First Chronicles 11, I hope you
read this. And before we look at this, I
want to ask and answer the question that we've asked many times. Why do we look at these Old Testament
stories? Why do we preach from the Old
Testament? Our Lord did, you know, on that
day. This is why we're doing it, because He, on the road to
Emmaus, He preached to the disciples things concerning Himself. And
He began in the books of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms,
and all the Old Testament. That's what we're doing. But
why do we preach the Old Testament? Well, because it's God's Word.
That's why. He told Timothy, preach the Word. What Word? There was no New Testament
when he told Timothy to preach the Word. This was the Old Testament. The Old Testament proves the
Christ of the New. You cannot know the Christ of
the New without seeing Him in the Old. The Old proved Him to
be the true Christ, and you can't know Christ apart from
the Old Testament. And you can't know the New Testament
apart from the Old. You know that the Apostles, if
you know God's Word, the Old Testament, you'll see Scripture
after Scripture after Scripture quoted all through the Acts and
the Epistles, right? Just short passages, but quoted. You'll see it, because that's
what they preach from. And so you can't really know
the new apart from the old. You can't know the old apart
from the new. And it's according to the Scripture.
When the Scripture says that the Gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that's the Old
Testament. The Old Testament. But these
things are hidden. like the parables. We preach
from the Old Testament because to us it's given to understand. Remember they asked the Lord
why do you speak in parables? He said because to you it's given,
it's not given to them, it's hidden. And these things concerning
Christ and the Old Testament are hidden to most people. Many
of you were in religion and you've heard stories like Noah's Ark
and you never heard Christ's name mentioned. So, how blessed we are. And Malachi
3.6, the last book of the Old Testament, God said it right
before, and it was silent for 400 years. But before the New,
He said, I am the Lord, I change not. And in Hebrews, the whole book
of Hebrews is a summary of the Old Testament, and the last chapter
in Hebrews says, Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, and
forever. He hasn't changed. So, this is
one book. You know, I took out, there was
a page separating the Old and New Testament in my Bible. I
tore it out. Because there's no, it's one
book. It's one book. It also, as we've
seen, proves those who know Him and love Him. like looking at
pictures of those you love in the family album. This is the
Lord's family album. And He shows it to His family.
We rejoice, don't we? Proves you love Him, proves you
know Him. It was the only Bible anybody had for a long, long
time. It's what our Lord preached from. And so that's why. This story,
1 Chronicles 11, chronicles means record of events, recorded history. The chronicles are of Christ. This, the record, this is God's
record concerning Him. It's His story. This book is
the record of God written, the written word of God chronicling,
chronicling God's Son, all that He did, all
that He said, all that He would come to do, say in the Old Testament. 1 Chronicles 1 begins this way,
and it's a lot of names, none of them without significance.
But it begins with Adam, okay? It begins with Adam. And it goes
through Abraham and it stops with David. 1 Chronicles stops
with David, right in the middle, chapter 11. And then to the end
of that chapter is David. Nobody else. Well, Luke's gospel,
it starts with Christ and goes all the way back to Adam. The
genealogy, right? And Matthew. But there are many
names, many events, many stories in 1 Chronicles, all leading
up to chapter 11. And as I said, in chapter 11
it's David, and then nobody else is mentioned. To the end of the
chapter. From the middle to the end of
the chapter, there's nothing about God's King, David. And it speaks of Christ, God's
King. And that's all by design, all by design. And the end of
1 Chronicles, the end of the record, the end of the record
ends this way with speaking of His reign, His might, His kingdom. And Revelation 11 ends that way. We thank Thee that Thou hast
taken unto Thyself this right to reign and rule. The whole
book is of Christ our King, our conquering King and our Savior.
