2 Samuel chapter 2. A lot of folks sick right now among
us and just in the whole area it seems like. Especially I wanted
to mention Jason Farrell. Amy is doing much better now.
But Jason was so sick today that he went to the ER. His face started
getting numb and he was afraid. of what it might be. So they
took him to the emergency room and I guess they were afraid
he had a stroke. They tested him for a stroke. He hadn't had one but he thought
the whole time he had the flu and he didn't have the flu either.
So they're thinking maybe he just got a really bad migraine
associated with pneumonia. And so he's being treated for
it but he's very very sick and Bob's still sick. I know several
others. So be in prayer for them too.
Let's look at 2 Samuel 2. You remember in the first nine
verses or so, David has been anointed king. God's true, chosen,
anointed king. He said, he's a man after my
own heart. But Abner, the captain of Saul's
host, Saul is dead now, but the captain of Saul's host was not
okay with David being king. He didn't want David being king.
And so he made a man named Ish-bosheth, the king of the other tribes,
while Judah now is loyal to David. And just as Saul represented
the flesh, now that Saul is dead, Abner represents the flesh that
still fights within us. It's clear. clear, very clear
and instructive picture because Saul was man's choice and when
man made that choice God said they rejected me as their king. Here David, God's chosen is anointed
king of Judah but Abner says no we don't want him to be king
knowing that God had anointed him. We'll see in the next chapter
that he knew that God had anointed David king. That he didn't want
God's king. And so you see he's picking up
right where Saul left off. The flesh, we're always going
to be at war with our flesh in this world. We're going to be,
not only in the world is the flesh of all the world enmity
against God, but within us there's that enmity as well. Then look
at verses 10 and 11. We'll just kind of take these
a passage at a time. And Lord willing, go through,
I think, the rest of this chapter. Ish-bosheth, verse 10, Saul's
son was 40 years old. This is the man that Abner anointed
king. Propped him up as king, didn't anoint him. There's no
anointing here. It's just he made him king. When he began to reign over Israel,
he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed
David. In the time that David was king in Hebron, over the
house of Judah was seven years and six months. So we just have
that reminder that there's a divided kingdom now. And this, of course,
is this world. There's division because of our
Lord in this world. There are those who acknowledge
the true King of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are those
who reject him. And within us, there's a divided
kingdom. Spirit versus the flesh. We know
who God's king is, but there's rebellion in us yet. Saul is
dead. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, but the flesh still lusteth against the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh. So look at verse 12. And Abner,
the son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul,
went out from Manam to Gibeon. These are all the ones that rejected
Abner rejected David as king, sets up Ish-bosheth and there
are those that followed them in that rebellion. And Joab the
son of Zeruriah and the servants of David, here's the ones loyal
to God's king, went out and met together by the pool of Gibeon
and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool and
the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab,
let the young men now arise and play before us. And Joab said,
let them arise. And then there arose and went
over by number 12 of Benjamin, which pertained to Ish-bosheth,
the son of Saul, and 12 of the servants of David. And they caught
every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's
side, so that they fell down together. Wherefore, that place
was called Hazurim. which is in Gibeon. So this started
as some kind of a challenge. These men came together there
for some reason and it may have been a fight to the death from
the start but it appears that it began as some type of challenge.
He uses the word play but they're not playing rock-paper-scissors
here. This was going to be some kind of a battle to show dominance
and And some type of challenge as I said, I don't know any other
way to say it. But maybe it was meant to be to the death from
the start but it seems like it was just going to be a game of
some kind. But a war game, a game of dominance just to kind of
see who's the boss. And so 12 men against 12. But either way it ended up in
tragedy. And it is tragic. These men were
all Israelites. They're all Israelites. They
all could have and should have been fighting together instead
of each other. They had plenty of enemies. This
is often the way it is. Because of rebellion against
God, there's conflict. That's true in churches too.
In the world, as we said, there's division. In churches, usually
there's somebody You know, I shouldn't say usually. There can be. I've
seen it. I've lived through it. Those
who rebel. Certainly in every believer there's
a conflict like this. And I don't think it's incidental
that in verse 14 Abner is the one that started it. It is important
who starts it. You know, we hear our children
saying, she started it. No, she started it. No, he started
it. Well, sometimes we never get to the bottom of that, do
we? But it does matter, doesn't it? Who started it? It does make
a difference. And Abner, the believer, can
function pretty well most of the time, though he has conflicting
natures. We're not constantly in some
kind of a turmoil over that. The spirit, we walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. As I quoted a while ago, the
Lord said, sin shall not have dominion over you. There's no
question. Who has the dominion now? We
have a new king, we have a new master, as we said last time.
