Alright, let's turn back to Matthew
chapter 21. I'd rather stand and read that
portion. Now, I've entitled the message
this evening, Jesus Christ, the Son of David. And what I'm going
to do, I'm beginning this evening a series of messages that I'm
going to be preaching on Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings
on the life of King David. But not just on David personally. That's not what I want to do.
We're going to be going back in the book of 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel,
looking at some verse-by-verse passages concerning what God
the Holy Spirit recorded there concerning the life of King David.
But we don't want to just look at David personally. We don't
want to look at just mere history or historical facts. But I have
three things in mind that I want to do in this series as we go
through it. Number one, I want to see David
as a type of Christ. That's number one. David personally
was not a type of Christ, but David officially was a type of
Christ. David was the first king of Israel
from Judah. And in his office as king of
Israel, He's a type of Christ, our King. Lead on, O King, eternal. David is not an eternal King
himself, but the greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is our eternal King. And David himself knew that,
and believed that, and looked forward to the coming of the
eternal King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we'll see other
ways in the history of King David. We'll see other ways that he's
a type of Christ. David was also a prophet. He
was used of God to write many of the Psalms. Well, our Lord
is that prophet, that prophet greater than Moses, greater than
David. He is the prophet. He's our prophet. He's our priest
and he's our king. And so we want to look at David
as a type of Christ. The second thing I want to do
is I want to look at David through the eyes of prophecy. Not only
prophecies concerning David himself, there are those, but also as
a fulfillment of prophecy that is fulfilled in the person and
work of Christ. Now that's one of the things
that our text tonight shows in Matthew chapter 21. And we'll
get to that in just a moment. But the third thing I want to
do in this series of messages as we go through part of the
book of 1 Samuel and most of 2 Samuel, is I want to show how
David's life manifests and exemplifies the gospel of God's grace in
Christ. Because David was a sinner saved
by the grace of God. Somebody said one time, David
didn't do anything halfway. When he served the Lord, he served
the Lord wholeheartedly and most graciously. And when he fell
in sin, he sinned big. So there's no in-between with
David. But I'll tell you what, David is a model example of a
sinner saved by the grace of God. And I want to look at that
as we go through this. If I were to ask you this question,
how would you list? If you were going to just sit
down and list yourself the most important figures of the Old
Testament, who would come to mind? Well, certainly for the
Jews, Abraham would come to mind. Abraham. They said, we be Abraham's
seed. We're of our father Abraham.
They thought that that physical connection with Abraham automatically
meant that they were children of God, that they were saved.
And of course, our Lord said not so. Not so. He said, I know
you're Abraham's seed, but you don't do the works of Abraham.
What did Abraham do? Well, Abraham believed God. And
it was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham was a great example of
how God justifies the ungodly. Read it in Romans chapter 4.
Abraham didn't have anything to recommend him unto God. God
found him as an idolater in the era of the Chaldeans. But how
are we to understand the life of Abraham? I believe it can
be summed up in one verse in John 8, 56. He says, our Lord
said this to the Jews. He said, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Abraham
looked forward to the future of the promise, the assurance
of the promise and his confidence in the coming Messiah. who would
come and by his death put away Abraham's sins and establish
righteousness whereby God could be just and justify Abraham.
And then another figure you might speak of would be Moses. He was
a grand figure of the Old Testament, the mediator of the Old Covenant,
the one whom God used to deliver Israel out of the bondage of
Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, gave them the law on
Mount Sinai through Moses and established them as a nation.
And Moses, he was a great type of Christ also. But all of his
writings, the books of the law, the first five books of the Old
Testament, our Lord said this about Moses, speaking again to
people who imagined that they followed Moses and believed Moses
and trusted in Moses. He said in John chapter 5 and
verse 46, he said, for had you believed Moses, you would have
believed me, for he wrote of me. The Lord Moses was a schoolmaster,
a tutor, to lead sinners to Christ. But they perverted it. That's
what we all do by nature. But then the third figure that
might come to mind is David, King David. So much said about
King David in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Look
here at Matthew chapter 21. You just picture this scene.
The Lord had been ministering throughout Judea for about three,
three and a half years. And he kept telling his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem, be arrested, and that he must
go and be persecuted. He must even go unto the death
of the cross and die for the sins of his people. And that
grieved them because they weren't looking at it the right way.
They were looking at His presence with them and the joy and the
comfort and the peace of His physical presence with them.
But He told them in John chapter 16, He said, if I don't go away,
If I don't do my work and die on the cross and go unto my Father,
that means His resurrection. He said the Comforter, the Spirit,
will not come. There will be no comfort to give.
