All right, for this hour, two, we've been kind of on parallel tracks looking at two separate things. It kind of ultimately, we kind of just ignored one and focused on the other, but those two things, obviously Psalm 83, Psalm 83, Psalm 83, Psalm 83, Psalm 83, and the other thing was eschatology. In some ways, it kind of felt like we made a, We were focusing on eschatology and Psalm 83, and then we went straight to Psalm 83. But this morning for this hour, we're going to try to now have the two parallel studies kind of merge a little bit, and hopefully this will be beneficial and helpful, all right? So in our study of Psalm 83, we really begin to focus on, if you look at Psalm 83 really quick, there was a couple of verses that I really pointed out. because I thought it was very important. If you look at verse one, we have, do not keep silent, oh God, this is Psalm 83 verse one, do not keep silent, oh God, do not hold your peace and do not be still, oh God, all right? Clearly crying out to God, right? We have, in a sense, a prayer asking God for specific things. Then in verse nine, deal with them, As with Midian, once again asking God for something specific. Verse 13, Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust. Again, asking something very specific. So when we read that, remember I said, well, that should lead every good Bible student to ask some tough questions, right? Because they are praying to a God at the very minimum, knew what was going to happen and did nothing to prevent it from happening, right? So if you're praying to the very God to do something about the very situation that that God knew would happen and was not doing anything to intervene for, it seems kind of ridiculous to be praying. And not only that, if you add another part of it, it becomes even more complicated. because they're praying to the very God who, at the very most, was what? Who had decreed it to happen and was guiding and directing it by his providence. So to ask him to go against the very thing he decreed and was guiding in his providence would seem to be that you're praying outside of God's will, so then how do we pray? So we kind of got into a discussion about how should prayer work, and we went through all the different theological perspectives on it, And we were able to at least, I think, admit that most of the time, if you take how people who claim to be Christians pray, they pray not on the basis of a theological understanding of prayer, but based on emotion, need, hope, desire, almost a little bit of superstition, and that more governs prayer than theology. Because if we really prayed according to theology, our prayers would sound very, very, very, very, very different. So that tends to prove that most of our prayers, by their very structure, actually is not in submission to God's will, because we're asking for what? To God, in almost every situation, to change a circumstance, or to make a circumstance better, rather than coming to God, surrendering to said circumstance, or said situation, which then raises lots of questions. So we talked about that, and then I was like, well, We do have to address kind of, you know, an issue that in Psalm 83 and in much of the Old Testament, they pray specifically for God to do what? To change something, to provide something, to do something. So how do we understand that? And I put forth the hypothesis that the way we understand the prayer in the Old Testament is first we have to draw a distinction between that prayer and prayer of a Gentile New Testament believer. Because the prayer of a Gentile New Testament believer should never sound like the prayer of an Old Testament Jew. And what was the reason there should be a massive distinction between the two? The covenants. The covenants. The covenants. The covenants. The covenants. Which then circles us right back to our study in eschatology because we have been looking at in eschatology The covenants. All right, so now the two come together this morning. We go back to the covenants, right? We go back to the covenants. We will kind of continue to add to that discussion because when we read the covenants, what do we have in the covenants made to Israel? Very specific promises. Promises that God will do this or God will do this. And even if it's not explicitly, it's always, it's at least implied over and over and over. that God has a future for them, that God's going to protect them, that God's going to provide for them. And so therefore they can pray for very specific things and in a sense they are praying in accordance to God's will. Because God has made promises that even if the circumstances seem contradictory to that, they can still pray for it because they know God has in his decree said, this is what's going to happen. So all they can do is they look at a circumstance and go, hey God, do something. And I know that I can ask that because you ultimately have promised a future and something for Israel. So their way of praying is radically different than our way of praying. Now, some people will try to go to some New Testament promises and say, well, we've got similar promises, but then we end up with lots of difficulties there. So we won't go into all of that, but we are gonna go back to the covenants. Now, in our study of eschatology, the first covenant we looked at was, anybody remember? The Abrahamic Covenant, okay? We looked at all the different elements of the Abrahamic Covenant, and you could see how that could greatly impact prayer, right? And of course, what was the major issue we looked at in the Abrahamic Covenant? Land, right? Yeah, land, land, land, land, land. Okay, because that, and there's a lot of things that come along with that promise, right? If God promised them a land, well, then they're gonna have to exist in order to possess that land, right? God's going to have to preserve them. God will provide for them so they can be that land. That would greatly impact prayer. So when it comes to the covenants, if you want to just write these principles down, I think it's important. Because nobody ever considers this, that now we