THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTANENT
From David to the Captivity
Message Three—David (2)
Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:11-14; Eph. 3:17; 4:12; Matt. 1:1; 16:18; John 6:51; Rom. 1:3
I. “When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom”—2 Sam. 7:12:
A. Your seed here refers, literally, to Solomon, David’s son, who built the temple as God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament; however, according to Heb. 1:5b, David’s seed is actually Christ as God’s firstborn Son, who has both divinity and humanity and is typified here by Solomon—1 Kings 5:5; Heb. 1:5. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 1)
B. God’s desire was to work Himself in Christ into David’s humanity to be his life, nature, and constitution; in this way Christ, the Son of God, would become everything to David, including his house (dwelling place) and his seed—2 Sam. 7:12; Eph. 3:17. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 1)
C. Christ is the son of David to fulfill God’s covenant with David introduced in this chapter, that God’s elect may be brought into the kingdom of the heavens and participate in the divine authority—2 Sam. 7:12; Matt. 1:1. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 2)
II. The intrinsic significance of 2 Samuel 7 is that the Triune God is working Himself in His processed and consummated Trinity into His chosen people to make us His home—2 Sam. 7:11-14; Matt. 15:4; Eph. 3:17: (2006 FTTA, msg. 1)
A. In His response to David’s desire to build Him a house, God in a sense came in to stop David by indicating that before David could do something for God, he needed God to do something for him—2 Sam. 7:5-11: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 1)
1. Although David had the opportunity, saw the need, and had the ability to build the temple of God, he stopped when God’s word came to him—2 Sam. 7:18, 25, 27; Luke 1:38. (2006 FTTA, msg. 3)
2. The David’s stopping established a twofold testimony in the universe: first, all the work in this universe should come from God, not from man; second, all that matters is what God does for man, not what man does for God—Rom. 11:36; Num. 18:1. (2006 FTTA, msg. 3)
B. The church as the house of God, the mutual abode of God and His redeemed, is built with Christ as the unique element—Gen. 2:22; John 14:2-3, 20, 23; 15:4: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 1)
1. Second Samuel 7 is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us that there is no need for us to build something for God; we cannot build God’s house, the church, by using ourselves or anything of ourselves as the material—1 Tim. 3:15; John 14:2-3. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 1)
2. The building of the church is by Christ’s making His home in our hearts, i.e., by His building Himself into us, making our heart, our intrinsic constitution, His home—Eph. 3:17: (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Sam. 7:12, footnote 1)
a. God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 16:18. (2015 ITERO-S, msg. 8)
b. Christ builds the church by coming into our spirit and spreading Himself into our mind, emotion, and will—Eph. 2:21-22; 3:16-17a. (2009 FTTA, msg. 6)
c. God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being; this is the way Christ builds the temple of God—Matt. 16:18; John 2:19-21; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:16-17a. (2009 FTTA, msg. 6)
III. Romans 1:3-4 is the fulfillment of 2 Samuel 7:12-14a, revealing that the gospel of God is God building Himself into man in incarnation and building man into God in resurrection so that human seeds can become designated sons of God for the building of the church as the house of God and as the kingdom of God—Matt. 1:16-19; Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 9-11, 28-29: (2009 FTTA, msg. 6)
A. The seed of David becoming the Son of God is the building of God into man and the building of man into God for the building of God’s house, the mutual abode of God and man; this is the fulfillment of the greatest prophecy in the Bible—2 Sam. 7:12, 14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Matt. 16:18. (2005 WT, msg. 12)
B. The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of the process of Christ’s being designated the firstborn Son of God by resurrection—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Matt. 22:45; Rev. 22:16: (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
1. The Lord of David became the son of David to accomplish God’s judicial redemption; the son of David (the seed of David), became the firstborn Son of God as the life-giving Spirit to carry out God’s organic salvation—Matt. 1:1; 1 Cor. 15:45b: (2009 ST, msg. 2)
a. The Lord of David was incarnated to become the son of David to reconcile us to God through His death; the son of David was resurrected to become the firstborn Son of God as the life-giving Spirit to save us in His life—Rom. 5:10. (2009 ST, msg. 2)
b. We are being saved in His life to be deified for the expression of God, and we are reigning in life by the abundance of grace in the church as the kingdom of God to be victorious for the dominion of God—vv. 10, 17; 14:17. (2009 ST, msg. 2)
c. Such an organic salvation is in the Body for the building up of the Body in the local churches to consummate the New Jerusalem as the city of life and the ultimate consummation of God becoming man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 21:2. (2009 ST, msg. 2)
2. The resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the transfigured descendant of David, the seed of David, dispensed into us as God’s sure mercies, His eternal covenant, for our enjoyment—Isa. 55:1-3, 6-11; Acts 13:33-35. (2006 FTTA, msg. 6)
3. The resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the transfigured descendant of David, the seed of David, dispensed into us for us to share His kingship in His resurrection in the eternal kingdom of God—2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6. (2006 FTTA, msg. 6)
C. The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of the process of our being designated the many sons of God by resurrection—Heb. 2:10-11: (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
1. Christ has already been designated the Son of God, but we, the human seeds, are still in the process of designation, the process of being sonized, deified—Rom. 8:28-29. (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
2. The life of the Son of God has been implanted into our spirit—v. 10. (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
3. In resurrection Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God, and by means of such a resurrection we also are in the process of being designated sons of God—Rom. 8:11: (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
a. The key to the process of designation is resurrection, which is the indwelling Christ as the rising-up Spirit, the designating Spirit, the power of life in our spirit—John 11:25; Rom. 8:10-11; Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 5:4; 15:26. (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
b. The more we touch the Spirit, the more we are sanctified, transformed, and glorified to become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 8:15-16; 10:12; Gal. 4:6. (2000 ITERO-S, msg. 1)
IV. God’s building Himself in Christ into our being through the metabolic process of transformation—John 14:2-3; 15:1, 5: (Life-Study of Samuel, msg. 26)
A. God’s economy is just to work Himself into us that we may experience such a metabolic process of spiritual digestion and assimilation that produces a gradual, intrinsic change in life—John 6:51; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Tim. 1:4. (1999 TGC, msg. 4)
B. He is building His church by supplying us with spiritual drink and by feeding us with spiritual food, which are uniquely Himself as the Spirit—Gen. 2:22; John 14:2-3, 20, 23; 15:4. (Life-Study of Samuel, msg. 26)
C. We endeavor to minister Christ into the saints as their spiritual food and drink; the more we receive Christ in this way, the more we will experience the inner, spiritual metabolism; this metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building—2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:12. (Life-Study of Samuel, msg. 26)