The King’s Covenantal Blessing

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI …

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Weddings are always wonderful affairs. Uh, as a minister, I have the privilege, of course, of walking with people leading up to the big day, and doing, doing work with them, studying the scriptures with them, pointing them to what God would have of them. And, and there’s lots of excitement as you lead up to the big day, right? Planning and getting things in order. And there’s joy and there’s frustrations, and things go well and things don’t go well.

But one of the things that I often find myself thinking, uh, particularly once my work is done, which is normally when everyone else gets to the reception and is busy, I sort of find a corner somewhere and want to just die somewhere, and, and I sit there, and I look at the couple up at the table. And one of the things I often find myself pondering is, I wonder, I wonder what their story will be. I wonder what will happen. Will they have children? If so, how many? Where will they live? Where will they go? How will they thrive? How long will they be married for? Will one of them die young? Will one of them have to get remarried because of a death? A- and I often find myself pondering on this. And of course, we don’t know, do we? We just have to wait and see.

In our text, it’s a little bit like that. We- we’ve seen the, the majesty of the bridegroom, haven’t we? We’ve seen Just to recap for ourselves, we’ve seen in verse 2, his beauty, his exterior beauty, his character, which attracts men to himself, men, women, and children. We’ve seen his voice, which speaks glorious words of comfort and hope that draw all people to himself. We’ve seen in verse three and four his victories, his glorious strength and his as he rides forth into battle. We’ve seen in verse six and seven his, his throne room, a throne room of splendor that, as I said, if you remember, makes the greatest kingdoms of this world look like a thatched barn. And as we’ve gone through, we’ve seen then his throne room filled with people, filled with queens and daughters of the nations. And then our eyes have been turned, and we’ve beheld the daughter coming in for the wedding day, and we’ve seen the marriage. And, and we’ve heard the speech of the father, haven’t we? We heard that earlier. And then we’ve seen and reflected on, on what the bridegroom is doing, is, is aiming for in his bride, aiming for perfection, to present her blameless in heaven. And now, in a sense, we get a vision of the consummation.

If you were to ask the question, what happens? What blessing is received because of this marriage? You know, we know we- marriages are intended to be a blessing. We know it doesn’t always work out that way, sadly, but generally speaking, marriage is a blessing. I, I found great delight in watching one of our elderly brothers sit on his wife at prayer meeting on Wednesday, with joy. Why? Because they love one another, and they delight in one another. Well, what, what is the blessing? What is the joy? What is the delight of this heavenly consummation of the husband, the king, and his bride, the church?

And we get given this wonderful picture in 3 slots. in order for us to meditate on what Christ is doing and what He’s doing now, and what He’s been doing for 2,000 years as the marriage continues to play out. And the first thing, the first blessing we see the Father say to His Son is that in place of your fathers shall be your sons. He says, “You will make them princes in all the earth.” W- What is this, uh, a promise of? What is this a blessing of? Well, it’s a covenantal blessing of kings-of princes, of rulers.

Now, why would that be necessary if you’ve got a king? Why would I need sons and princes if I’m a king who’s going to, remember back in verse 6, live forever? Now, you’ve gotta think back to the olden days. I’m not talking, you know, 100 years ago. I’m talking 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 years ago. When you had a very large country, I’m talking empire that takes over the world like Assyria and Babylon, the king can’t govern 17 nations. It’s just impractical. So what he does is he has what’s commonly called vassal states, vassals who rule on his behalf. You might call them, in this instance, prince or ruler. They are sons, metaphorically speaking, who carry out the king’s wishes. And, and this is the picture we’re being given, that the king will be blessed with Instead of his fathers, he will be blessed with sons who will rule upon this earth.

You might ask yourself the question of, “Okay, what’s this father’s sons’ business?” Well, if you take this to Christ, what takes place? Christ comes from His fathers, doesn’t He? He comes from David. He is the covenantal Davidic king that’s promised. Remember those words in 2 Samuel 7, where the Lord says to David, “I will build your house, and I will give you a son to sit on your throne forever”? And, and how many k- kings came and went? Solomon didn’t last forever. Rehaboen didn’t last forever. Josiah didn’t last forever, king after king after king after king, but then Jesus came. Jesus, the Davidic king, came, and He took over the kingdom, and He sat down upon an eternal throne. And His fathers, the Jews, passed Him the fulfillment of the kingdom in God, and from that moment on, there would only be sons. His people, Jew, Gentile, Scythian, Greek, it makes no difference, He will have sons, and these sons will be kingly rulers.