will say from this point moving forward, that at least my hypothesis is that the covenants Clearly, one of the importance of understanding the covenants God made with Israel is they clearly influence the way an Old Testament Jew, or even a Jew today, can pray. And it is very different than the way I can pray. All right? So I know, and typically when you listen to sermons on prayer, they never connect it to the Old Testament covenants. No, I don't think anyone has, right? I don't think anyone ever draws that correlation, but you have to draw that correlation. because they are praying literally in accordance with God's will, all right? So that's one of the big issues of the covenants is that they now show us why Israel could pray in a way that would seem, and we'd be like, well, wait, if they can pray that way, I can pray that way. No, I don't have the same promises, all right? So that's the first big thing. The second big thing about the covenants, I cannot stress the significance of the covenants as it relates to hermeneutics. Because if how you approach the covenants really determine how you're going to interpret a good portion of the Bible, right? And when it comes to hermeneutics and the covenants, what's the big question? What's the big question in hermeneutics about the covenants? Well, everyone would say they're literal to a point, but I know what you're saying. The issue is, are they made with the nation of Israel, or somehow do we say the nation of Israel is actually the church? For example, the new covenant. It's made with the, which is in Jeremiah, house of Israel and the house of Judah. Literally, that's the terminology used, right? What does most people do with it? Make it about us. In fact, I just reviewed a sermon the other day on the podcast from the Ezekiel where it was all about us. They didn't even mention Israel one time in the sermon. And I'm like, how in the world are you in Ezekiel, I think 36, and not one time mention Israel? I give up. Because we went through that chapter, remember? Remember I told you to count how many times Israel's mentioned? Remember we did all of that? 36, 37, that passage where you have the new covenant, I'm gonna put a heart of flesh and remove the heart of sin. Everyone applies that to us. It's Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel. Yeah, I think 37 is the dry bones, which is about Israel. I mean, the whole thing's about Israel. So I think when it comes to the covenant, it really is a hermeneutical test. Right? It's a hermeneutical test. And I think everything, once you determine that you're going to interpret that based off the words that are used, then that's going to impact what? How you interpret the rest of the entire Old Testament. How you're going to interpret everything. And so I think that those are some key elements to the covenant. So here's what we're going to do. We need to get back to the Davidic covenant. We need to finish that. But before we do that, I'm just going to add to this, not so much for its significance to eschatology, but just because I think it's significant. Go to Deuteronomy 28. We've referenced this numerous times, but go to Deuteronomy 28. Because once again, I think this is very important, all right? Deuteronomy chapter 28, we'll start in verse one. All right, everybody there? All right, Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse one. Now it shall come to pass, If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. All right, now this section is very important. Go to chapter 29. We're gonna come back and read most of this. Right? So God is speaking at chapter 28, verse one, right? And it tells everyone you obey the voice of the Lord. Everybody see that? And how many verses are in 28? 68. There's a lot of words. Now look at 29.1. Look at the very first verse. What does it say? These are the words of the Lord. covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel and the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb." All right, so this is a separate covenant, an additional covenant. All right, this covenant is sometimes referred to as what? We covered this in detail. Okay, the what? Palestinian covenant or the, what's another term for it? We covered this when we covered all the covenants? Look at verse one of chapter 28. Just read verse one and maybe verse two. It should give it away. No, okay. Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and it shall come to pass, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord. Blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country, blessed shall be the fruit, Well, immediately we kind of, well, I guess it's not specifically laid out in 28, but if you kind of understand what's going on, it becomes pretty clear. This is being given to them right before they do what? The land, so this is sometimes known as the land covenant, okay? I thought it mentioned the land right there. It's kind of implied, but hey, when you go into the land, you do what? You do this and good things are going to happen. You don't do this, bad things are going to happen, right? It's called the land covenant. Now, what would we be able to say about the land covenant? What kind of covenant would this be? Well, definitely conditional. This is a law-based, works-based covenant. No way to get around it. All right? I mean, this is, you're gonna, we're gonna, as we read through it, you'll see that, okay? Not only that, though, this is very important. Okay? I can't, man, who was the famous pastor? I don't remember the name of the famous pastor, but we went to hear him preach in Nebraska and his text was Deuteronomy 28 and 29. And his whole argument in that sermon in Nebraska, and I don't even remember where we went to hear him preach, but his whole argument is basically Deuteronomy 28 and 29 applies to all of us. And that's the way I was always taught, that Deuteronomy 28 and 29 applies to all of us. Not only that, it's used by many pastors. They will say that this applies to our country. that if we obey this, then we get the good, and if we don't, we get the bad. And all of that