So, all right, let's look at it. 1 Chronicles 11. Then all
Israel gathered themselves to David and to Heber, saying, Behold,
we are Thy bone and Thy flesh. Verse 3, Therefore came all the
elders of Israel to the king to Hebron, and David made a covenant
with them in Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David
king over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. So this is God's king, David. God's king. And the people came
to crown him, to own him, to confess him publicly. All of
them got together, gathered together, God gathered them together to
David, brought them to David to confess him as their king
publicly before all. Now Israel didn't make him king,
did they? They didn't make him king. Who
made David king? God did. Long before anybody
knew he was king, David was king. God did. He did what the prophet
Samuel prophesied. You remember that story? It was
just a private gathering of family, David's brethren. They all knew
he's king, long before the rest of Israel knew. And that's our
Lord, isn't it? He's been king all along, by
prophecy, by decree. And Psalm 2, I read that again
today. Don't you love Psalm 2? Speaking
of Christ our King, the kings of the earth, they set themselves
ruler, rulers. God laughs. He says, I'll declare
the decree. Lord, I'll set my king on the
holy hill of Zion. He's my son, whom I've begotten. He says, Be wise now, O kings
and judges of the earth. Serve thee, Lord, the Lord of
lords, king of kings. Kiss the son, lest he be angry. You perish in the way. His wrath
is kindled but a little. How blessed are all they that
put their trust in him. How blessed are those who know
that he is king. Blessed be the people. He is
Israel, God's Israel, whom God has given such a king. and given
them to Him, to own Him as their King. How blessed we are. Don't
you like what Sheba said of Solomon? She said, because the Lord loved
Israel, He made you King. And because God loved you, He
made you to know that Christ is your King. Made you to bow. Gave you to Him. He's king by
decree. He's king. God made him king.
He's king by conquests. He defeated all the foe. Now,
2 Samuel 3. Go back there real quickly. 2
Samuel 3. In case you don't really believe
that Saul was an enemy, that Saul was a bad name, a man, Saul
represents Satan himself. He hated David. He knew that
David was the king. He knew David was the king. He
didn't want him to be king. And he tried his best to kill
him. And that's what Satan wanted
to do. And 2 Samuel 3 says in verse
1, there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house
of David. There's been a long war. between
Satan and his seed and Christ and his seed. It began in the
garden. No, it began long before that.
It began before time, didn't it? When a third of the heavenly
hosts rebelled, Satan being the leader of them, and he said,
I will exalt mine from this day. Christ was there. He said, I
beheld Satan. He said, I'm the one that grabbed him by the tail
and cast him out. And the first thing our Lord
did as a man, a 30-year-old man, is what? Faced Satan. Nobody
knew it. Nobody knew it. But He was facing
our adversary for us. David was fighting all the battles
for Israel before Israel knew it. He was out fighting. Jonathan knew. A few people knew. David's the one doing all this. starting with Goliath, remember
that? And oh, Saul didn't like that because David got the glory.
Are you telling me he doesn't represent the God of this world?
He did. And in chapter 10, right before
11 of 1 Chronicles, it says Saul died for his transgressions.
God killed him. And God's going to cast Satan
and all of them into a lake of fire for everything. And God turned the kingdom unto
David, the son of Jesse. Now he's king. And he went out
still fighting, still fighting Israel's battle. Fighting, fighting
for them. Isaiah 40 says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Comfort ye, speak ye comfortably
to my people. Say unto them, first thing, Say
it, John. The warfare is accomplished. By who? By Christ, the King. He's king
by conquering all the foe. David fought everybody. All his
life as king, until he was about 70 years old, he fought Israel's
enemy and won. Never lost a battle. Never lost
a battle. Never lost sheep before that.
Never lost a battle after that. That's our Lord, isn't it? He's
king by conquest. David defeated the enemies of
the Lord. David conquered the hearts of
the people. In the beginning, there were
only 400 men that gathered to him in the cleft of a rock. Don't
you love that story? It just happens to be In 1 Samuel
22, like Genesis 22, like Psalm 22, the psalm of the cross, like
Revelation 22, the end of the Bible. But it just so happened
in 1 Samuel 22, it says, all those who were in death, all
those who were in distress, all those that were discontent, gathered
to David in the cleft of the rock, in that cave, and he became
captain over there. The captain of their salvation.
