All right, now let's turn back
to 2 Samuel chapter 7. Christ our covenant King. What an awesome thought. Christ
our covenant King. As I said, this is part two of
a message that I began preaching from the first 11 verses last
time on this subject. And now I want to deal with verses
12 through 17. Those verses communicate and reveal the covenant
that God made with the house of David. It's called the royal
covenant sometimes. It's called the Davidic covenant,
covenant with David, covenant of the throne, covenant of Judah. And it's subservient to the everlasting
covenant of grace. There are some temporal, earthly,
temporary things involved in this covenant. But that is not
the mainstay of this covenant. It is not the main goal of this
covenant. The main goal of this covenant is, again, like all
scripture, to point sinners to Christ for all of salvation,
for all preservation, and for all glory. For He is the King
of glory. And if we enter heaven's glory,
the very presence of God, as that Psalm 24 stated, It's because
of our association and identification with that King of Glory, who
alone has a pure heart and clean hands. For we have no right or
title to come to God and to enter into glory, but that which we
have by virtue of the blood and righteousness of Christ, His
obedience unto death. This King of Glory, this covenant
King, is a King not only in his nature as God, for he is God,
the second person of the Trinity, who has no beginning and no end,
but he is king as God-man. And I want to show you some things
specific in this covenant that prove that and prove how it has
to be true. For if Christ, if Jesus Christ
were not truly man in every attribute of humanity without sin, He could
not be our Savior and thus could not be our King Redeemer. He'd be a sovereign King and
judge to destroy sin and destroy the world and to destroy anybody
who doesn't have a propitiation, a satisfaction. But He could
not be our Redeemer King, our King Redeemer, our Kinsman Redeemer,
except He be truly man in every aspect without sin. And by the
same token, he couldn't be our Redeemer King without truly being
God in every aspect of his nature, truly God. Well, up to this point,
we've seen how David has been established as the king over
all Israel, all the tribes, Judah and all the other tribes. We've
seen his authority established over his enemies. It says in
verse one, it came to pass when the king sat in his house, that
cedar house that was built for David. And the Lord had given
him rest round about from all his enemies. He lived in this
house of cedar. And yet he had it in his heart,
he had a desire to build God a house. You remember they brought
the ark back. They finally listened to the
scriptures and brought the ark back in the way that it was commanded
to be carried. They brought it back to Jerusalem.
David had built a temporary tent to house the ark, and now David
says, well, I live in a house of cedar. Verse 2, he told Nathan
the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the
ark of God dwelleth within curtains, within a temporary tent. So he
wanted to do that. But we read in the rest of that
passage that I preached on that David himself was not permitted
to build God's house. Why? We read that over in 1 Chronicles. David was a man of war. He was
a man of blood. He does typify our Savior in
that capacity, because our Savior was a man of war too, a man of
blood. That's why He went to the cross,
because He had declared war on sin, war on Satan, war against
the curse of the law, and He shed His own precious blood as
the full payment, complete, finished payment of all the sins of all
of His people of all time. He was made sin, the Scripture
says. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. But he finished his work, he
completed his work, and the Bible puts it this way, he sat down
at the right hand of God. He rested as it were. In other
words, the work was complete. And it's upon that finished work,
not an ongoing work, but upon that finished work, that one
time sacrifice, by one offering, he hath what? Perfected. forever
them that are sanctified." He completed, that's what that means,
he completed forever them who God had set apart from the beginning
and gave to him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. So it's upon that finished work
that the church is built, a house of God. And so, God told him,
David, you're not going to build the house. You're a man of war,
a man of blood. Solomon's going to build that
house. Solomon's name means peace. Solomon was a man of rest. We
read that in 1 Chronicles. Now it says in verse 11, it says,
And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel,
and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies, also
the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee in house. David's
house. Now, house here, as you recall,
refers not to David's actual family in that house that he
lived in, but David's royal dynasty, the royal dynasty of David, the
royal dynasty of Judah, which finds its ultimate eternal fulfillment
not in David personally. David's going to die. In fact,
the first terms of this covenant, the first words of the revelation
of this royal covenant, is this, look at verse 12, when thy days
be fulfilled. That means when you're gone,
David, when you've gone home to be with the Lord, when you're
dead, when you're asleep, when you're with the Lord. And so
this, the ultimate fulfillment of this covenant was not and
never intended to be in David personally, nor even a resurrected
David, as some would have us believe. But this is the royal
dynasty of Judah which finds its ultimate eternal fulfillment
not in David or his earthly descendants, but in Christ. In Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, God's Messiah. Think about this. Now it says
in verse 12, And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers, then I will set up thy seed after
thee. Now the seed here is important.
