Now, if you would, let's turn
in our Bibles to 2 Samuel, chapter 4. 2 Samuel, chapter 4. I started to title this message,
The Reward of the Wicked, but I've changed that. Don't be laughing,
I just change things every now and then. No, I tell you, in all seriousness,
as I got to thinking about this, what we're seeing here in this
history of 2 Samuel is the establishment of David's kingdom. The establishment
of David's kingdom. And if you think about history,
if you studied much history, history of the world, and studied
about the kingdoms of men, great kingdoms, conquerors, You'll
know that those kingdoms were all established sinfully. They were established upon greed,
violence, murders, pride, all of those kingdoms. And those
kingdoms fell. Any kingdom that man puts his
hand to is doomed to fail. And then even those kingdoms
or governments that were established upon maybe for good reasons,
they become corrupt eventually. And that's the kingdoms of men.
But one thing that we know from the scripture is this, that the
kingdom of God, the heavenly kingdom, the eternal kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ, must be established upon righteousness
and justice. The God of the earth, he must
do right. And that's what I've entitled
this message, the kingdom established by righteousness. The kingdom
established by righteousness. That's what's being portrayed
here as we see the establishment of David. That's what's being
typified. The kingdom of God established upon righteousness
is typified here In this kingdom that God is establishing through
David, this man, his chosen one, his anointed one on earth, the
kingdom of Israel. And it's got to be different
than other kingdoms. It cannot be established with
impure, evil, self-righteous, proud, self-serving motives. And it cannot be established
upon violence and war. But it must be established in
righteousness, and we've seen that as we go through. And so
with that in mind, that's the key to understanding not only
this chapter, but the next chapter also, where we see David actually
ruling over all Israel, both Judah and Israel. This time he's
only ruling over the tribe of Judah, the nation of Judah. And
it says, look at verse 1 of chapter 4. Now, what we see in these
first eight verses of this chapter is the very weakened, pitiful,
fallen condition of the house of Saul, which leads to the murder
of one of Saul's sons named Ish-bosheth, the one who had been put upon
the throne by Abner, who was now dead. And this weakened,
fallen condition of the house of Saul is a picture of man by
nature falling in sin, falling in Adam. No power, no truth,
living in darkness and the weakness of sinful flesh with no life,
real spiritual life, no bent towards the things of God or
the glory of God or His promise, that glorious promise of salvation. that's revealed in that old covenant,
the Mosaic Law, which was a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ. It's
a pitiful, it's a sad situation, but it says, when Saul's son
heard that Abner was dead, now this is his son Ish-bosheth.
Remember what that name means, man of shame. This man of shame,
whom Abner had put on the throne, this man who had no power of
his own, He was a puppet king. Abner was the force behind the
throne. Now Abner's dead. And when Saul's
son Ish-bosheth heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands
were feeble and all the Israelites were troubled. His hands were
feeble. He knew that now he had no power
at all. Not even through Abner. His power
was dead. Abner was dead, Ish-bosheth,
learning that the man who had put him on the throne, the only
man who could keep him on the throne was dead. He was troubled,
he was weakened, and he had reason to be. He had reason to be. Because, you see, Ish-bosheth,
that man of shame, he trusted in a man to gain his position,
and so when the man was gone, he knew, he was smart enough
to know that the position would be gone too. Ish-bosheth was
weak because he trusted in men instead of trusting in the living
God. Had he trusted in the living God, he wouldn't have ascended
unto the throne to begin with. He would have done like his brother
or half-brother Jonathan and took off his mantle and his sword
and his shield and gave them to King David and submitted to
him willingly. Picture of a sinner submitting
to Christ and his rulership and his kingship. You see, let me
tell you something about following men, and something every one
of you probably already knows. Whatever man you choose to follow,
if he doesn't lead you to follow Christ alone, for all salvation,
for all strength, for all riches, for all authority and truth,
you are in trouble. Isn't that right? Because whatever
man you choose to follow, instead of Christ, when that man's gone,
or when that man's dead, Your strength and your hope is gone
or dies with him. That's right. And the only thing
you'll be found doing is trying to build a memorial to that man,
and someday it'll fall. Because memorials to men never
last. That's why I've often told you
that as the pastor of this church presently, my goal is that this
church be a memorial to the glory of God in Christ, and not a memorial
to any man. You see, we have to follow Christ
who never dies. We have to follow Christ, who
is the only one who deserves to be remembered, memorialized,
and served, not as a dead man, but as a living Lord. We serve
a risen Savior. He's on the throne. in heaven. He's in our hearts. He's in the
world today, as the song says. He'll never die. And He's our
life. What does that mean? That means
we'll never die. Oh, we'll shed these physical
bodies. But that's just a passing over,
isn't it? So you see, our hope is not in any man. Your hope
should never be in me as your pastor. My hope should never
be in you as a congregation. Our hope is always and should
be always in Christ. Look unto him, and be ye saved."
