Sermon: A Covenant That Does Not Pass Away

All right, let's pray before we open God's word together this morning and hear from Him.

Our Father, we thank you for the gift of your word. We're thankful that it's living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. We pray that even this morning, that it would be living and active as you have promised. We pray it would be living and active around us, among us, most importantly in us this morning. And for that, we need the work of your Spirit. So would your Spirit attend to the word as you have promised.

We pray all this in the strong name of Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen. This morning, 2 Samuel chapter 23, verses one through seven. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my

tongue. The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. For does not my house stand so with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my

desire? But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken with the hand. But the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever." Thanks be to God. Amen.

When people come to the end of their lives, they aren't always in their right mind. But when they are in their right mind, it is always fascinating to me to hear what their final words were before they pass from this life into the next. What we have in our text this morning is David's final public words that he uttered right before he died. After all of these months of walking through the life of David, we now hear his final words. And I was thinking of just some

others this week, some of their final words. Here are a few for you. Jane Austen said, "I want nothing but death," and then she died. Emily Dickinson, like the poet she was, said, "I must go in. I must go in. The fog is rising." Benjamin Franklin, while trying to change the position he was laying in, said, "A dying man can do nothing easy," and he died. Winston Churchill, like the bulldog he was, said, "I'm bored with it

all," and then he died. Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, "We are beggars. This is true." John Wesley, the great evangelist, said as his dying breath, "The best of all is, God is with us." David says his final public words here, and he has two things that are on his mind as he utters these words, his responsibility and then the covenant-keeping God. And we're going to look at both of those this morning. But before we get to his words, his final words, you

have a kind of eulogy that the prophet Samuel has written about David. He describes him in verse one, "David, son of Jesse, the oracle of a man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel." This is David's eulogy. This is who he was. He was the son of Jesse. Jesse was no one important. He was a mere shepherd in the tribe of Judah. He was from a little out-of-the-way village that very little knew of,

Bethlehem. And he was the son of Obed, the son of Boaz and Ruth. Ruth, a Moabitess. David is not from a royal line in that way. He's not from hierarchy. He is not from riches. He is not from fame. He's not from significance. No, as Samuel tells us, this was the oracle of a mere man. But you'll notice the qualifier, "The man who was raised on high."He was raised. He was the object. He was not the actor. He was the object that was raised. It was not by David's achievement,

but it was God's action that David was raised. He was raised from shepherd to a king, from low to high, from a small ruddy boy to a man of incredible consequence. He was, Samuel said, "The anointed of the God of Jacob." And that phrase must have meant especially a lot to Samuel as he's writing it on the page, the anointed. It was Samuel, of course, that went to that little ruddy shepherd boy and anointed him when he was just a young lad,

and anointed him the second king of Israel.

Anointed of the God of Jacob, another qualifier. The God of Jacob, that's covenantal language. He was anointed the king of God's covenant people. Now, for David, the man, it meant even more. Baldwin, a commentator, said this. He said, "The anointed God of Jacob says much in a few words. The God of Jacob is the one who transforms twisted human material." So David thinks of himself as in need of transformation, not like the kings of Egypt, for example, who considered themselves

divine. That's the God of Jacob. The God of Jacob is the one who comes to the needy, to the malformed, to the twisted, who raises up. What did Luther say as his dying words? "We are beggars." This is true. And it's interesting to me that throughout the scriptures that this is often the refrain of who God is. God is the God of Jacob. But why Jacob? Why not one of the other patriarchs? Why is it that Jacob takes center stage?

Well, you could say for a host of reasons. One is surely because it's shorthand for He is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. It's also true that it was Jacob who had 12 sons that formed the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel, and so it's shorthand for the covenant people of God. But I think beyond anything, He's the God of Jacob because it's meant to convey that He is the God of grace.

Jacob was a mess of a man. He was a wreck. He was a liar. He was a deceiver. He was a cheat. He was one who would devise plans. He was weak, and he was fearful. He was, in the words of Baldwin, he was twisted and malformed. But that's who this God is. He comes to the twisted and the malformed, and He transforms. That's David's God. That's our God. That's the true living God.

