If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to 2 Samuel 3. We will work our way expositorily
through verses 21 through 39 in part. You can follow me in
your pastor's commentary as well. The life of David is what we
have been called by God to consider. The life of a man whom God had
purposed before he even had an existence. to be one of three
major seeds by which the Savior of the world would assume a human
nature. Abraham would be one of the primary
patriarchs whom God would yield the promise to, although ultimately
it goes back to our first father, Adam. David becomes Major promise
given to Abraham of which God said to Abraham out of your loins
From your bowels will come kings and these kings would serve my
cause and advance my covenant in the world and in Genesis 15
and 17 he was talking about David and You and I have been taught
now over the last several months that David is a great archetype
of whom? Jesus And this is why all through
the gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, even all the way to
the end of the book of Revelation, we hear his name mentioned, the
son of David, the son of David, even Jesus Christ. We have been
extracting from the life of David principles to live by, both redemptively
and practically, because David serves as a model of all believers,
call from oblivion, call from places of insignificance to prominent
roles in the What we call wealth stream of God's redemptive purpose
Every believer has an experience along those lines you and are
nothing by nature. You know that right? We in and
of ourselves are insignificant. We don't play a role in any positive
way in the cause of God in Christ until God gets ahold of our life,
changes us, and then places us within the sphere and rim of
his covenant purpose. And then as we grow and mature
in Christ, he can use us, right? And what we have been learning
over the last several weeks and months is how God has been shaping
David and maturing David and building into David character
and attributes worthy of him being the king. And those same
attributes and characteristics are something to which you and
I want to assimilate. One of the things we learned
about David, in spite of his mistakes, which are also a comfort
to us, because if God can use David, he can use me. One of
the things we learned about David is that David was indeed a man
after God's own heart. That is a critical component
essential to you maintaining the favor of God. You want to
know how you can draw near to God and God can draw near to
you? Have a heart after God's heart. In other words, think
God's thoughts after Him. Understand what pleases God and
crave for those things. Recognize those things that God
abominates and depart from them. And you will be a vessel fitted
for the Master's use. One of the areas in which we
are discovering today that David has wisely adopted a disposition
in heart of understanding the big picture. And sometimes we
fail to miss this as Christians. We fail to understand that when
God brings you into the kingdom, he wants you really to understand
big picture principles. One is this, that it really is
about God's glory. So when we read in Matthew 6.33,
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all of his righteousness
and everything else will be added, that becomes for us an outright
premise of existence. My job is to know the will of
God, to love it, and then to seek it. And what that will mean
sometimes is my own personal interests might have to be abrogated
or set aside for the glory of God. And I think one of the areas
in which Christians find themselves not as satisfied in their walk
with God as it could be is that we pit our own interest over
against God's interest. And what we find ourselves often
doing is pursuing our own will and not the will of God. That
will always frustrate you. Your will will never satisfy
you like God's will. And the area in which we're gonna
look at David today is the area in which David has been called
into the will of God to be king over a people who for all intents
and purposes are now Forming into a monarchy a kingdom a political
giant a a gargantuan Institution of which the world has to reckon
with the problem is they have requested a political system
That's going to be their own undoing they have said give us
a king like all the other kings of the earth and God gave them
what they requested What David is doing is now operating in
an office that is going to bring both glory to God and trouble
to man, because whenever God gives you and me what we want,
it always is gonna be mixed with problems. And so as we work through
the monarchial history of Israel with David today, I want you
to extract from our account how David negotiates a really bad
situation in the church. Because he keeps his eye on God
and because he keeps his eye on God Those who are trying to
keep their eyes on God will see God through David And here's
what I mean by way of application just in case you go to sleep The best thing you and I can
do for believers is keep our eye fixed on Christ Because when
they look at us and see us keeping our eyes fixed on Christ, they
might be inclined to start looking at Christ too. And this is even
more critical in the day when the earth is quaking and troubles
are abounding and circumstances are mounting and people are inclined
to look everywhere but God. And when they look to the believer
and sees that the believer is not moved, That he's got his
eyes fixed on christ as david says though the earth be removed
and cast into the midst of the sea I shall not be moved because
I have set the lord always before my face I shall not be moved
The account before us is going to teach us those circumstances
and a few more So a couple things you'll get to do today. You get
to take part of this message And you can put it in your back
pocket like a credit card part of the message because it's going
to pay off in the future. Some of y'all know that, right? You've
been under my teaching long enough to know. I didn't get it today,
but 10 weeks from now, I'll get it. You'll be able to pull that
card out and cash in on it and the Lord will bless you. So sometimes
that's how teaching is. Teaching is not always something
for you to get today, but to put in your pocket. so that it
can come back with revenues and benefits down the line. The other
part is going to be very immediate, very relevant, very personal,
and very practical. You'll be able to now experience
the blessing of it at hand. The title of our message then
is, Politics Will Always Corrupt Religion. Politics will always
corrupt religion. Unity is only achieved in Jesus
Christ. If you don't take anything else
away from our message today, take that statement and apply
it as a principle in your life. You want to see churches get
messed up? Let them get dominated by political issues. You want
to see Christians get jacked up? Let them weigh their identity
more over on the side of being a liberal, a Republican, a progressive,
a Democrat, etc. And you'll find jacked up Christians.
Because politics always usurps the authority of God and never
ever operates on biblical morals and ethics. Are you hearing me?
The kingdom of the beast, Revelation 12 and 13, we'll touch on some
of that today, will always militate against the ethic of the gospel.