That seed has to do with David's descendants. But again, ultimately
it points us to the one seed, the woman's seed, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says, which shall proceed
out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. Now this
promise, now you can trace this promise all the way through the
Bible, and there's no way I can, all the way through the Old Testament
and up through the New Testament, there's no way that we have time
tonight to go over all these scriptures, but let me just give
you some. And I want you to turn to Acts chapter 2. I'm going
to make my way to Acts chapter 2. If you want to write these
others down, write them down. That's what we're going to do.
I want you to see, I want you to trace this covenant up through
Pentecost. Acts chapter 2. But this promise,
now this specific promise, now the everlasting covenant of grace,
is an eternal covenant made before time. And we just use human language
to try to describe something like that, but we understand
that the salvation that God has for his people by his grace in
Christ is not a new message, is not a new covenant. A new
covenant in the sense that it's new in time. There is the new
covenant, but that's the establishment in time of an everlasting covenant
made before time. So what I'm talking about is
the terms of that covenant of redemption. But now this specific
covenant that's made with David had its beginning with a promise
that began with Abraham. And so you write this down if
you want to study these scriptures, all right? And I'm going to make
my way up to Acts 2. All right? Genesis 17 and verse 6. That's
the scripture. And here's what he says, he's
making that covenant with Abraham, which again is another covenant
subservient to the covenant of grace. And here's what he says
to Abraham, he says to Abram, or Abraham, he says, and I will
make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee. So now there's kings that are
going to come out of Abraham, that's out of his descendants,
out of his earthly line. Now that's the beginning of this
covenant that we're looking at in 2 Samuel 7. This covenant
was reaffirmed in Jacob, Genesis chapter 49 and verse 10. I've
quoted this one quite a bit since we've been studying the life
of David. And that one is where Jacob was pronouncing the blessings
upon his son, and when he comes to Judah, he says this in verse
10, the scepter, that's the king's staff, the king's rod of authority,
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shiloh come, that's peace, that's the Messiah, And
he says, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. So
we see the progression of it. It started with Abraham, just
kings. Then it comes to Jacob, and now it's going to be out
of the tribe of Judah. That's the royal tribe. It was prophesied in the
Old Testament. Now, there's where we could get
in a multitude of scripture, the prophecy of it. But I'll
just give you one that we're so familiar with, Isaiah chapter
9. Verses 6 and 7, where he says, For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. That's all the conditions and responsibility
of the salvation of his people and the covenant. His name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, the Man of Peace, you see. Shiloh. We talked about how Jerusalem,
Salem was an old name for Jerusalem. Melchizedek was King of Salem.
David, by right of kingship, had ownership of that priesthood,
even though he wasn't a priest. And then you bring them both
together, you have David the king, you have Melchizedek the
king and the priest, and you've got a great type of Christ there.
So it goes on, it says, "...of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David." Now,
David's long gone by the time that was prophesied in Isaiah
9. And he says, upon his kingdom to order it, to establish it
with judgment, with justice, that's the righteousness of Christ
brought in at the cross, his obedience unto death, from henceforth
even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it.