And so as we saw in Revelation 1, about midway through, He is making a royal kingdom out of us. He’s made us into a kingdom. And 1 Peter tells us we are royal priests. We’re a royal priesthood. Why? Because every single believer is a small, low capital K, king. You’re a king. Why? Well, not because it’s better to be a boy than a girl, don’t worry, ladies, but because kings rule. And you have, under Christ, been given dominion to go forth and advance the kingdom of God. You’ve been sent forth on behalf of the King in order to establish God’s kingdom upon this earth. This is why we pray, “Father, your kingdom come.” Why? Because in places like Karaka, where is the kingdom of God? And you see the kingdom of God as most visible in the Church of Jesus Christ, right? And so God establishes, you might call them kingdom outposts, where his kingdom is advanced.

But it’s not just in church, I hope you see. Each and every one of us is called as small kings, as princes, as rulers to go into every area of our life and to establish the kingdom of God. And so as you go to work, you go to work as a ruler representing Jesus Christ. When you go into your family, you go there as a king representing the King of Kings, and so that means you have a job to do because you’re sent forth on his behalf to establish his kingdom within your workplace, among your work colleagues, and in the City of Oakland, and in your sports clubs, and wherever else you go.

I think there’s another encouragement for us in this, and that is that it reminds us that as kings we must go to the ends of the earth. May it be that the Lord raises up someone here and sends them to Saudi Arabia or China or Japan or Nigeria to advance the kingdom of God, to advance the Gospel, and seek to take the kingdom of darkness and turn it into the kingdom of light. So let me encourage you, brothers and sisters, as you go about your day, wherever it is and whatever it is doing, do it with dignity because you march forth into this world in a way that is different to every person of this world. The people of this world stumble around in darkness. Of course, it doesn’t look like it. They’re very successful businesspeople. They do all sorts of different things, but you go forth like a man or a woman on a mission with a crown upon your brow, laboring for your king. And so nothing is wasted. Everything is an opportunity. Every door, every family, every visitor, every work colleague is someone for you to carry out your kingly reign before, and so we should look different to the world. We should look like royal citizens of the perfect king.

I think this should impact the way we go out this week into Karaka on Tuesday and Thursday night. We d- we don’t walk up to houses, you know, apologetically and, and fearfully. Why? Well, we’ve come as ambassadors on behalf of Christ. We’re here with a message of utmost importance. Can you imagine the king’s ambassador coming into this city to announce that no one has to pay taxes anymore, but he’d walk in with his head hung low? “Oh, what will people think? What will people say?” Then mumbling out his response, “Oh, the king said you don’t have to pay taxes.” No, wouldn’t he walk in, “Hey, guess what? I’ve got a message from the king and you’re gonna love it. You never have to pay taxes again.” brothers and sisters, we have far more fabulous news. Every house you walk up to and knock on on Tuesday and Thursday, you will come with the most important message on the face of the planet. There is a king who will free you from far more terrible things than tax. Death and sin and misery. And so we can go up to people with bold confidence because like Isaiah says, “Bless- blessed are the feet of those who bring good news,” and we do indeed bring good news, don’t we?

There’s a second thing you need to see here, that the covenantal blessing of God we’ve seen in providing kings, rulers, princes. The second thing, the covenantal blessing, he provides a memory, a remembrance, or profits. And so the psalmist records for us, “I will cause your name” This is the father promising to the son, “I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations.”

I’m not sure what your memory’s like. I have an uncanny memory for faces. I can run into someone from 30 years ago and just know that I know them from somewhere, even if I have no idea why. Other people have uncanny memories for numbers. I once saw this guy who could do mathematical equations like you would not believe without writing them down ’cause he could just remember every number that he ever saw. What’s your memory like? You know, your name means everything to you, doesn’t it? I mean, you, you can get mistreated, but when your name is derided, when your name is mistreated, when your name is forgotten, that’s a hard thing to come back from. Sometimes you never do.