to me is massively problematic. Again, all the covenants, I cannot stress this, all hermeneutics, like your hermeneutics really, how you handle the covenant really kind of determines your hermeneutical system. It's best not to ask someone what their hermeneutical system is, because just like with prayer, Their prayer never is consistent with their theology. Most people's hermeneutical system, they are never consistent with it. Right? That's one of the things that drives me crazy about amillennialists, right? Well, Israel is really the church and land isn't land, but then they'll go to these very passages in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and guess what? Virgin means virgin. You know, that Babylonian captivity means Babylonian captivity, and it's like, part of it will be real, part of it will be spiritual, and it's like they're inconsistent, and it drives me crazy, right? So, when it comes to Deuteronomy 28, people want to make this about us, or they want to make it about our country, and they say that this principle is applicable to us. Well, this becomes very problematic, right? It becomes problematic because first and foremost, it destroys what? The proper distinction between law and gospel. Second, it destroys the proper distinction between Israel and the church. Third, it destroys the proper distinction between Israel and America. Israel is not the church and Israel is not America, right? And it completely destroys the proper distinction between law and gospel. So let's look at it and just see how this plays out, all right? Are you ready? Deuteronomy chapter 28. Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully, how many of his commandments? All his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above. all the nations of the earth, all right? So clearly this is a specific promise and it's specifically to Israel. There's no way to say this is not Israel. It would be ridiculous to say this is not about Israel, okay? But if you're good with theology and you're a good Bible student, as soon as you start reading verse 28, what should be your reaction to it? If you react to things you read, if you talk back to the things you read, what should you be saying immediately at the beginning of Deuteronomy 28.1? Not gonna do it. Not going to do it. Now, I'll take that back. Most of your Christian friends and most of the people you know who go to church will say they could do it. which is trash, okay? Look, that's not even a philological dispute. Make sure we understand. To me, you know what? I've always stated this. There's a lot of things that push me being that close to becoming an atheist, right? I mean, really. Sometimes I don't even know if I can see. I'm like almost right there. I could be an atheist, right? But one of the things that always disturbs me is why would people, write a Bible that contains a law that they can't keep. That's the most ridiculous thing, like, who would do that, right? Now, the atheistic agnostic argument is, well, religious people wrote it in order to enslave dumb people. The religious people who wrote it, it enslaves them as much as it enslaves the dumb people, right? Because we're all left what? Anyone who reads the Bible, what are we all left with? We all end up in the exact same place, which is condemned. We all feel embarrassed, we all feel shame, we all feel guilt. You may have less guilt than me, but you still have guilt if you're even remotely honest with the text, correct? Even remotely honest. So as soon as I read this, I'm like, well, this is going to be the most worthless thing ever given to these people because they can't keep it. And what happened? They didn't. Okay, and so look what happens. All right, so if they do this, you're gonna be set high above all the nations and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. And now, look at the specific blessings that will occur here, all right? This is very important. So if they obey, look at what happens. Are you ready? What happens in verse three? Blessed in the city and blessed in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. I've heard entire sermons about being blessed when you come in, blessed when you go out, right? But all of this is about Israel. Now, when you start seeing these specific blessings that are promised, can you not then see why they would pray in a way that would be very much saying what? God do this, God do this, God do this, God do this, God do this. And it would be very specific. And why could they be so specific? He made a specific promise that he would do that. Now, sometimes they may forget the condition part, but we all do that, right? I mean, we all do that. But let's go through some of these blessings, okay? What else? The Lord will cause your, look at verse seven, your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face, they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. And again, I've heard pastors apply that to us. Look, when pastors start applying this to us or to our country, they are doing a total, complete... They're abusing the scripture. They're molesting it. They're violating it. They're corrupting it. It has not a thing to do with you. Do you understand that? But you can see when then Israel is facing enemies, why would they not then pray for God to do what? to intervene and destroy them. Is that them going against God's eternal decree or God's providence? No, that would be them praying what? In accordance to it. But where does the problem become? When we pray that way because we don't have those specific promises. Okay? Now, some people will go to the New Testament and try to find verses. I will argue all day the way we should understand most of those verses in the New Testament, first and foremost. Some of those cases, it's probably directed towards the Jews. Okay? Number two, in our case, we can almost always only apply it to the spiritual and not to the practical into the physical, because if we could truly apply it to the practical and the physical, well then, there's a lot of questions of then why God doesn't ever answer those prayers, okay, because of all the different realities that we see. But what else continues, look at some of the other things going on here. Verse eight, the Lord will command the blessings on you in your storehouses and all to which you set your hand. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. There's the land verse, verse eight. There it is. I thought the land got mentioned before that. That's why it's called the land covenant. There you go. All right. Who's giving them the land? God, and when they go into that land, he is promising blessing after blessing after blessing. It is conditional, but you can see why this would impact the prayer, right? So in Psalm 83, it's pretty consistent with this, right? Okay, so that's why they can pray this way. Look at verse nine. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he has sworn to you. If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, then all the people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you. and the Lord will grant you plenty of goods and the fruit of your body and the increase of your livestock and the produce of your ground. I mean, it's very practical promises, is it not? Yes, it's very practical. And then what are all the curses starting? What verse, where do curses start? Verse 16. Curse shall you be in the city. It's the direct opposite of the blessings, right? You either get the blessing or you get the curse. And the way it's preached in almost every church when they get to Deuteronomy 28, is that this establishes a principle for all of our lives. If we do good, God will bless us. And if we do bad, God will curse us. So if things are going bad in your life, you're being cursed. And if things are going good in your life, you're being blessed. And what is the reason you're getting the blessing or you're getting the curse? You. Do you understand how utterly destructive that is? And I've heard that preached a million times in my Christian life. I've been taught that in Bible college, Bible Institute, seminary, everywhere. It's just complete, utter trash. I receive all blessings. Go to Ephesians 1 and see if you can find the answer. Go to Ephesians 1. I think it's Ephesians 1. Tell me if you can find a verse that talks about us being blessed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, find it. I believe it's Ephesians 1. I don't have this in my notes, so if I'm wrong. See if you can find it. And that's Ephesians 1, 3. Everybody see that? Ephesians 1, 3. I receive all spiritual blessings, and whom? And Christ. So if you're gonna take Deuteronomy 28, now first of all you see the problem. If you take Deuteronomy 28 and 29 and make it about me, and then I go to Ephesians and say, well, I have all spiritual blessings in Christ, then every Christian practically should then be what? Blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed in the fruit, blessed in your possessions, blessed in... That's not the way it works because Deuteronomy 28 doesn't have anything to do with you. It was about Israel going into the land. And it placed them under a covenant of... Works! And anytime they under the covenant of works, where will you always end up? Cursed! Anytime you try to follow the law, where will you end up? Cursed! That's why your hermeneutical system has to be able to see this. The law is always given to demonstrate what? You can't. The law is never given to make you better. It can't make you better. The law is simply there to condemn you and show you that you can't. They receive a covenant of works, they fail. So then what's our hope? That in Christ, all that obedience that gives blessing is found in Christ. He does it for me. I put my faith in him, I have all spiritual blessings. Those blessings are what kind of blessings? Spiritual, that's no guarantee of the practical blessings because those practical blessings are for whom? Israel, but there will come a day that Israel will get, no, they will get the practical physical blessings when they then possess the land that was promised in the Abrahamic covenant, even in the new covenant land is mentioned, is it not? Yes! So, you see how it works? If we want blessing, our blessing will not come... I know, man, every Christian you know would disagree with everything I'm saying, but they can't... Look, if God's blessing is dependent upon my obedience, then what kind of obedience would I need in order to be blessed? Perfect! Even in Deuteronomy 28, how much of the law are they to obey? All of it. Well, then you'll never be blessed because you never will obey all of it. You can't do that. So when you look at these covenants, then does Psalm 83 make sense that the way they are praying? Yes. Can I pray that way? No, because I don't have the same promises. Right? Now I can pray to God submitting to the what is happening around me, saying I don't like it, but I can do this. I do know that what I see currently, God will change dramatically permanently in the future because of what I have in Christ, which is eternal life. So there will come a time there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears, no more death, no more sin. And almost everything we pray about deals with either pain, suffering, death, sin, it's something along those lines, right? And we want God to make that permanent. We want him to bring that solution to the present, when in most cases it's promised for the future. But for Israel, they could pray for that to happen in the present because God promised present blessings. Did he not? The only thing Israel kept forgetting was those promises were conditional. So even pastors do this all the time. They'll say the word blessed. Do you want to be blessed today? And everybody in the congregation will say, Amen. And so then they will tell you all the things you have to do in order to be blessed. You got to meditate on his word day and night. Now, I used to think I could pull that off. Right? That's one of the things that used to tick me off with Christianity, is all these Christians are like, well, the Bible is the word of God, and it's treasure, and I love it, and I'm gonna