Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

This week in the rest of the chapter, 2 Samuel 5:17-25, we will see how, though our enemies attack us, God enables His anointed King to lead us to victory.

I want to draw you in to today's question by asking you a personal question. A question for you to evaluate. Are you in Adam, or are you in Christ?

Today in 2 Samuel 5:6-16, we see how God establishes David's throne in Jerusalem which is also called Mount Zion. Now, Jesus is said to be on His throne in Mt. Zion above. Today in David we will see shadows that teach us about the reign of King Jesus, and not only teach us, but that unite our hearts to Him as our King!

In looking at this subject, we are going to do something a little different today. We are going to look at four scripture passages that are related to each other. We read two of them already: Gen 3:1-8 which shows the sin of eating the forbidden fruit; 1 John 2:15-17 which speaks of the lust of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life. The other two are Luke 4:1-13, where we have the temptation of Christ and His outward response; and Psalm 63, where we see the thoughts of His heart when He was tempted. In looking at this today, I hope you will see how eating the forbidden fruit was a rejection of God for an idol.

Our gracious God is doing a great work to save the world. He has the plan. In the grand scheme, He is always forming a people for Himself out of the ruins of the fall. In Samuel, we see how He gathers the people He redeems into a kingdom of righteousness. Presently, we are seeing particular things that God's anointed King will not tolerate. With Abner, we saw that clever policy and military muscle do not bring the kingdom. Last week, we saw with Joab how bitterness that cannot forgive has no place. Today, with the sons of Rimmon, we see that selfish ambition has no place.

This week, we are looking at the fact that our first parents chose to sin against God. We will see that this was an act of their (our) free will as the one great human family.

David, who was very glad to see Israel finally coming to him, as God had promised, set the terms in a way that forced Abner to acknowledge that David, not Abner, was in charge. Almost everyone was glad to see this union under David, but David's nephew Joab, who was the commander of David's armies, although he certainly wanted to see David as king of all Israel, had a bitter grudge against Abner that took first place in his response.

He had made us and He told us that He was giving us the whole creation. He gave us clear terms. We read about those in Gen 1-2. We saw the overall arrangement and our purpose to fill the earth and use it to bless each other. Let's read from Genesis 1:26 – 2:25 again today, only, this time, we will focus on the covenant, the terms of life that He established with us to go on in life.

Today in 2 Samuel 3, we are going to look at the surprising ways that God used to advanced His kingdom when He brought David from being King over Judah to being King over all twelve tribes of Israel. God had purposed to do it, so why didn't He just have all twelve tribes come over after Saul died? It would have been much tidier than having Abner lead them all in rebellion.

To put this very succinctly, God is carrying out the plan He has for His whole creation. He is moving the whole creation along to its ultimate destiny of glory.

It has been several weeks since we have been in our sermon series from 2 Samuel. We stopped in the middle of a 2 Sam 2. Today we will look at the rest of chapter 2. Here we see a contrast between David, who is a prince of peace, and Abner, who is a warmonger.

This week's question is question 10, which singles out God's creation of man. This is a very straightforward description of what God did as found in God's Word. First, it simply says that He created us—directly and personally. Second, it says that He made us male and female. Third, it says that He created us after His image in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. See John 4, Col 3:10, Eph 4:24. Fourth, it says that we were given dominion over the creatures. Clearly stated in Genesis 1. Today, I want to show you how your God's joy and loving delight in us is demonstrated in the way He created us. Praise be to Him!

As we come to a new year this week, I thought it would be helpful for us to take a look at the book in the Bible that is given to instruct us in how to live beautifully: Proverbs. Chapter 1 describes the purpose of the whole book and gives us a good overview of its contents. It sets us in the right direction. It shows us how to live beautifully (wisely).

As many of you know, I sometimes interrupt our regular sermon series to preach on a subject that has presented itself to us in God's providence. So today, I am going to speak about two sons who have been born—given to us, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Lawrence Kubik—who is being baptised today. While there is no comparison, there is a beautiful correlation and connection. In the opening of Isaiah 9, he brings words of tremendous encouragement. In the first five verses, He tells them of wonderful changes that are coming, but with each one, suspense builds as to how He is going to bring these blessings about.

This week, we take up question 8 which explains the two ways that God carries out His plan—the two ways that He brings it about or executes it.