Adam. They'd already broken it in Adam. They were already conceived in
sin in their mother's womb just like you and me and everybody
else that comes into this world. So there was no way they were
going to be able to keep that law. Now, let's look to Christ
and let's see what the true spiritual fulfillment of this is. David
is a type of Christ. Now in eternity, God chose Christ. He chose His Son to be the Christ
and to be the King. And He chose a people From all
nations and tribes that would be in this world, He chose a
people to be His elect Israel, His spiritual Israel. And He
made His Son, the Christ, the Savior, and the King over this
people in eternity. Now spiritually, by grace, by
grace spiritually, God promised David that the true King would
come through His lineage. The true king would come through
his lineage, and that would be the king God would set up on
his holy hill of Zion. He said in verse 11, of the fruit
of thy body will I set upon thy throne. As I read that, Christ is the one teaching David,
because he's the mediator between God and men. And read how that
reads, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. God set His Son on His throne,
but Christ is the one that came through David, and He's the one
who set Himself on that throne. Spiritually, this speaks of one
King. It speaks of David's King, David's Lord, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Go with me to Acts chapter 2.
Peter preached this on the day of Pentecost. because they were carnal, religious
as they could be, but because they were carnal, they were looking
for a temporal king to sit on David's temporal throne in a
temporal kingdom, save them out from under Rome. That's all they
needed. They just needed to be saved from Rome. They didn't
need to be saved spiritually from their sin, they thought.
So Peter stood up and declared, The spiritual truth of everything
that God had declared to David, and everything Israel was, and
what the throne was about, He declared the spiritual meaning
of it all. Look here, Acts 2 and verse 30. He said, therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with 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, he, seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth
this which you now see and hear. For David's not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, Thee, Lord, said to my Lord,
sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ." He's King. He's the true King David. And
He's Christ. He's the Savior. Just like God
chose David to be King over temporal Israel in eternity, God chose
His Son and anointed Him the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior
of His people and the King over His spiritual Israel. Just like
Solomon came through David and he built that more permanent
temple, our Lord Jesus Christ came through David and He builds
God's true habitation, God's true house. He builds it. And so according to God's promise,
remember God, He chose Judah, He chose Mount Zion, He chose
David's lineage, and He promised the scepter shall not depart
from Judah. The kingly scepter shall not
depart till Shiloh come. And it didn't. It didn't, but
when Christ the King came, that put an end to all of what, that
picture, there's no use for the picture anymore, the real thing
had come. The express image, Christ who
it all pictured had come. Now, Christ built the real house. He built the temple of God. He
built the house in which God dwells, the habitation in which
God dwells. Now, how did he do this? Well,
if you're going to build a temple, The first thing, or any structure
for that matter, the first thing you have to do is lay a foundation. And the Lord Jesus Christ laid
the foundation. He laid the foundation. He fulfilled
the law for his people. Remember God said, verse 12,
if thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that
I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne
forevermore. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
became a man like unto his brethren. And He came for the purpose of
keeping that covenant for all God's elect Israel. He came to
fulfill that law for all God's people because we could not fulfill
it. We couldn't keep our end of the
covenant. He's God fulfilling the covenant for God, and He's
man fulfilling the covenant for His elect people. And He's bringing
God and His people together in Him. Go back to Psalm chapter
40. It's amazing to me how that God
used David to pen the very words of David's Savior. And that's
how God taught David the Gospel. Peter just said David knew these
things. David was a prophet and knew
Christ was his righteousness and his Lord and his Christ. He knew it. And look, God taught
David the Gospel this way. This is David writing, but he's
speaking of Christ. Look here in Psalm 40 verse 6.
The Lord Jesus says, Sacrifice an offering, thou didst not desire.
None of that was meant to save, it was pictures and types. He
said, My ears hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. You see Christ, look at Christ
here as the man representing all God's elect. God opened His
ear just like He opened your ear and taught Him. Christ wasn't
spiritually dead like you and me are. I'm hesitant to even
say those words. But He did receive, the Spirit
was given to Him just like to you. And the Spirit, He was taught
and He grew up. He was taught and He learned.
