Alright, let's turn back in our
Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 5. If you've read ahead in these lessons,
these passages of Scripture, you may have noticed that there
are two great significant events here that show us not only in
history, God's history, God's redemptive history on earth,
but show us not only in that history, but also in type and
in picture, the establishment of Christ as King, King of His
kingdom, King of all Israel, and the establishment of His
kingdom. We see that in the type of David, David, who is the King
of all Israel here. And so that's why I titled this
message this evening, The King of All Israel. We see this type
as we see the establishment of David as king over all Israel,
not just Judah. He'd been in Hebron. He'd been
king of Judah, appointed the king of the tribe of the nation
of Judah for seven years, and now we're going to see all Israel
come unto David. And that's when we see, secondly,
the establishment of the kingdom But we see not only that, but
the establishment of the kingdom in the city of Jerusalem. And
it's also known as Zion. It's identified by that mount,
Mount Zion, that is in the city of Jerusalem, or some say right
outside. Either way, it's the same thing. And there we have a picture of
the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, the church of the
living God. And here in chapter 5 we see the beginning of the
golden age of Israel's history under the rule of David, and
which goes over to the rule of Solomon to a point. The United
Kingdom of Israel. This has greater significance
as it pictures the golden age of spiritual Israel's history
in Christ. The United Kingdom of spiritual
Israel. That's why I opened this service
tonight by reading Jeremiah chapter 31. When you look at that, and
he says in verse 31, he says, I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Two very
significant things at this point in time when Jeremiah makes that
prophecy. For hundreds of years, Judah
and Israel had been a divided kingdom right after Solomon,
you know. It was really divided before that because, you know,
under Abner, you remember when David, when Saul was killed and
David was set up as king of Judah, Abner set Ish-bosheth on the
throne of the other tribes of Israel. So there you see the
seeds of that division sown right there. But David, in the wisdom
that God had given him and under the power of God, was able to
bring those two parts together, and unite them. And that's what
2 Samuel 5 is about. But that didn't last long. It
lasted about 40 years under David, and then I don't know how many
years under Solomon, but until he died, and then the kingdom
was divided, and it stayed divided. It stayed divided. And also,
and it was divided up in this time of Jeremiah's prophecy,
but another thing that's significant about this prophecy in Jeremiah
31 is actually the nation Israel did not even exist. Because they
had been obliterated, annihilated if you will, and dispersed throughout
the world by the Assyrian army hundreds of years before this
prophecy, during the time of Isaiah. And so it's significant
that he's using these terms here to predict the kingdom of Christ. And he says he's going to make
a covenant, a new covenant, with the house of Israel and the house
of Judah. Now what he's talking about is the united kingdom of
spiritual Israel, the kingdom, all Israel, under Christ, typified
back here in 2 Samuel 5 as the whole kingdom under David. And
it is significant. And he says this new covenant,
you remember Jeremiah said in verse 32, this new covenant is
not going to be like the old covenant, which I made with your
fathers when I brought them out of Egypt. Which covenant they
break, they broke that covenant. And he says, but this will be
a covenant that I will, verse 33 of that prophecy, it's always
I will, I will, I will. It's not I will if you will,
it's always God's will, God's will. And then he says there'll
be a people that know the Lord because they'll know Christ.
And so that's significant, you see, that united kingdom. This
prophecy of Jeremiah in chapter 31 is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus
Christ and the Apostle Paul, whom I believe the Lord used
to write the book of Hebrews, quotes from Jeremiah 31 in Hebrews
chapter 8 to show that. And what he's talking about there
in Hebrews chapter 8, and incidentally, if you want to turn to Hebrews
and keep your finger there, I'm going to be dealing with Hebrews
quite a bit tonight, especially Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 9, but
there in Hebrews 8, he speaks here of Christ in verse 6, who
hath attained a more excellent ministry, that's more excellent
than the old covenant, more excellent than Moses, more excellent than
that earthly priesthood and earthly tabernacle, By how much also
he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established
upon better promises. You see, all their promises to
the nation Israel were temporal and earthly, and temporary. But all the promises to spiritual
Israel are eternal. All the promises of God in him
are yea, and in him Amen. 2 Corinthians 1.20. And so it
says in verse 7, For if that first covenant had been faultless,
then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding
fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. And then he quotes from Jeremiah
31 there, the passage that we read. And what he's showing is
that is all fulfilled in the coming and the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a beautiful thing.
