Let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter
23. 2 Samuel 23. In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian
and hopeful came to a river that was overflowing and there was
no way to cross this river and every way that they sought seemed
to be impassable and so they decided to lay down and take
a nap. And they didn't realize they
were on the property of Doubting Castle. And they were taken captive
by the giant that lived at Doubting Castle. And they were thrown
in the dungeon of despair. He would beat them and he was
threatening to kill them and it was just a dungeon of despair.
And as they were there, Christian and hopeful, one day were lying
there on the floor and Christian broke out into this passionate
speech. And he said, Why am I thus to
lie in a stinking dungeon when I may as well walk at liberty? I have a, now listen to this,
I have a key in my bosom called promise. that will, I am persuaded,
open any lock in doubting castle. Then said hopeful, that's good
news. Good brother, pluck it out of
thy bosom and try. And of course, the key opened
the locks and they walked free. Brethren, when we're in that
dungeon of despair, You that believe the gospel, remember
we have a key called promise. We have a key called promise. It's Christ our covenant and
all God's covenant promises fulfilled in Him and by Him. That's the
key called promise. And that key will open any lock
in doubting castle. And here we find it in David's
last words, him speaking about it in verse 5. 2 Samuel 23 verse
5. He said, Although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. Now, the first thing we see about
this promise is it does not run in bloodlines and it is not of
our flesh. He says, although my house be
not so with God. If you did a good study of David's
house, it would be a really good study to help us know not to
look to man, not to look to our flesh, not to look to bloodlines. David's house was a wreck. David
had a son. Imagine this, in our day and
time, David was a king and he was a prophet. Imagine if our
day and time, the news media got a hold of this about the
president or about some well-known preacher. David's son raped one
of David's daughters. Can you imagine what they would
do with that? How they would run with that?
Well, they ran with it in David's day too. David's son Absalom
killed another son named Amnon. He had rape in his family, in
his immediate family. Incest and murder by his own
children. Absalom rebelled against David
so much and broke his heart so much. And then finally he was
slain and David mourned for him. David's house was a wreck. It
was a wreck. And then David's own personal
house was not to be trusted. David was a fallen sinner in
Adam and on one occasion in pride, that's all it was, pride. He
numbered Israel when he shouldn't have numbered Israel and it offended
God and 70,000 of God's people died because of what David did. Then you know about the, of course
we know about him committing adultery with Bathsheba and then
committing cold-blooded murder and sending her husband to the
front lines to die. And there are many other things
in here about David. And that's why he said, although
it be not so with my house. This key called promise brethren,
it doesn't run in bloodlines. And it's not, it has nothing
to do with our flesh. Our sinful flesh. God teaches
us to cease from man. Cease from man. And flee to the
rock of Israel. That rock said this to us. That
rock of Israel, he said this to us. These things I have spoken
unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you
shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. So David said, although my house
be not so with God. This key of promise is not in
bloodlines and it's not in our flesh. But secondly, we find
this promise. This promise that's the key that
will open every lock and doubting castle. This promise, brethren,
is according to God's sovereign free grace. David said, yet,
and how thankful we are for that word yet. Yet, he hath made with
me an everlasting covenant. It's not so with my house. He
hath made with me an everlasting covenant, David said. The promise
is made from God to His chosen, to who He chooses. Notice that. David said, He, God, hath made
with me. That's a vital distinction. David
didn't make this covenant with God. God made this covenant with
David. And that's a vital distinction.
This covenant is a covenant of free, sovereign grace. God chose His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's who David typifies. He
chose Christ. Christ is the King. He's the
Shepherd of Israel. He's the Sweet Psalmist of Israel.