And usually the spirit and the flesh can coexist without a whole lot of trouble
within a believer. That can happen for a long time
sometimes. They're never in agreement, there's
never communion between darkness and light, but there can be relative
peace. As you know, you're living it.
If you're a believer, your flesh is going to cause you some kind
of trouble and it's always limiting. Paul said the things that I would,
I can't do them because of the flesh. But it's not always a
big turmoil of any kind. There can be relative peace in
the believer's heart. Proverbs 16.7 says when a man's
ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace
with him. Does that include self? Self is our biggest enemy so
of course I don't see why not. Why wouldn't it include self?
He makes our own self, our own flesh to be at peace with us
for long periods of time sometimes still enemies in the verse Proverbs
16 it's still enemies but there's peace because God restrains the
flesh but then the flesh sometimes
wants to play doesn't it? the flesh wants to play every
once in a while it wants to play and then it's going to get ugly
I'm sure most of us have experienced that as well. It's gonna get
ugly, and there are likely gonna be casualties. There certainly
can be, not only on the inside, there's gonna be that which dies,
in a sense. Paul said, I crucify the flesh.
I mortify this flesh constantly. But then also around us this
fight can break out and there can be casualties around us as
well as within. And you know that's true too.
It's tragic. It's terribly sad. Think of this,
many on different sides of this. This trouble between those who were
loyal to David and those who had propped up this King Ish-bosheth
Many that were on the different sides of this now were likely
united under David later. And all of God's true people
will one day be with Christ. We will be united in glory. We
will be one. We're one in spirit now, one
Lord, one faith, one birth, one baptism, one hope of our calling.
But there can be division, even among brethren. We see it in
the New Testament. We see it between Paul and Barnabas. And others in the Bible. But there's one reason for it. The
flesh. That's the reason. That's Abner. I'm quite sure
that there are many brothers and sisters in Christ who are
at war with one another now. And for no good reason. There's
no reason for this. No excuse for it. Just submit
to the Lord. and unity in Him. Endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. No good
reason for it. It's a very sad thing. Listen
to Galatians 5.13, For brethren, you have been called unto liberty,
only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this, that thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed
that you be not consumed one of another. This I say then, here's the solution. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. When the spirit and the flesh
are fighting and at war, there's a biting and devouring and a
consuming and there are casualties and friends can be lost, there
can be division that lasts a lifetime. Among brothers and sisters. Fulfill not the love, it's the
flesh. It's just that simple. Look at
verse 17. And there was a very sore battle that day and Abner
was beaten. And the men of Israel, you got
to remember that Israel now is everybody but David and Judah.
It can be confusing because we think of Israel as the people
of God, the Jews. Well, David and Judah, there
was the kingdom of Judah and there was the kingdom of Israel.
Israel were the ones that here had rebelled against David. But
the men of Israel fell before the servants of David. The Abner,
the enemy, the rebel against God's king, lost. He was losing. And we know that. David always wins. David's Christ. And all that are with him, all
that are in him, all that are loyal to him, all who pledge
allegiance to him, his men and women, are the pre-declared winners. There's not any Doubt as to the
outcome of the battle. Of course David wins. He's Christ. Now this is mysterious, but the
victory is already won by Christ and in Christ, though there is
still war. That's a mystery, isn't it? Why
are we fighting? When God sent David to Ziklag, you remember,
not long ago in our study here, the end of 1 Samuel, David, they
come back to Ziklag after that ill-conceived union with the
armies of the Philistines. They come back to Ziklag and
all their families and their goods are taken by the Amalekites.
And let me ask you this now, when God, David's inquired of
the Lord, he encouraged himself to the Lord. He said, shall I
go up? And let me ask you, could you have declared a winner before
the fight? David's going to fight him. He's going to try to get
him back. Could you have declared the winner then? Of course you
could, because God said who was going to win. 1 Samuel 30 verse
8, David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after
this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue,
for thou shalt surely overtake them, surely, and without fail
recover all. Before there's a sword swung,
We could have said, who's going to win? That's our fight. Doesn't mean there ain't going
to be a fight. There's going to be blood. There's going to be casualties. There's going to be trouble in
the flesh, as long as we're in this flesh. We don't have to wonder who's
going to win. It's already done. This applies to every battle
that the Lord sends us into. Do you think he will allow our
flesh to dominate, having saved us by his precious blood? No. When he said, go ye therefore
and teach all nations, we're in that fight, aren't we? The gospel calls. Thank God for
the words in that context. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. We know how it's going to come
out. I wish everybody we came across would bow to Christ and
believe on Him, fall in love with Him and be saved. Not going
to happen though, is it? But it's still going to be a
win. Paul said we're the saver of life unto life to some, saver
of death unto death to others, but we always have the victory
in Christ. So we fight. We must fight. It's a good fight. It's right to fight. But the
victory doesn't depend on us. And the victory is never in doubt. Christ is God's anointed. God's
chosen king. He cannot, he shall not, fail. And as Matthew 28 there makes
clear, the battle is God saving his people by Christ. He said,
go forth and teach all nations. Those that believe you, I'll
save them. Those who don't, I'll damn them. I'll put them in hell.