And yet it's so hard for people to understand that when you are outside of this God, and you do not know Him, it is so hard for people to understand how is it that such a sovereign and great and holy God could have anything to do with malformed and wrecks of creatures that are twisted and caught up in sin. How does a holy God have such a relationship with such twisted creatures?

Remember when Jesus in the Gospels, in Mark 2, and he is sitting there at the table with tax collectors, sinners. The Pharisees standing outside of God can't understand. And they will begin to whisper, "Doesn't he know that he's with twisted sinners?" Makes no sense how your leader, disciples, this one that you are following around, that you believe has holy teaching, and so therefore is some kind of holy teacher, doesn't he even

know that he's mixing with twisted, malformed people?

And Jesus, hearing them and knowing what they are saying, he responds, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." The undeserving, the twisted, the malformed. This has always been the way of the God of Jacob, the blessedness of the God of Jacob. He dispenses grace to twisted, malformed sinners, and He transforms them. That's David's God. That's our God.

That's the living God. The God of Jacob. Then Samuel, in that final designation of his epitaph of David, calls him the sweet psalmist of Israel. And isn't that sweet? The sweet psalmist of IsraelI didn't always know him as the sweet psalmist of Israel. I was telling our new members, we do a dessert with the pastor for About URC class, and they were asking me questions the other night, and I was telling them the story.

I can remember, came to saving faith in college and had not been a Christian for very long, so was not very sanctified. You have to understand this. And I met this beautiful blonde-haired young lady, and we played racquetball one night. And then we went out, and we sat on the steps to the rec center on this beautiful night, where there were all of these stars in the sky, and man, love was in the air. And I remember her looking at me,

and she said, "Jason, what's your favorite book of the Bible?" I couldn't name many books of the Bible. I said, "Well, why don't you tell me yours?"

She said, "Oh, I love the Psalms." I said, "Oh, me too." She said, "Well, why do you love the Psalms?" I said, "Oh, you tell me first." She said, "Oh, I love how David just pours out his heart, and he just pours out his heart before God, and it's..." I said, "Oh, that's how I feel about David too."

Calvin said that the Psalms are an anatomy of the soul. That is that in the Psalms, you can find every desire that is within you, every affection that is there, every discouragement, every dark thought. It's there, and it's given words, and it's given pictures, and it gives you a cry or a praise or a thanksgiving to offer before God. It's an anatomy of the soul. And so many of them written by this David, who knew the God of Jacob,

who lived under the shadow of His wing, the sweet psalmist.

That's his epitaph, if you will. That's the man. Now, David's last words, his first thought is upon his responsibility. When a person gets to the end of their life in Christ, it's only natural, and it's even right, I think, to look back on your life and think, "Have I been responsible with what the Lord has given me in this life? Have I tried? Now, I know I have not done it perfectly. I know at times I have not even done it well.

But over the course of my entire life, as I take it as a whole, have I tried to fulfill my responsibility?" That's where David's mind goes. He knows this God of Jacob. He knows that he was saved by grace, and he rests in that. But once you are saved by grace, your life doesn't end there. It's only truly begun there.

Remember where Paul writes this very thing in Ephesians 2, where he says, "By grace through faith, you have been saved." Through faith. This is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. What we're justified by grace through faith, so was David. He's justified by grace through faith, not a result of works, so that no one can boast. You have to understand, and someone that understands that you're

malformed, you're twisted, you're a creature that in no way can do works to reach out to God. Because you're malformed, and you're twisted, and you're sinful, it must be that you are saved by grace. That's the only possibility.

But life doesn't end when you're saved by grace.

Paul goes on to say, "For by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It's a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for..." For what, Paul? "For good works, which he prepared beforehand, that we might walk in them." Saved by grace through faith, not by works, but you are saved unto works. Responsibilities to live for God, to live for the Savior.