Well, now, back here in 2 Samuel 5, we have the beginnings of
that. We see in the tithes, rather, the whole kingdom, Judah and
Israel, all the tribes coming together under David. And then, as I said, we see the
establishment of the kingdom at Jerusalem, and that's significant,
too. Jerusalem was the place on earth where our Our Lord,
in time, established His kingdom, His heavenly kingdom, by His
death on the cross. It was at Jerusalem that the
Lord of glory gave up His life for the salvation of His people.
But you see, we look not to an earthly city, but to a heavenly
Jerusalem. Paul wrote about that in Hebrews
chapter 12. He says, we don't come to Mount
Sinai, we come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. So even
though you might be interested in what's going on over there
in that earthly city, that's another matter. We're not looking
for a home or a king in an earthly city. We're looking for the heavenly
Jerusalem. And that's the kingdom of Christ.
But now, let's see how this works out. I'm just going to deal with
about the first ten verses tonight here, 2 Samuel 5. The first thing
is this, David is crowned as king. And it's in God's time,
and it's in God's way. It says in verse 1, then came
all. You see the word all. That word
is used three times in these first few verses. Then came all
the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron. And they spoke,
saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Verse 2, Also
in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leadest
out and broughtest in Israel. And the Lord said to thee, Thou
shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over
Israel. So all the elders of Israel came
to the king to Hebron, And King David made a league
with them, a pact with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they
anointed David king over Israel." King of all Israel. As I said,
in God's time and in God's way. Men tried to put David on the
throne before this time and in another way. By evil means, but
it was not to be so. You know, Abishai tried to do
it. When he and David came upon Saul
sleeping, he said, let me just take this spear and do the work.
And he said, it won't take twice. That'll be it. And then we see
Joab tried to do it in another way. We see that others tried
to do it by killing Ish-bosheth. But you see, that's not the way
that David was going to be anointed king of Israel. It's God's time
and God's way. And I thought about this. You
know, our Savior, when He was on this earth doing His great
work, headed towards His mediatorial glory in the accomplishment of
His work on the cross, He waited and He suffered patiently and
faithfully to do the work that He was sent to do And then when
he finished the work, then he was buried and raised again the
third day and exalted as the King of kings and Lord of lords. And not until then. But you know,
there was a time before then. Turn to John chapter 6. Let me
show you something. There was a time before then
that men tried to put him on the throne. They tried to put him on the
throne before. And I want you to notice something. These men
who tried to put the Lord on the throne before His time and
in their way, the wrong way, these were the same men that
later on said, we won't have this man to rule over us. It says here in verse 15, now
He had just finished feeding a lot of people with a few loaves
and fishes. He performed one of His miracles.
And they wanted to take him and put him on the throne at Jerusalem
right then because of the miracles. You see, it had nothing to do
with the work that he was sent to do, the father, of satisfying
the justice of God for the sins of his people. It had nothing
to do with the suffering Messiah being obedient unto death so
that he would be exalted as the one who finished the work, who
made an end of sin and finished the transgression and brought
in everlasting righteousness. And it says in verse 15 of John
6, it says, when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come
and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again
into a mountain himself alone. He wouldn't have it. That's not
the kind of king he was to be. That's not the way he was to
be put upon that throne. His road to the throne of glory
was through the cross of suffering. And that was for the honor of
God, the glory of God, and the salvation of his people. David
was a type of that. That's why David couldn't be
put upon the throne by violence, by wicked methods, or by force. It had to be. It had to be God's
way and God's time. And just like our Savior had
to suffer unto death to establish his kingdom, the book of Philippians
teaches us that in chapter 2. And he made himself of no reputation,
went down in his humiliation and became obedient unto death.
Go back to 2 Samuel 5. Now notice here again, it says
all the tribes in verse 1, not just part of them, here's the
nation coming together under David. You see, there was not
going to be any unity of this nation outside of David. And that's the way God anointed
it, that's the way God purposed it. And that's a great picture
of how there is absolutely no true unity in the church but
under Christ. And when men begin to exalt themselves
and promote themselves and judge themselves and their own agenda,
that's when you have division and discord and confusion. But
when you keep your mind and your heart by the power of God focused
on Christ and Him alone, you'll have unity. I think about that
passage in Ephesians chapter 2 when it speaks of the Gentiles
being brought in by the blood of the cross. And now we're no
longer strangers, no longer aliens out there somewhere. And we have
this inner circle in here somewhere. You see, cliques, groups, clubs
have no place in the kingdom of Christ. They have no place
there. And I tell you, beware of those
who promote those things. They're like Abner. They're like
Joab. They're like the people who...