And He said, you open mine ear and you shall meet those sacrifices
and offerings you weren't pleased with. You never meant to save
by those. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book that's
written of me, the whole Bible is about the Lord Jesus. Everything
God was saying through Moses and the prophets, He was saying
about Christ. The volume of the book that's written of me, I'd
like to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy law is within my heart. We saw that's the picture of
the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant had the
unbroken law of God in it. That's why it's such a beautiful
picture of Christ. Christ said, thy law is in my heart. I came
to do thy will, O God. And so he came to fulfill the
law, the covenant, the old covenant, and to bring us under the everlasting
covenant of grace. And the other thing he did in
laying this foundation is, He established His apostles with
the gospel and sent them forth preaching the gospel. That's
how He would bring us into the covenant of grace. Look at verse
9. Psalm 40 verse 9. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation, but I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. So this is how
the foundation was laid, by Christ fulfilling the law on behalf
of His people. Christ sanctified His people
by His one offering. You recognize that from Hebrews
10. The Hebrew writer just quoted Psalm 40. Christ said, it says,
he taketh away the first. He fulfilled that law. He took
it away from his people by fulfilling it, that he may establish the
second, the everlasting covenant of grace. And it says, by the
witch will, by him doing the will of God, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one time. But
like Solomon, after you laid the foundation and you're building
the temple, the next thing you do is you start putting stones
together. They put no tool on those stones
while they were in the temple. They did that somewhere else
and they brought the stones to the temple and they put the stones
on the foundation and they put another stone and they would
just rub that stone down in between the other stone and fitly frame
those stones together. That's how they made the temple.
1 Peter 2.5 says, you also, as lively stones, living stones,
are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You come
in here tonight, we just offered up some spiritual sacrifices
to God. We sang praises to His name.
We pray and give thanks to Him. Those are spiritual sacrifices.
We fall down and try to worship Him. Spiritual sacrifices. Giving
Him all the praise and all the glory for our salvation. And
anything we do, whether it's in this place or in our private
devotions or whether anything we do in this world, it is only
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.20 says you're built
upon the foundation. Same foundation of the apostles
and the prophets. Jesus Christ himself, the chief
cornerstone. In whom the whole building is
fitly framed together. Every living stone is put in
with every other living stone. fitly framed together and grows
into a holy temple of the Lord." Every time he's adding one that
he's redeemed, the temple's growing, it's coming closer and closer
to completion. "...in whom you are also built
together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." God
said, this is where I'm going to dwell. Brethren, David was
faithful by God's grace. He was. But David was a sinner
just like you and me and just like every elect child God saved.
David was saved by grace. He was saved by Christ being
his surety, by Christ being his righteousness. Every Old Testament
saint was regenerated by the Spirit of God through the Gospel
and given faith to trust Christ, and everybody God's ever saved
has been saved the same way. He said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by the Lord Jesus. He's the way. Now thirdly, why
did God do it this way? Why did He choose to do this? Well, because God chose Zion
for His habitation. Look here in verse 13. because
the Lord, this is why he did all this, he said, because the
Lord hath chosen Zion. He's chosen Zion. Let's read this together. If thy children will keep my
covenant and my testimony, that I shall teach them, their children
shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. For the Lord hath
chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is
my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. Now, temporally, to picture this,
God chose that literal earthly mount Zion. He chose that place. That one mount is where God said,
I will dwell. He put the Ark of the Covenant
there. He put the Ark of the Covenant at Jerusalem in the
holiest of holies and said, that's where I'll make my presence known. That's where I'll meet with my
people over that mercy seat. God refused the other tribes.
Psalm 78, 68 says, God refused the other tribes, but he chose
the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved. And he
built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which
he has established forever. He chose David also his servant.
