DAVID’S PROPHECY OF THE COMING OF CHRIST.
2 Samuel 23: 3, 4
Advent Sermon by:
Rev. G.R. Procee
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(November 2006)
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LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 392: 1, 2, 3, 6
Law of God
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 23: 1 – 7
Text: 2 Samuel 23: 3, 4
Psalter 298: 3
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 199
Sermon
Psalter 193: 1, 5
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 232: 3
Doxology: Psalter 195
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Congregation,
We have come into the weeks leading up to the commemoration of the birth of the Lord
Jesus, known amongst us as Christmas. We call those weeks the advent weeks. Advent
comes from the Latin word advenio, which means coming. We have in church the good
custom to preach in the weeks prior to December 25 on some of the prophecies of the
coming of Christ into this world. These prophecies show already in the pages of the O.T.
the beauty and all-sufficiency of Christ. That is why advent sermons are Christ centered.
There are numerous promises in the O.T. explaining His coming. We see now one of
David. David is in 2 Samuel 23 on his death bed. He is uttering his last words. Now
David sees as never before so clearly what God's purpose was with all His dealings with
David. It was that the King would come. The long promised King of the seed of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ. David sees Him from the distance. How beautiful this is. His old
eyes lighten up and he speaks with joy and expectation. David is speaking the Word of
God. He is here a prophet. He is going to depart and before his death he speaks of the
coming of Christ. He does this with beautiful expressions. These expressions will be
repeated later by the prophets. We can say that David here sets the tone for the song of
the coming of Christ. All the prophets after him will sing along that same tune.
David says: The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over
men must be just, ruling in the fear of God and he shall be as the light of the morning,
when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of
the earth by clear shining after rain.
Let us listen to: David’s prophecy of the coming of Christ. 1. He shall be a Ruler. 2.
He shall be as the morning sun. 3. He shall cause grass to spring up.
1. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me. David says here that God
spoke to him. David has to pass on the words of God. God is called here the Rock
of Israel. That refers to the strength in God, the reliability of God and the
faithfulness of the Lord. The Lord speaks and it is true. He is the refuge and the
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hope of Israel. To be on a rock means to be safe and sound. To be on a rock
means to be lifted up above the troubles. God is the Rock of Israel. He is still the
Rock of ages for His church. He is still found a help in need. The God of Israel
had redeemed Israel out of Egypt with a strong Arm, to bring them unto Canaan.
The aim of this all was that one day Jesus could come forth. David sees Him now
and testifies of Him.
Hear what David says: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
What does this text mean? It is a bit difficult because of the translation. In Hebrew there
are no verbs in this text. Simply what David is saying is: A ruler in righteousness and in
the fear of God.
David just simply states what God reveals to him. David sees a Ruler in righteousness
and in the fear of the Lord. David had not been righteous. He had sinned many a time. At
times grievously. He feared God and yet he fell short of the mark. He had to confess: “I
was not a ruler in righteousness. Now I see with the eye of faith there shall be a Ruler.”
This Ruler shall reign in righteousness. He shall be perfect. He shall judge His people in
truth and with equity, that means fair and honest. In Him there will be no blemish, no sin
in Him. Nothing will be wrong with Him. He is sinless. He has fulfilled all demands of
God's holy Law. He shall fulfill all righteousness and He shall show a perfect obedience
to God's law. That is why He is the pleasure of His Father, the One in Whom God is well
pleased.
The Lord Jesus would be perfectly righteous. Therefore He could take away the sins of
His people. Therefore He came into this world. To bear their curse, to obey God's law for
them. By His passive obedience, His suffering, He delivered from the wrath of God. By
His active obedience, His obedience to the law of God, He earned heaven for them.
He made a perfect satisfaction for sin. He reconciled sinners to God. A deeply offended
God was pacified by the sacrifice of His Son. He earned life everlasting, a full
satisfaction for His people.
His dealings with His people shall be just. His rule shall be perfect for His way is perfect
and upright. He leads His people along a perfect way. He leads all events in their lives to
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their well-being. He makes His people into better people, that is why He leads them the
way He does. His rule is perfect, blessed, just and righteous.
This is exactly what the prophets all say of Christ. Isaiah 32: 1,2 Behold, a king shall
reign in righteousness, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert
from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land. Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation.
Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a
righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. Psalm 72:2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness.
There is more to be said of this Ruler. He is righteous but He is also ruling in the fear of
God. The aim of His rule is that God would be feared. People would learn to fear His
holy and majestic Being. Under the scepter of this King God would be glorified and His
Name hallowed. His honour would be magnified.