So here's this man, Ish-bosheth, who's in a weakened condition.
It says in verse 2, Saul's son had two men that were captains
of bands, that they were men of authority. The name of the
one was Bayanna, and the name of the other Rechab. The sons
of Remen, of Beerothite, and of the children of Benjamin,
for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin." So these were men
of Benjamin. They would be natural followers of Saul. Saul was of
the tribe of Benjamin. And it says in verse 3, "...and
the Beerothites fled at Gittim, and were sojourners there until
this day." Talking about the history of those who followed
Saul. But now look at verse 4. He says,
And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame on his feet.
And he was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and
Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass, as she made
haste to flee, that he fell and became lame, and his name was
Mephibosheth. Now that's the first mention
of Mephibosheth in the scripture. It's not the whole story of Mephibosheth
given right here. It's the story of his fall. And
many of you well know that that's a picture. Mephibosheth's fall
is a picture, an illustration of our fall in Adam. Lame on
our feet, actually spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. Fleeing. That's what happened
to Adam and Eve. You see, when Adam took sides
with Eve against God, he fell and brought the whole human race
under the judgment of God in themselves according to the covenant
of works. And that's why we thank God that
before we fell, just like before Mephibosheth fell, before we
fell there was another covenant already made, an assurity already
existing. The Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom
our sins had already been imputed, and who would come in time and
satisfy the justice of God for our sins." Well, you see, before
Mephibosheth, before this is said of him, before he fell,
there was a covenant made between David, the king, and Jonathan
that sealed the security of the house of Jonathan, sealed the
security and their livelihood in the kingdom of David, God's
anointed king. And what a great and beautiful
picture that is of our salvation, the covenant, the covenant of
grace. Every time we preach the gospel,
Brother Allen, every time we preach the gospel, it's the preaching
of the terms of a beautiful, eternal, everlasting covenant
that was made before this world was ever created, isn't it? And
that's why it's the preaching of Christ, who is the Alpha and
the Omega, who never changes, the beginning and the end. And
so this mention of Mephibosheth is placed here strategically
by God for a purpose. Now you might wonder, why is
it placed here? Because again, we don't have the whole story
of Mephibosheth here. That comes later when we read
about David saying, go fetch him, bring him, and he eats at
the king's house. Oh, that's a beautiful picture.
I'm going to preach on that later. But he's mentioned right here.
Now why? Now hold on, I'll show you. Mephibosheth
is mentioned here in contrast to Ishbosheth. Because you see,
as far as Mephibosheth is concerned, and Ishbosheth is concerned,
they're about in the same boat. Here's Ishbosheth, the man of
shame, he's weakened, he has no power, he's impotent. He's
on that thrown that he usurped through Abner. Abner's dead.
His hope's dead. His power's dead. His whole reason
for being there is dead. He has no place to go. He's a
fallen king. Just like Adam. And then there's
Mephibosheth. Do you remember what Mephibosheth's
name means? That means utterance of shame.
It's almost like he's saying that Ish-bosheth is a man of
shame. That's what we all are by nature.
But sometimes God brings a man forth like Mephibosheth who utters
his shame. He admits it. He speaks it. I'm nothing. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's the utterance of shame.