And this is what David has to deal with now. David is almost
to the throne as we learned last week, is he not? Chapter 5 verses
1 through 3. We don't have to go there. We'll
get there. But on his way to the throne, he's dealing with
what we said last week were the residual effects of the flesh. And that flesh is represented
by King Saul's family who still are around giving David a little
bit of trouble, is he not? We saw last week how that the
one boy, Ish-vashep, was preserved and lifted up to be made king
over Israel by his captain Abner. And we saw how that was an act
of treason and rebellion against God's purpose to raise David
up. And in the process of this, what
we will call today a false king, who is empowered by a false leader,
which is a paradigmatic model of the false kings of this world
governed by the powers of Satan to oppose the true king, which
is Jesus Christ. That's the battle that we're
setting in front of us today. And we're going to see how they
fall. And as they fall, because they must fall, David is going
to demonstrate an ethic and character that's critical to our learning. And that's this. Wickedness proceeds
from the wicked. But I will not touch you. This
is David's ethic. David is going to prove that
fury was not in him. David is gonna demonstrate that
a child of God can live by the ethic to love God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself,
even though we live in a dog-eat-dog world that's ready to chew one
another up, devour one another, and spit one another out. You
and I live in a society where we are compelled by trends that
if we don't get ours, we're gonna lose. We live in a culture that
says you hit first and you'll survive. But the ethic of the
gospel is counterintuitive and says turn the other cheek, leave
wrath to God. Isn't that the ethic of the gospel?
But it's been mocked by political systems ever since the day Jesus
uttered it. Most political systems try to
operate out of biblical principles until its own life is threatened. And as we learned last week,
self-preservation is the first law of what? Nature. And then
all of a sudden, we're going to set aside the biblical model,
and we're going to get at it in order to save ourselves. Well,
what you're going to see here in our context is because Israel
had asked for a king, and now they are operating out of a monarchy,
They are just fine with killing one another in order to maintain
their monarchy. So our first point is going to
help us launch into it. Abner, the satanic power behind
the false king who is destroyed. Abner, the satanic power behind
the false king who is destroyed. We saw this last week, but let's
look at the verses, 2 Samuel 3, 25 through 27. This is where we discover Abner. We find in 2 Samuel chapter 3,
25, these words, thou knowest Abner, the son of Ner, that he
came, David, to deceive you and to know you're going out and
you're coming in and to know all that you do. Now this is
David's servant, Joab, talking to David about Abner. What Joab
is saying to David about Abner is, David, Abner does not mean
you peace. Abner is a general. He's a military
admiral. He's a captain. He's used to
war. He's used to tactics of deception. His job is to get close to you
and then take you out. Watch this, Saints. How does
Joab know? Because it takes one to know
one. Because Joab is David's captain. And Joab is David's
general. And Joab has moved close to David
providentially with the same objective of overthrowing David. And so he knows what's in Abner's
heart. That a man's kindness is his
desire. That he'll be as kind to you
as necessary until he can get close enough to cut your throat. Joab providentially was not there
when Abner came to David and says, I'll give you all of the
kingdom. Because remember, it was Abner that set up Ishmael
to be king. That was an act of rebellion
against David, wasn't it? But now all of a sudden, he wants
to bring the kingdom to David, doesn't he? These are what we
call opportunists, child of God. Opportunists are people who make
their way up the rung of the ladder with only one objective
in view, for them to be king, for them to be top dog. Listen
to the way the language goes here, verses 25 through 27. I'm
at verse 26. And when Joab was come out from
David, he sent messengers after whom? Which brought him again
from the well of Sirah, but David did not know it. We'll get back
here in a moment. And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab
took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly. and smote
him there under the fifth rib that he died for the blood of
Asahel, his brother. Do you see it? Ah, what had occurred? Abner had made peace with David
in the previous chapter. Abner thought he was free to
come and go now because the king had made a covenant with him.
Abner was meandering about and runs across another big dog like
him. Last week I told you Abner and
Joab were both pit bulls. Rottweilers. Bull masters. All they know how to do is kill.
I'm going to show you that here in a moment. And this Rottweiler
is intercepted by another Rottweiler and he's killed. David will have
to deal with this in a moment and the lessons will be very
clear for us at this moment. I'm setting the stage. Again,
what I am stating here is that you and I are dealing with a
time of war. where men do things that we would
never do in a time of peace. And after Abner does this, we
discover that David finds it out. We read over in verse 28,
and afterwards Abner, when David heard of it, said, I and my kingdom
are what? Guiltless before the Lord forever
from the blood of Abner, the son of Ner. Verse 29, let it
rest on the head of who? and all his father's house and
let there be none that fail from the house of joab one that hath
an issue or that is a leper or that leaneth on a staff or that
falleth on the sword or that lacketh bread whoa you know what
david just did cursed him he cursed his own general something
that's happening here that we have to work through is critical
so i want you to follow this now abner kills joab joab kills
abner Adner's the power behind is Bishop is Bishop is killed
as you know in the previous chapter But we need to understand this
power struggle under three points first the power behind rulers
is either of God or what? demonic This is this is a principle. That's true everywhere. You do
believe that behind Physical earthly kingdoms and our leaders
is a power that that controls them. You do believe that, right?
You do believe, as the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. Do you believe
that? So now, follow this principle. I'm not going to stay here long.
Follow this principle. You and I get to always ask with regards
to every leader who has influence over people, is that person governed
by the Spirit of God or the devil? Because if they're governed by
the devil, please listen to me, The devil's counsel is always
to steal, kill, and destroy. If they are governed by the devil,
the devil's counsel is always to steal, kill, and destroy.
