Second Samuel chapter three.
We'll sort of take a phrase at a time here and I want to just
read the first phrase in verse 22 through 25 and then we'll
talk about what's come before that just to sort of remember
where we're at in this story. But in verse 22 it says, and
behold the servants of David and Joab came from pursuing a
troop, and brought in a great spoil with them. But Abner was
not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he
was gone in peace. When Joab and all the host that
was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner, the
son of Ner, came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and
he is gone in peace. Then Joab came to the king and
said, what hast thou done? Now let's stop there and remember
what's happened in the first half of this chapter. Joab and
Abner are the key characters here, of course, other than obviously
David. But Abner, who pictures the flesh,
Abner was Saul's captain. He is zealous for the flesh. He's zealous for the false king,
the one who pictured rejection of God as king. He pictures the
flesh, man's way, man's will. And he had a falling out, Abner,
had a falling out with the puppet king that he had set up. Because
he refused to bow to David, he sets up a puppet king named Ishbosheth. And Abner has a falling out with
the king that he promoted. And the falling out is over one
of Saul's concubines. You remember that. So Abner has
decided to befriend David and promote David as king. When it
was Abner who was the original one who led the rebellion against
David as being king. But now he has switched loyalties.
Abner says he believes And he does whatever is beneficial to
himself on any given day. That's what he'll say, that's
what he'll do, that's what he'll think. Whatever benefits him,
he's the flesh. David had agreed to conspire
with Abner, though Abner had been his bitter enemy. There
was war between the house of Saul and the house of David,
and Abner was strong for the house of Saul. And Joab is David's sort of right-hand man, his captain. But David agreed to conspire
with Abner on the condition that Abner gets David's ex-wife, Michael,
back for him. He said, I had to kill 100 Philistines
to marry her, and she was taken away from me by Saul when I was
exiled, and I want her back. And so David is acting under
the influence of Abner. Abner comes and makes a proposition
to David. He's acting under the influence
of the flesh. And so he is proud and selfish
and foolish to make this pact with Abner. But David and Abner
have an agreement and Abner leaves to go take care of business.
And so Joab returns from fighting David's battles and he gets a
little alone time with David. It says that Abner had left and
you're like what difference does that make? Well because now Joab
gets to talk with David without Abner there. And he says what
are you doing? Why would you conspire with our
enemy? Pretty good question. Joab is the spirit now he's loyal
to David who is Christ now we have to you have to be careful
to see David as David when that's the clear teaching and you have
to be careful to see David as Christ when that's the clear
teaching David as king as God's anointed king is Christ but David
here is struggling with his flesh it's the story of the whole chapter
Abner versus Joab, the house of Saul versus the house of David,
the house of man's king versus the house of God's king. Pretty
clear. But this is where we have to
keep our heads on straight and keep in mind these different
roles that David plays here. David as David is subject to
the passions and evil of the flesh. And that's what's being
taught here. You see him. Why would he listen
to Abner? Why would he trust Abner? Why
would you trust yourself? Same answer. You shouldn't. And he's got to be corrected.
But as God's chosen anointed king, David is Christ. And so
Joab's loyalty to David is right and good. Joab's the good guy
here. So Joab counsels David, the man,
as the spirit of God. And he says, what have you done?
Has God ever asked you that by his Holy Spirit, by the gospel?
What are you doing? What have you done? What are
you thinking? That happens quite a bit, doesn't
it? Why on earth would you trust Abner? Don't trust your flesh. Don't follow your heart. David
had done that before and gotten himself into the worst imaginable
trouble. He lost everything because of
it. But then God just said, here you go. Here it is back. Now
trust me. How many times has God done that
for us? So Joab now, he's the new heart. He's saying, are you kidding
me, David? You did what? You said what to Abner? Notice what Joab said specifically
about Abner in verse 25 again. Thou knowest Abner, the son of
Ner, that he came to deceive you. Let's go back up because
we left off in the middle of verse 24 where Joab says, what
have you done? See that there in verse 24, what
hast thou done? Behold, Abner came unto thee. Why is it that thou hast sent
him away, and he is quite gone? The enemy was in the camp, and
you let him go? He said, you know Abner. You
know him. Do we know ourselves? We know
something of ourselves, don't we? We know not to trust ourselves.