When we see what we are by nature and we come to God begging for
mercy, that's the utterance of shame. We who believe the gospel
are all Mephibosheths in that sense. So you see him in contrast
to Isbosheth. Now, Mephibosheth was the son
of Jonathan. He was a covenant son. And we
who know Christ, who are saved by the grace of God, were covenant
children, covenant people. Isbosheth was on the throne of
his father Saul, but he was weak. He was destined to fail. He had
already failed. And here, Mephibosheth, he was
lame on his feet. But I'll tell you what, he was
going to be an integral part of the king's family, and later
on we're going to see he's going to eat at the king's table all
the days of his life. And that's the way we are, sinners
saved by grace, feasting at the king's table all the days of
our life. We don't deserve to be there,
and we didn't earn our position at that table. It was totally
by the grace of God in Christ. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? So there is a great picture in Mephibosheth of sinners saved
by the grace of God in Christ. There is a great picture in Ishbosheth
of sinners without Christ, in unbelief, without hope. Well,
in verse 5, it begins talking about the murder of Ishbosheth.
Look here. It says, The sons of Rehman,
the Barothite, Rechab, and Banna, went, and they came about the
heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed
at noon. And they came thither, they came
there into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched
wheat. In other words, they came under
false pretenses. They weren't there to get wheat,
but that's what they told them. And it says, And they smote him
under the fifth rib. I was reading a commentator,
that was mentioned earlier because I think Abner was struck under
the fifth rib and the fellow said he was talking to a doctor
and he said that means he got him in the heart. So they meant to kill
him. And it says, Rechab and Banna,
his brother, escaped. They killed Ish-bosheth, Saul's
son, and then they escaped. Now look at verse 7. It says,
For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber,
and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took
his head, and gat them away through the plain all night. So they
sneaked up on him when he was sleeping on his bed, and they
killed him and took his head. Murder. That's what that is.
Somebody said one time, well, people like that ought to be
killed. Well, my friend, what makes us think that we ought
to have anything better? You know what I'm saying? But
look here, verse 8. Here's what happens. They did
this deed, and then they go seek the king's favor. They seek David's
favor. It says, They brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto
David, to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of
Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, thine enemy, which sought thy
life, tried to kill you. And the Lord hath avenged my
lord, the king, this day of Saul, and of his seed. Now, do you
hear what these fellows said? They said, they said here, the
Lord hath avenged my Lord, this king, the king this day. What
did they do? They went and they murdered this
man. Now, whatever you think of this man, whatever we think
of this man, whatever he's done wrong, it was murder. And they
had the gall to come to King David and said, the Lord hath
avenged. We did this in the name of the
Lord. You don't murder in the name of the Lord. I thought about
that, I was reading a book a couple of months ago about this fella
who was talking about Christians, the Christian persecutions of
the Jews throughout history. And the whole time I'm reading
this book I want to just stop and get that fella by the collar
and say, now look fella, those weren't Christians. They called themselves Christians
But they weren't Christians. It wasn't Christians murdering
Jews. Now that's not to say that a
Christian cannot be guilty of the sin of murder. We're going
to find out later on David was. But it wasn't Christianity that
did that. That was a false Christianity.
The Lord said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. He said, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. He didn't go on to say, now if
they don't believe, time to uphold and torture them until they recant.
That was not Christ. That's not Christianity. That's
the violence of self-righteous men, and that's it, who weren't
Christians. And for these men here to come
and say, in the name of the Lord, the Lord God, No, they just went
out and murdered a fella. That's what happened. Well, look
on verse 9. You see, they're seeking the
king's favor because of their deed. They claimed it was God's
orders to them. And what they did now, listen
to it, they attributed their personal vengeance to God. In
other words, like man by nature, we're always going to find a
way to justify ourselves and make our wickedness right when
we can't do it. And see, whenever men fulfill
their own fleshly lust and claim it's of God, it's the highest
form of self-righteousness and disobedience and idolatry. But
now look at verse 9. It says, And David answered Rechab
and Banna, his brother, the sons of Rimeh and Berethiad, and said
unto them, As the Lord liveth who hath redeemed my soul out
of all adversity, and you see what's happening here, David
first He attributes his own deliverance to the Lord. Now the word, the
name Lord there, look at it, it's capitalized. I know the
L probably in your Cambridge Bible, the L's a little bigger,
but it's all capitalized. And you remember what that means
when you see the Lord in all castes. That's Jehovah. That's
the God of the covenant. That's the God of all grace. That's the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. That's the God of the covenant
of law who brings all men and women without exception in what?
Guilty. Guilty and deserving of eternal
damnation. But He's the same God who delivers.
It's what David says here. It's the same Lord who redeems
by grace and mercy. How? By the blood of the Lamb.