There will be no life to give. There is no knowledge. You see,
without Christ doing His grand work, His finished work, there
is no salvation for any of us. Without the shedding of His blood,
there is no remission of our sins. Without His righteousness
imputed to us, charged to us, there is no justification before
God for Abraham, David, or for us. And so here He is about to enter
Jerusalem. And He's going to first enter
in with a glorious triumph. And then it's all going to go
downhill from there as far as how men treat Him. I want you
to notice that the same ones here, as our Lord enters into
Jerusalem, the same ones here who cry, Hosanna, just a few
days later are crying, Crucify. Same ones. But look here, it
says, as He came into the city, it says in verse 4, look at verse
4 of Matthew 21, it says, all this was done that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. What prophet? The
prophet Zechariah. This is Matthew, as inspired
by the Spirit, connecting what Christ was doing in his life
back to the Old Testament to prove that he's the Messiah.
And the prophet Zechariah in chapter 9, in verse 9 of Zechariah,
he says that he said in verse 5, Tell ye the daughter of Zion,
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. Who is our king? Who is
the king of glory? David wrote in Psalm 24. Who
is this king of glory? It's none other than our Savior.
Our Savior Priest. Our Savior Prophet. Our Savior
King. And He says, "...the King cometh
unto thee, meet, and sitting upon an ass." He didn't come
out of the clouds on a white horse with a sword drawn to conquer
His enemies. He came riding into Jerusalem
on a donkey. It says, "...and a coat the foal
of an ass." A young donkey. Do you think the Savior of the
world, the Savior of His people coming into Jerusalem, And it
says in verse 6, And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded,
and he told them to go get this donkey. And it says in verse
8, And a very great multitude spread their garments in the
way as he came in on this donkey. Others cut down branches from
the trees and strawed them in the way. Now here's my text.
Look at verse 9. And the multitude that went before and that followed
cried, saying, Hosanna! That's another form of worshipping
God, praising God, praising the Lord. This was a term that one
would only use if the person who is the object of this is
God. Don't ever say Hosanna to me
or to any man. This is to God. And here He is,
God in human flesh. And what's He riding in? Well,
you'd think He'd be riding in the best Cadillac that money
can buy. No, he's riding on an ass. Shedding on a donkey. But you know what? That's okay.
That's what God determined beforehand to be done. Zechariah prophesied
it. Hosanna. Now look, Hosanna to
whom? To the Son of who? To the Son
of David. Now, you have to understand the
mindset here. Now, many of the Jews expected
the Messiah to come And He would set up the kingdom and restore
it to the glory days of King David. That's what they were
warned. Some even might have said that David was going to
be reincarnated, or resurrected rather, and come back in. But,
Hosanna to the Son of David. Either way now, this is a title
that would only be used to refer to Messiah. to the One who was
set up from everlasting to be the Savior of His people, the
Christ. Hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna
in the highest. Look at verse 10. And when He
was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who
is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the Prophet of
Nazareth of Galilee. He is Hosanna. Now you notice
on down in there, this displeased the religious majority, the religious
leaders, verse 15. You know what he did after that?
They had turned, like religion today, they had turned it into
a business, they turned it into a marketplace. They were capitalizing
upon religion to make money for themselves. And they had money
changers there so that when Gentile foreigners who had converted
to Judaism would come in and they had the wrong currency,
they could exchange it so that they could buy the animals, the
birds and the land for sacrifice, and they were making money. They
always cheated them. It was just common. That was
accepted. Everybody does it. So here it is, the temple turned
into a business, a marketplace, and Christ went in there and
He tore it up, drove them out, which He should have done, and
He did. And that made a man, in verse
15, it says, when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful
things that He did, and the children crying in the temple and saying,
Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased. That
means they were extremely displeased. This wasn't just a, they didn't
write this one off. and say, well, just let it go,
it's going to die out. No, sir. They were angry. And
they said unto him, hearest thou what these say? They looked at
Christ, Jesus Christ. They said, do you hear what they're
saying? And Jesus said unto him, yea, have you never read? Out
of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. Do
you know what he's saying? He's quoting from Psalms there.
Quoting from Psalm 8. And he says, well, what they're
saying is right. Haven't you read that out of the mouth of
the common people, the babes, the sucklings, thou hast perfected,
there's the completion of praise. What is the completion of praise?