And David understood this. He had a responsibility before his God, and so he gets to the end of his life, and he's looking back on his responsibility. We all have responsibilities. I do as a father, as a husband, as a son, as a brother, as a citizen, as an elder, as a pastor, as a friend, as a... And I could go on and on. Responsibility. Now, some rise above others. For David, the one that rose to the top was his responsibility to govern God's people.

He was the anointed of Israel. He was to govern it. He was the king of God's covenantal people, and that's quite a responsibilityIt's been said that the best form of government is a good king, and the worst form of government is a bad king. And I think that's very true. David is looking at his life, his responsibility to be the king of the nation. Have I been, overall-- We've seen him err over and over. We've seen him sin, but

overall, over the course of his life, has he been a responsible king?

How do you gauge that? Well, he defines it. Defines how one would do it well. The best rulers, the best authorities, have a singular motivation above all others. David notes, when one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God. And he wanted to live such a life. He came to the end of his life, and he wanted to look back and be able to say, "Look, I ruled them on the whole justly because I did so with the fear of God upon my

mind and the fear of God in my heart and the fear of God moving my spirit as a whole." And those that have true authority in the world, they understand that the great motivation, those that do it well, the great motivation is fear of God. They serve knowing that there is one who is above them that has entrusted this authority to them, and that motivates them.

They fear God. They're accountable to Him. When you have such good leaders, you thank God and you thank them, because, man, they are rare.

Because notice the effect of good leaders, verse four. He gives two effects. First, "He dawns on them like the morning light," David says. A good leader provides hope, provides clarity like the morning light. Why is that needed? Because there is so much suffering. Darkness is prevalent. There are trials, and part of God's provision in the midst of this dark world is that He provides leaders. And a good leader provides hope in the midst of trial,

light when darkness has come. He or she provides clarity. They bring light. They show the way. I often think, especially in trial, it's leaders who often have to model calm. It's calm. The world's not ending. You have the fear of the Lord before you. You know that He sits enthroned on high. He's governing all of this. Calm. We're going to make it through this, and now here's the way that we're going to work our way through this. Leaders lead.

That's what they've been called to do. They provide hope, clarity. When you have them, you thank God and you thank them. Whether in the family,

husband, a father. Look, mother, you get to do this in two weeks like on steroids. Thank her.

In the workplace, in the church, in the state. Darkness threatens, confuses, it troubles. Leaders rise to the occasion. They inspire. They provide hope. They provide clarity. David says like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning. But second, notice that leaders who have the motivation of fearing the Lord, good leaders, he says, notice that they are like rain, second, that makes grass to sprout from the earth.

They aren't just helpful in times of trouble. Good leaders lead to good growth, that there's health where they lead. You'll notice that their leadership is not an end in itself. Good leaders are not a dam. Rather, they're a conduit. They're a wellspring. They're a channel by which grace and goodness and peace and mercy and clarity and hope flow through them. They open up the floodgates for the people that they serve. They expend themselves for the

people that they serve. They are like rain, he says, that makes the grass to sprout. There's a pouring out. There's an expending themselves. This is why Paul will go so far as to say, "Look, I rejoice that I could be poured out as a drink offering for your sake. Poured out for you."

And that expending is towards an end. It has a purpose so that there might be growth.

Bad leaders are about self, constantly guarding self.

Good leaders are poured out. A mom pours herself out in the home for her children. A husband pours himself out for his wife. He loves his wife as Christ loves the church, a sacrificial love. He pours himself out. A boss, a good boss, pours him or herself out for his or her employees. A pastor for the sheep, a president for the citizens, they expend themselves, pour themselves out for the growth of those under their care.

Is not this the model of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?He said, "I came not to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many, to be poured out." On that night in which he's being betrayed, the very night before his crucifixion, where he's going to be laid out upon a cross and his hands nailed and his feet nailed and that crown of thorns mockingly put upon his head. On the night before, he's with his disciples that he

knows are going to deny him. And he goes around and he washes their feet.

Pours himself out.