Now that's just one of the multitude of examples of prophecies in
the Old Testament of this covenant right here being fulfilled in
Christ. It was also pronounced at Christ's birth. Luke chapter
1, verses 32 through 33. Write that down. Luke 1, 32 through
33. Mary was told, he, that is Jesus,
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. Going to give the throne unto
him. And now I want you to understand that it had probably been Somewhere
around five, well, even more than that, six. At the end of
the fall of Judah, when Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, that was
the last king of Judah that reigned upon that throne. How many years
was that? Five, seven hundred maybe, six
hundred? Somewhere around there. But anyway, but this one, Jesus
of Nazareth, is going to own that throne. And he says he's
going to give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall
reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there
shall be no end. Isn't that great? No end. Now,
look at Acts chapter 2. Not only was it pronounced at
his birth, it was preached at Pentecost. You know, this is
the first sermon that was preached after the New Testament church.
was established. And it says in verse 29, look
at Acts 2 and verse 29, Peter's preaching the gospel, he's pointing
sinners to Christ here, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he makes
it known that Jesus of Nazareth, whom we crucified with our wickedness,
he is the Messiah. And he says in verse 29, he says,
men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David. that he is both dead and buried.
Now, he'd been quoting from David in Psalm 16, and he says where
he says, thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption.
Now, was David talking about himself? Well, Peter says, David,
that he's both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us
unto this day. David's corrupting. His body
was corrupted. Therefore, being a prophet, David
was speaking as a prophet there when he penned those words by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Psalm 16, and knowing that
God had sworn with an oath to him, and what David said on his
deathbed, God hath made a covenant with me, ordered in all things
and sure, and that reaches back to the covenant that we're looking
at tonight in 2 Samuel 7. He says, that of the fruit of
his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit
on his throne. David knew by prophecy and by
God's oath that that was not going to be himself, but the
Messiah who was to come later. And he says, he seeing this before
spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that the body would not,
God would not suffer his Holy One to see corruption. Christ
didn't linger in the grave to corrupt. He was raised again.
that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh, and
hell there is the grave, neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses."
And he goes on, verse 33, "...therefore being by 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, set
thou on my right hand, until I make Thine enemies, thy foes,
thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." There's the fulfillment
of it. Now, go back to 2 Samuel 7. You see, this whole covenant,
this royal covenant, the covenant of the King, which speaks of
the victory, the conquering, the finished work of Christ on
the cross. This is how, you see, David had
wrest a roundabout from all his enemies. You remember that in
2 Samuel 7.1. David's work in that sense was
finished. I know he had more work to do
on earth. In that sense, and he was established,
when Christ finished his work, when he rested from his redemptive
work on Calvary, he was installed and established as the King of
Glory, as God-man, as mediator. And Peter says when David spoke
of those things by inspiration of the Spirit, he wasn't talking
about himself. He was talking about Christ. Look to Christ. That's what this whole thing
is all about. It wasn't founded upon David's accomplishments,
but on Christ. Now look at verse 12 again, 2
Samuel 7. When thy days be fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seat after
thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish
his kingdom. Now, first of all, this covenant
establishes and reveals the earthly succession of the kings of Judah,
which come from David, descending from David, Again, which would
find its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ, not
in an earthly kingdom now, not on an earthly throne, not in
Palestine and not in an earthly temple, but in a heavenly, in
an eternal spiritual kingdom. And this kingdom to which all
this is aimed and points to is not an earthly kingdom ruled
by an earthly king. Now, we read it in Psalm 89,
verse 4, as I open up the service. Thy seed will I establish forever,
and build up thy throne to all generations." Quoted Psalm 45
and verse 6, which Peter quoted there in Acts chapter 2. Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom
is a right scepter, and it is a throne founded upon righteousness
established through the blood of Christ. Paul quoted that in
Hebrews 1.8 as a fulfillment. It has been fulfilled by whom?
By Christ. And what this covenant requires for fulfillment, it
requires, listen, it demands that a biological, physical descendant
of David accomplish the work of redemption and occupy his
throne forever. Now, who's that? Well, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he wasn't the seed of man.