But God did that to picture to picture how God chose His Son
to be the King and chose His Son to be the Savior, how God
chose His people to be His Zion. He makes His people His sanctuary,
His holy place in which He dwells. Christ does that. Hebrews 12.22,
let's look at it. You individually and collectively called in and
fitly joined together with Christ abiding in you and God the Father
abiding in Christ, making you to be one with the Father in
Christ, you are the Mount Zion. And there's some in heaven, there's
some in the earth. But look at this, Hebrews 12.22,
But you are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
here's what Mount Zion is, here's what the heavenly city is, to
the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven. That's who we are, the church
of the firstborn, the church of Christ the firstborn, our
names written in heaven. You've come to God, the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. Some of
them are already in glory, perfected. Just men made perfect. To Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant. And in fact, you that are sitting
here right now on this earth are just men made perfect in
Christ. That's so. And you come to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant. See, we're talking about the
covenant here. He did all this. He mediated
between God and His people. To His blood of sprinkling that
speaks better things than that of April. God, when the scepter
departed, Christ came, He finished the work, He fulfilled all righteousness
for His people, and when Christ told them, your house is left
desolate, In 70 A.D. he destroyed Zion. He wiped Israel
off the map in 70 A.D. He used Rome to do it. God's
never rebuilt it. And it's going to remain plowed
from here on. Zion is God's elect. Zion are
those that have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Zion
are those He regenerates by the Spirit of our Lord. Zion are
those in whom God abides. It's His church. Some are in
heaven, some are in the earth, but we're one in Christ. We've
been made holy, His sanctuary, His abiding, His habitation by
Christ taking up His abode within us. Verse 13, the Lord hath chosen
Zion. He hath desired it for His habitation.
This is My rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. That's the only reason. We didn't
do anything. We didn't merit this. God desired
to make you His people. Oh, want to give thanks to God? We got a lot to thank Him for,
don't we? So now, let's hear what His promises
are to us. Let's hear what His promises...
Here's God's covenant promise to you and me and Zion. This
is by our King and our Savior. God promises He'll bless His
people with provision, with bread. That's what He's talking about,
bread. Verse 15, And were to surely and abundantly
bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread." Every elect sinner that God saves
is the poor. Everybody in this Zion, everybody
in this city, are by nature absolutely thoroughly poor. everybody, blessed
are the poor in spirit. But throughout the law, God gave
laws. regarding the poor. All through
the law, God gave laws regarding provision for the poor. And it
all pictures what Christ has done and is doing for you and
me who are so poor in our sin by nature that we could not do
one thing to save ourselves. That's what the whole law was
picturing. I'll give you some examples. I won't have you turn
to these, First place, God speaks about the poor in the law. He
says, if you lend money to the poor, exact no usury. Do not lend them and take interest. Do not do it. Salvation is by
God's free grace. It is totally free to His people.
God gives to His people and He doesn't take from us. He said,
who is first given to Me, it will be recompensed to him again.
It's all free. Then there was a law. He said
this. This is concerning God's perfect justice. He said, Thou
shalt not countenance a poor man in his cause, nor wrest judgment
from a poor man in his cause." God is no respecter of persons.
God didn't do this just because you are poor. What He is saying
is He wouldn't excuse our sin, He wouldn't countenance our sin
and excuse our sin and our transgression just because we were poor, desperate
sinners. He wouldn't do it. And He would
not risk judgment for us and withhold from us what is just
because we were poor sinners. God's not a respecter of persons.
He doesn't have respect to the rich and a different regard for
the poor. God's just and holy in all His
ways. What did He do? He sent His only begotten Son. And our Lord Jesus came forth
spotless, perfect, the only perfect man since before Adam fell in
the garden. He came forth holy, perfect,
upright, and He willingly took the sin of His people, and therefore
God justly poured out judgment on Him and made Him a curse for
us. And He satisfied that justice and by Him now, God gives His
poor elect people exactly what justice says we deserve. The
perfect righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. So God is
a just God and He's a Savior to His people in Christ. God
commanded they let the land rest the seventh year so that the
poor people may eat. You know, I was thinking this
the other day. I heard some people arguing, debating over what's
the best form of government and laws and how we should fix the
economy. If we could do just what God said do in the law and
how he commanded them to let the land rest, forgive all debts
in the seventh year, that's the best government ever been given.
