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[0:00] Okay, right, let's pray, bow our heads, and then we'll be able to get into our study.! Yeah, Lord, we just ask that you would just be with us at this time, that your Holy Spirit would be teaching us direct from the Scriptures.

[0:17] We can sit at your feet, not at the feet of a man, not at the feet of me anyway. We ask, Lord, that you would quieten our hearts, help us to focus on what you're trying to teach us.

[0:30] Help us to come out the other end, not with head knowledge, but heart knowledge, greater trust in you, desire for a greater relationship with you.

[0:42] Because that's how we're transformed when we start following in this stuff. So, yeah, quieten our hearts, quieten our minds, help us to focus.

[0:56] Give me the words, in Jesus' name, Amen. Right, so, morning everyone. Do you ever watch action movies?

[1:07] They're kind of my favourite genre of film. You know, films like James Bond, The Avengers, Mission Impossible, Chronicles of Narnia, those are good ones.

[1:18] Thanks for mentioning those, Joe. We all know how they end, but never mind. But I just kind of love those stories of the goody versus the baddie.

[1:29] You know, this typical formula has the goodie battling the baddie, but to keep it interesting and the goodie just winning from start to finish, they get partially defeated or go through some kind of trial, some struggle.

[1:43] And then towards the end of the film, they'll overcome, they'll win that struggle and they'll win the day. It's a familiar pattern. So on the very rare occasion where the baddie wins, it often comes as a bit of a surprise.

[1:58] Well, and it makes me at least feel a bit unsettled. In some ways, the Bible follows this pattern of goody and baddie.

[2:12] If you go to the wrong church, they'll tell you that you'll also have to behave like the goodie. Otherwise, you won't make it into heaven. You know, you must be worthy. You have to earn it.

[2:22] If that were true, we would all be in huge trouble because God has high standards. Very, very high standards.

[2:35] Perfection. That's the only thing he demands. He wants perfection from you. And because you can't achieve it, God has a rescue plan for us.

[2:46] But we'll get into that. So I've got the pleasure of speaking to you about one of the most pivotal chapters in the Bible. Fail to understand this one chapter and you will be like the Jews who frankly didn't see Jesus coming, let alone recognize him when he stood right in front of them.

[3:09] So frustrating. So we are in 2 Samuel chapter 7. So Joe and I have been working our way through these historical books of the Bible. You know, more recently we've been in 1 Samuel following a young David, King Saul and the last judge Samuel.

[3:28] We saw in 1 Samuel chapter 4 that the ark was captured by the Philistines because they decide to, the Israelites decide to treat God like a vending machine.

[3:38] Oh, we've got a battle. Let's just pull the ark out. Let's march it off into battle. Because they have no reverence. There's no prayer involved or anything like that.

[3:50] The ark is captured by the Philistines. In chapter 5 of 1 Samuel, we see the Philistines getting inflicted with tumors. And by chapter 6, they've had so much of it that they return it to Israel on the back of a cart.

[4:04] They don't even want to go with it. They just stick it on an oxen bank, smack it on the backside probably and send it on its way. But when the Israelites receive it back, because of disobedience in Beth Shemesh, many people are struck down because they decide to have a look inside the ark.

[4:23] Have those Philistines stolen some of the stuff out from inside? What does it look like inside? Anyway, because of fear, the ark is then dumped for 20 years up the road.

[4:41] Last week in 2 Samuel, chapter 6, David attempts to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. But again, because of disobedience and a lack of reverence, Uzziah is struck down for touching the ark, trying to stop it falling.

[4:58] The ark is finally brought back into the fold when it is carried by the Kohathites of the tribe of Levi. And it has David dancing before the ark. And it is deposited in a tent that David has set up.

[5:11] Which, if I'm honest, I am really not sure if this is the original tent, the tabernacle, or if this is a brand new one which David has made. I think there is a good chance that the Philistines destroyed the original tabernacle at Shiloh just after they captured the ark.

[5:28] However, this is reading between the lines. It is not explicit. Either way, we pick it up at the beginning of chapter 7. But I mention these possibilities just in case you want to try and imagine David's frame of mind.

[5:44] There's the ark. Sat in this old tent. New tent. Dunno. Anyway, let's start reading. So 2 Samuel, chapter 7, verse 1.