Second point, the devil's counsel is always designed to oppose
the glory of God in Christ. Whatever the rulers are in our
world, whatever the rulers are in the system in which we operate,
you can tell whether they are of God or not because if they
hold to policies, If they invent policies, if they enforce policies
that oppose biblical truth, they cannot be of God. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? This is very critical. And it's
even critical in a democracy, a representative democracy like
ours. We pray for our president. We pray for our leaders. We pray
for our governors, all of them. But we must know, we must know
that we pray for them does not mean we agree with them. And
that we pray for them does not mean somehow we are sent to their
diabolical evils. Ye who love the Lord hate evil. But you must also be discerningly
aware, discerningly aware when they are inspired by the wicked
one so that you might know the level of opposition you must
bring to it. Because when the policies come
down on the ground level, they control our lives. Am I making
some sense? When you got policies telling
us today that when you walk into the bathroom, you don't know
what you're going to meet in the next stall. That's a direct hit against the
glory of God. That's a direct hit against your
children, against your grandchildren. That's a direct assault against
your kids. Your kids now will have to grow
up in a culture where they struggle with policies that came from
the top down. They will have to fight like
hell to maintain their identity. Are you hearing me? And you are
not free to just take it or leave it. You are responsible to protect
your children and pray for them and strengthen them and affirm
them in every God-given right they have. I'm sharing with you
the struggles that the people of God have in the context of
politics. You guys with me? Israel is struggling
with the same problem. So as we consider Abner the satanic
power behind the false king, I just want you to understand
this is paradigmatic. The second point, they are inspired
only to oppose the truth of Christ. Revelation chapter 16 verses
13 through 14 gives us the demonic foul spirit that governs the
policies of these Powers behind our governments and I want you
to see it revelation 16 Versus 13 and following that you might
just know what's taking place here revelation 1613 tells us
These words and follow here it is and I saw three unclean spirits. Do you see that? now again You
may not understand how the book of Revelation works, but it is
a neo-atheist Exodus account of the events that transpired
when God sent Moses into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel
out of Egypt So that the plagues that God brought upon Egypt are
seen in the book of Revelation Remember one of the plagues that
God brought was the multiplying of the frogs out of the River
Nile that they might rise up and fill the whole land until
it stink until it stink and What God is saying here concerning
the diabolical powers that govern our leaders when they are controlled
by satanic influence is that their doctrines, their policies,
their legislations, their policies are demonic in nature and unclean. Do you see it? It's coming out
of their mouth. And I saw three unclean spirits
like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon. That's Satan.
And out of the mouth of the beast, that's politics. And out of the
mouth of the false prophet, that's the apostate church. Are you
there? Are you following me? And if
we had time to go through David at length, and I would love to,
I just don't think us folks who live in soundbite country can
handle too many more sermons. But you and I would come up against
that conflict when David will have to deal with another corrupt
priesthood, at least Solomon, because the priesthood represents
the false prophet and the kingship represents the political institution. And they are both found in Israel.
And this is why they're going to have problems, because you
can't mix politics with the gospel and keep the gospel. You will
always lose the gospel. This is why many of our churches
are apostate today. Because they're driven in terms
of their identity by politics rather than the glory of God.
Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? So now watch this now. And these
three unclean spirits came out of the mouth of the dragon, out
of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Verse 14. Listen to what it says. For they are the spirits of what?
Working miracles. Phenomenal. Simeon signs. In other words, the power and
influence of these demonic teachings and policies are working radically
to transform the culture. And they go forth unto the kings
of the earth, that is the leaders, here it is, and the whole what?
To gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
What are these policies doing? Gradually unifying all of the
governments of the world. bringing them together under
a unified consensus of purpose with this one objective to fight
against Christ and his kingdom. Are you guys hearing me? So for
you and I on the ground level of this battle, we see it every
day on our jobs. We see it every day in our schools.
We see it every day in the circles of the people that we associate
with. We have to struggle with, don't we? talking to men and
women who in many cases say they're a Christian, but they hold to
secular policies. And we have to now try to divide
between their saying they're Christian and their adopting
secular carnal policies and try to help them understand, hey,
you can't, listen, you cannot say that you are a Christian.
And yet you adopt, embrace, and practice these policies. They
are mutually exclusive. Are y'all understanding what
I'm getting at? Now, see, they don't actually believe that because
there is one salient element that's missing from their Christianity.
You ready? The Word of God. And the devil has been able to
successfully strip most Christians of their Bible so that their
identity is really rooted in the trends of culture and not
in biblical truth. They don't even see a disconnect
between what they say they are in Christ and what they do practically. And the job of the Bible-believing
Christian is try to engage them in a way to help them understand
that there's an inconsistency when you call yourself a Christian
and you embrace these policies that your particular social identity
group has endorsed. There's a battle going on. There's
a battle going on. And some of you are trapped by
that contradiction right now, even in this room. Your question
will be, when you leave, am I on the side of Ispachet and Abner,
or am I on the side of David? Am I on the side of those whose
constitution is biblical, or am I on the side of those who
really have a secular model of government? Because if I am,
I'm trending with those who actually want to get rid of the word of
God. This is going to be always your battle. Now mark this, and
I'm sure you can affirm this before we go on. Whenever you
come across professing Christians, and I'm not even talking about
the secular world, I'm just talking professing Christians, and you
enter into conflict with them, you know the conflict is rooted
in one thing. These people either don't know
the Word of God, or they have so twisted the Word of God that
they have been able to accommodate their position by a violation
of the rules of biblical interpretation. Am I making some sense? Now you
got to struggle to help them understand that they are on the
enemy's side with that position and that view. That's the battle
that we are fighting. Let me see if I can go on to
anchor this down before we move on to our subsequent points.