He didn't contract sin. He wasn't born of Adam. He wasn't
born with a fallen, sinful, dead human nature like we are. He's
the seed of woman. But he was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, Romans chapter 1. And that makes
it all more important that we be able to answer that great
question which the Lord posed to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter
22 beginning in verse 41. Remember what it was? He said,
what think ye of Christ? Now what do you think of him?
What do you think of him? scurried around in their own
minds, and you remember what they said? They said, he is the
son of David. You know what? They answered
correctly. He is the son of David, according to the flesh. But our
Lord posed another question. Okay? If that's so, if he is
a descendant of David, had to be now, according to 2 Samuel
chapter 12, or chapter 7, verse 12. If he is a descendant of
David, Then how could David look to the future and the promise
and call him Lord? Because you see, that kind of
calling of a person Lord, that's not the Lord of a manor. That's
Jehovah, Jehovah God. That's the name that only one
would call God. So what is he saying? He's saying,
well, if he's David's descendant in the flesh, if he's David's
son, how could he be both David's son and David's God? And they
didn't know how to answer that question. But we didn't, because
God revealed it to us. We read it a while ago, didn't
we? Isaiah 9, 6, for unto us a child is born, that's his humanity,
his sinless humanity. Unto us a son is what? Given. Not born. Son of God. God can't be born. God has no
beginning, no. The son was given. The child,
that's his humanity. His humanity had a beginning.
He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit.
Now, why is that so significant to us? Well, He had to be God-man
to redeem us from our sins, and He had to identify with us in
our name and in our nature, that is, human nature without sin,
in order to redeem us. He took not on Him the seed of
Abraham or the seed of angels, but He took upon Him the nature
of the seed of Abraham that He, through death, might destroy
him that hath the power over death. Now he says here in verse
13 of 2 Samuel 7, he shall build a house for my name and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Now the first application
of that is obviously to Solomon, David's son, who did actually
build the temple in his earthly kingdom. But again, the ultimate
application, the final application, the one that's more significant
than anything else in the Bible and certainly more significant
to us, is the eternal spiritual application that only is fulfilled
in Christ. Not Solomon, not David. Christ,
the greater son of David. And he told them, you see, he
said a greater than Solomon is here. That's who he's talking
about himself. And this is his spiritual, eternal
kingdom established upon his glorious person and his finished
work at Calvary. Now, you know and I know that
David and Solomon In many ways, in many ways now, as human beings,
we're failures. You know that and I know that.
David admitted it himself in his deathbed. Although my house
be not so with God. He's not talking about the same
house there that he's talking about here. He's talking about
his earthly family, his earthly kingdom. It was in shambles.
It was a mess. But this house stays intact. You know why? Because
this is the house that Christ built. He said, upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. It's intact. Now, as we're scurrying
around here on earth with all of our troubles and our problems
and our nearsightedness, we may not see the glory of it as we
should. We think everything's in trouble,
don't we? You know, we think everything's a major problem,
don't we? Every little thing. But listen. Christ and His church
is well intact. He saved us by His blood and
He keeps us by His grace. He'll bring us to glory. And
it's a spiritual kingdom. He says, you notice here what
has to go on forever? Now listen to me here, and I'll
make this point, just give you a little brief on this one. I'll
finish up with this. It wasn't necessary that the
earthly line of kings be intact? No. And I'll show you why. It
was necessary that the throne be intact. The kingship be intact. Now hold on to that thought and
I'll get back to it. But you see, now understand,
this is a spiritual kingdom ultimately that he's talking about. There
are some elements of the earthly kingdom there, but they're temporary. They're not going to last, you
see. There has not been an earthly descendant on the throne of Judah
since the fall of Judah in Babylon. Herod was not a descendant of
Judah. He was an Edomite. You say, so
where has it been? Except, except for one person. And you'd have to say the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he didn't sit on an earthly
throne. And he said that. He said, what did he say? He
said, my kingdom is not of this world. He never sat on an earthly
throne. But a spiritual throne he did.