[5:59] Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies. Let's pause there. So, at this point, we are seeing that God is blessing David.

[6:12] He's got peace from all the warring that has been going on in David's life. David is living in a palace. That's what it's telling us here. 2 Samuel, chapter 5, verse 11, tells us that Hiram, the king of Tyre, had actually built this palace for David.

[6:29] God is giving him rest. David's life has been out in the pasture looking after sheep in the battlefield, rushing to play the lyre for King Saul, fighting for King Saul's army, running away from the king, hiding.

[6:45] So, finally, David can take a breather. How we managed to find time to write songs, I have no idea. So, How much time do you think has gone by?

[7:13] For David to start thinking like this. Scholars actually date this in pretty much the same year that the Ark arrives in Jerusalem. So, I'm not really sure how much time David has had to think about this, but some of the answers I've looked at suggest this is somewhere around 1004 BC or 1000 BC.

[7:36] That's the kind of range. They seem to be pretty accurate with the specific with the answer. Right, and who exactly is this Nathan? So, Nathan, this is Nathan the prophet.

[7:48] He pops up in three specific moments. Firstly, here. Second, when he's going to be calling David out for the sin of sleeping with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and then for murdering Uriah.

[8:02] So, he gets to live in this beautiful palace when all God gets is a tent.

[8:39] If this really is the original tabernacle, well, it was built in 1450 BC, which makes this tent 450 years old.

[8:51] If you've ever been camping with me, you will know that my tents last somewhere between four and five years at best before the waterproofing is shot or the poles start breaking. If this tent is showing its age, there would be buckets everywhere catching the drips when it rains.

[9:09] However, in Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 5, it tells us that when the Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years, that their shoes and their clothes never wore out.

[9:23] So, perhaps we can extrapolate and assume that the tabernacle would last. Imagine that. Your shoes and your clothes never wearing out.

[9:33] No shoe shopping, no clothes shopping for 40 years. Music to my ears and my wallet. But you would get bored of looking at the same outfit.

[9:44] Anyway, so, there's this old tent or a brand new one, not sure. Anyway, moving into verse 3. So, Nathan said to the king, do all that is in your mind for the Lord is with you.

[9:58] Some translations say do all that is in your heart. But I don't think that really fundamentally changes much. Nathan is telling the king, do what you're thinking.

[10:13] In those two other episodes of Nathan that I mentioned, he's absolutely spot on bringing David to rebuke and bringing news of one of David's sons plotting.

[10:24] But on this occasion, not so much. We are about to see the Lord overrule him. Nathan has spoken hastily and he's not the first or the last in the Bible to do that.

[10:37] In Joshua 9, you'll see the Israelites are in the land and they make a covenant with the Gibeonites. Gibeonites have travelled so far that their bread is all covered in mould and their wineskins have dried out and are splitting.

[10:53] Turns out they were the locals and were pulling a fast one. But the Israelites were hasty, made a covenant without inquiring of the Lord. So, they're bound by their word and could not carry out the Lord's original instructions to destroy them.

[11:08] Other examples of hastiness. You've got Esau selling his birthright because he's hungry. Just need that stew. That's Genesis 25.

[11:20] King Saul offers burnt offerings to the Lord rather than waiting for Samuel in 1 Samuel 13. There's some proverbs on the topic. Proverbs 19.2 says, It is not good for a person to be without knowledge and he who hurries his footsteps errs.

[11:38] Proverbs 21.5 says, The plans of the diligent bring plenty as surely as haste leads to poverty. How's this for haste for you?

[11:50] Jephthah in Judges 11 vows that he will sacrifice to the Lord whatever comes out of the door out the door of his house first. Imagine his horror when he sees it's his only child his daughter.

[12:04] Bethany's avoiding eye contact. Can't say a blamer. Numbers chapter 30 verses 10 to 16 makes room for annulling hastily made vows.

[12:18] It covers fathers and husbands dealing with vows by hastily by either their daughters or their wives. Use it under caution.

[12:29] Do not get into that one very quickly guys. Anyway, Nathan is in this situation. He is wrong but he has spoken hastily but the evidence of that being hasty is in the subsequent verses but suffice to say he's spoken hastily and Nathan's a bit of a yes man at this point but he certainly isn't when he visits David the other times.