By the blood of Christ. It's the only way the Lord redeems
a sinner, by the blood of the Lamb. It's the only way the Lord
delivers and saves and blesses and keeps and communes with sinners,
by the blood of the Lamb. That name above every name right
there, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, wrapped
up in the person and work of Christ. How God can be just and
justify the ungodly. This is the one of whom it said
when he justified Abraham, he did what? He justified the ungodly. You say, well, I don't deserve
to be saved. Well, you're right where you
ought to be. Isn't that right? Because none of us do. That's
the kind of folks God justifies. You say, well, I haven't done
anything to make myself qualified. Well, if you're trying to make
yourself qualified, I would tell you right now, Upon the authority
of God's word, stop it and just fall at the feet of Christ and
beg for mercy. That's it. Now, right. You can't make yourself qualified.
As far as any qualification in us, you think about we were born
qualified, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Somebody
said, well, what did you do? in this thing of salvation, if
God did it all. And he said, well, God did all
the saving, I did all the sinning. And that's about it. Now, that's
the Lord here that David mentions about himself. He's saying to
these fellows, I am what I am because of the grace of God.
I don't deserve anything better that Ish-bosheth deserve, based
on my works and my efforts. And so he says in verse 10, when
one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead. Now he goes back,
remember when the fellow came to him, who was an Amorite, and
said he killed Saul? He said, when that fellow came
to me and said, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought
good tidings, See, that fellow said, I'm bringing David good
news. I killed Saul. And he says, I took hold of him
and slew him and Ziklak, who thought that I would have given
him a reward for his tidings. He thought I was going to reward
him for his good news. Well, he got his reward. It's
the reward of the wicked. Am I right? It's what we all
deserve by nature. And he says in verse 11, how
much more? When wicked men have slain a
righteous person, now who's he talking about there? He's talking
about Isbosheth. Now hold on to that thought.
These men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon
his bed. Shall I not therefore now require
his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth? I could
kill you, act in justice, give you what you deserve as the representative,
officially, of God on earth, just like a judge or a civil
magistrate in the courts of our lands who pronounces the sentence.
He has that right. See, this isn't personal vengeance
on David's part. You know what he's doing? He's
acting the part of a just king. And he says in verse 12, And
David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off
their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool
in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried
it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hedron." So Ish-bosheth was
buried with Abner. Now, what's happening here? Well,
the king is acting in strict justice. That's what he's doing.
This kingdom that's being established, and we're going to see right
in the next chapter, it starts out, it says in verse 1, "...then
came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hedron, and spake,
saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh." We're one with
you. We're with you. Here's the kingdom established.
On what? On justice. On righteousness. And it must be. The kingdom cannot
be established with personal vengeance, fleshly efforts, and
violence such as murder. Cannot be. This is God's kingdom,
you see. David was God's representative
on earth as the king of Israel. He is a type of Christ who is
always just and right in all his doings with every person. So it must be established with
justice and righteousness. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 8
says this. It says, But unto the Son he
saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. That could not
be said of any human kingdom on earth except that which is
established by God. It couldn't be said of Saul's
kingdom. Saul was a disobedient, idolatrous
unbeliever. It couldn't even be said of Ish-bosheth. He was a puppet king. He was
where he was not supposed to be. But my friend, it could certainly
be said of God's kingdom, the scepter of righteousness, and
even David. Even though David personally
failed a lot of times and sinned a lot, as a type of Christ, his
kingdom was established upon justice and righteousness. And what he does here, he acts
out of loyalty to his word. You remember, if you'll turn,
let's look back here at 1 Samuel 24. Look back there. You remember
when David last encountered Saul, 1 Samuel 24 and verse 20. Saul asked David to swear an
oath, and David swore an oath. And here's what he said. Look
at 1 Samuel 24 20. He said, And now, behold, I know
well that thou shalt surely be king, this is Saul speaking,
and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine
hand. Swear now, therefore, unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt
not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy
my name out of my father's house." Now, David had made another covenant
with Jonathan, but here he swears an oath to Saul, and it included
Ish-bosheth, and it says in verse 22, David swearing to Saul, and
Saul went home, but David and his men get them up into the
hold. So David's sworn to Saul. So he's being loyal. He's keeping
his word. to Saul and Saul's family and
descendants. But you know here, as I said,
the first thing David did in this matter was that he acknowledged
that God alone had delivered him out of all adversity. God
alone, number one, had saved his soul from sin. God alone
had given him the strength to kill Goliath and to lead Israel,
and God alone had anointed him on the throne." That's a confession
of grace and mercy from God. David knew he didn't deserve
what God had given him. Read the Psalms again. "'O Lord,
if Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand?'