meditate. Nobody meditates on it day and night. Nobody even tries to meditate on it day and night. Okay? You're supposed to treasure it. You're supposed to memorize it. You're supposed to read it. You're supposed to study it. Does anyone come close to doing those things? Come, no. We do not. Most of our thoughts and things are on, so then we would not get that blessing. And then what do they, all the worst part of this is then they go to the Sermon on the Mount, which drives me utterly, man, I wish the Sermon on the Mount could be just removed from the Bible because what has happened to it. All right? And then immediately people will go and you'll get, hey, we're gonna do a sermon series this week. Make sure you invite your family and friends because we're gonna explain to them how they can be blessed, how they can have happiness, how they can have joy in their life. And all they have to do is everything Jesus tells them to do in the Sermon on the Mount, which at that point you should just be like, your church is trash because nobody can do that. Right? And so how does the Sermon on the Mount begin? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the... Verse eight. Pure in heart, for they shall see God. At that point, what should you do? You should just throw up your hands and go, well, I'm gonna leave now because there's no point staying in this church. Is anybody pure in heart? Now, you know why your Christian friends and family believe they can be pure in heart? Do you know why your Christian friends and family will tell you that they can accomplish that? Does anybody know? Nobody knows why your Christian friends and family believe they can? No. Because of Ezekiel 36. Everybody go to Ezekiel 36? Because this is taught in almost every church in America. Remember we covered this in great detail? Yeah, yeah, this is where I want to throw my Bible across the room and give up and become an atheist, right? Ezekiel 36, 25, then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a, a new heart. and put a new spirit within you, I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments." Well, guess what? Every church, I guarantee you just go find a church in Abilene and ask them about that verse. Guess who they'll say that verse is about? You. Me. Us. So if you believe that, then every Christian should have what? A new heart. And does it say that you'll start obeying? That you'll try to obey? That you will want to obey? It says you will obey. Meaning, every Christian then should be? Perfect. Well, clearly we're not perfect. Clearly we don't have a pure heart. So, what's the problem? Well, you've got a couple of options. God is a liar and the Bible is stinking false and we should just get rid of it. Or... It doesn't apply to us. And look at the beginning of Ezekiel 36, I think, starting in verse one. I think it's gonna be really quick, starting in verse one, verse two. You're gonna be able to see who Ezekiel 36 is to and who it's about. You don't need me to figure that out for you. In fact, I remember I told you how to count how many times Israel's mentioned Ezekiel 36. How quickly do you see who it's to? Yeah, it starts immediately about Israel. It's about Israel, it's about Israel, it's about Israel, it's about Israel. In fact, the sermon that I was reviewing just the other day, guess where he stopped? He stopped in 27, he did not read 28. What does 28 say after this happens? What does verse 28 say? Someone look at verse 28. The new King James, then, Meaning after this, after what? After you receive this new heart. Everybody read it? Verse 28. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. Immediately that tells you who it's to, right? It has nothing to do with you or me. Has nothing to do with you. You've got Christian friends who will go to church and may even today hear that verse quoted. They will say it's about them. They think then they have a new heart. Therefore, they think that they are pure in heart. Therefore, they can get the blessings of the Sermon on the Mount. No, all the things required for the blessings and the Sermon on the Mount, only one person can accomplish that. And that is whom? The person who preached the sermon. How do I get those blessings? by being Christ Jesus, then I get the blessings because I cannot obey the Sermon on the Mount. Nobody can obey the Sermon on the Mount because the Sermon on the Mount takes the Old Testament law and does what? Shows you that the obedience to the law is not an external practice, it's an internal practice, meaning that you are guilty. You're gonna be guilty of the law, either externally or internally. Therefore, you're never going to be blessed. But Christians will convince themselves they have a new heart. They're a new heart, new heart, new heart, new heart. What are you told from day one after you become a Christian? Day one, you're a new creation. The old is gone and everything is new. And then you walk away and what do you do with almost five seconds after hearing that? You do something that's very much like what? The old, in fact, what do you realize if you're really honest with yourself? You're not much different than you were when you walked into that church and said the prayer in the first place. Now, every testimonial is set up to do what? This is what you were, and now this is what you are. See the dramatic change! You've been transformed! And then every church has what? The reality of all the people who claim to be transformed, who are what? Not transformed. Now, are we a new creature? Have the old passed away? Absolutely. In what way? In Christ. Not practically. Not practically. You see why these covenants are so important? Right? These covenants determine so much. They can pray a specific way because they've got specific promises. That Ezekiel promise is for Israel. Now, I know people will try to go to the New Testament and find parts of it. We are engrafted into the ultimate. We are engrafted in, and what do we receive? We received a spiritual promise, do we not? We don't have those physical promises given to us, all right? So that, I