[12:58] Rather than acting or speaking hastily we should wait on the Lord. How about this? James 1.19 says let every man be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger.

[13:12] Encouraging us to take our time. So anyway I think Nathan's been hasty. Let's see what happens next. Verse 4 But in the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying go and say to my servant David this is what the Lord says should you build me a house for my dwelling though I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt even to this day rather I have been moving about in a tent that is in a dwelling place wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying why have you not built me a house of cedar?

[13:57] So okay yes Nathan has spoken hastily and as much as Nathan is going to feel like a class idiot going back to the king to say this next bit God changes the direction and blows that message out of the water because I don't think David's going to bat an eyelid when he hears what's coming next well bat an eyelid on the first point anyway so verse 8 now then this is what you shall say to my servant David this is what the Lord of armies says I myself took you from the pasture from following the sheep to be leader over my people Israel ah yes so David was a shepherd boy and God has elevated him if you remember David was then anointed to be king of Israel but he had to wait a long time to actually become the king but God still made it come to pass verse 9 and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have eliminated all your enemies from you eliminated all your enemies

[15:15] David was anointed king before he fought Goliath meaning David was effectively invulnerable bulletproof in that battle if David dies it shows that God is a liar Satan wins Satan wins the debate with God doesn't he well Goliath lost and David won against the odds of well let's face it the natural world if you put two people of those kind of sizes in a boxing ring there's only one outcome God is asking David to look in the rear view mirror he's asking David to consider God's track record let's look at all the things I've done for you we're looking at whether God is credible so let's carry on in verse nine I will also make a great name for you like the names of the great men who are on the earth okay so

[16:16] God has now shifted his focus he's no longer looking in the rear view mirror he's now looking what he's going to do in the future David will have a great name well when you read about David in the Bible 3,000 years after David lived read about some of his failings but he is renowned for defeating a giant being a man after God's own heart known for his repentant heart he's known for writing many top songs he had many wives he's very popular with the people so this guy is a UFC champion he's humble he's a rock star he's Mr Casanova he's the king and the people love him and we're still talking about him 3,000 years after he lived I would say that's pretty true that he's been given a great name got a slide for you these are this shows the graph of the top hundred names given to male babies each year let's see if this comes up right so what you've got here

[17:37] I'll just step out of the way for a minute so what you've got here is the names from so every year the office of national statistics looks at the names given to newborn children the name David has been in this country in the top what 65 throughout this period so what's that 1910 to the most recent survey 2010 is on there the point is that 3,000 years afterwards David's name is still even being used people are being named after this guy and the other one on there is Tony Tony has gone obsolete no one uses it anymore it was used for a brief period and has dropped into obscurity and I think that's fair enough but if we're going to do that we might as well have some fun with some other names as well so we've also got

[18:38] Raymond which has dropped and it's obscure as well more obsolete than Tony apparently and Joseph has become more popular than David but at all points it's more popular than Tony that's the more important thing but David I actually went to a school where there were 30 of us in the class and there were six Davids in the class so yeah if you need help with something just say Dave and want to come running but anyway we have a great name a popular name for for David for the record number one and two in this country number one for more than a decade has been Muhammad and number two is Noah kind of poles apart when you consider the sources of those names but yeah

[19:41] Muhammad is number one and I will establish a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again you know what let's pause a second let's take a step back when we're talking about someone's name we are talking about their credibility we're not just talking about a word we are talking about if I say someone's name it identifies someone and you will immediately think of that person you'll think about the things they're good at you might even think about the things that annoy you or the things they're bad at when you are lending money to someone for example or borrowing money from a bank they look at your credit rating they look at your history when you've borrowed money in the past how have you treated that have you made the payments have you not made the payments if you think about people whether you would lend them money or not do you consider these people credible or not have a look at this guy would you lend money to this man for the benefit of those listening to the recording we are looking at a picture of

[21:06] Del Boy don't worry Rodney by this time next year we'll be millionaires rips his brother off on a regular basis you would not lend money to this man you would not lend money to this man Bernie Madoff made him as Madoff he ran a Ponzi scheme and stole 67 sorry 167 billion dollars oops this guy lend him a tenner you'll get it back he is currently worth 463 2 billion dollars so if you lend him a tenner there's a good chance you'll get that back sorry for the benefit of the recording that was Elon Musk and we now move on to another picture King Charles would you lend him money well you kind of trust him with your money!