You see, it has to be under David. Well, ours eternally has to be
under Christ. And I tell you, when men get
their focus on Christ, when their hearts are fixed on Christ, there'll
be unity. But when you're drawn off in
other directions, there'll be discord. Well, they had three
grounds upon which they came to David. Let me show you. First
of all, number one, they said in verse one there, saying, Behold,
we are thy bone and thy flesh. The first ground was a unity
of kinship. Now, you know about the law of
the kinsman redeemer. You see, Christ is the near kinsman
of his people. And not only that, he is bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The book of John chapter
1 and verse 14 says that the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. In Hebrews chapter 2 it says,
He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He is our near kinsman. Moses
prophesied of this in Deuteronomy chapter 17. Let me read it to
you in verse 15. He said, Thou shalt in any wise
set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou
mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
The first thing that came into my mind when I saw that is again
Hebrews chapter 2, when it says Christ, when referring to His
people, the ones He died for, the ones whom He was sent to
redeem, It says, he was not ashamed to call them brethren. He's our
kinsman. And so the first ground upon
which they came to David is the ground upon which we come to
Christ. He's our near kinsman. The near kinsman had to perform
the duty of the near kinsman. But let me go a little bit further
in this one. This is a unity illustrated in
marriage. You know, in Genesis chapter
2 and verse 23, Adam made this statement of Eve. He says, this
is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called
woman because she was taken out of man. And the union between
Christ and His church is represented as a marriage union. We're married
to Him, married to another. And when Paul, dealing with the
marriage relationship between husband and wife in Ephesians
chapter 2, he made this statement. He said, I'm talking to you about
Christ and His church. We're bone of His bone and flesh
of His flesh. So that's the first ground. But
now the second ground is this. Look at verse 2. He says, Also
in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leadest
us out and broughtest us in Israel. You're the one who redeemed us,
who delivered us. Not Saul, he said. Saul's a picture
of Adam and our fallen Adam. Adam didn't redeem us. We didn't
redeem ourselves. It took somebody greater than
Adam. Just like it took somebody greater
than Saul. One whom God chose. One who was
able because God gave him the ability. And so that's a picture
of Christ who led us out in redemption. As I said, the kinsman redeemer.
He had to perform the duties of a kinsman redeemer. He had
to pay the price. And the price of our redemption
was his shed blood. The blood of Christ. Satisfying
the law and justice of God to set us free. To give us life. His death on the cross gave us
life. So we have a unity of redemption.
Paul wrote to the elders at the church of Ephesus in Acts chapter
20 and verse 28, he said, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. We are a purchased people. Our
unity is based on the finished work of Christ. Did you know
that? That's our unity. Look over at Galatians chapter
6. Let me show you this. And this is very relevant to
this subject of all Israel. Look at Galatians chapter 6.
I use this quite a bit because I believe it's one of those passages
that sort of summarizes everything that holds us together as believers
in our testimony. And he says in Galatians 6 and verse 14, but God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that word glory there, you
may have heard me say this before, that's the same word, the same
Greek word that's translated rejoice, In Philippians chapter
3 and verse 3, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We glory in Christ. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. In other words, our confidence, our assurance, our
security is in the cross. Now that's not talking about
a piece of wood. It's not talking about a painting. It's not talking about something
somebody wears. It's talking about the death
of Christ. It's talking about His finished
work of redemption on the cross. And this is the motto of every
believer, this we glory, our confidence is in one thing, Christ
and him crucified, who he is and what he accomplished at Calvary.
And he says, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. That's what sets us apart from the world. It's not
what we wear or what we eat or what we drink or don't. That's
not what sets you apart from the world. You can stop eating
certain things and stop drinking certain things. You say, well,
that and I'm not world. You'll find somebody somewhere
in the world who's doing the same thing. Probably going one
better than you. It's our testimony of confidence
and assurance and rest in Christ and Him crucified. God forbid
that I should glory except in that. What is your ground of
salvation? It's the blood and the righteousness
of Christ. That's what that means. What
is your hope of glory? Christ in you, the hope of glory.