And that's how this throne, this eternal throne, the succession
is not broken. But it's a spiritual kingdom.
Listen, Romans 14, 7. Let me just read you these. For
the kingdom of God is not mean and grand, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Where does that come from?
It comes from the cross of Christ. righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost. That all comes from the finished
work of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15.50 Paul wrote,
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit corruption.
And then Luke 17. Verse 20, the Pharisees demanded
of him when the kingdom of God should come. And he answered
them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.
In other words, you're not going to look out there for the signs
and everything that people are looking for today and see it
coming. He says, neither shall they say,
lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is where?
Within you. It's a heart kingdom. It's a
spiritual kingdom. Look at verse 13 again of 2 Samuel 7. He shall
build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of
his kingdom forever. He says this, listen, he says,
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. Now, if he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with
the stripes of the children of men. Now, what's that talking
about? It's talking about that this succession of earthly kings,
who are their sinners? But their sinfulness is not going
to damage or hinder the fulfillment of this covenant. What did David
do? He committed adultery. He committed
murder. He committed the sin of pride.
David was a sinful man just like us. He never rose above that. What did Solomon do? He allowed
his wives to set up their idols. He let it go. And we can talk
about more of it. What about the other line? They
were all sinners, but, and they were chastened by God. God dealt
with them, you see. But he says in verse 15, but
my mercy shall not depart away from him. You see, that's what
we need. If we're sinners, we need mercy. That's talking about
that earthly line of kings there. He says, as I took it from, he
said, I will not, my mercy shall not depart away from him as I
took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And then look
at verse 16, and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established
forever before thee, thy throne shall be established forever.
Forever. And according to all these words
and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. So this vision was given to Nathan
the prophet, and he spoke unto David. Now listen to me. This
eternal throne and kingdom. was never and will never be physically
fulfilled by an earthly line of kings. It has been and only will be
fulfilled by a spiritual king, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as
I said, now with the fall of Judah, the throne of David has
remained unoccupied to this present day. Now some are looking for
Christ to come back and sit on that throne again. It's not going
to happen. He said it, my kingdom is not of this world. I've said
that before. But you know also, and you can
mark this down and read it for yourself, read the whole passage.
I won't go over there because of time on the left. Jeremiah
chapter 22. Read this sometime. Jeremiah 22 verse 30 specifically
tells us how God placed a curse upon the line of descent through
Solomon during the reign of Jehoiachin, Jeconiah, and Coniah. And here's
what he said. He says, you're not going to
have any children. That's where it stopped. And that curse means
that no man in the David-Solomon line of descent could ever prosper
as ruler over Israel, no matter how great he was. And yet the promise to David
was that the throne of his son Solomon would remain forever
and ever and ever. What's the answer? The promise
does not require an uninterrupted succession of earthly rulers. But I'll tell you what the promise
does require, and that's what this covenant is all about. That
the throne be established forever and ever and ever. And it was. No matter what happened to the
men, it was established forever. How? By the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this covenant is
about. So Christ came of the seed of David. Not to occupy
the physical throne in Judah, but the spiritual throne of Israel.
That's why he told Pilate what he told him. My kingdom is not
of this world. Remember, Pilate asked him, he
said, are you a king? He said, were you speaking out
of your own knowledge or what somebody has told you? He said,
my throne, my kingdom is not of this world. You see, the security
of the covenant was not affected by the sins of David, Solomon,
or any of those kings that followed them. God's mercy is going to
endure because His mercy is in Christ, the King of kings. The
security of the covenant of grace was not affected by our fallen
Adam, was it? It was well within the purpose
and plan of God. And I know people don't like
to hear that, but I tell you, I love to hear it. It was right
there. Our sins did not affect the security
and the surety of the covenant of redemption and grace for us.