[22:05] because when you're paying in cash he'll be writing on the note saying I promised to pay the bearer the sum of 10 pounds 20 pounds whatever anywho let's move on verse 10 and I will establish a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again nor will malicious people oppress them any more as previously even from the day that I appointed judges over my people Israel and I will give you rest from all your enemies so let's take a look in the newspaper Israel they're in the land some of the land constantly at war this stuff's not happened yet right okay but let's just think about some credibility we've got has he got any credibility I'd say quite a lot

[23:07] I'd say he's got massive amount of credibility so some of this stuff we have to take on trust let's move on so he says in there I'm going to establish a place for Israel not be disturbed again I don't really already have that so obviously it must be future so let's move into the next bit where it starts to get a bit more interesting because this next bit starts to impact more than just the nation of Israel the Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you when your days are finished and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up your descendant after you who will come from you and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever there's a whole bunch of promises in there so God is making a promise to make a house for David he's promising that he's going to raise up his descendant who will come from you he's promising that he's going to establish the kingdom of this descendant and that descendant will build a house for God's name

[24:30] God is saying I will establish the throne of his kingdom that descendant forever I will be a father to him he will be a son to me yeah let's move into verse 14 I'm starting to talk about that already I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me when he does wrong I will discipline him with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind but my favour shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul whom I removed from you your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever your throne shall be established forever in accordance with all these words and all this vision so Nathan spoke to him spoke to David okay let's talk about covenants covenants is a fancy word for promise okay so it means that you know things like a contract is a promise that you've signed it right they can be one way or two way or put another way they can be conditional or unconditional if you get married you promise to love honour obey but you promise to do these things for richer for poorer in sickness or in health right and in health right some people mean

[26:02] I will promise to be with you whilst we're rich and while you're healthy but if we get poor or you get sick I'm off but the promises you made are one way promises okay they aren't promises where if you deserve it I will do these things you're promising to honour well I'm only going to honour you first if you honour me it's an unconditional promise I'm going to do this thing irrespective of whether you do anything when I got a mortgage the bank promised to lend me the money to buy a house if I paid them back on a monthly basis and there's also a consequence that they're going to take my house away if I don't keep up the payments this is conditional upon me making payments right so God is well known for making covenants some have some conditions and therefore are conditional covenants and some are unconditional so let's look out for some ifs the

[27:13] Adamic covenant right let's take the jargon out Adam it's the covenant that was given to Adam okay Genesis 3 15 after the fall of man to the serpent God said this and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel bruise can also be translated crush seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent the serpent will crush the heel of the seed of the woman there's no if in any of that you going down buddy the Noahic covenant Noahic right covenant given to Noah Genesis 9 verses 8 to 17 then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying now behold

[28:13] I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you the birds the cattle and every beast of the earth with you of all that comes out of the ark even every beast of the earth I establish my covenant with you and all flesh shall never be cut off by the water of the flood neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth God said this is a sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth it shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth and the bow will be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature there's more to it but God is saying it's not going to destroy the earth again he didn't promise there wouldn't be any localized flooding but worldwide floods are now a no interestingly well it's interesting to me in

[29:21] Revelation chapter 21 verse 1 it says then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea no surfing in heaven I don't know what some people think of that but look he's not going to destroy the earth again with flooding the Abrahamic covenant so that's the covenant given to Abraham Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3 says this then the Lord said to Abraham leave your country your kindred and your father's household and go to the land I will show you I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you the mosaic covenant I won't read that it's incredibly long

[30:21] Exodus chapter 19 through to chapter 24 God hands down this divine law to Moses if they obey the law they will be blessed if they disobey the law they will be cursed it laid down a sacrificial system that could cover sin but it wouldn't take sin away if you sin bring this sacrifice but then you'd immediately sin again and you'd be back to square one but it was a type it was showing us that we couldn't not sin look that Adamic covenant the serpent's head being crushed the moment that was established Satan's primary goal in life has been to avoid that prophecy of his head being crushed stands to reason this prophecy found in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 foretells the ultimate defeat of Satan by the seed of the woman Satan's rebellion against God is rooted in his desire to be like God as described in Isaiah 14 and