We know to be careful of ourselves. We know to be wary. of this flesh. You know Abner the son of Nun.
He came to deceive you. What is it that God says about
our heart? Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now
he's saying here you know Abner. We know something of ourselves.
We know enough to not trust our flesh. But we don't even know
how treacherous our flesh is. But that just goes to teach us
how far clear we should steer of leaning to our own understanding
in things. We've got to trust God. That's
why we hear His word. We trust Him. And we hear of
Him and learn of Him through His word. Our heart of flesh
is our enemy, and we know it. You know Abner. Abner was strong for the house
of Saul. One minute, you see that in verse
six, back in verse six. Abner was, there was war between the house
of Saul and the house of David, and Abner made himself strong
for the house of Saul. But now he's David's best friend
all of a sudden. Something's not right. The next minute he's telling
everyone that David is king, you know. David, I'm loyal to
David now. Whenever it became advantageous
to him, and when the tables turned and
it was to his advantage to sell David out, he would have thrown
his mother in to sweeten the deal. He has no honor whatsoever. This is our flesh. And David
the man was susceptible to that deception. And that's a clear
lesson here. And remember why he was susceptible
to it. He saw it as an opportunity to
get what he wanted. Because of his pride and selfishness,
David was susceptible to the wiles of the flesh. And we are
too, because we're proud too. We're self-righteous too down
in there. That old heart, we're selfish too. David wanted Michael. He didn't care anything about
Michael. That's proven all through it. He didn't even say, bring
her to me because I love her. He said, bring her to me because
I deserve her. That's a bad start, isn't it? Well, look at verse
26. And when Joab was come out from
David, he sent messengers after Abner. which brought him again
from the well of Syrah. But David knew it not. So Joab,
and here we are, a lot of times the Lord is working in our favor
to benefit us, to help us, to correct our foolishness and we
don't even know about it. David didn't even know it. When
Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate. Abner sent a messenger out to
him. Abner is thinking now that Joab
is acting on behalf of David and is in on this whole league
between David and Abner so it's safe. Joab just got a message
for me from David and everything is cool. So he comes back and
talks to Joab. And in verse 27, Joab took him
aside in the gate to speak with him quietly or privately and
smote him there under the fifth rib that he died for the blood
of Asahel, his brother. Now, the flesh, there's only
one thing for the flesh. It's got to die. The flesh has
got to go. That which is in defiance of
God's true anointed King has got to die wherever it's found. In this world, in my heart, wherever
it's found. And in the overall story now,
this is just one episode, there's always more conflict to come
with the flesh. Remember the words, remember
these words throughout this, I've told you before. In verse
1, there was long war between the house of Saul and the house
of David. So Abner dying here is not going
to be the end of the war. But it was good for David. It
was the best thing that could happen at the time. And in verse
six it says, while there was war between the house of Saul
and the house of David. And it's important that all of
this that we're reading now, you think, well, wait a minute,
why did that happen? And what about this? And what about that?
And there's the consideration of the, the, the story itself,
the human drama that's described here. And then there's the spiritual
lesson behind it. That's that's paramount. And
you may have some questions that may not be able to be answered
as far as the human drama goes, but the spiritual story is pretty
clear. The house of Saul, flesh, the
will of the flesh, God's not our king anymore. We'll decide
about that. And then the house of David,
God's true chosen anointed king. While there was war, that's what
all of this is about. and the flesh has got to go Galatians
5.22 listen to this now this is very familiar but we usually
stop a little early and of course we're looking at different things
at different times and that's appropriate probably at times
but listen to this but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace
long-suffering gentleness goodness faith Meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And that's beautiful language. All the beautiful things. Love,
joy, peace. But then it kind of gets ugly
after that. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. There's death. There's got to
be death. There's got to be just... killing with extreme prejudice.
We destroy. The flesh is our enemy. They
that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. And we're never done doing that.
You don't just say, oh well I've crucified the flesh. Everything's
going to be fine now. It's not fine. Tomorrow it's
not going to be fine. The flesh has got to be crucified
over and over again. And we do that by God's grace.