And I guarantee we're going to see that one these days. Everything about that picture
is Christ. Christ is the seventh. He's the perfection. He's our
rest. He's our bread. And God's provided us bread,
full, abundant provision of eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ
so we can rest and know He's providing all. All those laws
concerning the poor picture, God given us the living bread
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And God's going to continue to
bless us out of Zion. Christ is blessing us through
this gospel. Scripture says, from Christ all
nourishment is ministered to the preaching of the gospel exactly
according to His promise. He's giving you the bread right
now. He's making good on that promise
right now, giving us the living bread. And so, according to his
covenant brethren, we should not worry and fret about the
temporal provision. We should never fret and worry
about it. I do, I know you do. It's like
we saw on Sunday. We start looking with these carnal
eyes instead of believing God, and we start worrying and getting
Godliness with contentment is great gain. having God's blessing in your
heart, having the gospel of Christ in your heart, and knowing God's
going to provide, He's provided all spiritual blessings, and
He'll provide all temporal blessings. Godliness with contentment is
the greatest riches you could possibly have. That's the greatest
riches you could have. So brethren, mettle not with
Esau's portion. I want you to turn and look at
this in Deuteronomy 2. I really don't have time, but
I want you to see it. After 40 years, God commanded
Moses to lead the children of Israel northward. And He told
Moses to command the children of Israel something. And I'm
saying to you, God's given you His full salvation in Christ,
full abundant provision according to His promise in Christ the
living bread, and He will provide us all lesser temporal things
according to His covenant promise. And seeing that He provided Christ
the bread, we ought to not even ever have a doubt that He's going
to provide the lesser things. But look what He told them right
here, and here's what I'm saying to you. He told He told them,
verse four, the second part, he told them, the children of
Israel shall be afraid of you. Take ye good heed unto yourselves,
therefore, meddle not with them. They're going by the children
of Esau. He said, meddle not with them,
for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a footbreadth,
because I've given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. You
shall buy meat of them for money, that you may eat, and you may
also buy water of them for money that you may drink. You can,
God said, in this life, you can eat, you can buy your food and
your drink, whatever you need in this life, but don't go after
Esau's portion. He said, for the Lord thy God
hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand. He knoweth
thy walking through this great wilderness. These 40 years the
Lord thy God hath been with thee. Thou hast lacked nothing. And
so have us, brethren. That's God's promise. When David
said, I've been young and I'm now old. I've never seen the
righteous forsaken. I've never seen his seed begging
bread. He was talking about spiritually,
We're going to have Christ the bread, and temporarily, God's
going to provide you what you need. and He'll use brethren
to do it. That's how He's blessing us,
teaching us, He's the provider. He'll give you a need, He'll
give other brethren provision, and He'll give them a heart,
remind them what Christ did for them, and they'll provide for
you. The safest place a believer can be, as you near your older
years, and the safest place you can be is with God's people,
because it's God doing the providing. Safest place. Here's God's promise. Verse 16, I will also clothe
her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud
for joy. We saw this last time. I'm not
going to speak a lot on it, but this is what Solomon was asking
for. God said, I've promised to do it, I'll do it. Christ
made each of his elect priests unto God. Revelation 1.5 says,
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 for ever and ever. He made us all kings
and all priests by his blood. And through faith he clothes
us in Christ's righteousness, and that's what makes us shout
aloud with joy. perfect in Christ, accepted of
holy God, and it'll never be otherwise. And when we sin, just
like God promised David, when we sin, God said, I'm going to
chase them, but I won't go back on my promise, I'm going to keep
them. I'll keep them partaking of my holiness. The sin You hate
it, you don't want to commit it, but when you sin and God
chastens you, it's just to keep us reminded He's our righteousness
and He's our holiness and He's the one that's keeping us every
step of the way. Every step of the way. And God
promises great increase forever. Look here in verse 7. There will
I make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for mine
anointing. Christ is the horn of salvation. The horn means it's plentiful,
means He's powerful, means He's all salvation. And His horn buds,
it grows, and Christ shall be our light forever. He's our lamp
forever. Why is all this certain? Because
the government's on Christ's shoulder. He said, unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
should be upon his shoulder. The government of this house
is not me, and it's nobody else here. The government of this
house is Christ. It's on Christ's shoulder. He's
the prophet ruling. If I start making some terrible
error, you pray for me, you trust me to Christ and ask Christ to
correct me and keep me. And you wait on Christ to do
it. And if He opens the door for you to speak something in
grace, speak it. Remind me of Christ, point me
to Christ. And what you'll end up watching is, you'll see the
Lord Jesus correct me, and he'll teach you in the process. That's
so, of all his people. The government's on his shoulder. Look, his name should be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, of the Increase, the Budding, It's going to bud. His horn shall bud. The increase
of His government and peace, there should be no end upon the
throne of David and upon His kingdom to order it, to establish
it with judgment, with justice, henceforth even forevermore. This zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will perform then. Christ shall call every redeemed
child, and every time He calls one in, He's not adding a new
name in heaven, they've been written in heaven from eternity,
but every time He calls one that He's redeemed, He's increasing
His holy nation, His kingdom is growing, His royal family
is growing, and He'll make you increase personally as He teaches
you by His grace through this gospel and through His providence.