That's the battle. It has to do with God saving
his people by his anointed King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like
the picture in our text. That salvation is a victory won
by Christ at Calvary. We're still fighting, but the
victory is ours. You might wonder, why do we still
have to fight if Christ has already won the victory? Well, first
of all, because he said to. He said to. And because Christ
is glorified in that. Because it's a great privilege
to be chosen to be a soldier in the army of God's great king.
No man that woreth and tangleth himself in the affairs of this
life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Great privilege. Verse 18. And there were three sons of
Zeruiah there, Joab and Abishai and Asahel. Asahel, yeah, and Asahel was
as light of foot as a wild roe. We'll read quite a bit here. And Asahel pursued after Abner.
Remember the sides here, Abner's the bad guy. Asahel is one of
the brothers that's loyal to David. And Asahel's chasing Abner. They're winning, they're beating
Abner and these rebels. But Asahel is pursuing. He wants more. He wants the main
problem done away with, which is Abner. As long as there's
Abner, there's going to be trouble. He's the flesh. And Asahel pursued
after Abner, verse 19, and in going, he turned not to the right
hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind
him and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. And Abner
said to him, turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left,
and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his
armor. But Asahel would not turn aside
from following of him. And Abner said again to Asahel,
turn thee aside from following me. Wherefore should I smite
thee to the ground? How then should I hold up my
face to Joab thy brother? Joab is Asahel's brother. And these guys knew each other
well, they knew each other, they had fought together before. How
be it he refused to turn aside wherefore Abner with the hinder
end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib that the spear
came out behind him. And he fell down there and died
in the same place and it came to pass that as many as came
to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still. They just stood there looking
and couldn't believe it. Esau was fast, but he wasn't
strong. It's hard to get too specific
in this picture because this fight between the two natures
in believers is not exactly the same in many respects for every
believer. But there is something in the
scriptures about this quickness, this fleetness of foot that we're
to learn here. This is not a fight that's going
to be one quick. The fight with the flesh, it's
not a sprint, it's a marathon. Listen to Mark 4.3. See if you
don't think that's the indication here in this picture. Harken,
behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass as
he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came
and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground
where it had not much earth and immediately it sprang up because
it had no depth of earth. Immediately it sprang up fast. But when the sun was up it was
scorched and because it had no root it withered away. There is a rashness that's in
religion. Now that's false religion he's
talking about there. But there is that in believers
too. There's a zeal that's hasty and not wise. Asahel was fast, but he wasn't
thinking right. He wasn't smart about it. He
was warned. Abner warned him. I'm gonna kill
you. And it was in idle words. Asahel was outmatched. And he
lost. And our initial passions, if
we're quick, to act in the flesh now, you can't fight the flesh
with flesh. And Asahel's anger was dictating
his actions. The flesh, you can't fight the
flesh with the flesh. Don't ever underestimate the
flesh. Our initial passions don't usually
serve our best interests as believers. We gotta be smarter than that. We're to be harmless as doves. In other words, we didn't start
it, did we? But we've also got to be wise as serpents. The fleshly nature within us
is crafty and subtle like its father. The Lord said to the fleshly,
hear of your father the devil. And we walked at one time according
to the prince of the power of the air, didn't we? That flesh
in us, same flesh that's in them. And our Lord said, hear of your
father the devil. When Simon Peter spoke in the
flesh, and the Lord said, you savers, not the things that be
of God, but that be of men, what did the Lord say to him? Get
thee behind me, Satan. That's what we're talking about
now. We have that in us. The flesh is crafty and subtle
and strong. Weak in anything good, the flesh
is weak as far as anything good goes. Strong in its influence. Strong in its hatred of all that's
good. But this fight's not over, you see. Now, if you're just
religious and zealous, but not according to knowledge, then
it's already over. If you don't know the Lord, then
that's you dead and it's over with. You're dead while you live. But Asahel had a couple of brothers.