The Lord Jesus sought the honour of His Father. He would do this by ruling justly over
His people, by showing them the blessedness of God. His rule is good and His service is
sweet. His love is beyond compare and His sweetness cannot be matched by anything
here on earth. He is the best, altogether lovely. His people learn to recognize His blessed
rule and they worship His goodness and mercy for them. They see how He rules in
wisdom and truth. The result is they honour Him as King and they reverence God. They
fear the Lord. That is the aim of Christ and His Kingdom, that God's Name would be
hallowed.
This King establishes His Kingdom in the fear of the Lord. He reverences the Lord and
He teaches His people to reverence God. The lack of this reverence for God is the plague
of our days. The Lord says of the wicked that there is no fear of God before their eyes.
That is fulfilled also in our day.
God is made a mockery. His laws are obliterated, wiped away, cast out. People
deliberately choose lies. Such is the darkness of the human heart. They do not see fit to
acknowledge God. Even in churches, people do not fear God. They have no trouble with
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their sins. They see not the majesty of God. They tremble not for His Word. They are not
concerned when God is disowned and worthless things are put in His place. The
conscience is not alarmed. They think they should not be alarmed. We are told to speak
of soft things. If any one has his conscience alarmed, he is told quickly that Jesus forgives
sin and has washed his sins. He may simply trust that. There is no need for concern, just
simply believe in Jesus, they say.
But that is not what Scripture teaches. Scripture presses home the need for a full,
obedience to all God demands. Man must forsake his sins and his sinful life. He must
repent and flee to the Lord for a new life. Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Therefore the sinner must learn to hate his own life, take up his cross and follow Jesus.
The sinner must be confronted with the demand of God and he must experience his utter
inability to meet that demand. The result is that that sinner will flee to the only One who
can save him: Christ. The sinner must be brought to an end with himself. The Lord says:
Keep the commandments. He says that not because He thinks we can keep them, but
because we think we can keep them. God demands a full obedience.
Blessed when you in the time of grace, find out that you cannot obey God. You fall short
of every one of God's commandments. Then you see that you are lost and a cry is heard:
O God be merciful to me the sinner. The sinner is driven out to God for mercy.
There is mercy through this King of righteousness. When that mercy is received, you
know: He saved me. He washed me. You fear Him. You know: It was all His grace, His
work. You hate sin and the love of Christ dwells within you and moved by that love you
tremble for His holiness and majesty. You seek to live according to all of His
commandments. You long to obey Him. You dread sin above all. You have a tender
walk, a humble walk with your Lord and King.
You walk in the fear of the Lord. You reverence Him. You become God-centered. Not
even centered upon your salvation, but you seek to honour God. Because you fear Him.
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You are afraid of sin. Sin becomes the greatest enemy and heaviest burden in life. You
don’t trust yourself anymore, because you know that you can easily slide into sin. You
walk in His ways. That is what this King teaches personally in the lives of all His people.
2. He shall be as the morning Sun. The text says here again cryptically in the original: A
ruler, righteous in the fear of God, the light of the morning, the rising sun, a morning
without clouds, bright shining after rain. This is all again a further description of the
coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He shall be as the early morning sun. After the dark night dawn breaks: a new beginning.
The sun rises with new light, warmth and comfort. It is like the early morning sun on a
cloudless morning, in a beautiful clear sky. What a beautiful sunshine that can be, warm
but not hot; refreshing but not scorching. The early sun shines softly upon the wet soil
and the earth is renewed. New vegetation comes up. It is all prosperous and blessed.
David compares the coming King to a rising sun on a clear spring morning.
We find the same in Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as
calves of the stall. Also in Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the
LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly.
The Lord Jesus is like a light shining in the darkness. But He is far more than that. He is
as the sun. When the sun rises all darkness is gone. That is how God is for His people. He
dispels their darkness and gloom. They were convicted of sin and unrighteousness. They
saw that they could never redeem themselves. They were in prison, in custody held by the
prince of darkness. But Christ delivered them. He broke the chains of sin and dispelled
their gloom. He comforted them and causes His light to shine in their hearts and all
around them.
His light is so beautiful: it is like the sun removing all darkness. But if you stand outside
in the sunlight and close your eyes, you are still in darkness. That is a problem for many
dear children of God. They can still walk in darkness, because they fail to look
continually to Jesus, the Sun of righteousness.
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But the day will come when they will, be forever delivered from the tiniest speck of
darkness, when they shall be with Him, in His Kingdom of light, where there will be no
night, no darkness whatsoever.
He is the light shining after their darkness. Often God's children first walk in darkness
before the light comes. There is first conviction of sin before the deliverance comes.