Jesus Christ, our Savior. All praise and glory and honor
is completed in Him and goes to Him. And you know what? It
stops right there. There's none higher. There's
none higher. Jesus Christ. Look at it. Hosanna to the Son of David. Jesus Christ, the Son of David.
What I want us to see in this introductory message is that
everything that we're going to study about David's life is a
type and picture and prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ who
was to come, who is the greater Son of David. I want you to turn
with me to the book of Acts chapter 2. And let's look at some scripture
here. Here's Peter at Pentecost standing
up before the multitudes preaching the gospel of God's mercy and
grace in Christ Jesus. Salvation by His blood and righteousness
alone. Identifying Jesus of Nazareth
as the Messiah whom fallen humanity took and put on a cross and crucified
and counted him as a malefactor. And Peter in this message, in
Acts chapter 2, look at verse 25. He refers to David, King David. He says, for David speaketh concerning
him. What? You mean David spoke concerning
Jesus of Nazareth and we hanged on a cross? Exactly. David spoke
concerning him, and here's what he said, quoting here from Psalm
16. He says, "...I foresaw the Lord
always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should
not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall
rest in hope." My rest and my hope is in Jesus of Nazareth,
whom we hanged on a cross. Christ and Him crucified. And
he says in verse 27, because thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
Now that verse refers to his resurrection. He's not only going
to die on a cross. This is David speaking now. This
is David speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Psalms. And he says here that he's not
going to stay in the grave and rot and corrupt like our corruptible
bodies will do. But he's going to be resurrected
because God will not suffer his Holy One to see corruption. He's
going to be raised from the dead. That's what David said. Peter's
speaking of the time after his resurrection. And he says in
verse 28, Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the resurrection
and the life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance." Seeing his face, that was David's joy. He said, I'll be satisfied when
I awake with thy likeness. And Peter says in verse 29, Men
and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David.
Now let me tell you about King David. That's what he said. That
he's both dead and buried. And his sepulcher, his grave,
is with us unto this day. Now, David's dead and buried.
David wasn't resurrected from the dead. David got a sepulcher.
It's with us today. We studied about it on the gates
in Nehemiah where David's sepulcher was. And he says in verse 30,
therefore being a prophet, in other words, David was not speaking
of himself, but he was speaking prophetically by inspiration
of the Spirit, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him, that's the Davidic covenant, which has its roots in the covenant
with Abraham. In other words, God had promised
David to save him based on the blood and the righteousness of
this one who was to come, who would die, but not stay in the
grave and be corrupted, but who would be raised again the third
day. And he says he's sworn an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, now that's David's loins, that is the fruit of David's
loins, according to the flesh, that is the humanity of Christ,
he would raise up Christ to sit on the throne, his throne. Verse
31. David, seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of
Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh
did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses." David knew the Lord. David knew
the gospel. Turn to Acts chapter 13. Brother,
Bill Pennington read this in the study earlier, and I told
him, I said, well, that was just a right reading before this message. preaching here at Antioch. And
in verse 22, he speaks of Jesus of Nazareth, and he refers back
to David. Look at Acts 13.22. He says,
"...and when he had removed him..." He's talking about when God removed
Saul. Remember King Saul? He was the
first king of Israel. But he was not from Judah. He
was from the tribe of Benjamin. And Saul was a man of disobedience.
We'll look into that later on. But he says, and when he had
removed him, when he had removed Saul, he raised up unto them
David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said,
I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart,
which shall fulfill all my will. David is going to fulfill all
God's will. Now that doesn't mean that David was going to
be a perfectly obedient man. And we will not have to read
a whole lot of scripture getting into the life of David to find
that fact out. When he says David's going to
fulfill all my will, what he means by that is that it's through
David that his will concerning the salvation of his people is
going to be fulfilled, for it's through the seed of David that
he was going to send the son of David, the Hosanna, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he says it here in verse
23. Here's the meaning. Of this man's seed hath God,
according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. God our Savior. And then look
over at verse 34. He quotes the same psalm that
Peter quoted about David. He says in verse 34, and it's
concerning that he raised him up from the dead, that is, Jesus
of Nazareth was raised up from the dead, now no more to return
to corruption, no more to die. That's why there'll be no person
in hell for whom Christ died, because he lives. It's impossible,
you see. He justified God's people. He
took our sins and paid our debt. And so it says, he said, on this
wise I will give you the sure mercies of David. That's Christ. The sure mercies of David is
Christ and Him crucified. That refers to all that Christ
is. that gives him the ability to
do for David what he did for all of his people, to put away
our sins. So he says in verse 35, Wherefore,
he saith also in another song, Thou shalt not suffer, thine
holy one, to see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was
laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. Now, if this is applying
to King David of old, then it's a lie, because David saw corruption. His body was in the grave, and
it rotted. It decomposed. But verse 37,
that he whom God raised again saw no corruption. That's Christ,
the son of David. And so he says, Be it known unto
you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, through
Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. There's
no forgiveness without Christ. And he says, and by him all that
believe are justified from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses. So when they said, Hosanna, the
son of David, they spoke correctly. They spoke right. Turn back to
Matthew chapter 22. Here in Matthew chapter 22, you
have a series of questions raised by religious people, and their
goal was to trap Jesus of Nazareth and expose Him to be a fraud.