David knew that." Psalm 130, verse 3. And then he reminds
them of how he had already acted justly in dealing with the one
who killed Saul. or said that he killed Saul.
And here David as a type shows how God is always just in all
his dealings with men. And I believe you see a great
example of this, not only in David's justice towards these
men who murdered Ish-bosheth, but also in the example, the
mention of Mephibosheth. And what it's teaching us is
this, this kingdom of God is a kingdom of righteousness, established
upon righteousness in two ways. Number one, in the condemnation
of the wicked, God is just. This kingdom is a kingdom of
righteousness. In other words, there will be
no sinner who perishes eternally in condemnation who does not
deserve to be so, and God will act in strict justice when He
does it. Just like David right here. This is the issue of justice
to those who stand before God without Christ, without having
been washed in His precious redeeming blood, without being clothed
in His white robe of righteousness, without having a right standing
before God, but who stand on their own, pleading their own
cause, without a mediator, without an advocate. There's nothing
more horrible in the history of mankind than that. David wrote in Psalm 28, verse
4, give them according to their deeds. My friend, without Christ,
that's just exactly what we're going to give. He said, and according
to the wickedness of their endeavors, give them after the work of their
hands, render to them their dessert. That's God's justice. That's
what David did to these two men who murdered Ish-bosheth. He
wrote in Psalm 62 and verse 12, also unto thee, O Lord, belong
with mercy, for thou renders to every man according his work.
That's what happens in the case of the Mephibosheth. You see,
the second establishment of righteousnesses in this kingdom is when God saves
a sinner. God is just as righteous and
just to save a sinner, to save a sinner as he is when he damns
the wicked. How can that be so? Well, the
only answer is the gospel answer, through the person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God has already acted
towards every one of his children in strict justice. When did he
do that? You say, well, I had a pretty
hard trial last week. It must have been then. Or you
say, well, I had a rough time last week, and it must have been
then. No, sir. That's not when God acted towards
you in strict justice, if you're a believer. I'll tell you exactly
when He did it. He did it on the cross of Calvary.
When Christ was made sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. All my sins have
been justly paid for. All the law had against me has
been fully satisfied by my Savior on the cross. He drank damnation
dry. This kingdom of grace is established
in strict righteousness. Now, we all, by nature and by
practice, deserve condemnation. And that's why it is never right
for any person, I don't care who they are, to be an executor
of personal vengeance on anybody. That's right, that's what Romans
2 is about. God always judges according to truth, but we don't.
Let God be true with every man alive, Romans chapter 3. We never
have God's commission or God's okay to go out and exercise personal
vengeance on anybody. Vengeance belongs to God. And
when Christ died on that cross, all the vengeance of God that
I deserve came down upon Him. That's exactly right. What a
Savior we have. Now, I want to go back to verse
11 here. He says, David tells him they murdered Ismosheth.
Do you know who Ismosheth was? You've read about him. He was
a man of shame. He was an idolater. He was a
usurper of authority. He had no regard for God. He
was like his daddy Saul. And yet, David makes this statement
about him. He says in verse 11, how much
more when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own
house upon his bed? He's talking about Ish-bosheth.
How could David call Ish-bosheth a righteous person? Well, first
of all, understand this. Ish-bosheth was not righteous
before God. You see, in order to be righteous
before God, there's only one way, and that's Christ and Him
crucified. By His grace, the Bible teaches
that no flesh shall be justified in God's sight by works of the
law. And so, Isbosheth was not a righteous
person before God in the court of God's justice concerning His
eternal soul. He was an unbeliever. But here
he is, lying innocently in his bed when he was murdered. Ishosheth,
like all of us by nature, based on our best, deserved eternal
damnation. But he did not, listen to me,
he did not deserve to be murdered by these two wicked men. And
that's what David means. No one does. No one does. That's just sinners who deserve
to be damned murdering another sinner who deserves to be damned.