Because the spirit lusteth against the flesh, as well as the flesh
against the spirit. But you see that death in the
middle of that beautiful language of love, joy, peace, the fruit
of the spirit, there's sticking a knife under the ribs. The flesh
has got to go. Romans 8, 12, Therefore brethren,
we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For
if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you, through
the Spirit, through Joab, how did David get free of Abner? He's making a pact with him.
He's throwing all in with him. He's putting all of his hopes
of being king over Israel on Abner, for crying out loud. Without
even talking to God about it. How's he gonna get out of that
mess? Here comes Joab. If you, through the Spirit, do
mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. You know what
mortify means? Put to death. That's what happened in our text.
And it's ugly. And we're not even sure that
Joab is guiltless in it, as far as the human drama's concerned.
It was a sneaky way to do it. And David didn't like it. And
this is, that's interesting. We'll talk about that in a minute.
So whether Joab handled this matter, Joab the man, whether
he handled this matter in the right way or not, without convincing
the king, he went behind his back. But that teaches us something.
God's got to save us in spite of us, doesn't he? He got to
save us without us even knowing about it. So whether Joab the man handled
this matter in the right way, as far as the human drama of
it is concerned, is irrelevant to the spiritual lesson. The
spiritual lesson is that in this long war between the flesh and
the spirit, the flesh is going to lose. And it's got to lose
every day. Got to lose every day, doesn't
it? Abner is the ringleader of all
that is opposed to David. Oh, he was talking a good game.
He was playing out a good deception there. But he had no honor, no
true loyalty to God's anointed king. Joab is the defender of
David's honor. And he is the embodiment of loyalty
to God's true king. That's the spiritual. And that's
what we're to learn from here. Thank God that Even when we don't
know it, He's putting our flesh down. Isn't He? We'd be off the deep end before
we walk out this door tonight. If not for God and His Holy Spirit.
Now there's an interesting twist in the story now. You'd expect
maybe David would understand this. Because Joab, he's just
doing what's in David's best interest. David not happy about
it. Look at verse 28. And afterward, when David heard
it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord
forever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner. He's saying,
I didn't have anything to do with this. I didn't even know
this was happening. And he said, let it rest on the head of Joab
and on all his father's house, and let there not 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. So Joab and Abishai, his brother,
slew Abner because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon
in the battle. We keep being reminded of the
battle. There ain't no doubt about who
needs to win this battle. God has one king. And we're reminded all along
about the battle. This is the spiritual truth in
all of this. David's not happy with Joab.
And there are a couple of ways to look at this. Was it wrong
for Joab to kill Abner the way that he did? There was war between
the houses, and Abner was certainly a deceiver, and he had killed
many of those who fought for David. He had led the charge
against David's men, and many of them were killed. Asahel was
one of them that particularly was Joab's problem, because that
was his brother. But that's Abner killing David's
men and they were in the right. They're fighting on the side
of God's true king. They're defending the honor of
God's king. But on the other hand, Joab did
this against the will of the king in the human drama of it. It just shows us in the spiritual
aspect of it that God has to save us without us even knowing
about it. But Joab did this for the king's
good. And I believe that the picture
here is pretty clear, the spiritual. So you have to, again, the human
drama of it, did Joab do the right thing? You know, I think
it's irrelevant. Because of the spiritual lesson
that we learn here. David the man wanted this unwise
partnership with Abner. And God put an end to it. He
just used Joab to do it. God put an end to that thing.
That's what happened. God put an end to it in spite
of David. Does God ever have to do that
in your life? In spite of you, do what's good
for you? Cut off some relationships? Cut off some opportunities? Something
that you really want? Deny it to you. Deny you that. You got to do it. And it may
make you mad. It's got to be done. Has God ever crossed your will?
Your fleshly will? Has He ever denied you something
that you wanted it bad now? You wanted it bad and it'll make
you mad. But later we understand, don't
we usually? There's been things that have
made me so furious in my life that have happened and then I
look back on it later and I said it's the best thing that could
have possibly happened to me. What we know is this, Abner was
a snake. We know that Joab killed him
because he was a snake. Because he had killed his brother
Asahel, who died defending David's honor. Remember that? Yes, Joab
went behind David's back. But this is a war between those
who honor God's true king and those who don't. Asahel died defending David.