He's the Son of Jesse. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
who David typifies. And then God chose and elect
people in Christ not based on anything in them, simply His
grace and mercy. And He chose us in Christ and
He made this covenant promise to Christ and Christ to the Father. Let's turn over to Psalm 89. The key called promise is an
everlasting covenant promise. It's an everlasting covenant
promise. The promise to David that we
read about here typifies God's promise to Christ and to His
people in Christ. You get that? We're going to
read this and it's going to be speaking to David. But you just
read it as it being spoken from God the Father to Christ the
Lord. The reason it's said to David is because it's the promise
of God to His Son, the Lord Jesus. I look here in Psalm 89 verse
3, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto
David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. That is Christ. That's Christ, our King David.
Look at verse 19. He says, Then thou spakest in
vision to thy holy one, and saidest, I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed
him, with whom my hand shall be established. Christ established
God the Father's hand. He says, and mine arm also shall
strengthen him. They were one. They were one
in the work. God the Father and God the Son. The enemy shall
not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I
will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that
hate him. But my faithfulness and my mercy
shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn,
shall his strength be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. If
you and I cry that out in perfection, the only place we cried out in
perfection is when Christ cried it out in perfection to the Father.
Also, I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant
shall stand fast with him. You see why you want to be in
Christ? Because this is God's promise to Christ. God could
say this to David because this was so of God's promise to the
Lord Jesus. Now look at this. His seed. Also will I make to endure forever
in His throne as the days of heaven. You know that's not speaking
about David. Look at this, if his children
forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my
statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my
loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my
faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn
by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. And you could
put there Christ Jesus the Lord. I will not lie to him, God the
Father said. Look at this, his seed shall
endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall
be established forever. Established by Christ Jesus on
the cross on whose shoulder the government was. He says as the
moon it shall be established as a faithful witness in heaven. Now later, we don't have time
now, but later if you read the rest of that psalm, you'll read
there God threw David's crown down to the ground. God made all David's enemies
reproach Him. He made His enemies reign over
Him. He made His enemies rejoice over
David. What does that mean? How did
He say all this covenant that He would fulfill and yet make
that to happen? That was part of the covenant.
Christ Jesus agreed to come into this world and to be made sin
for His people and for the enemies of righteousness to triumph over
Him for a time. But in doing so, He destroyed
every single one of them. He destroyed His enemies. And
so, that's a picture of the suffering that Christ endured when He was
made a reproach before all His enemies. And yet that never changed
God's covenant, whatever. It never altered the covenant
God made with the Lord Jesus. It was part of it. And when you
look at it and just see that David suffered that, and David
was reigned over, and David was made a reproach, know the same
thing. You and I will have trouble. But as God said, our enemies
are not going to triumph over us. He's going to strike them
down. But that doesn't mean that we
won't suffer. We may suffer. We will suffer. But that's part
of the covenant. And yet, as God says, nothing
harmful is coming to His child when that happens. Absolutely
nothing. Now, we know that Psalm 89 speaks
of David because when it was said to Mary that she was going
to have a child named Jesus, the Scripture says he shall be
great and shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall
reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom shall
be no end. That's what God was speaking
in Psalm 89. Spiritually, He's speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ to whom He made this covenant, who reigns
forever and ever and ever. Acts 13.34 says, As concerning
that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to
corruption, He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies
of David. That's what we just read in that
Psalm. The sure mercies of David. That's what He gave to our Lord
Jesus Christ. when He accomplished the work of putting away the
sin of His people. So, this covenant, though it doesn't run in bloodlines,
though it has nothing to do with our flesh, it's of God's free
and sovereign grace, and that means, because it's in Christ,
our eternal High Priest, it's an everlasting covenant. An everlasting
covenant. It's eternal. The blessings are
spiritual, they're eternal blessings. And over in Jeremiah 3, the Lord
said this, This is how ordered and sure
this is, how everlasting this is. He said in Jeremiah 3, He says, Thus saith the Lord,
if ye can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the
night, that there should not be day and night in their season,
then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant,
that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and
with the Levites my minister. Nobody can break God's covenant
with the day and the night. And nobody can break this everlasting
covenant either. It's everlasting. And it's ordered
and sure. That means everything that God
requires, God provides. Everything He requires, He totally
provides for this covenant. That's what the covenant is about.