This fight's not over yet. There are three brothers in our
story in 2 Samuel. Abner got in a terrible blow
here. And it hurt to see Asahel fall. But Abner is not going to win
this. He's still going to have to deal with Abishai and Joab.
And don't forget in any of this, in all of this, everything that
these men, Joab and Abishai, did, they did in the name of
David. The other two brothers, we're
going to talk about them. They did it in the name of David.
Abner was a problem because why? He wouldn't bow to David. It's
all about the sovereignty of David. And so it is in the substance
that cast the shadow. It's all about the sovereignty
of Christ. The Lordship of Christ. Bowing
to Christ. Believing on Christ. Submitting
to Christ. All that David and his men did,
this is all for Christ's sake. And what we do, the fight that
we engage in every day, it's because Christ is king. And he's
worthy of all glory, all allegiance, all honor, and we're gonna give
it to him if he doesn't let us go. By his grace, we're gonna give
it to him. We just wish everyone would bow. If Abner would have
said, look, I've been wrong. I'm casting in my lot with you
guys. David is king from now. You think they would have killed
him? Of course not. We're going to see that at the end here.
But we want everybody to bow. But we know this now. That which will not bow has got
to go eventually. That which will not bow within
us has got to go eventually Got to go He must increase you see and
I must decrease Verse 24 Then Joab came to the king and Did we read far enough while
ago? Looks like I might have skipped some. Joab king to the
king. Let's just start in verse 24
there. Oh, I'm in the wrong, I think
I'm in the wrong chapter here. Where am I at? Okay, yeah, I
accidentally got out of place here. So verse 24. Joab also and Abishai pursued
after Abner when they found Asahel dead. They're mad too. And the
sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah that
lieth before Gaia by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.
And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together
after Abner and became one troop and stood on the top of a hill. Then Abner called to Joab and
said, shall the sword devour forever? Knowest thou not that
it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it
be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren? You see, he's calling them all
brethren. And he's right about that. But he's not saying it
with a good heart. He's saying that because they're
losing now, you see. Abner, even though he struck
down Asahel, Abner and his men are losing this thing. And now
all of a sudden we're all brothers. When he said let them rise up
and play, they weren't all brothers. There was treachery in that.
But now that they're losing, oh we're all brothers. Let's
just all get along. But as we'll see as the story
continues, he never meant any of that. He's just trying to
save himself. Abner can talk a good game. The
flesh, the flesh says we're all brothers,
let's just all get along. The flesh fights dirty, doesn't
it? The flesh fights dirty. There's no honor, there's no
fairness, there's no honesty in our flesh. It's subtle and
deceitful. And it'll cry peace, peace when
there's no peace. There can't be peace like this
now. Not in treachery and deceit and continued rebellion against
David. The Lord Jesus Christ. We're
not going to win against the flesh without the power of Christ. We're just not. And we know that
it's because of Him that we are going to win. It takes Christ,
the power and the spirit of Christ to destroy, to beat, to dominate
in us every day the flesh. But the flesh is going to pretend
to make nice now. We've got to be aware of it.
We'll see ultimately that it's a treacherous piece. It's a false
piece. We saw a while ago that relative
peace with the flesh is not always a bad thing. But we're not going
to be rid of it in this life. And so not provoking the flesh
is fine. As long as the flesh is subdued
and dormant and the Lord is putting it down, then we'll get along
just fine. We'll live in happiness and relative
peace and joy in Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. We'll be
born and enjoyed. But peace, here's the lesson
right here. Peace on the flesh's terms is just simply not peace. And
that's what we'll see. Then verse 27, And Joab said,
As God liveth, unless thou had spoken, surely then in the morning
the people had gone up, every one of them, from following his
brother. And what he's saying there, when
he says, unless you had spoken, He's talking about when Joab
is saying to Abner, when you said something before, when you
said, let them rise up and play. If you hadn't said that, we wouldn't
be following you. There wouldn't be this conflict
to begin with if you hadn't started up. That's what he's saying. If you hadn't started it, there
wouldn't be any. And that's how it is with God's
people in the flesh. or the world or anything that
opposes Christ as King. We are by God's grace the peacemakers. That's what he said in Matthew
5. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the
children of God. Peace, as I said, it has to be on God's terms now. But that's what we want. Look at this now turn with me
to Psalm 120. Psalm 120. I think we're going to make it
through this whole chapter. We're close and I want us to
see this though. Psalm 120. As we read this Psalm, think
of this as the world But also as the body of this death now
that Paul lamented having to live in in Romans 7. He said,
because of the law of sin in my memory, I can't do the things
that I would. There's a conflict. Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? I need deliverance. With my mind I serve the law
of God, the law of Christ, but with the flesh I serve sin. So think of that too in Psalm
120. In my distress, David said, I cried unto the Lord and He
heard me. What are you crying about, David?