They wanted to trap Him. They wanted to catch Him. And
when they finished, they found out that it was an impossible
thing. You couldn't trap Him or catch Him. He was not a fraud.
He was the genuine article. In verse 41 of Matthew 22, listen
to this. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them. Now, he asked them a question.
Saying, what think ye of Christ? What are your thoughts on the
Messiah? That's what they're asking. Whose son is he? Now, they say unto him, he's
the son of David. Verse 43. He saith unto them,
How then doth David in Spirit, or by inspiration of the Spirit,
I believe Spirit there should be capitalized, but it was from
David's Spirit as inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that's not
really a big debate, but he says, How then doth David in Spirit
call him Lord? Huh? Saying the Lord. Psalm 110
verse 1, that's what he quotes here. saying, the Lord said unto
my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. The Lord said unto my Lord, that
first Lord there, back in Psalm 110, is Jehovah. That's the covenant
God, the God of promise, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the God who justifies the ungodly, the God who saves sinners through
Christ. That second Lord there is Adonai,
that's the sovereign of the universe. And so what he's speaking of
here, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till
I make thine enemies thy footstool. Jehovah God sent his Son into
the world, who is God, to save his people from their sins. And
so he says in verse 45, if David didn't call him Lord, how is
he his son? How can he be both David's son,
David's seed, David's offspring, and David's God at the same time?
That's what he's asking. How can he be both? Well, look
at their answer, verse 46. And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions. They said, we better leave him
alone. Like a fella told me one time, he said, well, you can
argue better than I can. Well, my friend, if we can't
back our beliefs up with the Scripture, we better stop, hadn't
we? We better dare not try to ask
or answer any more questions until we go to the Word of God.
But that's the issue. How is Jesus Christ the son of
David? How is he Hosanna, the son of
David, but he's also Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's son? Mary's
son. This was a promise of old, wasn't
it? It was a promise that he would
be of the seed of Abraham. Back in Genesis chapter 17, when
God renewed the covenant of Abraham, He made this statement. He said,
Kings shall come out of thee. He said the same thing in Genesis
chapter 35. He said, Kings shall come out
of thy loins. But way back in Genesis chapter
49 and verse 10, you remember the promise given there through
Jacob as he was blessing his sons on his deathbed? And he
was blessing Judah. He came to Judah. Judah, the
kingly tribe, and he said, the scepter shall not depart from
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come, and
unto him shall the gathering of the people be. That was a
prophecy of Christ, the King of kings. But it was accomplished
through David, the king of Israel, for a little while. David was
the first king of Israel who came out of the tribe of Judah,
according to that prophecy, that prophecy that was given back
in the Old Testament. We read about it in Psalm 89.
Let me read it to you again. Psalm 89, there that I opened
up with, opened our service with, that Messianic Psalm. where he says, I will sing, verse
1, of the mercies of the Lord forever with my mouth will I
make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said,
mercy shall be built up forever. This is an eternal promise, you
see. And he says, thy faithfulness
shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant
with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Now who is he talking about now?
That earthly king? Now listen. Verse 4, thy seed
will I establish forever, David's seed, David's son, and build
up thy throne to all generations. He's talking about a spiritual
nation there that comes through the greater son of David, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah. Turn over to
Isaiah chapter 9. This passage is one that you're
well familiar with. This is a prophecy of the birth
of Christ. Listen how it's put here in Isaiah
chapter 9. Look at verse 6. You know, that's
the one that says, for unto us a child is born. Now that speaks
of the humanity of Christ. The sinless humanity of Christ,
born of the seed of woman, not of man now. Yes, He's called
David's seed because He come through the human lineage of
Judah. The tribe of Judah. But his actual
conception in birth was without the aid of man. It was of the
Holy Spirit. A child is born under Mary. Mary and Joseph both were of
the tribe of Judah. And so even Mary was an offspring
of David in that sense. But Christ was not born with
the aid of man. He was not of the corruptible
seed of man. He was not born of Adam. He was
born miraculously of the Holy Spirit. the sinless human nature
of Christ. And that's what that's referring
to. For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. The Son
of God is the second person of the Trinity. He wasn't born.