The psalmist says, “His name will be remembered to all generations.” Now let me ask you, how many of you can remember the name of your great-grandfather? I can’t. Now, maybe some of you have done the studies of genealogy, so you know what his name is, but I don’t remember my great-grandfather’s name or my great-great grandfather’s name. Names are forgotten to me. I’ve probably been told before, but they’re long gone. What about David’s sons? Think about Solomon. Sure, we remember his name, but how do we remember him? We remember him as the wisest idiot, right? All the wisdom in the world, writes the most profound stuff about the sin of adultery, and then gets himself like a thousand wives, and then devotes himself to all of their idols. The biggest idiot, right? And what about his son, Rehoboam? Well, he wasn’t any smarter. He listens to the young people rather than the godly wise counsel and ruins the kingdom. And show me any king in the Old Testament whose name is remembered without blemish, and yet this king, his name will be remembered throughout all generations.

Now that phrase there, “all generations,” I think would be better translated as “from generation to generation.” And what’s, what’s being promised here is 2 things. Firstly, the, the honor and dignity and glory of the name of Jesus Christ, and we know that to be true, don’t we? We are told that he has a name that is above all other names. We are told that at His name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. His name is sweet to our ears, isn’t it? When you’re out shopping somewhere and, and you overhear someone, not blaspheming, but someone speaking wonderfully of Jesus, you hear someone speaking in, in joy of Jesus, doesn’t your heart leap? It’s like, it’s like w- in the Song of Solomon when the bride hears, when the bride hears her husband knocking at the door and her heart leaps, “Oh, he’s here. He’s here!” And some of us know that feeling, when a husband or wife has been away on a long trip and they come home and you hear their voice when they walk in through the door with that familiar phrase that they always say, “Honey, I’m home.” Does your heart not leap for joy? Well, this is what’s happened to you and I, isn’t it? We’re like Mary when Jesus comes to her and says, “Mary.” We say, “Oh, Rabboni.” His name means everything to us. It’s what makes us so angry when people misuse His name, because they slander the one we love.

But there’s a second aspect to this, and that is that this name, this remembrance will be passed on from generation to generation, and it’s a covenantal promise going all the way back to Abraham. The kingly promise of David is fulfilled in rulers, but the k- the Abrahamic promise is fulfilled in the remembrance of the name of Christ. And this is wonderful, because it reminds us of 2 very blessed things. Firstly, firstly, the name of Christ will never get extinguished from the minds of God’s people. Never will a day come when a generation is raised up when no one remembers the name of And so you can go all through church history, you can go to the blackest of the dark ages, and you will find people who love the name of Jesus Christ. And you can go to the most persecuted st- nations of the world, and you will find people who love the name of Jesus Christ. And what do they do, even though it means persecution to their children? What do they do? They tell their children, “Remember the Lord.” It’s Deuteronomy 6, “Write this on their hearts, train them, teach them, talk to them. Remember, remember, remember.”

And so the second thing this blessing highlights for us is the deep need for us to fulfill generational faithfulness, with hope that God is a generational God. All, all throughout the scriptures, God works through generations. “It is to your seed, it is to your seed, it is to your seed,” is the refrain. And we saw this fulfilled this morning, didn’t we? A covenantal family and 3 young people who have been raised to remember the name of Christ, and they’ve stood up and said, “That name is precious to me. He is my God, and I am one of His people.” And so one thing we must be marked by in our families and in our church is that we act like prophets among God’s people.