What is that? That's His finished work on Calvary,
where He washed away my sins, where I'm clothed in His righteousness
alone. That's my plea. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And that's
what separates us from the world. Now look at verse 15 of Galatians
6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. In other
words, whether you're Jew or Gentile doesn't matter. It has
no bearing on this matter at all. You're standing before God. You're salvation. You're security. Whether you're Jew or Gentile
has no bearing on it whatsoever. A new creation in Christ. That's
the only thing it has bearing on it. And he says in verse 16,
now listen to this, And as many as walk according to this rule,
this truth, this doctrine, now what rule? God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross. And he says, peace be on them.
That's a sinner who's at peace with God. God's reconciled to
that sinner, and that sinner's reconciled to God. And then he
says, in mercy. He's a recipient of the compassion
of God, the love of God. And look here, and upon the Israel
of God. Who's that? That's spiritual
Israel. And to anybody that walks according to that rule. And they're
all united under Christ. Just like back here in 2 Samuel
5. They're all united under David. The King. Unity of redemption. Here's the
third thing. Look at verse 2 again. At the
end of that verse. He says, Thou shalt feed my people
Israel. The Lord said to thee, thou shalt
feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel."
He's talking to David there. The Lord said, David, you're
going to feed my people Israel, and you're going to be a captain
over Israel. You see, that's unity of divine approval. Who's
got God's approval here? Think about it. I'm not talking
about does God approve of everything you think, say, and do. Of course
not. I'm saying who's got God's approval here tonight? I'll tell
you who. Everybody who stands in the person
and work of Christ. And you know how I know that?
The Scripture says that we're forgiven by God through His blood. We're accepted in the Beloved. And you're not accepted in any
way else. I'm not accepted before God anywhere else, any way else
or in anyone else. It's in the Beloved. Christ has
God's approval. That's what he said. This is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. We don't
have any approval from God, any divine approval except what we
have in Christ. That's it. And that's what he's
talking about here. And then our lives and our sustenance
and our guidance is in Christ. Now here's David. He was king
by God's appointment and God's approval. Christ is king by the
same. His resurrection from the dead,
His ascension to His Father proved it. God accepted the sacrifice. He was well pleased. Christ is
our righteousness and God is pleased with us through Him.
And He's our shepherd and He's our captain. Thou shalt feed
my people Israel. That's the work of a shepherd.
Thou shalt be a captain over Israel. That's the work of a
king. Christ is our king and our shepherd. One of the great
themes of the Word of God is that the Lord Jesus Christ is
our shepherd. We all think about Psalm 23,
but there are others. He's the shepherd king. Not like
other kings. Other kings are selfish and proud
and evil. But he's the shepherd king, one
who died for his sheep. A good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. One who loves his sheep. The
scripture says in John 13, 1, he loved his own until the end,
finishing of the work. One who feeds His sheep and keeps
His sheep, He'll never let us go, for no one can snatch us
out of His hand." That's who He is. That's the unity of divine
approval, all united in Christ. Look at verse 3 again. It says
that all, so all the elders of Israel came to the King Tehibbon. It says, "...and King David made
a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed
David king over Israel." All who come to God come to the King. You can't come to God without
coming to God's appointed King. They recognize His kingship.
They bow to Him as Savior and as Lord. Now, in this verse 4,
the second thing you're going to notice here is that David,
now, And I believe under God's guidance and God's revelation
here, turns his thoughts towards Jerusalem. Look at verse 4. It says, And David was thirty
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In
Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months. And
in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel
and Judah. Again, all Israel and Judah.
Look at verse 6. And the king and his men went
to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land,
which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind
in the lane, thou shalt not come in hither, thinking David cannot
come in hither." Now what you have there is the inhabitants
of the city of Jerusalem at this time, the Jebusites. They were
a godless, idolatrous people. They had no regard for the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no regard for King David. In
fact, they show that in their boast here. They're boasting.
And what they're saying is that David cannot come in here, and
this language might be a little difficult for you to understand,
but here's what they're actually saying. They're saying, oh, we
could take the lame and the blind and put them up there, and they
could stop David. That's what they're saying. Now, what a boast.