You know why? Because it was always purposed
before the foundation of the world that Christ would come
into the world to do what? To save His people from their
sins. Now, in saving us from our sins
by His cross work, by his redemptive work on the cross. You know what
he did? He established the kingdom. He established the throne. He
established by his scepter judgment and justice and righteousness
so that God could be just and justify the ungodly. When he was made sin and died
for us, he established the throne with judgment and justice and
righteousness. And that's what this royal covenant
is all about. Now, aren't you glad? Turn over
to 2 Samuel 23, and I'll close with this. But aren't you glad
now, think about this, that this royal covenant, according to
which terms, and of course, God was in control. Aren't you glad
that it was not conditioned on David? That it was not conditioned
on Solomon? that it was not conditioned on
Jeroboam or not conditioned on Uzziah. Remember King Uzziah?
He was in that earthly line. Remember what he did? He went
into the holy place, struck with leprosy. Aren't you glad it wasn't
conditioned on Hezekiah or any of those earthly kings? Aren't
you glad that the whole covenant, even the royal part of it, as
portrayed in the Davidic covenant, is conditioned on Christ and
on him alone. Well, if you read the histories
of the kings, you better be glad. You'll get glad then, read that.
If you're not glad now, you'll get glad then. Because you see,
and that's what David's talking about here. His words reach back
here to the everlasting covenant of redemption. But they also
apply to the royal covenant. And so in verse 5, he says in
2 Samuel 23, although my house be not so with God. That's not
his throne now. Remember, the house back in 2
Samuel 7 is his throne. That's the dynasty fulfilled
in Christ. But his household, his family,
even you could say this, even his earthly kingdom now. He says,
although my house be not so with God. Yet! That's like that, yes,
there's like one of those buts in the New Testament, but God.
Mercy. Yeah. He, God, hath made with
me an everlasting covenant. And here's what I love about
this covenant. It's ordered in all things. It's already ordered
up. It's not contingent upon you,
what you do, say, think on any one given day or time, me, any
of us. It's already ordered out. It's
already mapped out. God who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And then he says it's sure. And
you know how, the only way that something can be sure is if there's
a surety. And Christ is the surety of the
covenant. That's how our sins were charged to him. He, listen,
I believe Christ has had total responsibility for all his people
eternally. I do. I mean, think about it. If you think about that a little
bit now. You can't say, well, in 300 B.C. he wasn't our surety, but then
in 2000 A.D. he is. He stopped it here and
then picked it back up there. No. When the everlasting covenant
of grace was revealed it revealed that Christ has been our surety
from eternity. And that means this, that means
the debt was always his. I know we ran up the debt. Somebody
says, well, we owed it in Adam. Well, we did, and I don't know
how to explain all that, and I'm not going to try. It's immaterial,
actually, as to how we work it out in our minds. The truth of
it is not immaterial. But how we work it out and understand
it in these little old minds we have, that's not important.
But it's true. Christ always had our debt, and he paid that
debt on Calvary by his redemptive blood. The surety did the work
of the surety on Calvary, and he paid that debt in full. Now,
here's what David said, for this is all my salvation. In other words, there's nothing
else about salvation that's not sure and ordered and found right
here. This is all my salvation. It's
another way of saying, Christ is my all. All I need, all I
need. Christ is my all. And then he
says, if this is all my salvation, then it's all my desire. Because
I'm going to tell you something, if we ever see our real need
of salvation, that's the only thing we'll desire. We won't
desire anything else. This is all my desire. Although
he make it not to grow. That is in his own household
and kingdom and family. It's going to grow. in the sense
that Christ is going to have all his people. This kingdom
is going to have subjects. But in David's case, in his own
family, and so sad, he didn't make it grow. There were a few,
there were a few, but very few. And his kingdom and his household
was ensured. But this household, this house, this dynasty, this
royal covenant is ordered in all things ensured because of
Christ, our covenant king. All right.