He has no beginning and no end. Divinity has no beginning, no
end. Divinity cannot be created. So
the Son is given. So that's His divinity. That's
His deity. He is God and man in one person.
And it says, the government shall be upon his shoulders. That's
the government of God's kingdom. It rests upon the shoulders of
Christ. Aren't you glad? Boy, I am. Aren't you glad the Catholic
Church says, well, it rests upon Peter. He's the rock of the church.
Oh, no. If it rests upon Peter, when
Peter fell, we fell. No, it rests upon our rock, Christ
Jesus. He's the solid foundation. He's
the chief cornerstone. He's the tried and tested stone. He's the head of the church.
All of our salvation is conditioned on Christ. And you know what?
He fulfilled all the conditions. Listen. His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. But look at verse 7. Of the increase
of His government and peace, there shall be no end. In other
words, it's going to be successful. Lead on, O King Eternal. No end
to his kingdom. What about earthly King David's
kingdom now? Where is it now? Well, they say
it's in Palestine, but that's just a poor, poor, pitiful, remnant,
hotspot war zone right now. Where is it now? It's nowhere.
But we're members and citizens of a kingdom that is flourishing.
by the power of David's greater Son. And there will be no end
to it. And when He comes again, He'll
prove it to the whole world. We know it now. But when He comes
again and splits the sky in that eastern gate, He'll manifest
it to the whole world and every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess. And it says, upon the throne of David. Now that's
David as a type. David as a prophet, speaking
of another king, a greater David. And upon his kingdom to order
it and establish with judgment and justice and henceforth even
forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
Turn to Jeremiah 23. I know I'm having you turn to
a lot of scripture, but I want you to see this now. If you're
tired, just write it down. Just write it down. Another passage. That is so familiar to you. Verse
5, Jeremiah 23, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will raise unto David a righteous branch. Many times in Scripture
the Lord is referred to the branch, the offspring of Jesse. The branch
of David. Unto David a righteous branch.
That's certainly not referring to David himself, in himself.
For David was not righteous in himself. He said that. He's saying
of the righteousness of his Savior. Read it in the Psalms all over
the place. David's Psalms. And a king shall
reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice
in the earth. And in his days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name
whereby he shall be called Jehovah Sidcanu, the Lord our Righteousness."
That's David's greater son, that's Hosanna, riding into Jerusalem,
saddled on an ass, triumphantly at that point. but coming to
His place of humiliation to suffer and bleed and die on the cross
of Calvary. Think about it. This is all prophesied
in the Scriptures. The covenant, the sure mercies
of David. that we read about. Incline your
ear and come unto me, Isaiah said, here and your soul shall
live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Listen, that refers not to David
himself, but to David's Savior and to your Savior. The sure
mercies of David. Zechariah chapter 13 verse 1. Listen to this one. In that day
there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
What's he referring to? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sins? Look
at Matthew chapter 1. Now let me show you a few scriptures
in the New Testament and I'll close for this evening. I want
you to keep this in mind as we go through the life of David.
Now, I'll remind you, because I need to be reminded too. But
as we look at, you know, we go through the Old Testament stories
and so many times in our lives as we sat in Sunday school classes,
we've been taught to admire the man, to emulate the man, his
dedication, his strength, his determination. And listen, I
mean, there is a point, there is some merit, in other words,
in our life to looking at how God strengthened and used the
great men of the Old Testament and women. But listen, we're
not to emulate David, we're to emulate Christ. In other words,
if my goal is to be like King David back then, I'm shooting
too low. I mean, my goal is too low. I
thank God for King David. I thank God for how God used
him. But I also see in the recorded history, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, that David was just a man, like me, like you, a sinner,
saved by the grace of God. Who, if God didn't save him by
grace and keep him by grace, he would have never made it.
And he himself testified of that. He even testified to it in his
last days. He said, God has made a covenant
with me that's everlasting and sure and certain, not conditioned
on David. Look here at Matthew chapter
1. Look at verse 1. This is the generation of Jesus
Christ, it says. The book of the generation. Here's
his genealogy. And it says, the son of David
and the son of Abraham. And he says, Abraham begat Isaac
and Isaac begat Jacob. And he says, Jacob begat Judas
and his brethren, and Judas begat Phares, and Zerah, and Tamar.