He didn't deserve that. You see, there's a difference
between justification before men in the things of this life
and justification before God. And I'll tell you, I'll give
you an example, and maybe this will help you understand it.
If you're accused of a crime that you did not commit, But
they come and arrest you and say, now you're going on trial
next week. And they bring you up before the judge and the jury,
and the lawyers do their business, and it comes out that the jury
pronounces you not guilty. Now, does that mean that you're
righteous before God? Not at all. But it doesn't mean
this, you're not guilty of that crime. And the court lets you
go free. That's what he means when he
calls Ish-bosheth a righteous person. It's like standing before
the court of men being pronounced not guilty. He didn't deserve
what you fellas did to him. Is he a sinner? Yes. Does he
deserve eternal death? Yes, we all do. Our only hope
of eternal life is Christ. But he didn't deserve this. And
that's what that means, and that's all that it means. Men can and
may act justly in dealing with others, but there's no justification
of men before God by our works. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes
7 verse 20, there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. Job asked this question, what
is man that he should be clean and he which is born of woman
that he should be righteous? There's none righteous, no not
one, Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3. So the question comes, how
then can a man be justified with God or how can he be clean that
is born of woman? You see, here's the issue. If
God is going to have a kingdom that is established in righteousness,
how can that be? Now let me close with these two
scriptures. Turn first to Isaiah chapter 9. You know the answer
to this, but let's look at it in the scripture. If God is going
to have a kingdom established in righteousness, and you know
if you have a kingdom you have to have a king, and if you have
a kingdom you have to have subjects of the king. So if God just damned
everybody, without exception, there wouldn't be a kingdom established
in righteousness now. There'd be no kingdom. But in
order for this king to establish his kingdom in righteousness,
he must damn the guilty. He must be just in every way,
just like David, sending these two men, these two murderers,
to their death because they committed a crime against a man who didn't
deserve that. But how's he going to do it?
Well, he's going to save some people. He's going to save some
sinners who deserve damnation. How's he going to establish that
in righteousness? Look at Isaiah 9 and verse 6. Here it is. Here it is, verse
6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. That's
the God-man. That's Christ. And the government
shall be upon his shoulder. That's the government of grace.
The government of the kingdom. It rests upon his shoulder, not
yours and not mine. It's conditioned on him, not
you and me. The stipulations of that covenant
were laid upon him. He took on himself the full responsibility
to save his people as God-man. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Look at verse 7, of the increase
of his government, that's his kingdom and peace, there shall
be no end. You'll see a good example of
that in the next verses when David as he's established as
king over all Israel, the people of God, as a type of Christ there. And then he goes and he conquers
Jerusalem, the city of peace. Christ, the prince of peace.
And he says, there shall be no end upon the throne of David,
David, the type of Christ The scepter shall not depart from
Judah till Shiloh come, and upon his kingdom to order it and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this." Now, how's he going to do that? He's going
to go to the cross, and he's going to gain victory over sin,
over Satan, over the curse of the law. He's going to redeem
his people from their sins. He's going to wash them clean
and clothe them in His righteousness. Look at Jeremiah chapter 23.
This is the last one. It says basically the same thing
in a different way or in another way. Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Listen to it here. This is how
the kingdom is established in righteousness, the kingdom of
grace. He says in verse 5 of Jeremiah 23, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David." There's David
again. That's not David personally.
Did you know by the time Jeremiah was written, King David was dead?
Did you know by the time Isaiah was written, King David was dead?
David lived to be around 70 years old, I think. He was 30 when
he came to be king. He ruled 40 years. 70 years old. This is not talking about David
of old. This is talking about the greater
David. Let's talk about Christ, and
he says, I'm going to raise unto David a righteous branch, and
a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. When did he do that? On the cross.
And in his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely. You're going to see that in type
in 2 Samuel 5, as David, who's now king of Judah, becomes king
of all Israel. And this is his name, whereby
he shall be called Jehovah Shidkanu, the Lord our righteousness. The king's scepter is a scepter
of righteousness. It's established upon righteousness. My friend, if it weren't, there'd
be no hope for our salvation. But thank God that it is. Yes,
his kingdom is a kingdom of grace and mercy and love, but don't
ever imagine that That means justice and righteousness and
truth are thrown out the window. No, sir. It's justice and mercy. It's righteousness and truth.
It's grace and judgment all in the person and work of Christ.