[31:27] Ezekiel 28 these passages detail Satan's fall from grace due to his pride and his desire to usurp God's authority at the fall of man you see Satan's first act well first act of defiance was deceiving Eve in the garden of Eden convinced her to eat the forbidden fruit introduces sin into the world Adam who was not deceived but willingly chose to rebel followed suit this act of disobedience led to the fall of man and the introduction of sin and death into the world but Satan has continually sought to thwart God's plan so he's done this by spreading wickedness by promoting sin and rebellion Satan has tried to corrupt humanity this led to events such as the great flood where God tried to cleanse the earth of wickedness Tower of Babel where God confused the languages to prevent humanity from uniting in their prideful rebellion

[32:30] Satan likes to persecute God's people he targeted God's chosen people Israel for example he convinced Pharaoh to throw the newborn Israelite babies into the river thus attempting to destroy the line through which Messiah would come he even did things like tempting Jesus in the wilderness to rebel he even entered into Judas Iscariot before he betrayed Jesus but despite Satan's efforts God's plan remains unthwarted the promise of the seed of the woman crushing Satan's head is a testament to God's ultimate victory this theme of good versus evil makes for compelling storytelling as well though and it resonates throughout the whole Bible this assurance that God is going to triumph overall that there are twists and turns in the story so the Adamic covenant sets the stage for the ongoing battle between good and evil but this narrative only provides a rich context for us to understand the

[33:44] Bible but it also gives a message of hope and assurance for us believers anyway I started off talking about that battle between good and evil and how it makes for good storytelling for a film but God is much more amazing than that he has faced opposition to his plan ever since he proclaimed it and Satan's been trying to disprove him Satan isn't oblivious to God's plans he just thinks he can win and will do his best to avoid the inevitable if you turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 22 we'll have a look at one of those attempts to destroy God's plan so if you found if you're in 2nd Samuel you're just a few books over 2nd Chronicles chapter 22 verses 10 to 12 what we're after I'm not there yet there we go it says here now when

[34:51] Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah but Jehoshabeth yeah I've killed that the king's daughter took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from the king's sons who were being put to death and placed him and his nurse in the bedroom so Jehoshabeth the daughter of king Jehoram the wife of Jehoiada the priest she was the sister of Ahaziah hid him from Athaliah so he would not be put to death he was hidden with them in the house of God six years while Athaliah reigned over the land okay so Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah this is Joash's grandmother saw that her son was dead and she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah if I put this slide up this makes it a little bit easier for us to understand what's going on you've got king Jehoram also known as

[36:04] Jehoram married to Athaliah he dies Ahaziah becomes king and has a son called Joash with his wife Zibia okay when Ahaziah dies Athaliah then goes to destroy all of the sons all of the royal line okay if she succeeds God's plan is thwarted there is no other way than that that's just satanic the sister of Ahaziah saves Joash okay six years hiding in the in the temple let's go back to our passage verse 18 we need to move on because time is definitely going then David the king came in and sat before the lord and he said who am I lord god and who are the members of my household that you have brought me this far and yet this was insignificant in your eyes lord god that you have spoken also of the house of your servant regarding the distant future and this is the custom of mankind lord god again what more can David say to you for you know your servant lord god for the sake of your word and according to your hearts you have done all this greatness to let your servant know for this reason you are great lord god there is no one like you and there is no god except you according to all that we have heard with our ears and what one nation on earth is like your people