It's not a mistake that he's pictured, as I told you on Good Friday, as you sung this morning, as that lamb that is slain on the throne in Revelation. That's not the picture I would've painted. If you said, "Jason, give us what you think it should look like in heaven," well, I'd say, "Listen, there should be the lion of the tribe of Judah on that throne." But that's not the picture in Revelation. It's a lamb that was slain

forever, this picture that he poured out, expended himself for his people that he has authority over.

It's the way the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Look, where it's missing among men, where you are disappointed, disappointed in your president, disappointed in your governor, disappointed in your city council, disappointed in your elders, disappointed in your pastor, disappointed in your husband or your mother or your father, what it's meant to do is direct you to the one who never fails to pour himself out for his people,

who ever liveth to intercede for them. For them.

It's meant to lead you to the King of kings and Lord of lords,

and to long for his coming. Oh, what a glorious day that will be when he returns upon the clouds and his kingdom is fully consummated in this world, and we are simply as his subjects under his authority, without any kind of other authority between he and us, just that perfect authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords that is governing us for all of eternity. How happy a place it will be to be under his authority forever.

David has come to the end of his life, and he's done this as well as maybe any man could. Now you know he hasn't done this perfectly. None of the leadership in this room, in any room, do it perfectly. We have regrets as parents, as business owners, as husbands, as elders, as pastors. There's only one who rules perfectly. But David can look back over his whole life and he can say, "On the whole, I sought to do this in the fear of the Lord.

I gave myself for the people I served." And he finds rest in that on his deathbed.

Want to get to the end of life, and we have so much time.

Each of us only has so many hours on this earth and only so much time to engage in the works that he prepared beforehand, that we might walk in them. That there's only so much time that I have to seek in my frailty and my feebleness, to love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, to actually love my neighbor as myself, to pour out my life for Christ and for his people. Only so much time, but we want to do it in a way that over the overarching of our lives, that

we can get to that place where we're on our deathbed and we're entering into glory, and we hear those words that we so desperately want to hear. "Well done, thy good and faithful servant."

Want to hear that. You should want to hear that.

David has a confidence in that, and yet, that's not where he finds his great rest on his deathbed. It's in the second where his mind runs to, God's everlasting covenant. He says, "For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure." David is back to who God is. Isn't that eventually where you get to? Because you look at the course of your life and you say, "Oh my goodness, you know what? I tried there and I tried there." But then you start looking at your

life and you say, "Look, there's a hole there and there's a hole there, and man, I didn't do that well. And man, I even forgot to do that," and all of these leaky places in your life, and you're led back to this. That we have a gracious God, the God of Jacob. And that's where David is led backThis God who is a covenant-making, a covenant-keeping God, a God who orders all things and secures his promises to his people. David says, "With me," he says, "you made an

everlasting covenant," this God of Jacob.

David is, of course, referring back to 2 Samuel 7. We spent a lot of time there walking through that covenant, so I'm not going into all the details of that this morning. But you know the great promise of that covenant is that there would be a son of David that would be born into the world, and that son of David would reign enthroned forever.

That's where David's mind runs to. In his final dying moments, his great peace is coming from this, that he knows God has made this promise. There shall be one who sits enthroned forever. What does it mean that he sits enthroned forever? It means that he reigns. It means that he has all rule and all authority, that all enemies are laid beneath his feet. And David knows because God has promised, and he's hid himself in this one to come.

Son of David, born in Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah, he who said before ascending to glory, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me." Paul will say in Romans 1 that he's the Son of God and Power. He says of himself that, "I am the good shepherd of the sheep." Isaiah says of him, "The government shall rest upon his shoulder." He's the seed of the woman that is born and comes into the world and crushes the head of the serpent,

lays it in the dust. He's the true Israel of God. He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and David knows that he is hid under the shadow of his wing.

This one whom the loud voices in heaven sing in Revelation 11, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."

David's last words, he's reflecting upon, "Did I live responsibly before the Lord?"

It's good to think of that. Did I live my life well? I want to have done so faithfully, not perfectly, but faithfully over the course of my life. That's the cry of a twisted, transformed sinner. But our great hope doesn't lie there. That's why when Luther gets to the end of his life, he's not recounting how the Lord used him to cause the great Protestant Reformation. He just says we're all beggars.