Joab had a problem with that. And he dealt with it. And we
know this, we know that all of this was for David's good. But let's ask another question.
In the temporal circumstances of this story now, looking just
to the human drama of it, was David wrong to be angry about
this? Not necessarily. He gave Abner the benefit of
the doubt. He wanted unity. Now in the spiritual,
it's clear that Abner had to go. I'm not contradicting that.
But from David's point of view, he sees an opportunity for everybody
to be united under God's anointed king and live happily ever after. And he wanted that. He was deceived. It was never going to happen. But He wanted it to. Does that
remind you of any spiritual truth? He wanted the whole nation of
Israel to come together and be one and honor God and live under
God's King, under the authority established by God. That was
His desire. Now consider the spiritual picture. here. So was it, it was maybe
not the wisest thing on David's part, but it was done with good
intentions. But in the spiritual picture
here, think about this. In the battle, in this long war
between the flesh and the spirit, what do we want? What do we want
to happen? What would be perfect? What would
be the, what is our desire? We want both houses to do the
will of God, don't we? We want perfect obedience. The
conflict, I want there to be as little conflict in my heart
as possible, don't you? Remember Paul's dilemma in Romans
chapter 7? He said, I can't do the things
that I would. But man, I sure would. I sure
want to. I want to. I want to perfectly obey God
right now, from now on, don't you? Is there anybody that doesn't
want to do that? I want my flesh to bow to him. Is that going to happen? No way. No way. So what are we going to do when
it doesn't? Well we see what God's going
to do. He's going to kill the flesh. What are we going to do? What is David the man going to
do? He's going to mourn. He is going to mourn. We are
going to see that. He mourns deeply. That is what David does in our
text. Blessed are they that mourn. Look at verse 31 in our text.
And David said to Joab and to all the people that were with
him, rend your clothes and gird you with sackcloth and mourn
before Abner. And king David himself followed
the beer. Now David's not looking at Abner
as a deceiver, and our flesh is that. But he's looking at
this as, man, wouldn't it have been great if everybody could
have just bowed to God's king, submitted to him and served him
together. And that's what he's mourning
over, that that couldn't happen. He followed the beer and they
buried Abner in Hebron and the king lifted up his voice and
wept at the grave of Abner. And all the people wept and the
king lamented over Abner and said, died Abner as a fool dieth.
Thy hands were not bound nor thy feet put into fetters as
a man falleth before wicked men. So fellest thou and all the people
wept again over him. So there's mourning. Remember
this war between the two houses is a tragic thing. That Israel
had to fight Israel. That's a terrible thing, civil
war. Is the saddest war that there
is, surely. When you're fighting a war against
some evil that's a threat of some kind, that's one thing. We'd prefer not to have to do
that if there could be peace. But civil war is the deepest
of tragedies. And that's the picture here.
It's war that had one cause. Sin. You know what sin is? It's rebellion against God. There was one reason, the difference
between one side and the other was quite simply loyalty and
allegiance to God's King. When those that we love will
not bow to Christ, when they refuse, when they take
sides against our King, we weep. Somebody you love is on the other
side. How would you like to meet somebody
you knew, a brother, a friend, a family member in a civil war.
How would you like to raise your rifle and find in its sights
somebody that you cared about very deeply? Somebody that you
knew if you kill them it's going to kill a part of you. That'd
be tough, wouldn't it? So if someone we love will not
bow, to our king and it causes us to weep, shall that not also
include ourselves? When my own heart will not bow?
When I myself am the traitor? When I return as a dog to my
own vomit, when I dishonor my king, when I rebel and am proud
and have to be slain again, shall I not weep over that? We want Abner to bow, don't we? And it looked like he was gonna.