Their king and their captain. 400 men. A few. A remnant. When it was all over
in this story, all Israel was gathered together. All Israel. That's what this story is about.
All Israel was gathered. Now here it is, the gathering
of the people. Verses 1. And three, we read it, they gathered
themselves to David. Who gathered them? God did. God did. God said in Isaiah,
bring my people from the north, from the south, east, west, gather
my people together, those who have made a covenant with me
by sacrifice. Gathered my people. Who did it? He did it. The Spirit
of God gathered him. That's what sanctification of
the Spirit is all about, isn't it? Making a difference. Setting
apart his people. Gathering him in. Calling him
in. That's the call of the gospel. The call of Christ. Bring his
people together. Oh, don't you love Ephesians
1? and two and three and four. But
it says this, you know it, you know it by heart. It says in
Ephesians 1, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he's
going to gather together in one all things in Christ. Like all
these people came to David, gathered by God to David, God's going
to gather all of his people from time past to time eternity. in Christ, in heaven and earth,
even in Him. And then in chapter 2 it says,
when we're gathered together, He's quickened us together with
Christ, sitting together in heavenly places. In the ages to come,
He's going to show us exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus, our King, our Savior, gathered
together. Now here's their testimony. Verse 1, they said to David,
We're thy bone and thy flesh. We're your body. What's that
mean? He's the head. We're the body. That's us. We're thy bone, bone
of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh. Isn't that what Adam said
of Eve in the garden? Huh? And this is the second Adam
from above, who made us bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh, whom God gave birth to us out of his rib and side, like
Adam. In verse 2, they all said, every
one of them, all Israel said this, and moreover, in time past,
even when Saul was king, you're the one. You were the one. Thou wast he that led us out
and brought us in Israel. And Lord God, because the Lord
God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou
shalt be ruler over my people. They all said, You're the one. You always have been the one.
And because God gave you this decree, because God made you
king, because God sent you to do a work, and he said, thou
shalt. And he said, you will, and he
will, and we shall. We shall come to him. All that
the Father giveth him shall come to him, like these people. And
we have, and we do, and all of them shall, because God gave
the decree. And you're the one, they said,
all of them, to a man, said, you're the one that led us and
fed us and fought for us and brought us. And that's what all
of God's people say concerning Christ, isn't it? This other
Jesus, it's a sure sign that people don't know Him when they
say that preachers are false, when they say, let Jesus have
His way. You know, won't you make Him
the King? Won't you make Him Lord of your life? Don't know
Him. Don't know it? It's not the Christ's Scripture.
Nobody made David king, did they? God did. And they all knew. Every one of Israel knew. They
didn't make him king. God did. They didn't let him
do anything. He did it all. He's the one that
led, fed, fought for, did it all. In the Old Testament, God
makes it sound like David did it single-handedly. He says,
David recovered all. The Malachites, was it? Who was
it? The Malachites came and stole
David's wives and all their goods. And David asked the Lord, Shall
I go after them? He said, Go after them. You will
recover all. And when it was all over, it sounded like David
did it by himself. The reason being, because Jesus
Christ did do it by himself. He did. By himself. Don't you
love Hosea? The story of Hosea and Gomer. Here's what it said. That she
did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied
her silver and gold. She didn't know that. He says,
she didn't know, but I betrothed her unto me forever. In righteousness, in judgment,
in loving kindness and mercy, she didn't know. She didn't know
that I bought her to me. for 15 pieces, 30 pieces of silver. Oh no, a much greater price than
that. His own precious blood. She just
didn't know. She finally did, didn't she?
And so did we. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20 says,
You are not your own, you are bought with the price. To everyone of Israel and all
of God's people said, You're the one. You did it all. You've done it all for us. You're
our King. You're our Savior. You're our
Lord. You're our Master. Look at verse
4. Now here's the city that David
took. I love this. I'll never forget the first time
I read this. Oh, man. It's written twice.