cannot stress why all of these covenants are important. Now, let's go quickly through the Davidic covenant, all right? Everybody ready? We're gonna go quick. Some of this should already be in your notes, but I know it's been a long time, all right? We have basically the provisions of the covenant, and the main passage for this is 2 Samuel 7, verses 12 through 16, if you want to turn there and at least have it open. Okay. I'm going to have you do more of the referencing it than trying to just read it all out, because I just saw the time, and we're never going to get any further, but we've established some basic principles here in all of this. 2 Samuel 7, 12 through 16, you can just have it marked and look at it. David desired to build a temple for the Lord to replace the temporary tent-like tabernacle. Since David himself lived in a house of cedar, it seemed only fitting that there be a more permanent building for the worship of God. But God revealed to Nathan the prophet that he had something far greater in mind for David, and that revelation is what we would refer to as the Davidic covenant. Do you see a little bit of that in 2 Samuel 7, 12-16? Does he start offering some of the promises there? Does he not? Yes, no? Okay, all right. So here are some of the promises given in this covenant. All right, you ready? These are the promises related to David. David would have a son who would succeed him and establish his kingdom. Is that in verse 12? Right, he's gonna have a son, he's gonna succeed him and going to do what? Build a house and does it say something about establishing a kingdom or a throne? Okay, forever, right? Uh-oh, there's that forever word, okay, all right. Let's not get into that, okay. Number two, a kingdom. David's house, throne and kingdom would be established forever. Look at verse 16, I believe. Everybody see that? Now the covenant did not guarantee an uninterrupted rule by David's family, though it did promise that the right to rule would always remain with David's dynasty. The Babylonian captivity did of course interrupt the Davidic rule. Then we have promises related to Solomon. Look at verse 13, I think the beginning of verse 13. Does it say Solomon or the son would build the temple? Yeah, he would build the temple. Now, and just always remember this, this drives, I get so irritated by this, all right? Pastors do this all the time. Well, see, when you commit certain sin, see, God does certain things because David couldn't build the temple because David was ungodly. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Who built the temple? the serial adulterer polygamist and idolat- I mean, come on, people! Like, that's so- whenever- I see that all the time. We'll see, God, He holds people accountable and there's consequences to your actions, and that's why David couldn't build the temple. Yeah, he could only write b- he could only write scripture, but he couldn't build the temple. Well, I'm sorry, who could build the temple? Someone who took Davidson. And let's make it very clear, David has someone killed, and Solomon has people killed. Remember, Solomon becomes David's hitman at the beginning of his reign. And we looked at it. In fact, Solomon killed whom? Was it half-brother? killed his own half brother, right? So, I mean, come on, don't even get me started on all of this. That's just so, our ability to judge things sometimes as Christians drives me to the point of insanity, okay? So we have the temple. What happens on the second part of verse 13? Talks about the throne, gonna be established for what? Forever, all right? What's about verse 14 and 15? What happens in verse 14, 15? He's gonna be chastened for his sins, right? But his mercy won't depart, which always shows what? God's faithfulness in light of our unfaithfulness, all right? God did not promise specifically that the posterity of David would be through the line of Solomon. Jeconiah, or Keniah, one of Solomon's descendants, was decreed by God to be childless. Actually, Keniah had seven sons, perhaps adopted, 1 Chronicles 3, though none occupied the throne. And so we can get into a whole discussion there. We discussed a lot of that. Thus, as far as continuing dynasty was concerned, Keniah was childless. His line did retain legal throne rights, which were claimed for Jesus through his legal father, Joseph, in Matthew chapter one. We're not going to get all back through the Jeconiah, that whole situation. It gets confusing. It gets crazy. Just make sure we realize God made a promise to David that his descendants would ultimately do what? One of his descendants would build the temple, and then a throne would be ultimately established. and there's a forever part to it, how that works. And look, I'm the first to acknowledge, it's confusing at times, right? Hey, I'm gonna establish the throne forever, but yet it's interrupted. How can have something forever be interrupted? Well, okay, well. How do we understand that? There's lots of discussions about all of that. I'm not gonna, I gotta kind of figure out what we're gonna cover and what we're not here, okay? Basically, it says that it's important to remember that these promises were made unconditionally. This is an unconditional promise, meaning, hey, I'm gonna do this irregardless of what happens. All right, now some argue that it was not an unconditional, claiming that the covenant could be broken, and they cite 2 Samuel 7.14. Look at 2 Samuel 7.14, tell me what you find. Okay, that doesn't make it conditional. It just makes that if he sins, there's gonna be chastening, but it doesn't, in fact, does it not promise that he's still not gonna depart for him or something along the way? Yeah, so that, yeah, that doesn't make it, doesn't make it conditional really, right? Agreed? Okay, they also look at 1 Kings 2.4. Tell me what you find in 1 Kings 2.4. I don't know if any of these arguments are any good, but we'll look at some of the arguments. What happens in 1 Kings 2.4, if there's... All right, that is spoken kind of in a conditional language. Does everyone kind of see that? All right, so you can see why some may use that to make it conditional. All right, look at 1 Kings 8.25. 