So then we are looking now at verse, not verse 15. Let me see here. I think I'll
go to chapter 17. Look with me over in chapter
17, where John is speaking concerning the great harlot. And I just
want you to see in John chapter 17, how this works out. I'm in
John 17. I'm gonna start at verse eight
and nine. Now the beast that you saw was and is not, and shall
ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. That
is, will begin to work wildly and destructively. And they that
dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written
in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when
they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. John is
describing in verse eight of chapter 17, ladies and gentlemen,
this one fact, that there's a time in history that will occur. where
the kingdom of this world will emerge with such power and prominence
and universal appeal that everybody will be looking to that kingdom
to deliver them from their economic woes, from their social problems,
from all of the ills of society. The kingdoms of this world are
working together in order to develop that unified front right
now. You guys do know that. It's not here yet. We are still
healthily suspicious of our governments, but one day that's going to change. They're going to have answers
to all of your temporary problems at such a level that you are
really going to question, does the word of God have any relevance
anywhere in the world with all of the problems that the beast
is learning to solve? It may not happen in your generation,
but it certainly looks like it could happen in your children's
generation. They will look up and life will be potentially
wonderful. Why? Because there will be a
unified consensus of peace, peace, peace. Peace, peace, peace. Only it will be at the expense
of biblical truth. There will be peace for the world,
but there will never be peace for the true believer. Listen
to how the beast is described in verse nine. And here is the
mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sits. The woman here is the harlot.
She's the apostate church. And there are seven kings, five
are fallen, one is and the other is not yet come. This is talking
about the sequential events of kingdoms rising and falling and
rising again. And when he comes, he must continue
a little space. And the beast that was and is
not, even he is the eighth and is of the seventh, and he goes
into perdition. There are 10 beasts. And the
10 horns, which you saw are 10 kings, which have received no
kingdom as of yet. John is speaking prophetically.
They will receive a kingdom. That is, they will come together
in a unified power that they shall receive power as kings
for how long? One hour. Now, one hour in the
Bible is not a literal hour. It means a concentrated period
of time. There will come a time when all
the kingdoms of the earth will be unified with power for one
period of time. And when they get that unified
power, notice verse 12. I'm sorry, verse 13. These have one mind and they
shall give their power and strength unto the what? And these shall
make war with who? And the Lamb shall overcome them.
For he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And they that are with
him are called and chosen and faithful. Do you see it? My point
here is to show you that that which is in the New Testament
is represented by that which is in the Old Testament. And
David is now dealing with the struggles of that conflict by
the ten northern tribes of Israel trying to take him out. And David
has to deal with the battles that are raging there. Go back
with me to our text now so I can quickly rush through my second
point and get us to a point of application for us. David has
to deal with a political system that God says To Samuel, let
Israel have what they want. One day they're going to cry
for what they got. This is exactly what God said
in 1 Samuel chapter 8. He said, give them what they
want. One day they're going to cry for having gotten what they
want. Because while God will accommodate
a monarchical system, it will be fraught with all sorts of
conflict. Under our first point, then we
dealt with the power behind the rulers is either of God or it's
demonic. They are inspired only to oppose
Christ. And then we saw in chapter four, verse one, two, five, and
eight, the assassination of the king, didn't we? You guys remember
that last week? Second Samuel chapter four, verse
five through eight, look at it. Second Samuel four, five through
eight. So now we have seen that Abner
was taken out by Joab. That's the general, right? and
now we're going to see that the king ishvoshep is taken out by
his own men 2nd samuel 4 verse 5 through 8 and the sons of riman
the berethite recap and baana went and came about in the heat
of the day to the house of ishvoshep who lay on the bed at noon remember
what i told you he rested and he's resting in the middle of
war which is oxymoronic and they came there in the midst of the
house as though they would have fetched wheat In other words,
they came stealthily, appearing to be interested in just getting
grain. But in fact, these boys were
some of your greatest military men. I think I told you last
week they were Benjamites. And I think I told you that the
tribe of Benjamin was one of the warrior tribes of God. And
that when you follow the Benjamites in the book of Judges, that they
are serious warmongers. But they are also beasts. because
the Benjamites are that group of people that started hanging
out with the Twisted Boys in Judges chapter 19 and 20. Y'all
know what I mean by Twisted Boys, right? No, y'all don't because
y'all don't even read your Bible. If you'd have read your Bible,
you'd understand in Judges chapter 20, it was the Benjamites associating
with the homosexuals and that horrific slaughter of the woman
that was chopped up in 12 pieces and judges 19 sent down the river
because they had risen to such a level of bestiality. And that
was all because there was no king in the land and everyone
was doing that, which is right in their own eyes, which is where
our culture is today. And this is what I've said before.
I want to get this in your ear. There's a small, there's a thin line
between a warrior mentality and a sexual pervert. There's a thin
line between a warrior mentality and a sexual pervert. Mark this.