Of course, at this time, some say David still only had his
band of 600 men. We don't know how many the Jebusites
have, but the Bible doesn't give us any clear numbers here. But here's these Jebusites boasting
against God, boasting against David, and they say, he can't
come in here. Well, who does he think he is? All we have to
do is just put the sick and the lame, the crippled and the blind
up there, and they can stop David. Now, this boasting. Now, they're
going to be defeated, you know that. And it doesn't take a whole
lot of language here to tell you about that. You can read
a little bit more about it in the Chronicles. They're the account
of it. But this boasting shows us all
who boast against God are going to do what? They're going to
be defeated. They're going down. And these Jebusites, they represent
all false professors. All false professors. Even those
within the visible church who will eventually be cast out by
Christ in the last day. You see, the true church will
only consist of God's elect, the justified, the redeemed,
the regenerated, and ultimately the glorified in Christ. This
is the boast of the flesh here. This is confidence in the flesh.
All Israel at this time had confidence in David. And they said, the
Lord said, The Lord said, and we come to David, united under
David. But the Jebusites, they boasted
in their weakest flesh. They said, we'll just put the
lame and the blind up there, thinking David cannot come in
hither. This is the way they thought. The word thinking there,
that's like judging. They made a judgment. And the
judgment was based upon their own pride and their own unbelief. They just didn't believe David
had that kind of army, that kind of strength. So look at verse
7. Look at this. I love this, just
in one verse. Nevertheless, David took the
stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David. That's
all it said. I mean, you don't read any stories
about this colorful battle or, you know, big fight that the
judge decides. Nevertheless, David took it. That's all it
took. Just a nevertheless from God.
Say what you want to, Flesh. Say what you want to, proud man,
in your unbelieving arrogancy. Nevertheless, David took the
stronghold of Zion. Zion was a hill, but it was sometimes
used as a name of Jerusalem, the whole thing. Actually, this
is the first mention of Zion in the scriptures. It says, the
same is the city of David. There you go. David takes Zion. Somebody said, well, I thought
Bethlehem was the city of David. It is, the city of his birth.
But Jerusalem, Zion, is the city of his reign. Both are the cities
of David. David took it. Well, we know
it was by the power of God. It says here in verse 8, David
said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth
the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of
David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore, they
said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David.
And David built roundabout from Melo and inward. That was these
tributaries and where they got their water from. Somebody come
up. Well, it was actually Joab, if you read it in the Chronicles,
Joab is the one who volunteered. He went up and he entered the
city and he opened the gates and the floods came in. And I'm
talking about the floods of David's warriors. In fact, it was called
later on, a place that was taken like a flood of water. I mean,
that's how quick it was. That's how fast it was. You see,
this is by the power of God. Not by the power of a man, but
it's by the power of God. And this is the way our Lord
purchased His people on the cross. You know, really, it was a short
period of time. when you consider the glories
and the blessings of eternity that we have because of its benefits. Even his whole life, if you think
about his whole span of life, thirty-three and a half years
maybe, we would consider anyone who would die at thirty-three
years to die young. That's a short life, you see. That short life of obedience
unto the law, which prepared him to go to the cross as the
innocent sacrifice, and that time on that cross, which was
very short, opened up a whole eternity for the heavenly Jerusalem,
for Zion, his church. Look at verse 10. It says, And
David went on, and that literally means he went going and growing,
and growing and going, And he grew great, and the Lord God
of hosts was with him. Now there's the key. That's how
David was able to do all this. David took Jerusalem. Let me give you some things here.
We're going to go to the book of Hebrews, and I want you to
see this because I think you'll get a blessing here. The Apostle
Paul in Hebrews makes a great deal over the fact that Christ
is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. You remember
Melchizedek? He was the one who Abraham met
on his way back from the slaughter of the kings over in Genesis. And Paul makes a great deal of
that in the book of Hebrews, that Jesus Christ is not a priesthood
after the order of Aaron, the Levitical priesthood and the
Old Covenant. That's over. But he's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. Melchizedek being an emblem of
an eternal priesthood. People argue about over exactly
who Melchizedek was. I don't think that's appropriate
because the scripture doesn't give us all the information.
But Melchizedek appears in Genesis 14 and then in one verse in Psalm
110, written by David when he said, thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. And you remember when Melchizedek,
when he met Abraham, coming back from the slaughter of the kings,
he's called the King of Salem. And that's the old name for Jerusalem.