It's about the Lord Jesus Christ coming and providing everything
that's necessary for the salvation of His people. God requires a
perfect righteousness. Christ is the Lord our righteousness. And He has brought in an everlasting
righteousness. Everything, when it says there,
ordered and sure, that means everything God requires, God's
provided in Christ. We need a perfect righteousness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is that perfect righteousness. He brought
in everlasting righteousness for His people. The perfection
of the fulfillment of the law of God in omission and commission. It's a perfection that He accomplished.
Perfect righteousness for His people. God requires perfection
of holiness. Christ is the perfection of holiness
for His people and in His people. The life that is now in us is
the Lord our holiness. God the Father requires perfect
fidelity to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
author and finisher of our faith. He's the beginning and the end
of the faith of His people so that we've been perfectly faithful
to God our Father. And so all the promises of God
are in Him. They're all in Him. And they're
yes and they're in Him. Amen unto the glory of God by
us. What does that mean? It means
what He said in Isaiah 42. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till He has set judgment in the earth and the Gentiles shall
wait for His law, for His Word. Our Lord Jesus Christ has set
judgment in this earth on the cross and He is setting judgment
in this earth right now by His reigning and His ruling and He
shall set judgment in this earth when He has made the whole thing
new and it is a perfectly righteous new heaven and earth. He shall
not fail. Lastly, I want you to see that
this key called promise opens every lock of despair when God
has made Christ all our salvation and all our desire. That's the
key, that's the opening when we're brought to see this is
all my salvation and all my desire. Look here in verse 5, 2 Samuel
23 verse 5. He says, concerning this covenant,
ordered and sure in all things. He says, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. Now David
was dying. David was dying. And it doesn't
matter what kind of trials that we face, this is the ultimate.
David is dying. Now he looked at the state of
his house. He found no hope there, found no comfort there, found
no strength there. He could look at himself, find no hope there,
nothing there. But he didn't lie on the floor
in the dungeon of despair. He remembered he had a key to
unlock those locks and be at liberty. He remembered he had
in his bosom a key called promise. And he thought on that sure word
of covenant promise from the God of glory. And he said to
himself, this is all my salvation. God had taken every bit of strength
David had at this point. These are his last words. He
had taken all the strength he had. There's no hope anywhere
whatsoever. But it increased David's faith
in the promise of God, in Christ our covenant. Remember God said,
I'll give thee for a covenant of the people. It's Christ the
covenant. He's the promise and all the
promises are fulfilled in Him. But He looked to this promise.
to Christ and He said, this is all my salvation. What He's done
for me, the promise He's made for me, the word that's sure
from Him to me, this is all my salvation. We saw in Psalm 62
verse 1, David said, truly my soul waiteth upon God, from Him
cometh my salvation. Well, is there anywhere else
from Him and somebody else or from Him and something else?
No. Just from Him. From Him cometh my salvation. From Him cometh my salvation. You're talking about justification?