There is first the law and then the Gospel. There is first that the sinner is pricked in his
heart and then he is delivered. First the needle of the law pricks the heart but then comes
the silken thread of the Gospel. That is how the Gospel comes after the law. The
deliverance comes after conviction of sin. His light comes after darkness.
Many times God's children can be in darkness because of assaults of the prince of
darkness, they can neglect the means of grace and stumble into darkness, they can
condone certain sins and the Spirit is grieved and they come again into darkness. What is
needed, is to turn to this Sun of righteousness, who has healing in His beams. When His
light shines again upon you, you feel the sweetness of His service. He dispels your
gloom. His light is sweet, is comforting and blessed. It is refreshing. His service is a
service of love.
The light of the morning is joyous. All the birds begin to sing. The earth starts to live.
People wake up from their sleep and life starts again. When Christ comes to the heart,
there is singing. There is joy. Life abounds. What joy it was for shepherds when Jesus
was born. What joy it was for wise men who came and adored Him. What stream of joy
and relief has He brought upon people when He came. What joy when the Lord Jesus
enters the heart. There used to be darkness and gloom. Now He has come. There is joy
and happiness. Happy day, when Jesus comes to the heart.
The light of the morning is also comforting. The sick lie awake in the night and the
troubled wish that it were day break and that the night would be gone. What blessing and
what comfort when the day comes. The Lord Jesus when He comes to the soul, brings
comfort. The day star appears in their hearts, there is the oil of joy for mourning and the
garment of praise for heaviness. The Lord Jesus cheers the heart and comforts the soul
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with His presence for He is as the rising of the sun. His coming was as the sun bringing
comfort and outcome. How many people were comforted by His coming. He is the One
who was anointed of God to comfort, comfort His people.
How glorious is the sun when it rises. It brings a total transformation to pass upon the
face of the earth. Everything bathes in light and what a total difference it is to be in the
day light instead of in the dark. That is how the coming of the Lord Jesus was. There was
a total transformation in lives of sinners. Saul became Paul. Levi became Matthew, the
possessed of Gadara becomes a preacher of Christ Jesus. Fishermen become apostles.
Stubborn and unwilling people become witnesses of Jesus. What a total transformation.
That is what Jesus works.
The sun gives warmth. The Lord Jesus warms the soul with His love and nearness. Two
men on their way to Emmaus find out that their hearts were burning within them. They
burned with warmth, love, and joy. That was not something unique. The Lord Jesus
works in such a way that He gives warmth to sinner’s hearts. This cold world will give
you no warmth. But Jesus warms the heart.
The sun has no comparison in the realm of nature. Nothing can be compared to the sun. A
spark, a candle, a floodlight, the glow of a big city reflecting in the night sky, but it is all
nothing in comparison to the sun rising. Jesus is unique. His light shines brighter than the
sun. He shines into your heart. He sheds light upon your path. In His light you see the
light. He declared that He was the light of the world. A star shining right above the
manger was a sign of His light. What light He gives to darkened souls. What joy, peace,
comfort, and true hope flows to sinners from Christ.
The sun is also irresistible. You cannot stop its beams from shining. It shines everywhere.
No tyrant can stop it. No laws can prohibit it. When Jesus comes to the heart, none can
stop Him. He works irresistibly in hearts of sinners. They are overcome by the power of
His love. They fall before Him in adoration. Even the enemies gasp and exclaim: No man
spoke like this man speaks.
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The Lord Jesus is compared to a sun shining on a cloudless morning. There are no
hindrances to the sun. There are no spots darkening the sun. There is full light. The Lord
Jesus shining has no spots in Him, no dark clouds around Him. He gives perfect light and
He does not come with spots of rebukes for things you did in the past. When you fall
down before Him and confess your sins, He removes all the stains and will remember
them no more. There are no clouds of deceit in Him. There is no falsehood in Him. He is
pure. He is born without sin. There was a truly holy Child in Mary’s womb. As He
walked the face of this earth, He could say: Who convinces Me of sin?
This Saviour came into this world. God sent Him. He came, to seek and to save that
which is lost. He was born in poverty, laid in a manger. Outwardly there was nothing
special about Him. But He was the rising sun shining in brightness upon a cloudless day.
Because He came to take away the sins of the world. He came to pay the guilt of His
people. He came to die and to suffer. He would bear their iniquities. He died. He arose
from the grave. He conquered every enemy. To Him is given all power in heaven and
upon earth.
He now enters hearts of sinners and miracles happen. New life is found, new beginnings,
new hopes, full salvation. For whom? For those who humbly bow before Him, who
confess their guilt. They complain to Him about unruly proud heart. They see Him as the
Sun of righteousness. They trust in Him. In their hearts miracles happen of new life, light,
comfort, warmth, salvation.