2 Samuel 5 and here, David and all Israel, verse 4, went to
Jerusalem, which is Jebus. Jebus. Now, Jebus means trodden
or the threshing place. Threshing place. Hmm. David's
going to do some threshing. There's going to be some people
killed. There's going to be some blood shed. And his garments
are going to be red. trodden, some people trodden
under his feet, some people saved. It's called a place where the
Jebusites were, inhabitants of the land. Now verse 5, the inhabitants
of Jebus said to David, thou shalt not come hither. You can't
come in here. Now he's outside your harsh door
and he can't come in unless you let him. You've got to be kidding. That's just a mockery of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Old John and I sang that song
by, old brother, what's his name, in Louisiana, the Lord Jesus,
Ed Hale, Ed Hale, wrote that song, that the Lord Jesus broke
down my heart's door one day. A ransom was found. He came and
broke down our heart's door. I'll give you an illustration
in a moment. But they said, David can't come in here. And the actual
story over in 2 Samuel 5 is that they had some idols up on their
wall. They're called the blind, the
hawk, the lame, the blind. Their idols were just, David
wrote someone, their idols are just like them. I can't see,
you have no hands but your hand, no feet but your hand. But seriously,
seriously, they had their little idols all over the wall and said,
our idols are going to protect us. David can't come in here.
Nevertheless, David took it. Aren't you glad? Took the castle
of Zion. That's where the king resides,
in the castle. Zion, city of God. They called
it the city of David. He changed the name that day.
Changed the name. What a picture this is of our
Lord, yeah, breaking down our heart's door and leading captivity
captive. Us, we're in captivity. Satan,
he's going to, he made a show of him openly, Scripture says,
going to parade him down the street for all to see and cast
him, say, here's your enemy, you'll never see him again. I've
defeated him. And all His people, captivity,
whom He takes captive to Himself, captivated by Him, by His love. as power, thankfully. We were
captives to Satan, now to Christ, willing bond slaves. In Ephesians
2, speaking of this conquest of Christ over us, you were without
Christ. Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no
hope without God in the world. You were a Jebusite. You were an Amalekite Gentile. These Jebusites were all Armenians. Do you hear me? These Jebusites
were all Armenians. They all said, he can't come
in here unless we let him. Well, some of them found out.
He killed some of them. Maybe he spared some others.
You, now, in Christ Jesus, you who were some time afar off,
are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our feast,
who has made both one. Joshua went through all the land. His name is Jesus. What a picture
Joshua is of the true Jesus, isn't it? He killed everybody
in his sight. There were no innocent victims.
They were all against Him. Only the ones that bowed to Him. Only the few that said, no, have
mercy on us, be spared. That's Jesus Christ. You don't
know Jesus unless you know Joshua. You don't know why Joshua did
what he did except in light of Jesus Christ. Right? People say it's different. No, it's not. God hasn't changed. You were rebels. He killed you
first and made you alive. He abolished in His flesh enmity
contained in ordinances, and making Himself of twain one new
man. He reconciled us unto God in
one body by the cross. He slew the enmity thereby and
came and preached peace to you. that were far off to them that
were nigh. Now we're no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens. We're the saints. He made us
Israelites, made us Jews, not by circumcision with hands, but
circumcision of God, of the heart. So the city was taken. And it says he took the castle,
the fortress, the center place in town, the middle of town where
the king resides, and he called it his city. This is my city. I own this place. I am king. I reign over this place. Not
in pride, but in the type of our Lord Jesus Christ. If there's
any book I like as much as, any man-written, written-by-man book,
as much as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, it's The Holy War.