It looked like he was going to, didn't it? But God knew better. God knew better. And God is going
to do that which honors his son no matter what. No matter the cost. God is going
to do that which promotes the glory and the authority of his son. But look at one more thing here
that develops in the human drama in this chapter. Very sad, lots
of tears cried. But this also, the human drama
is compelling but also the beautiful spiritual meaning here. This
is the culmination, this is the end result of the sad warfare
And it's not the end result in chronological terms only. It's the, it's at the end of
every day when you fought with this flesh. Here's what it's gonna come to.
In this sad warfare that rages within us while there was war.
This was happening too. Look at verse 35. When all the
people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day,
David swears saying, so do God to me and more also if I taste
bread or aught else till the sun be down. It's a constant
grief to us isn't it? We always groan in this flesh
because of this war. We mourn over the part of us
that won't bow. And all the people, look at this
though, all the people took notice of it. And it pleased them. As whatsoever the king did, pleased
all the people. This is David as Christ. There was a lot of right and
wrong in David the man. There was a mixture, a contradiction. in David the man, but in David
the king, God's king, David is Christ, everything he did was
right. And it pleases his people. Everybody who knows Christ is
pleased with Christ. That's his father. No man knoweth
his son really save the father. And no man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. But
even we who know him with qualification. We know him,
but we still long to know him. Paul said that I may know him. Don't you know him, Paul? Well,
yeah, but I won't know him. But everybody that knows him
at all is pleased with him. Pleased with everything that
he does. That heart within us as believers
which bows to Christ is pleased with Christ. And that word pleased
there means good. They saw that it was good. They
saw everything he did, when they looked at it, they said, it's
good. Why? Because he's God's king. Notice
the language now, everything the king did, pleased him. They said, it's good. When God
made the heavens and the earth, when he made a universe, and
put a people in it for the honor of his son. He did it all. He
has a universe because he has a people. He has a people because
he would glorify and honor and exalt forever his only begotten
son. And when he did that, when he
created all of this, he said, it's good. Same word. When we see everything Christ
has done We say it's good. And that's really the definition
of good. In Acts 10.38 it says, God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good. In our flesh dwelleth no good
thing. But he went about doing good.
And that's not saying there that as he went about he did some
good here and there. He went about doing. And when
he did something, it was good. Because of who he is. It says,
he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil. For God was with him. That's
a picture of salvation. When God created the old creation,
he said it's good. What do you think God says in
the new creation? When sinners are made new by
the blood of his son, he looks at his son and says, I am well
pleased. And by his grace, he looks at
us and says the same, because we're in him. In Mark 7 37 it says those who
heard were beyond measure astonished and they said this, He hath done
all things well. He hath done all things well. We want to do good and it's by His grace that we want
to. But we cannot. Paul says, how
to perform that which is good, I find not. And the reason is simple, because
of this long war, because of our flesh, because of our sin,
because of our sin, the heart of sin that beats within us. But Christ, pictured by David,
God's anointed king, everything he did is good. He is all of
our righteousness. And we confess with David now.
This is us. The story ends saying this in
verse 39. Look at verse 39. And David said this. He said,
I am this day weak, though anointed, king. That's the title of this message.
Weak, though king. That's us. Our Savior has made us kings.
And that's a beautiful truth now. We don't want to miss sight
of that because that's our rejoicing. That's our glory. We boast in
Him and what He did for us. We are weak, though anointed,
king. Remember it says that of course
in Revelation 1.4, let me read you a little bit before that.
In Revelation 1.4 it says, John to the seven churches which are
in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which
was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which
are before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful
witness, the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the
kings of the earth. unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father. To him be glory." It's not, oh
look, he's made me a king. Look how, you know, what a big
shot I am. No, it's he made me a king. To
him be glory. To Him be glory and dominion.
Dominion. He's made us kings, but there's
no question about who's on the throne. Not rival kings. We reign with Him, in Him. To
Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I want to read
you what John Gil, I don't do this very often, I want to read
you what John Gil said about that, about Him making us kings,
specifically, because I thought it was very thorough. inaccurate. The saints are made kings by
Christ. They are so now. They have received
a kingdom of grace. Our Lord said, it is your father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. They have received a
kingdom of grace which cannot be taken away. They have the
power of kings over sin, Satan in the world, and all their enemies.
And they live, and I would add to that,