Has this Sun of righteousness risen in your heart? He is shining in His Word. He calls
you. He says: “Come to Me for I am the Light of the world.” Then miracles happen. We
see that also in our text:
3. He shall cause grass to spring up. For He shall be as the light of the morning, when
the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the
earth by clear shining after rain.
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The text compares the Lord Jesus to the clear shining sun after the rain. First the moisture
came and then the sun broke through the clouds and dispersed them and there was full
blue sky with a bright rising sun shining upon the wet soil, upon the wet grass. You know
what happens then. There is fertility. Plants grow. Seed germinates. New life comes forth.
There is fruit.
There is a handful of corn in the land, He shall see to it that the fruit thereof shall wave as
fields of corns, wheat, waving in the wind as the cedars of the Lebanon.
From His people themselves there shall never be any fruit forevermore, but their fruit is
found in Him. He works the fruit in their lives. The text speaks of tender grass springing
out of the earth. He brings forth fruit. The barren one becomes fruitful. Instead of the
thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.
The main idea of grass springing forth is that of growth. The grass grows towards the sun.
That is also true spiritually. There is a growth towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Under the
steady influence of this Sun of righteousness, there is spiritual fruit. There will be
holiness, dedication to the Lord. The graces of the new creation ripen. The understanding
becomes more clear, the will more firm, the conscience more vigorous, the temper more
quiet, the affections more pure, the desires more heavenly. Love triumphs over
selfishness. The loving Spirit of Christ drives out the bitter spirit of strife.
This Priest King is so blessed in His Person and works, that His people are never finished
in considering Him. They are never done in thinking about His grandeur and blessedness.
His fame reaches unto the heavens. Forever His people shall praise and thank Him for
who He is and for what He has done.
All God’s children receive grace for grace from Him. They receive grace for the soul and
strength for the body. They receive mercy and life. They receive the Holy Spirit and the
blessed fruit of the Spirit. They becomes witnesses of Him and His beauty.
This King also chastises them with a rod of affliction, but the rod is dipped in honey. He
chastises not to harm, but to sanctify them and to make them dedicated to Him. He at
times leads them on a way that goes against their own flesh and blood. He can lead them
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along steep paths, through dry valleys, but He is always there to lead and support them.
He leads them until they will enter into Zion. That was the aim of His coming to deliver a
lost people and to redeem them and to bring them to be where He is in glory. He came to
save them. His ways are perfect and righteous. He is blessed in all His ways and works.
Blessed who learn to follow this King, this Lamb wherever He leads them. Many stay
away from Him. The Lord will have to say to them: “I never knew you.” Have you
bowed before Him? Has the Lord seen you crying to Him for mercy? Has God saved you
from your own foolish ways? Have you seen that there is no fruit in you whatsoever and
that your fruit is found only in Him?
In a few weeks we hope to celebrate Christmas. He came to save His people from their
sin. Have your sins been found out? Have you confessed them? Have you cried out that
you are in the midst of darkness? Has He heard you crying for His salvation? That is the
way to celebrate Christmas: I, Lord am a sinner. Save me, renew me, deliver me from my
sinful self.
That is something that takes place for the first time in our lives but this is repeated
throughout life. For when He enters your life and shines upon you, miracles happen. You
find grace in Him and you delight in Him. You follow Him. His love draws you. But so
often you can forget Him again. What shame in your life, that you so often turn to your
own ways. God's people, you so easily grieve His Holy Spirit and just go on with life as
if nothing happened. But the growth stagnates. The Lord has to rebuke you and you are
again humbled and put to shame. You mourn over your shortcomings and turn again to
the Lord. You cry out to Him: Lord, send forth Thy light and truth. What blessing when
after the night of sin His light shines upon you.
Maybe your situation is still different. You are crying out to Him, you are seeking Him,
but there seems to be no light and no answer. You are in darkness. Maybe you are
looking for light in yourself, in your achievements, in your accomplishments, in the level
of your penitence. But the Lord is calling you to look to Him. Your salvation rests all in
Him. The plants turn to the sun. Turn to Him, look away from yourself, look away from
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your failures, from your impossibilities and look to Him. In Him is all your salvation, in
Him is all your holiness. He is perfect, He is the Sun shining in righteousness. His Blood
cleanses, His life covers your polluted life. He is able to save to the uttermost. Look to
Him. You are tossed to and fro, but the refuge is before you. The storm is hastening on,
but there is peace in Him. The door is open. You wonder: “May I enter?”He invites you. Come then look to Him. May God help you to trust in Him. To Him
shall be all glory. AMEN.
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