This is why you never hear in your media what our men do in
war. Do you hear me? And this is why
you have to get a handle on application time, your anger. Because your anger will lead
to perversion as an outlet. Can I get a witness? There's
a few people ready to bear record to the truth. But see, this all
comes home when we talk about war. Even in the spiritual war
that you and I are engaged in, because we're in a spiritual
war. You do understand that, right? We're in a spiritual war. And so it
was these same Benjamites who are coming up in the house, killing
their own king. And ladies and gentlemen, their
king, Ishmael, was a Benjamite. How do Benjamites kill Benjamites
unless they're operating in the flesh? Which is what we learned
last week, right? If you live after the flesh,
you will what? You're going to die. And they
killed him and he escaped. And remember what they did? They
brought the head of Ishmael to David, didn't they? Thinking
that they were going to be promoted. What did David do? He killed
them both. Didn't he? He killed them both. This is
going to teach us an ethic about, again, what kind of attitude
leaders in the church ought to have around the nature of the
kingdom of God, but believers as well. Is David going to take
advantage? These corrupt principles operating
in the apostate church in order to make himself look good to
Israel. Is he gonna say well good I'm glad you killed him
because if you wouldn't have killed him I would have killed
him anyway Or as David gonna say as he said earlier to Saul
in 1st Samuel chapter 23 wickedness Proceeded from the wicked, but
I'm not gonna touch you Are you guys hearing what I'm saying?
There's an ethic here that's demonstrated in David's life
that you and I have to get and And if you don't get it now,
it goes like this. In the midst of evil, in the midst of trouble,
in the midst of chaos, in the midst of warfare, your job is
not to take vengeance on yourself. In the midst of evil, when people
are losing their mores and falling prey to principles of self-preservation,
your job is to trust in the Lord and let Him work out your salvation
in fear and trembling. That when you stand with God,
you can actually say, Vengeance is the Lord. He will repay. This
is going to set David up to be head and shoulders above all
who are seeking a political kingdom. And it's going to be to his advantage.
So the false king is assassinated and he's assassinated by the
flesh. which moves me to my second point, which I want to quickly
rush through. And this here is a kind of recap
of the sort of introduction that we have to Abner as well as Joab. In 2 Samuel 2, verses 14 through
17, I wanna show you something that I felt compelled not to
let you miss. In 2 Samuel 4, verse 17, an interesting
event occurs, which is gonna underscore my observation about
Abner and Joab, two generals who did not have the Spirit of
God, who were led by a satanic spirit, whose ultimate desire
is to become heads, and they are used to murder. And I want
you to see the play here. I'm at verse 14, are you there?
And Abner said to Joab, ah, there they go, they meet. This was
before Joab killed Abner. Watch this. Let the young men
now arise and do what? Play before us. Do you guys know
what the word euphemism means? Euphemism is a term that describes
something that's horrible in nice language. Like when people
die, we say they passed. They died. But we say they pass
and we use all kinds of colorful language. The sun rolls on them. Whatever you want to call it.
They had a sunrise in our sun setting. All of that old euphemistic
language because we don't really like facing the hard facts. But
it can also be a tool to deceive you and me when what God wants
the human race to understand is that by nature we're sinful. And by nature, we are evil. You
too. Have you ever thought of evil
thought in your life? That's just to say, yeah, come
on, dude. Stay with me now. Stay with me
now. Have you ever thought? Have you ever been angry at someone?
You know, Jesus said that makes you a murderer, potentially a
murderer. You got that? It makes you a
murderer because murder starts with anger. Is that true? Right. So as we look at the ghastly
account that's taking place here, don't wrap yourself in your self-righteous
robes and act like you can't understand what just happened.
I don't know how this just happened. It can happen like that in your
house with your husband, with your wife, with your kids, with
anger. That sister said a lot. Look at verse 15. Listen to what
it says in verse 15, chapter 2. Verse 15. Then there arose
and went over by number, how many Benjamites? 12, which pertained
to Ishmael, the son of Saul, and 12 of the servants of David.
So do we see this equal number of what? 12. So that's 24 men,
right? Will you look at what these silly
men do in verse 16? They caught everyone, his fellow,
by the head. and thrust his sword in his fellow's
side. So they fell down together dead. Wherefore, that place was called
Hecath Hazurim, which is in Gibeah. Do you see that? All this fell
out because two generals, two mad dogs, two pit bulls, two
rottweilers, two bull masters said to each other, let's play. Now, I have never understood
this in my life. Someone help me. What right do
these wild men have to play at the expense of some mama's children? What right do they have to exercise
a heinous, violent activity such as killing 12, 24 eternity-bound
souls at no loss or harm for themselves. The answer is no right at all. Did you guys hear what I just
stated? I want you to stay with me. I'm showing you the struggle
that David is having to deal with in the kingdom that he's
about to take over. They said, let's play. 12 men
rushed to play and they voluntarily thrust each other through. Do
you know they all committed suicide? Are you guys hearing me? I want
you to get this now. Are you ready? War is a necessary
evil because of the fall of humanity, but it is pure insanity. War is a necessary evil because
of the fall of humanity, but it is a pure act of insanity. If somehow you can wrap your
head around a moral principle that justifies what just happened,
you are a sociopath. Are you guys hearing what I just
stated? Be very careful not to lose your Christian ethic or
you will miss the interpretation here. You must get it. Humanity by nature is vile and
wicked, beastly and ghastly. and destructive by nature when
God takes his hands off of us. And war perpetuates this kind
of folly. I want you to hear how Mr. Spurgeon puts it. What are the
honors of war but brags of murder? What is the fame of conquerors
but the reek of manslaughter? He says the gospel is the only
preventative for war. And then he says, put up your
sword into your sheath. For hath not he, that is God
said, thou shall not kill. And he didn't mean by this as
a colloquialism was going on in the days of Spurgeon. It was
a sin to kill one, but a glory to kill a million. Ooh, did you
get that? There was this twisted notion
that there was more glory in the killing of masses than there
was to killing the one. That only comes from an insane
person. But this is what war will do
to you when you and I are operating out of war principles and not
grace principles. Are you guys hearing me? Listen
to what he goes on to say about this. I thought this was so fascinating.