It's why when Wesley gets to the end of his life, his final words are not about the great evangelistic campaigns that he led and how tens of thousands of people would come out to hear him and how many were converted through, quote, "his preaching." That's not what he does. No.

His final words are, "The best of all is God is with us."

It's why David is led in his final words, not to his faithfulness, but God's. This amazing covenant-making and keeping God. "For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure." He's confident in God. "For will he not cause to prosper all my help and all my desire? Will he not accomplish what he has promised?" He will.

In old age--

It's the arrogance of the young, I think, that we, I include myself, we look at the old, we think, "Oh, they're losing it. A little senile, little goofy. They need a little wisdom from the young."

It's often in the old that see the most clearly. David sees clearly at the end of his life. He saw what Samuel saw of him, that he was a man raised up by grace, that he was a part of the people of the God of Jacob.

But you notice his mind also reflects that there are those he knows who are not, and he calls them worthless men, verse six.

He says they're like thorns that are thrown away. They're consumed with fire. Those who don't want this king and don't want this kingdom. They get what they don't want. They don't get it.

So instead, like a man who reaches out and touches a flame, he says they are consumedLike thorns, they're thrown away. They're thrown away, as Jesus will say, into outer darkness. Why is it darkness? Because the light of the world is not there. They're without Him.

It's fire because it's torment, eternal torment. And as an old man upon his deathbed, David is looking at the world, and he sees clearly. He sees that either you're here or you're here. You're either among the wicked or among the people of God, the God of Jacob. All are sinners,

but you're either here or you're here. There's no gray area. There's no in-between. There's no moderating position. There's no way to navigate your way through these two things. You're either here or you're here, either flowers or thorns, as David says. Jesus would say it this way: You're either sheep or you're goats. Paul would say, "You're either children or you're rebels." We might say, "You're either saved or you're

damned."

One or the other.

And He reigns.

His kingdom is here.

Our God is a covenant-making God, a covenant-promising God, and when He promises, He fulfills His promises. He told David, He covenanted with David that he would have a son who would be born into this world and would reign forever, and He fulfilled that. The Son came into the world. He became flesh. His promise was fulfilled.

And the Son promised that He's returning to the world. He says He's returning upon the clouds, and when He returns upon the clouds, every eye shall behold Him, and immediately there shall be judgment.

The first promise was realized. The second promise will be realized.

And you're either here or here.

David goes to his death in his final words in complete and utter peace.

There's nothing troubling his mind.

There's nothing that scares him about the other side of death. There's nothing that has him trembling that he will see his maker.

He's at complete rest and peace

because he's hid himself under the shadow of the wing of the Son of his that was to come and that reigns and is making all his enemies and our enemies a footstool beneath His feet, and he went into death at peace.

I hope that's true for you this morning.

That if you walked out of this room and you're hit by a car,

and the ambulance picks you up and you're on a gurney on your way to Sparrow's emergency room,

and you know it, you can sense it, I'm not here long, that you would have complete peace.

You can if you know this Lord of lords and King of kings. I pray that's true of you this morning. Let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for the saints that have come before us. We thank you for David, for Jacob, for Abraham, for Isaac, for Ruth, for Esther, for Abigail. We thank you for the testimonies of those that have come before us, like Luther and Wesley, and so many others who even now are gathered before Your throne on that,

joining their voices with the angels and the archangels and beholding Your glory in the face of Christ, that church triumphant.

And oh, Father, even more so, we're thankful for such a great King, Your Son, who would willingly expend Himself with fear of You on His mind and His heart, true love and adoration for You, His Father in heaven. That He would come and give Himself for such twisted, malformed sinners as us. May we delight to be under His authority. May we delight and look forward to the day when no longer shall there be any darkness in this world, but we shall

dwell in the light of Him who reigns forever and ever. May You encourage our faith until that last day when as sons and daughters, we appear before You. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.