825, what do you see there? All right, I don't see anything there that would be conditional, do you? What do you think? Do you see conditional language? All right, so out of the verses provided that some say prove that it's conditional, the only one we've come close to is 1 Kings 2.4, agreed? All right, how about chapter nine of 1 Kings, verses four through five? Do you see any conditional language? Okay, if what? Okay, that's a definite conditional. If you do this, but what's the requirement? He's got to do what? He's got to obey everything, right? Who's that about? Who is this about? No, who's the person that has to do this in order to be established the throne? This is Solomon, right? Okay, wait, I got some, there seems to be some disagreement. Is it Solomon or no? Okay, Solomon. Okay, all right. At Gibeon, okay, all right. Everybody see that? All right, that's okay. I wanna make sure we're on the same page. Now, immediately though, you should stop. Wait a minute. If this is conditional and the requirement is for Solomon to obey everything, then what would be the end result? Okay, which would be? Okay, now, the condition here, if you don't obey, Israel's gonna be put away. Now, does that negate the promise, the Davidic covenant promises? Look at exactly what happens there. What happens if he doesn't obey? What exactly happens? They're cut off, they're moved from the land, right? Isn't that what the focus is? Okay, does that negate the promises in the Davidic Covenant? Remember, the argument is that these verses make the Davidic Covenant conditional. What I'm trying to get you to see is that those consequences would not negate the Davidic Covenant, would it? It would only simply do what? Bring chastisement in the midst of the Davidic covenant, right? And is that not exactly what happened? I mean, who is this being spoken to? He violates everything. And then what happens because of his violation ultimately? You end up with a divided kingdom. And then guess what happens to Judah? Babylonian captivity. And what happens to Israel? Assyrian captivity, right? And then they're, in a sense, they're still facing the consequences of all of that, right? But that does not negate the Davidic Covenant! Because will a descendant of David be upon the throne? Yes! Christ! Okay, all right, does everybody understand that? So I'm saying even if you make this conditional, the condition is there's gonna be chastisement as a result of the, but it doesn't negate the covenant. Does that make sense? All right, look at Isaiah 24, 5. We're gonna run out of time here. Isaiah 24, 5. I'm just going through all these arguments and trying to make it a conditional one. Isaiah 24, 5, I know we could have gone slower and I could do more of the reading, but I'm trying to have you see it. Isaiah 24, 5, do you see conditional language here? All right, well, they have broken every covenant. Look, can we argue that any covenant that tells Israel to do something, what do they always do? Every covenant that tells Israel to do something, they don't do it, okay? Can we all agree to that? All right, why? Because anytime the Bible tells you to do something, that is classified as what? Law, no one ever keeps the law, all right? This is the law gospel distinction, okay? Go to Ezekiel 16, 59. 1659. All right. He's acknowledging they've broken covenant. Now, which covenant? They ultimately break any and every covenant, right? I mean, they ultimately don't follow anything. Okay, go ahead. There you go. He's going to establish what kind of a covenant? An everlasting covenant. And some people say that everlasting covenant is the new covenant, right? And why does he have to make the new covenant? They broke all the others, okay, all right? So, here is how Ryrie tries to fix these problems, because Ryrie's like, okay, let's say all of these verses offer a conditional element to it, what is the solution? I don't think you need much of a solution, I think you've kind of already offered it, but let me quote Ryrie specifically, and you tell me what you think about his solution, are you ready? The breaking, or conditionality can only refer to personal and individual invalidation of the benefits of the covenant, but it cannot affect the transmission of the promise to the lineal descendants. All right, let me read that again. The breaking or conditionality can only refer to personal and individual invalidation of the benefits of said covenant. but it cannot affect the transmission of the promise to the lineal descendants. So the promise of the covenant to be passed on will continue even if someone else invalidates promises or can't experience some of the promises because of their disobedience. All right, so you're ready, listen carefully. This is why God would staunchly affirm his fidelity and perpetuity of the covenant to David in spite of succeeding rascals who would appear in his lineage. For in that case, he finds fault with them, but he does not find fault with his covenants. God maintains his fidelity to what? covenant, the individual may face chastisement consequences, but God will still maintain loyalty to the covenant. Does Israel violate everything? Do they face severe chastisement? Are they still facing that chastisement? Does that negate the ultimate promise of land, of someone ruling and reigning? No! It's some within the reform world who basically says these covenants were conditional, they didn't meet the covenant, so guess what? God took the covenant from them and gave it to whom? Us. Right, yeah. Well, then for us, it's not a conditional covenant. Now it's unconditional. But that just destroys... There's so many problems with, everything begins to fall apart. Everything begins to fall apart. I always hate running out of time, but we're gonna run out of time. Let's see if we can get just a little bit more. All right, so all of that was the provision of the covenant and the promises related to David, the promises related to Solomon, and then we looked at the conditionality possibly of