What pride flushes the Patriots' teeth You know who the patriot
is? The person that lays down his life for his country. What
pride flushes the patriot's cheeks when he remembers that his nation
can murder faster than any other nation in the world? What kind of boasting is that?
We can kill up millions in an hour and blush about it like
it's something to be honored. This is the insanity of war.
Are you guys hearing me? Watch what it goes on to say.
You foolish generation, says Spurgeon, you are groping in
the flames of hell to find your heaven. You are raking amid the
blood and bones for the foul stench that you want to call
glory. Killing is not the path to prosperity. Killing is not the path to prosperity
Huge armaments are a curse to a nation itself as well as to
its neighbor Do you guys get that and finally he says war
is nothing more than death holding a carnival and Devouring its
prey A little more in haste than is the common natural process
of death. Did you hear what he said? Every
day we're dying. We have 6 billion people plus
on planet Earth. Every day we die to the tune
of 350,000 plus people. But they die normal deaths. Physical
illness, sicknesses, certain calamities. But war accelerates
it. That's a madness. Unjuxtaposing
for you right now the two generals of the two kings the false king
that's just been killed The general that was killed by the other
general. There's one general left. What's his name? Joab David
will have to deal with him later. Won't he see David has a problem
on his hands? I'm almost done David has a problem
on his hands. You know what that problem is
David has men who are in strategic positions of power in his government,
who are uncontrollable by men. 2 Samuel 23, verse six. I quoted it two weeks ago, I'm
gonna quote it again. This is what David said in one
of his last words about men who are like Abner and Joab. 2 Samuel 23, six. He says, but
the sons of what? You guys have been introduced
to that term a few times now since you've been in the class,
right? That's a bad word, by the way. I just want you to know.
But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as what? Thorns
thrust away. And here's the reason why. Because
they cannot be taken with hands. That's a Hebraic phrase that
says human beings can't control them. Only God can control them. Human beings, there are certain
persons that cannot be controlled by human forms of limitations
and restraints. David knew that Joab couldn't
be controlled. He knew that for Joab to leave
David's presence when David had made peace with Abner and for
Joab to go kill Abner because Abner had killed Joab's brother
in the slaughter of those 24 that we're talking about. David
knew that he had on his hand a Rottweiler, a bull mastiff
that could not be controlled. He now has to pray that God deals
with his servant because his servant is out of his control.
And we saw that when David said, let the blood of Abner be on
the house of Joab. Ladies and gentlemen, he said
that publicly. Now you are in a mess when your king says, I
ain't got nothing to do with you. I'm laying this context
so that you guys could understand the New Testament principle,
which is laid out in James chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. I want
you to see it. And then we'll finish our last point, have the
Lord's table, and then we'll close for today. I want this
to be driven home. This is one of the things that
I have been working through. with us over the last several
months, ever since we've entered into this war mode concept with
David as God's soldier. I told you earlier that if you're
used to war, if you're used to war, if you're used to conflict,
if you're used to fighting, if you're used to engaging in battle,
if you're a combative person, you got issues. Especially if
you're a Christian and you need to work them through because
you will hurt yourself and hurt others where you are not reigned
in by the grace of God. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? So now listen to what the scripture says in James chapter
1. From whence come what? And fighting among you. Is it
contextual? Is it making application? Is this a corollary text to our
text? From whence come wars among you? Do they not come of this,
even of your lusts, that war in your what? Could David have
taken this text and identified the members of his own kingdom
as applying to this present text? Could he say that Joab is his
member and Abner was about to be his member? And they're at
war with one another. So what happens to the body when
the members are at war with one another? Galatians chapter 5
verse 15, it devours itself. Are you guys hearing? Now this
principle needs to be taken up by the believer so that the believer
does not become unproductive in his own right in the kingdom.
There are some believers that are living with massive levels
of internal conflict because the flesh is warring against
the spirit and they have not learned how to actually bring
the flesh into subjection to the spirit of God. Are you hearing
me? And they are devouring themselves internally. And they are a walking
war zone. And everybody that comes into
their presence had to engage them as a walking war zone. Where
are all those bombs? I'm hearing bombs everywhere.
Well, where are these bombs coming from? Man, the ground's shaking
every time I get in your presence. Because of the internal conflict.
Here's what James says. Verse 2. Here's what James says. And I'm going to show you the
contradiction with David in a moment. He says, you lust, that is, you
desire, and you have not, and therefore you do what? You kill. You kill. Hear this. You desire
to have and you cannot obtain, You fight and you war because
you don't pray. Haven't I taught us this? Have I taught us this? You fight
and you war because you don't pray. Remember what we learned? There was one thing that Saul
never did. What was that? Abner didn't pray. Joab didn't pray. In chapter
2, verses 14 through 17, I wanna show you five things. This is
in my outline, it's not yours. I want you to get this. Just
in case you're thinking that I'm building a straw man argument,
I want you to get this. This is very clear. This crazy
battle that you saw where Abner and Joab said, let's go to, let's
play. Five things I want you to get.