I'm not going to read all these now. And Phares begat Eshom,
and Eshom begat Aram, and Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab
begat Naazim, and Naazim begat Salmon. Now, you know who Salmon
is? They say he's the one who married
Rahab, the harlot, in Jericho. And it says, Salmon begat Boaz. That Boaz is Boaz. You know who
Boaz is, don't you? He's the one who married Ruth. It says, Boaz of Rahab, that's
Rahab there, and Simon begat Boaz of Rahab, and Boaz begat
Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David
the king. And through that lineage on down
through there, verse 16, "...Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of
Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ." Look
at Romans chapter 1. Now, why is all this necessary? First, why did he have to be
born of David? Why did he have to be both God
and man and one person? Why is that important? Here's
the answer. Because it takes the God-man
to save sinners from their sins. Unless he is God in human flesh,
he cannot save us. God himself in his very nature
cannot die. God cannot die. I know man has
tried to kill God throughout the ages, but he can't be successful.
You cannot kill God. God is life. He is pure existence. He exists within himself. You
cannot kill God. But this person, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is God, did die. He died. And it was a real death. It was a painful, sorrowful death. It was a death that we can't
even begin to describe, but it's to be attributed to his humanity.
Now, man cannot give and sustain life. Man cannot do that. He
thinks he can. He thinks he can create it in
a test tube. He's just fooling himself. He may be able to put
some chemicals together, some enzymes together, and come up
with something. I don't know what, but he can't
create life. The very source of life is God.
Man cannot give life and man cannot sustain life. He tries.
They say that the life expectancy of man is greater than what it
was back in the 50s and 40s and on beyond. That may be true,
but he's still going to die. As I've often told you, Methuselah
lived to be 969, and this is what's probably written on his
tombstone. If they could ever find it, he died. Man cannot
give and sustain life, but this person, who is man, does give
and sustain life. That's Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
And that's to be attributed to His deity. But you see, that's
the kind of person that we need. That kind of mediator. The man
Christ Jesus. Look at verse 1 of Romans 1.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. separated
unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh." That is his sinless humanity through the lineage of David.
Verse 4, "...and declared," or determined, "...to be the Son
of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead." He was declared to be the Son
of God. He wasn't made the Son of God. He was declared to be what He
always was, always is, and always will be. But He is now God-man. Now, verse 16 of Romans 1, Paul
writes, "...for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." This
One who was made according to the seed of David, this One who
was declared to be the Son of God, God-man, For it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just, or the justified, shall live by faith." Now the righteousness
of God there, that term, is defined in Romans chapter 3, beginning
at verse 21, as the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what the righteousness of God is there. That's the good
news of the gospel. It declares and preaches out
the redemptive work of Christ. That He paid the price for my
sins. My sins were charged to Him. And as a result, His righteousness
is given to me. And so, the righteousness of
God there is the redemptive work of the God-man. That's what it
is. That's why He had to be both
God and man. That's why He's the only Savior
of sinners. That's why He's the greater Son
of David. That's who He is. Let me read
you this in closing. Revelation chapter 5. This great vision that God gave,
that Christ gave to John on the Isle of Patmos. He says, I saw
in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written
within on the backside sealed with seven seals. And I saw a
strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to
open the book and to loose the seals thereof? Who's worthy?
And he says in verse three, and no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to
look thereon. No man was worthy. You see, we're
all sinners. As I said this morning, we have
nothing to pay. We have nothing to recommend us unto God. We
have nothing by which to claim, or earn, or deserve God's favor,
or blessings, or salvation. And John said in verse 4, when
he saw all that, he said, I wept much, because no man was found
worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, weep not. Stop your crying. Behold, the
Lion of the tribe of Judah." You see that? That's the fulfillment. That's
connected right back to Genesis chapter 49. The scepter shall
not depart from Judah. It also says Judah is a lion's,
well, a lion's cub. And He says, who's going to open
the book? He says, Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David. The Root of David. That's the
Messiah. That's Christ. Hath prevailed
to open the book. How? He was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power. The resurrection from the dead.
And He prevailed to open the book. That's the book of salvation.
That is the book of God's judgments against all the sins of all his
people upon Christ on Calvary. And he said he loosed the seven
seals thereof. And he said in verse 6, And I
beheld him low in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts,
and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been
slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and
took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the
throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and
the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having
every one of them hearts and golden vials full of odors, which
are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred tongue. and people and nation. Hosanna,
the Son of God.