[37:49] Israel whom god went to redeem for himself as a people and to make a name for himself and to do a great thing for you and awesome things for your land because of your people whom you have redeemed for yourself from egypt from other nations and their gods that you have established for yourself your people Israel as your own people forever and you lord have become their god now then lord god the words that you have spoken about your servant and this house confirm it forever and do just as you have spoken so that your name may be great forever putting it back on god by saying the lord of armies is god over Israel and may the house of your servant David be established before you for you lord of armies god of israel have given a revelation to your servant saying i will build a house build you a house therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you now then lord god you are god and your words truth and you have promised this good thing to your servant and now may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you for you lord god have spoken and with your blessing may the house of your servant be blessed forever so i've just read that whole prayer in one go david is trusting god to bring his promises to bear he has just been promised all kinds of things his name is going to be david's name is going to be great all these things that are going to come from david's offspring and david's saying okay bless me do what you say you've got the track record you do these things bring it on there are oops don't know what i've done there there are many great things in this prayer david is trusting that god's going to bring these things to bear i love that the bible gives us these examples of prayers so that we have an idea of the kinds of things that god wants to hear but they're only examples don't go home and just repeat them you know the lord's prayer pretty much all of us will have a translations worth of knowing that by heart the nasb has it rendered like this our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil some manuscripts then leave out the yours is the power and the glory forever amen that's how we end it but it's the most ironic of all prayers if you read the preceding verses jump to

[41:10] Matthew 6 and we'll see this you'll be after the preceding verses is verses 5 to 9 so Matthew 6 verses 5 to 9 say this when you pray you are not to be like the hypocrites so he was talking about the Pharisees and the likes for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men truly I say to you they have their reward in full but you when you pray go into your inner room close your door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees what he's done in secret will reward you and this is what I was getting to and when you are praying do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words so do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him pray then in this way it does not say pray this pray like this is what he's saying so it's giving you a structure don't use meaningless repetition so when you're if you do pray that your heart needs to be actively engaging in it if you're just reciting it kind of like I just read it there's no heart in it it becomes meaningless repetition and you are disobeying anytime someone prays that in church I'll be honest I feel uncomfortable but that's just me being probably overly critical anyway because there's this battle between God and Satan

[43:04] Satan wants to distract us so next time someone's praying that I'm probably now sown a seed of disapproval I don't know but what we need to do is we need to make sure our hearts are actively engaged anyway so Satan is trying to disprove God and God has promised to bring the Messiah through the line of David and he will be king forever right turn to Jeremiah please chapter 22 we're after verses 28 to 30 right so this is God speaking let's go back to verse 24 as I live declares the Lord even though Caniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand yet I would pull you off and I would give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life yes into the hand of those whom you dread even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of

[44:13] Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born and there you will die but as for the land to which they desire to return they will not return to it is this man Caniah a despised shattered jar or is he an undesirable vessel why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they had not known O land land land hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord write down this man childless a man who will not prosper in his days for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David all ruling again in Judah okay I've just read some stuff probably lost a few of you on the way hopefully most of you come with me but let's put this up on the board

[45:18] I've regularly put this up this is the genealogy of Christ we are looking at a guy called Caniah in my translation he has a number of names he is known as Jehoiakim Jeconiah or Caniah this is this chap here okay so you've got just in case you're not familiar with what this slide is this is the name of the sons of Adam and it goes to the next son and the next son is basically who is the father of who okay we get to David and then it splits in two directions in the line of Joseph Jeconiah is here and what we've just read God has cursed the bloodline he's just said basically he's just said the Messiah is not going to come through here but you promised

[46:21] Satan when he hears that jumping up and down checkmate I win you can't win if we follow this through we get to Joseph here but Joseph isn't Jesus' father is he he's his adopted Jesus is his adopted son but through that line Jesus inherits the right to the throne without inheriting the curse through Mary up here because Jesus is born of a virgin there's no fornication or anything like that going on there's no sin so Jesus is sinless it also means that Jesus is man it also means Jesus is God if Joseph had been

[47:25] Jesus' biological father he would have inherited sin he would have inherited this curse and therefore have no right to the throne well he'd have the right to the throne but he would be cursed God wouldn't be able to allow him to ascend to the throne what does that mean that curse necessitated the virgin birth at the time of the curse probably sat there kind of going uh oh what is at the time of that curse you probably would be thinking something very similar to the disciples were thinking when Jesus was in the ground uh he's dead what now the virgin birth okay um if you actually if you actively preach and studied the topic and you believe that the virgin birth was a mistranslation and it just needs to be a young woman then you and me are going to have a problem um this was translated um before Jesus was born uh into the