Yeah. Talking about sanctification? Yeah. Talking about trialification? Yeah. Talking about all the salvation
we need. He's my only salvation. He only
is my rock. He only my salvation. He only
my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. Christ is the covenant. He said,
I will give thee a covenant for the people. He's the one that's
going to open the prison and say to the prisoners, be free. He's the one that's going to
open those locks. It's Christ the Lord. My soul
waits only for Him. Can you say that? My soul waits
only for Him. Only from Christ comes my salvation. He only is Morocco. He only is
my salvation. He only is my defense. Everything
I need, everything that is required of me, Christ is. And so when
Satan buffets, when our house is falling down, and when we
are in the dungeon of despair, we shall not be greatly moved. We will never ever be moved from
our life. from Christ our life. Never. It won't happen. And so God not
only makes Him to be all my salvation, but when He's made Him all my
salvation, He makes Him all my longing. He says here verse 5,
and this is all my desire. That means all my longing. The
word means delight, it means longing. When the promise of
God was all David's salvation, then it was also all his desire,
all his longing. Psalm 73, 25, he said, Whom have
I in heaven but thee? What's heaven to you? What you
looking for? What do you want? What do you
expect? It reveals a lot about what a man believes when you
talk to him about what he's looking for in heaven. Who have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
The next psalm we are coming to is Psalm 63. David says, O
God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth
for Thee. That's what that word desire
means. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. What do you want? I want to see thy power. I want
to see thy glory as I've seen it in the sanctuary. I've seen
it by faith right here when I've heard the gospel priest. I've
seen his glory and I've seen his power. Now I want to see
it in this dry and thirsty land I'm dwelling in. I want to see
it. That's my longing. That's my
desire. I want to see Him come. He's
my salvation. I want to see Him come. And I
want to see Him accomplish the salvation that He's accomplishing. When Christ is all my salvation
and He's all my desire, that's when the locks are open. The locks are open. And it will
cease to matter how impossible things may appear to my natural
sight. You stop looking at things naturally. It don't matter how they appear
by natural sight. David said all this and he said,
although he make it not to grow. That means though God may not
at present give you any outward visible indication of progress. Though God makes all things appear
even dismal, no matter how many locks have to be opened to free
you from the dungeon of despair, no matter how strong they appear,
no matter how impossible the task may appear. Believer, when
God makes Christ all our salvation, He makes Him all our longing
by His everlasting covenant promise, we have in our bosom a key called
promise. a key called promise. And we
have the sure mercies of David, the everlasting covenant, ordered
and sure in all things. God settles His child on Christ
and makes us to know and remember He is my salvation. He's all
my salvation. Only Him. Only Him. Then we'll
wait upon Him to see His power and His glory the same as we've
seen in His Word in the sanctuary. God settles us so that Christ
is all my desire, all my longing. I want to see Christ do the work.
And though God makes it not to grow, though it may appear for
a time that nothing's happening, it may appear for a time that
there's nothing that's... I don't see what's going on.
I'm not putting my hand to it, so I don't see anything happening.
That don't mean something is not happening. Where has He brought you? He brought you to know this.
Behold the days come. He said in Jeremiah 23.5, Behold
the days come. They are coming. Saith the Lord
that I will raise unto David a righteous branch. And a king
shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice
in the earth. That's what he did when he walked
this earth and went to the cross and laid down his life for his
people. That's what Christ did. He executed judgment and justice
in the earth. He reigned and prospered in it.
And Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and
that's what he accomplished. He accomplished the salvation
of His people. And this is His name whereby He shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. And He is still executing judgment
and justice in this earth for us, brethren. Everything that's
going on in this world right now, everything that's happening
right now, the reason we're meeting here like we're meeting under
these conditions that we're meeting in, and you at home are at home
under the conditions you're in, is because our Lord Jesus Christ
is executing judgment and justice in the earth for us! And He's
doing it right. It's the right thing. And it's
what needs to be done. And that's what He's doing. In
Zechariah 6.12, he says, Speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the branch,
he shall grow up out of his place, he shall build the temple of
the Lord. That's what he's doing. That's
what Christ is doing today, right now. He's building the temple
of the Lord. One elect redeemed child upon
another. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory. He's going to get
the glory for it. And he shall sit and rule upon
his throne. He's a king. And he's sitting
and ruling right now. He's ruling for the interest
of every single child he's redeemed. That's what he's doing right
now. In every act of providence, great
and small. That's what he's doing. And He shall be a priest upon
His throne. He is also making intercession
for His people. While He is our King, He is our
priest, saving us from ourselves. And what will be the result of
it? The counsel of peace shall be between them both. The counsel
of peace shall be between God our Father and each elect child
He has redeemed and brought to faith in Him. And the counsel
of peace shall be between His people. Jew and Gentile, rich
and poor, bonded and free. He'll make peace. He'll make
peace. Now turn back over there to Habakkuk
3. Now brethren, this applies to every trial that you and I
face in this life. We run when we ought to sit still. We speak when we ought to remain
silent. We lean to our own understanding
when we should have trusted in Christ. And so we end up locked
up in the dungeon of despair, broken and bruised and in shackles.