We read that in Psalm 76. So Melchizedek had a priesthood
of God, the Most High, in Salem, inclusive evidently of this stronghold
of Zion. And when David conquered Jerusalem,
You could say that that priesthood of Melchizedek now belonged to
David. And so in the case of David,
we have one who is both a king and the inheritor of the priesthood
of the Most High God. Now, David personally was not
and could not be a priest. You see, he wasn't from the tribe
of Levi. He was from the tribe of Judah. But what my point is
this, he typifies one who is both king and priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in the priesthood of Melchizedek,
now belonging to the house of David, when he conquered Jerusalem,
Salem, over which Melchizedek had been priest, he was king
of righteousness, king of Salem, king of peace. That's a prophecy
of the fact that there will be a change in the priesthood. And
I want to show you that. Look at Hebrews chapter 7. It's kind of like a little foretaste
that there's going to be a change now. That this priesthood of
Aaron's not going to last forever. That there's a greater priesthood
that's coming. And in Hebrews chapter 7, we
see that. Look at verse 11. He's talking
about here the Old Covenant, what it had. It had all of its But now he talks about Melchizedek,
King of Salem. Look in verse 1, for this Melchizedek,
King of Salem, priest of the Most High God. Well, look at
verse 11. He says, if therefore perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received
the law, what further need was there that another priest should
rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order
of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made
of necessity a change also of the law." Now that tells you
that when Christ came and did his great work after the order
of Melchizedek, that eternal priesthood, it wasn't just the
priesthood that changed, it was the whole law. Read it again. Verse 12, For the priesthood
being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of
the law. What was that change? Same thing
Jeremiah predicted in Jeremiah 31. I'm going to make a new covenant
with them. Not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers, which they broke. That priesthood
is going to change, you see. And then look over at, well,
let's read on just a few more verses. Verse 13 of Hebrews says,
for he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another
tribe of which no man gave attendance at the altar. In other words,
he of who these things were spoken of, all right, was not of the
tribe of Levi. Verse 14, for it is evident that
our Lord sprang out of Judah. Who's he talking about? Our Savior.
of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood, and it
is yet far more evident, for that after the similitude of
Melchizedek there ariseth another priest who is made not after
the law of a carnal commandment," that's an earthly commandment,
but after the power of an endless lie. Don't you love that? Our
Savior was made a priesthood, not by the law of a carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life, for he testified thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now who testified
of that? David, back in Psalm 110. You
see how it all connects? Here David took Jerusalem, he
owned that priesthood, even though he himself was not a priest,
but he pictured one who was both king and priest, and predicted
of his coming, showing there's going to be a change. Something
better is coming. Something better than Aaron and
all those men who lived and died as high priests and priests under
that covenant. Let me show you this and then
I'll quit. Hebrews 9, look at Hebrews 9
and look at verse 6. Now here he's talking about the
first covenant with all of the things that it had, the tabernacle,
those earthly things. And in verse 6 he says, Now when
these things were thus ordained, this earthly tabernacle, earthly
priesthood, earthly altar, Under the old covenant, the priest
went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of
God. That's the outer court, and that's the holy place where
the table of showbread was, and the candlestick, and the labor.
But he says, but unto the second, that is the holiest of all, went
the high priest alone once every year, and all without blood.
We say without the shedding of blood, no remission. which he
offered for himself and for the heirs of the people, the Holy
Ghost, this signified, that the way into the holiest of all was
not yet made manifest." What does that mean? That means Christ
had not yet come. He's the way into the holiest,
you see. And all that high priest was doing was just picturing
the future. teaching about the future, and he says, while as
the first tabernacle was yet standing. Now what does that
take? You see, while that tabernacle stood, that was a signification
by the Holy Spirit that the Messiah had not yet come and accomplished
his work. But now when the Messiah would
come and accomplish his work, that tabernacle shouldn't be
standing anymore. That's why over in Hebrews 13
he said, those who serve the tabernacle cannot come where
we are. They're denying Christ. And so
verse 9, he says, which was a figure for the times in present. In
other words, that was a picture for that time in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscious. The only thing
that can cleanse the conscience is Christ and him crucified.
And he said it stood only in meats and drinks and various
washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them, not written
on their heart now. You remember Jeremiah said, I'm
going to write the law on their heart. That's what the, speaking
of the Holy Spirit's work. This was imposed on them until
the time of reformation. Now what is reformation? Is that
talking about John Calvin and Zwingli? No, it's talking about
when Christ would come. That's change. Until the time
of reformation. But Christ, being come an high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, that is, gave them
an earthly sanctification in the sense of setting them apart,
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?" Now, David being
anointed as king of all Israel and conquering Jerusalem and
setting that up as the center of his kingdom pictures everything
that we've read right there. That change, you see, that future
change is coming, that reformation that would come and be fulfilled
only in the coming of David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and all that he would accomplish.