He's the lamp, He's the light. I've ordained a lamp for mine
anointed, God said, and Christ is that light. So when you're
in darkness, remember Isaiah 50, if you're in darkness, you
believe Christ, you trust Christ, you continue trusting Him, stay
upon Him, And He will make good to you this word right here,
this promise. And you'll be able to say what
David said. David said, Thou will light my candle, the Lord
my God will enlighten my darkness. And you'll see, He will. Christ
is our light forever, brethren. And so by Christ now, God promised
David and He promised us complete victory. Complete victory. Look here in verse 8. His enemies
will I clothe with shame, but upon Himself shall His crown
flourish. Christ defeated all our enemies.
Every enemy we have, Christ defeated by His perfect faith toward the
Father, trusting the Father's promises. I want you to get that.
He trusted the Father. God raised Him and set Him in
His Father's throne because Christ, by His perfect faith, obeyed
God even to the death of the cross and justified His people
and declared God just in the process. Christ's crown of honor,
His crown of power shall flourish and increase to all eternity. Now, you remember God's promise
to us? Look at verse 12. He said, if thy children will
keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their
children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. Christ overcame the world by
perfectly trusting the Father. He put away all our sin and justified
us and conquered every enemy for us. And He fulfilled this
covenant for His people and He's fulfilling it for you now as
He's leading you the rest of this way. And by His power and
grace, the only way you're going to overcome is through faith
in Christ. It says, Scripture says, through
faith and patience we inherit the promises. It's only through
faith in Christ. He said, if you keep My covenant,
In my testimony, He said, your children also sit in Thy throne
forevermore. Go with me to Revelation 3. What Christ is teaching you,
that obedience to Him is, you believe on Him. That's the only
way you fulfill the covenant and keep the testimony. It's
by believing on Him. Confessing Christ. Remember,
they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. You overcome by Christ being
your righteousness. You believe in Him and your testimony
is, you confess, He's all my righteousness. man with the heart,
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the tongue confession
is made unto salvation." That's how it's faith in the Lord Jesus. And He said, you keep that covenant.
The only way you're going to keep, we establish the law one
way through faith in Christ. He said, but if you come to me
in the perfect righteousness of my law, He said, you'll sit
in His throne. Revelation 3.21 Our Lord Jesus
says, to him that overcometh, That is, to him that continues
believing on Christ to the end, to him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am
set down with my Father in his throne. But my faith is so weak. I'm like Peter. I'm looking to
him one day, but then I start looking at the wind and the waves
and I start sinking. How was Peter saved that day? I cried
out, Lord, save me. And the Lord reached out and
saved him, brought him into fellowship. That's how we're going to continue
our faith to the end. You know why Christ promised
the Father he'd do that? That's his covenant. He promised,
I'll bring them all to you, Father, and he's going to bring them
there. In every one of these promises we've seen, Paul said,
all the promises of God are in Christ, yes, and in Christ, amen,
unto the glory of God by us. I pointed out faith to you. Christ
believed in God's promises, and even when he was in darkness,
he said, Father, I know you'll help me. And God the Father proved
faithful. He fulfilled every covenant promise
to our King and our Savior. He said He's the author and finisher
of salvation to them that obey Him. He says, come to me, cast
all your burden on me, I'll give you rest, I'll give it to you,
I'll give you these promises. By faith and patience, waiting
on Christ through the Spirit, you'll inherit every one of these
promises. They're all yes and amen, in and by Christ. That's
the pure mercies of David, brethren. Brother Greg.