I've read it at least three or four times. But it's the story
of man's soul. Mansoul, who originally bowed
to El Shaddai, the king, and his son Immanuel. They bowed
to him and they loved him. But Diabolus, The devil came
to them and deceived them. There were two gates in that
city, the ear gate and the eye gate. And Diabolus wooed them
through the ear gate, told them smooth things, what I was going
to do for them. And the eye gate showed them
wonderful things. And they freely opened the ear gate. and the
eye gate. And Diabolus came in with all
his demons and captured that city, quieted the recorder, that's
the conscience. First thing he did was quiet
him, put him in a place where nobody would be bothered by him. And Diabolus ended up in the
castle, that's the heart, and took control of that castle,
the hearts of men. And there he resided. And he
said, shut the gates. But somebody cried, somebody
called, somebody got out or something, went to El Shaddai and said,
we need help. We're captives. And so King El
Shaddai said, I'll send my son, Immanuel, to recapture Mansoul. And he came. Okay. He came to
the ear gate. They wouldn't open. He came to
the eye gate. They saw no beauty in him that
they should desire. So what'd he do? Break it down, boys. He busted
in that tent. First thing he did, he went right
straight in the middle of town to that castle and laid hold
of Diabolus and paraded him down the middle of that street, took
captivity captive down the street. And all the people shouted with
joy. And I love the story that says when he made them all free
from captivity, and led captivity captive, and
said he was walking down that street, and said everybody in
town was walking behind him. They loved him so much, they
admired him so much, they were walking in his footstep. They
wanted to be just like him. This is no fable. This is the
truth. That's exactly what our Lord
Jesus Christ does. did, does, and shall do. It's true. Peter said that. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Oh, no man deserves that title
but Jesus Christ. King of kings and Lord of lords.
And there's a celebration. Celebration. Look at verse 7. David dwelt in the castle, therefore
they call it the city of David, He built the city roundabout
from Milo roundabout. Joab repaired the rest of the
city. By the way, Joab, his name means fathered by Jehovah. Now isn't that something? Joab
ended up being a bad man. Solomon had him killed. He was
a fake. He was a phony. He was a hypocrite.
Followed David for a long time. But he was a bad man. But now,
In this story, he represents Christ. Because David said, whoever
smiteth the Jebusites will be chief and captain. That's Christ. He's the chief,
he's the captain of our salvation. But never mind Joab, it's not
about him. So David built the city round
about, and Joab repaired the rest. But David, verse 9, waxed
greater and greater. For the Lord of hosts was with
him. In that our Lord's name, Emmanuel,
God with us. Let me just show you a few scriptures
in closing, okay? You're going to like this if
you follow, if I've still got your attention. Look at chapter
13, a big celebration. Chapter 13, verse 2. This is so good. You don't like it, I do. Verse
2. So David said, and unto all the
congregation of Israel, if it seem good unto you that it be
of the Lord our God, let's send abroad unto our brethren everywhere.
Let's gather them all together into this one place. Gather themselves
unto us. Let's bring the ark of God unto
us. Didn't Christ say, other sheep
I have, they're not of this folk. They're my must bring. gather
His people together from all places. Chapter 15, look at this. Verse 3, So David gathered all
Israel together to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord,
which he had prepared for. And you know the story. We looked
at it. He was clothed, verse 27, in fine linen, and danced
and sang before the ark. And there were trumpets and cymbals
and noises, and psaltery, and harps. What a celebration this
was. The trumpet was sounding, and
all the people were dancing and singing, and that's going to
be us. Look, and I love this, and I'll quit. No, I won't. I'm going to go to the last verse.
But Chapter 16, So they brought the ark of God, and set it in
the midst of the tent. David pitched for it. Brothers
and sisters, there's not going to be a temple in glory. That's why Christ said, This
temple is not going to be left standing. It's not going to be
a temple. Christ, the Lamb, is a temple. In Him we live and
move and have our being dwelled. And in Him we're going to worship.
He's the mercy seat where God's going to commune with us in Christ. Now look at this, verse 2, when
David made an end of offering and burnt offerings. It was a
peace offering. He blessed the people to name
it. And he dealt to every man in Israel. every single man and
woman, a good loaf of bread, a good piece of flesh, and a
whole lot of wine. Now let's celebrate. And this old chronicle, this
record ends saying, now David's reign and his might and the times
he went through history and all his kingdoms over all the countries
Let it be written, let it be recorded for all to read from
now on. And these things are written
that you might know Him that is true and you're in Him that
is true. Christ our King. Okay, stand with me.