it. Now, Old Testament confirmation of the covenant. Now listen carefully to this. All Old Testament passages that describe the Messiah as King and His coming kingdom confirm the promises of the Davidic Covenant. So every passage that describes the Messiah as King confirms the promises of the Davidic Covenant. All the Royal Psalms, for example, give more information about the Davidic Kingdom. and we could go through all of them. We don't have time right now. There's a lot, okay? These provide strong confirmation of the immutability of the covenant. It seems almost as if God was anticipating the amillennial claim that the kingdom promise should be spiritualized into the church when he said that even though chastisement for sin would come, the covenant would not be broken would not be broken or altered. All right, everybody got that? All right, so God acknowledges sin will come. He also acknowledges chastisement may occur. But what does he not alter? The covenant. What does he not change? Who the covenant was made with. He does not change how it will be fulfilled to them. We're grafted in, but those promises to Israel are promises specifically to Israel. And so ultimately, the Davidic covenant promised that David's descendant would sit upon the throne and rule and reign forever. Correct? Has there been a, well, you could argue on one hand, and in some sense, there was a pause, of which I don't like that, but there was kind of a pause, but in the other way, there really wasn't a pause, because Christ, well, I guess there was a pause until the coming of the Messiah, because once the Messiah comes, what does Jesus start preaching right from the beginning? What does even John the Baptist start preaching right at the beginning? The kingdom of God is at hand, all right, okay? Now, so in one hand, is Jesus on the throne right now? Yes, on a spiritual kingdom, right? Remember, Israel was looking for the physical kingdom, but that does not negate the physical kingdom coming because the physical kingdom has to come because that was the promise, all right? So any failure there does not negate that. Right? I'll read just this part. A number of passages in Isaiah predict and describe the visible earthly kingdom promised in the Davidic covenant. Isaiah predicted the reign of Messiah on the throne of David and over his kingdom. In other places, he described some of the characteristics of that kingdom. Other significant Old Testament promises concerning the Davidic kingdom include. Now, we need to read all of these, but we will not because we don't have time right now. All right, so what can we, here's what I want us to understand. What is the significance of the covenant? They greatly impact how people who receive that covenant can pray versus how those of us who are not part of those covenants can pray. Second, everything about hermeneutics comes into play right here, does it not? It does. So we looked at these covenants, especially the land covenant made with Israel has nothing to do with us. And we found out that in some cases where the covenant is workspace, we're only going to demonstrate what? That they will never ever fulfill it on the workspace system. That's why we need the gospel. When we come to the Davidic covenant, the Davidic covenant made specific promises to David and to Solomon. Ultimately, that a descendant of David or David's descendants would rule forever upon a kingdom that would be established forever. And yes, sin is mentioned. Yes, sin occurred. Yes, there is some interruptions and chastisement to it, but does not negate the Davidic covenant. And the Davidic covenant for it to ultimately be fulfilled would require what? At least this is the argument. for a descendant of David to sit upon the throne, literally ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. That would argue for a millennial kingdom. All right, does that make sense? And when that happens, then Israel will be what? Restored. brought back, regathered, brought back to the land, and then all of those promises, all of that will be theirs. Right, all of those promises will be theirs. And in what kind of a way? A real literal way. Because Ezekiel seems to say that the new heart will come before they do what? Enter into the land. They will be restored, you know, you can say resurrected, you can say regenerated, all the word, then they will go into the land. And then Christ will rule and reign there. Does that make sense? All right, so that's a lot of concepts all coming together, but you see how the Psalm 83 and this fit together in a perfect way. Now, in the next hour, we'll go back to Psalm 83 and see if we can try to get past some of those. We can move forward in Psalm 83 so that we can finally wrap it up. And then what we'll do with eschatology after we do the Davidic covenant, then we're gonna look at some other specific areas related to eschatology, and we'll look at the millennial kingdom. But we have a lot of verses right there to read. about the Davidic kingdom, and which ultimately will be the millennial kingdom. And we'll see how those verses are read. And we'll see if we could, how we could interpret them spiritually, if we could possibly make it work. And if we can make it work, we'll make it work. But I guarantee you, if you try to start making it spiritual, you're going to end up in problems, because you're going to be in what books? You're going to be in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. And if you start making those parts spiritual, then what do you do with the rest of the books, right? Or the rest of the book? Like when it says a virgin's gonna conceive, do we think that's spiritual? No. Well then, if that's real, then the other things have to be. You see, like, it becomes very subjective at that point. All right, we'll stop right there. Lord God, we come before you this morning. Lord, forgive us for all of our mishandling of your word. Lord, we pray that we continue to be dedicated and challenging our past understanding so that we can grow in our present understanding. We ask this in Jesus' name. And God's people said,