Do you know what one of the major jobs of the prophets? It wasn’t to foretell what’s going to happen. It was to tell God’s Word to remember God. Why? Because the people of God are forgetful. And so all throughout the Old Testament, the people of God forget, and they forget, and they forget, and they rebel. And the prophets come, and they say, “Turn back to the Lord. Don’t forget.” And this is our role as prophets in our families, is to go to our families and say, “Do not forget the Lord. He has made promises to you. He has set His love upon you. Believe in Him. Love His name.” And because God is a generational God, we can have confidence to do that and confidence to know that the Lord will bear fruit. And so give it your all. If, if you’re a, a family here, if you’re young, married, thinking about having children, wherever you’re at, give your all to this. If you’re single or if you’re an older person, give yourself to the other families. Give yourself as a prophet to reminding the young people in this church to remember the name of the Lord, and when they go astray, to call them back, “Return, my child. Return and fulfill your vows that you have made to all of the children in this church.”

And so we see this covenantal blessing of kings, a covenantal blessing of prophets, and then lastly, we see a covenantal blessing of priests, and so we finish with these marvelous words as we end this psalm. “Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever.” What is the consummation of the kingdom work of the people of God? It’s the praise of the Lord, right? It is the praise of Jesus Christ. John Piper puts it so finely. He says, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” Why do we go to Karaka? Why do we go to our family? Why do we go to the ends of the world? Because there are people that don’t worship God, and we want them to be worshipers of God. We want them to be priests.

You see, one of the functions of being a priest was leading the praise of God’s name in the temple, and it’s the same today. One of your functions as being a priest, small P, a priest, is engaging in the worship of God, and this is true today, and it’s true for tomorrow, and it’s true for all of eternity. You have been built and saved to be a worshiper of God. So what does that mean for us? Well, for one thing, it means our families should always have an altar of worship. I don’t mean a physical one, I hope you know. I mean family worship, a place where a family priest with little priests under him leads the family to the throne of God, and every day opens up the word and leads his family in praise and worship. Whether you’ve got little ones or whether you’re elderly makes no difference. We are to be worshipers of God.

Let me encourage you very practically. Stick the bulletins from today in your Bible. Take them home and sing them around your table. Or sing them in the morning when you get up with your home. Or find another hymnal, or play something on YouTube. Worship your God. It’s true for those of you that are singles. You’re not excluded from this. If you don’t have a family to engage in worship with, well, you’re welcome to come to my house for family worship every evening. Otherwise, worship God by yourself. He delights in the praise of a soloist just as much as a choir. And come prepared every Lord’s day to sing his praises, to delight in him among God’s people, and spur one another on.

The other way this is so important is, as Paul says in Romans, that we are to be living sacrifices, living sacrifices. Living offerings of worship we are to be, and that means every aspect of our life is to be lived out in praise of God, to worship the King. No area of your life is excluded. Your work, your hobbies, your family, the things you do that you’re a little bit embarrassed about and you don’t want other people to know about. When I was a kid, it was playing computer games, because when I was a kid it was inappropriate to play computer games, and generally bad and evil and a waste of time. It was okay to watch TV for 7 hours, but playing computer games was bad. And, and so for the longest time I didn’t want to tell anyone about it, because I’d get told off, till the day I realized that actually I can worship God in my hobbies. I can give thanks to God. I can praise him in it. I can use it as an evangelism tool as I interact with other people in it. Living sacrifices in whatever area of life you’re in, as a priest praising your God.

This is the blessing, brothers and sisters, that Christ and his bride, their consummation is bringing out in this Earth. The, the Father in heaven has made a covenant with God, with Jesus. He has made a covenant with Jesus, and that covenant is to give him a perfected people, a people, as we read from Revelation when we started, from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, a people made in his image. And the way he does that is through the consummation of the marriage of the lamb and the bride as the Church of Christ, as kings, as prophets, as priests, labor and live for the Kingdom of God. And we have the privilege of being a part of We have a privilege of serving the King, of serving the Prophet, of serving the Priest in each little corner of our life. As the little hymn says, “You in your small corner, and I in mine.”

Brothers and sisters, let us not grow weary of good doing. As the writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us, let us strengthen our weak knees.” Let us stand upright. “Let us gird our loins,” as it says in the old translation, and do the work that we’ve been given. And the wonderful thing is, He who is at work within us will bear fruit. He will achieve His purposes through us, in our homes, in this society, and in this church. So, be of good cheer, because the Lord’s doing it in our very midst, as we saw 3 young saints declaring the name of Christ this morning. And so let us say with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation.”

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