[48:33] Septuagint which is the Greek translation and they used the word virgin and the reason they used the word virgin is because that's what they were expecting when churches wholeheartedly um approve or preach that Jesus was born of Joseph they are preaching a different Jesus yes okay it's the same word but you are talking about something completely different you could be talking about the guy who plays for Arsenal he might have carried the name he is not the same bloke so anyway born of Joseph that person inherits sin wouldn't have been of God would have been an imperfect sacrifice would have been as much point of nailing me up to the cross although you'd probably benefit from that um so anyway that person would be Jesus in name but not in spirit character or power look you don't have to have all your theology nailed down to be saved okay

[49:34] I don't think you necessarily need to believe in the virgin birth to get saved but your theology can go massively astray if after you're saved because you take all this learning on board some people say Jesus is a created being he's an angel yeah I don't know how they get there not without things being twisted but Romans chapter 10 verse 9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved there's a lot I can unpack from that small sentence but I lack the time to do it justice come to speak with me afterwards though especially if you don't know the Lord look Satan is trying to deceive us to this very day he has created opposing religions counterfeit versions of

[50:35] Christianity ones that will make you look to Mary for salvation ones that will make you earn your way into heaven pray for your dead relatives pay us some money and that will get them into heaven out of purgatory our God is bigger than all these things Jesus is still saving people today despite the falsehood despite the deception that surrounds him and his name because of the enemy it's our job as Christians to know the truth that means needing to study this it means that we need to be willing to refine our views to test them Acts chapter 17 verses 11 to 12 says now the Bereans were more noble minded than the Thessalonians they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true as a result many of them believed along with quite a few prominent

[51:39] Greek women and men it is your job to go home check out what I've said is it true is it not if you do find some errors do come to me maybe we can have a discussion we're all on a path of learning more about God I'm sincere in what I'm saying but sincerity doesn't make me right being right makes me right irrespective of my sincerity you know if a doctor in all sincerity says to you you don't have cancer but he's wrong he's just given you a death sentence so sincerity doesn't make someone right anyway test what I've said pray about it my message to you is one of warning Satan wants to deceive you he wants to devour you he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour don't let it be you the archangel

[52:41] Michael said the Lord rebuke you to Satan showing that we need God's help in dealing with Satan don't take him on yourself Psalm 37 verse 27 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 22 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 22 Proverbs chapter 3 verse 7 all say we should flee abstain or depart from evil flee means run move quickly away from so we shouldn't dwell with it God's made promises some he's fulfilled some he hasn't yet but we can trust him when he says when he says something that he's going to do it it's just a matter of when do you ever watch the end of a film first can't stand such an idea I love the drama in a movie but my wife always needs to know how it will turn out so if I've seen the film before she will stop the film until

[53:43] I tell her whether it's going to be alright it drives me nuts but there are some people who will do that with a book it's so much easier just to flick to the end and go oh they like to know the end from the beginning God knows the end from the beginning with the Bible the end hasn't happened yet if we jump to Revelation chapter 20 let's read the spoilers let's read verse 1 to 10 of Revelation 20 if you don't know where Revelation is it's the last book in the Bible chapter 20 I'm running out of time so I'm going to read verses 1 to 10 to you then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed over it so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed after these things he must be released for a short time then I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given to them and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed this is the first resurrection blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection over these the second death has no power but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years now getting to the bit that's particularly pertinent when the thousand years are completed Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth Gog and

[55:55] Magog to gather them together for the war the number of them is like the sand of the seashore and they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints yeah camp of the saints and beloved city and fire came down from heaven and devoured them this verse is the one that Satan doesn't want you to know and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever at this point in time hell that's what this is talking about isn't populated no one is there Satan is going in that's what it says there it's not happened yet and that's where he will be forever and ever but in the meantime he wants you God has promised Jesus is going to sit on that throne forever and we will worship him and bring that day Lord

[57:07] Jesus bring that day I should stop speaking father we just want to thank you for this time a lot of ground covered some parts I feel I barely skimmed on I ask Lord that you would just be with us you would help us to pray using our minds not just meaninglessly repeat things we are asking Lord that you would help us to flee from evil we are asking Lord that you would help us to be Berean to test the spirits to test what is taught we are asking Lord that you would transform us but most important of all one of those gifts one of those fruits of the spirit is faith help us to have faith and trust in you so easy to to forget to neglect but help us

[58:17]  Lord to actively trust in you may these things be true in the mighty name of Jesus Amen