You can write this down or you can get it in the CD. Are you
ready? First of all, it was not endorsed by God. That little
battle in chapter 2 verse 14 through 17 was not of God. Do you see anywhere in the text
where they prayed for that? It was not of God. God did not
endorse it. God only endorses just wars. God only endorses just wars. In other words, God is a man
of war, but he's a man of war in order to establish justice
and to recover peace for humanity. God is not a bloodthirsty monster
that just loves to see people destroyed so that he can have
more on his ledger than others. War, justly executed, is only
designed to produce righteousness and peace. Christian, are you
hearing me? The second thing that I can say
that I observed is that it was not sanctioned by either Ishmael
or David. They snuck out and did this themselves,
didn't they? They didn't even submit to their own hierarchy
of kings. And I'm reminded of what my master
said in John chapter 18 verse 36, just in case some of us are
falling prey to sort of a hybrid of Christian, onward Christian
soldier marching as to war. and want to make it political.
John 18, 36. You know what my master said?
My kingdom is not of this world. Stay with me now, because if
my kingdom, mine, were of this world, then would my men fight
for my deliverance? Do you see it? Is that what it
says? You see there? Jesus answered, my kingdom is
not of this world. If it were of this world, then with my servants,
what? That I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. I love this
because that third clause says Christ voluntarily laid down
his life as the ethic by which we prevail over sin. And that's
exactly what Spurgeon meant when he said the only solution to
this hell-bound state we live in is the gospel. When you abandon
the gospel as the ethic of peace and reconciliation and recovery
and restitution, you have no other option but war. Are you
guys hearing me? And when a Christian tries to
somehow justify war like our politicians are doing, I'm saying,
what think ye of the cross and the power of God? That's what
I'm saying. Revelation 13 10. Watch it. This
is for you. Because you see, the surreptitious
and diabolical serpent called the devil is constantly encroaching
you with political propaganda and seeking to patriotize you
into the kingdoms of this world, even to the point of getting
you to abandon your Bibles. If you and I get misguided as
to whom we represent and whose we are, we will find ourselves
fighting for the wrong side. He that lives in the captivity
shall what? We call that reaping what you
sow. He that killeth with the sword must be what? You want
some of that? Here is the patience and faith
of the saints. Here's the patience and faith
of the saints. Are you ready? Don't abandon the gospel. Don't abandon
the gospel. Here's what David said. Let's
close out now. Here's what David said I'm dealing with now how
David responded to this go with me back to 2nd Samuel chapter
3 verse 31 through 33 I'll quickly run through this and we'll be
done 2nd Samuel 3 31 through 33. What is David doing here?
David is recognizing that he must now make a strategic move.
That's very political in nature but it's largely to clear up
a potential misconception in order that he might achieve his
highest goal and Ladies and gentlemen, that is always the glory of God
and the unity of the people of God I'm in 2nd Samuel chapter
3 verse 31 through 33. Are you there? listen to the
language of how David responds and David said to Joab and to
all the people that were with him now all the people are here
ladies and gentlemen all the people are present and at the
funeral of Abner, the general for Ishvoshet of all the children
of Israel on the other side of Jordan over against David and
Judah. David said to Joab and to all
the people that were with him, rend your clothes and gird you
with sackcloth and mourn before who? And the king himself followed
the casket. And they buried Abner in Hebron. The city of David. The city of David. What is David
doing? David is demonstrating publicly
that he despised what happened to the general of Israel. He's
letting all Israel know, I was not in on the death of your general. In fact, I hated it. And this
is why I'm honoring Adner now publicly by walking near his
beard and his casket. and I'm bringing his body to
Hebron. Even though he and Ispachet was set up over in Mahanium,
a cross from Judah to go to battle against Judah. You see what David
is doing? David is seeking peace. Are you with me, saints? Are
you with me? David is seeking peace because he understands
if as the king, he does not model peace in the kingdom, all hell
is going to break loose. And as the leader, as the leader
in Israel, as should be the leaders in all gospel churches, the people
in our congregations sometimes are unprincipled people, lost
people, sinful people, wicked people. And if they had their
way, they would corrupt the whole body politic of the church with
bad principles and bad conduct. And we have to excise that stuff,
separate it, and show ourselves not being part of that kind of
method. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? That's exactly
what David is doing. That's exactly what he's doing.
And all the people wept, didn't they? Now I'm going to ride this
through, show you how this works. Beautiful. And it goes on to
say in verse 32, And they buried Abner and Hebron, and the king
lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner. And all
the people wept, and the king did what? That's the second lament
of David. What was the first one? Saul
and Jonathan. To let all Israel know he didn't
have anything to do with it, right? Here's the second one.
I'm letting all of Israel know I didn't have anything to do
with killing Abner. I'm lamenting. And I want you to hear David's
words. I think you guys got it now. We can begin to shut it
down here. And the king lamented over Abner
and said, died Abner as a fool, died? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. He says your
hands were not bound. In other words, you weren't taken
in a lawful war. Your feet Nor were your feet
put in the fetters that is you weren't captive brought into
captivity by your enemies your foes As a man fallen before wicked
men so fell you How did he fall he fell as a man before wicked
men? Who is david calling the wicked man joel? And all the
people went wept after him All the people wept again over him
And when all the people came, I want you to see the glory here
now And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while
it was yet day, David swear saying, so God do to me and more so if
I taste bread or ought else till the sun goes down. Whoa, what
did David do? He fasted because he was greed
at the treachery that was demonstrated by leadership who should have
been walking in the spirit and not in the flesh. And for David,
he knows that the honor of God is at stake when everyone in
the world can see that in the Kingdom of God they are devouring
one another like this. Are you guys hearing me? Are
you hearing me? David is at his best. David is
representing God. Christ is in all of this. who
wept over Jerusalem, who warned the leaders, who called the most
treacherous men among him his friend. Judas, friend, betrayers
thou the son of man with a kiss. Are you guys hearing me? These
are the ethics that you must draw from the scriptures. And
I'm saying this so that you can stop learning war. Do you guys hear what I said?