But if we're gods, I'll tell you where we're going to end
up. We're going to end up at Christ's feet. That's going to
happen. By His sovereign mercy, that's
going to happen. According to His covenant promise,
that will happen. We're going to end up at His
feet, broken, bruised, without any hope in ourselves whatsoever. And that promise He's made to
execute justice and judgment in the earth, He's going to do
that. And He's going to make us wait
on Him and move when He says move, speak when He says speak,
jump when He says jump. That's what He's going to do.
He's going to do that. It's not a speculation. He shall
do that. And all this is going to be though
He make it not to grow. Though it may appear like nothing
is happening. Though it may appear like the
very opposite of good is happening. Yet we know the promise shall
come and He shall work. Do you remember how God let Israel
run until they became like a tree with all the branches broken
off? You remember why God said He did that? He said, you wouldn't
wait, so I'm going to wait. Why did He do that? He said that
I might be glorified. That I might be glorified. I
do know this. I know that in every one of our
trials, God blesses His child with the promise when He has
brought us to the end of us. This is the only time He blesses
us with the promise. He doesn't do it before this.
He does it when He's brought us to cry out with David and
say, this is all my salvation. He's all my salvation. He's all
my longing. When He brought us to that place,
brethren, then the promise of God opens the locks and He sets
us at liberty from the dungeon of despair in doubting castles
so that God gets all the glory. Now Habakkuk saw this majesty
of God. He saw these awful judgments
of God. But look at what it says there
in verse 16. When I heard my belly tremble, my lips quivered
at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones and I trembled
in myself. Why? That I might rest in the
day of trouble. I had to see all that. I had
to see all that. Why? Why did you have to be...
brought down into this trouble and this despair that I might
rest in the day of trouble. When He cometh up unto the people,
He will invade them with His troops. And although, though
He make it not to grow, It doesn't appear like anything good is
coming. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and
the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I
will rejoice in the Lord. Believe me, you're going to rejoice
in the Lord. I don't care how bad it looks. I don't care how
bad it gets. He is going to bring you to rest
that Christ is all our salvation and all our desire. And we are
going to end up rejoicing in Him. And watch this. I am a joy
in the God of my salvation. Now listen to this right here. The Lord God is my strength. There is no other. There is no
other. And what is He going to do? What
is he going to do for his child? What is his covenant promise
that he shall accomplish for his child? He will make my feet
like Hines' feet. Remember that, did y'all see
that video of them little old goats climbing up that dam? Just
almost straight up. They climbing just up it like
it was a flat piece of ground. That is where he is going to
make our feet like Hines' feet. Steady and sure. and He will
make me to walk upon mine high places. When David was there
dying, David with no strength in himself whatsoever, fixing
across the Jordan and having no strength to do so, could say,
I am going to rejoice in God. It doesn't appear like it now,
it doesn't look like it to the natural eye what is taking place,
but I am about to rejoice in God. How are you going to get
there? David, He is all my strength.
How are you going to be able to cross that flooding river?
He is going to make my feet like His feet. And He is going to
make me walk on my high places. And brethren, that is so for
the believer in every single trial. You read it brother Adam.
He is not going to suffer the righteous to be moved. He is
not. He is going to provide for His
people. But we are going to have to individually I have to be
brought in my situation and you in your situation and this brother
in their situation, we have to all be brought individually to
the point where we say, He's all my salvation. He's all my
longing. And that door will be unlocked
and He will set us at liberty and He'll make our feet like
His feet. I believe that. Do you believe that? I believe
that is absolutely certain. That's what He's promised to
do for His people. And He will. I believe He will. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We trust You and we pray that You would make us trust
Your Word. Or make us look to the Scriptures. Make us look to Your Word. Make
us hear You speak. Settle the heart. and make us
as helpless as David was on his last breath. And make us just that strong
and that confident and that sure in Christ our salvation. We ask
it now in His precious, holy, perfect name. Amen.