In your family. In your family. In the church. Are you hearing me? In the church,
because it happens. And then we try to come to church
and rejoice in the gospel when we're operating in the flesh.
Can I get a witness? Can I get a witness? May the
Lord bless us to understand that if you live after the flesh,
you're going to what? Abner's gone. Ishbosheth is gone. All of David's Saul family enemies
are done. They're all gone. But it's to
no joy of David, is it? But what is this going to do
for David? What is it going to do for Israel for David to have
publicly demonstrated this? Let me show you how this goes.
Point number three in your outline. David retains his integrity of
not touching God's what? Got that? Three extractions and
I'm going to just look at the last part of our text. I'm not
going to go to these verses. I'm just going to quote them.
Are you there? Christ came not to condemn the world. You guys
got that? Are you with me, ladies and gentlemen?
He did not come to condemn the world. Mark this now. The world
is already condemned. What good does it do for us to
condemn something that's already condemned? And even though the
world will blame Jesus for a lot of the troubles that are going
on in the world, and they do, Jesus didn't do it. I might have
to blame his church. We got a bunch of Abner's and
Joab's. I'm telling the truth, right? But when you carefully
read the Bible, the gospel never ever merits you and I going to
war against this world in a carnal way. Are you guys hearing me? It never does that. It never
does that. The goal of the church is prophetic
and priestly. It's not to mount up armies to
fight against the secular institutions. God is the governor of those
secular institutions. Do you believe that? He knows
how to work out those battles. When you align yourself with
Jesus Christ, your job is prophetic and priestly. Are you guys hearing
me? And your character is to be Christian. That's your job. So that you
and I can have the advantage of bringing men and women to
Christ. not killing them. Secondly, the unity of the church
was David's highest goal, was it not? Now watch how this works. I'm at verse 36 of chapter 3. And all the people took notice. Do you see it? And all the people
took notice and it pleased them as whatever the king did pleased
all the people. Do you see how David achieved
unity of heart with all the saints in all the tribes by never putting
his hand on God's anointed? Do you see how every heart was
moved by David's model? Do you see it, saints? Do you
see how David, by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of wisdom,
won the whole nation to himself by peace, and unity, and a priority
of the glory of God, and self-restraint, and the ability to understand
this is about God, not about me, not about us, and how it's
drawing them together? Is that how Christ drew you to
Him? Did Christ draw us to Him by His love for His Father, by
His love for His Father's kingdom, by His love for the glory of
God? Did He draw us to Him by His
peace? Did He draw us to Him by His
humility? That's how He did it. Now listen to the words. For
all the people and all of Israel understood that day that it was
not of the king to slay Adner, the son of Ner. And the king
said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince
and a great man fallen this day in Israel? What did David just
do? He honored Abner. Did he? He honored the office. Do you
know what Christ did when he died on Calvary's tree? For you
and me? Abner? He honored us. He honored us when he died for
us who are willing to kill him. He honored us. His death was our honor. It was our exaltation. It was our glory. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? The death of Christ is your glory. It's your honor. He lifted you
up by his death, even though we tried to kill him in his mercy
because of his love for his father, condescended, assumed a human
nature, was made in the fashion like a man, found to be like
a servant, a slave, a doulos. And he was obedient even unto
death, even the death of the cross. And we were all there
railing on him. saying crucify him crucify him
and in his love which he says for my love they hated me in
his love he exalted us do you guys see that and this is an
amazing statement i'm gonna close right here this is an amazing
statement needed to be worked out this is the spirit of god
working through david here's how david identifies with abner
he says in verse 39 i am this day weak though anointed King. Do you
see it? I am this day weak, though anointed
King. And these men, the sons of Zeruah,
they're too hard for me. Got that? The Lord shall be rewarded, or
the Lord shall reward the evil doer. The Lord shall reward the
doer of evil according to his what? So in closing, as we prepare
to take up the Lord's table, here's what David did. David
separated himself from evildoers, though they went to church. And call themselves Christians.
Did he do it? Watch this, watch this, watch
this. And he identified with the man that God had set up. who ostensibly was seeking peace,
simply because his rottweiler got loose and killed him. Because David knew more importantly
than David's own peace and tranquility was the unity of the kingdom.
This act would unify the kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about
to partake of the Lord's table, are we not? And everyone who
does so is saying this, that because of the death of
Jesus Christ on Calvary Street, I have been brought into the
body of Christ. I have been made one with God through the Son.
And I am one with every member of the body of Christ from the
beginning of time to the end of the world. We are all brethren. We are all bone of his bone. and flesh of his flesh, and our
conduct towards one another ought to be derived from his model. And if we're going to fight,
we fight for the unity of the faith against rebels who would
oppose God's glory. And as we fight, we fight by
laying down our lives and walking in humility and demonstrating
the gospel ethic that our battle is not with swords and spears,
but with the truth of the gospel about a crucified Christ who
is able to save to the uttermost all those that come to him by
faith. Amen? Amen.