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful
tongue. Now that's this world, that's
the flesh of this, of God's enemy, but that's also, Lord deliver
me from that. Keep the door of my lips, David
said in another place. Not just everybody else, don't
just deliver me from lying lips out there, but from these ones
too. And from a deceitful tongue.
What shall be given, look at verse three. What shall be given
unto thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
What are you gonna do with the flesh? Sharp arrows of the mighty with
coals of juniper. It's got to be war, doesn't it?
There's nothing, what else are you gonna do? Woe is me, David said, that I
sojourn in Mesech and I dwell in the tents of Kedar. My soul
hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. You see that here? David and Joab and the men that
followed David, they wanted peace. But Abner said, let's see who's
the strongest is. Let's play. And Joab wasn't going
to back down. What are you going to do about
the flesh? You going to let it just do what it wants to do,
or are you going to fight? David said, the sharp arrows of the
mighty. Not me, but I'm going to fight, but God's going to
be the one fighting for me. And look what he said, I've long
dwelt. We dwell in this world and have for a long time most
of us tonight with them that hate peace. But think of that
each one of us individually we've lived a long time now with our
flesh that hates peace constantly lusting against the spirit. We
know what it is to live with that which hates peace. But look
at what David said, I am for peace, but when I speak, they
are for war. That's the believer now. We're
for peace. We don't want any turmoil. I
can't stand it, can you? I can't stand it with anybody
else, and I don't like it within myself. That's why Paul cried out, who
shall deliver me from this? Look at verse 28. We'll read
to the end of the chapter and close with this. So Joab blew
a trumpet and all the people stood still and pursued after
Israel no more. Neither fought they anymore. Now this is peace on the flesh's
terms though. So it's not going to last, is
it? It's not going to last. And Abner and his men walked
all that night through the plain and passed over Jordan and went
through all Bithron and came to Maanaim. That's where they
started out. That's where they were from.
And we're gonna see something about that. But let me go ahead
and read to the end. And Joab returned from following Abner.
And when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked
of David's servants 19 men and Asahel. So 20 of David's men
fell. But the servants of David had
smitten of Benjamin and of Abner's men so that 303 score men died.
360. They killed of them and only
20 of David's men had died. The Spirit is going to dominate
in us now. It just did. The flesh is going
to mess everything up. No doubt about that. To some
extent. We can't do what we would. We're
never going to worship perfectly. We're never going to serve him
perfectly. We're never going to love him right. In this flesh. But we walk after the Spirit.
Not after the flesh. And look, and they took up Asahel
and buried him in the sepulcher of his father which was in Bethlehem.
And Joab and his men went all night and they came to Hebron
at break of day. They said, you know they were
tired. But they walked all night to
get home to Hebron. Abner and those who refused to
bow to David went back where they came from Where they left
Ish-bosheth, the false king. That's where Ish-bosheth was.
That's where the flesh is always going to rebel against God's
king. The flesh always sets up a false king that they can, that
it can manipulate. And may-nay-um means two camps. And the reason that there were
two camps in Israel loomed over these people's heads. They were
the cause of it. If everybody bows to David, there's
just one camp. There's two camps for one reason.
They hated God's king. And I'll tell you this, you hate
God's king, you hate God. Two camps. Joab and Abishai and
all those who were loyal to David went to Hebron which means Association
or joining That means unity That's where David is In Christ there's just one camp Galatians 3 27 for as many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and
there's neither Jew nor Greek There's neither bond nor free
there's neither male or female For you're all one in Christ
Jesus And if you be Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise They're just one camp under Christ So the enemies go to the place
of two camps because they hate God's son. But listen, this is us, Colossians
3.10, we've put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. After the image of Christ. Renewed after the image of Christ. You know, we were created in
the beginning. Religion loves to say, you know, Oh, we're born
in the image, we're in the image, we're the image of God. No, you're
not. God made man in his image in
the beginning, but we fell. We're a long way from the image
of God until we're born again. And we're described as renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there's neither Greek nor
Jew, Nothing else about you matters. If you belong to Him, that's
who you are. I like what John, John called
himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. What else matters about
you? If that's true about you. The
disciple who did this or that or lived there or knew this or
achieved that. No. The disciple whom Jesus loved. There is nothing distinguishing
about me that's more important than that. There's no Greek nor
Jew, no circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor
free. Why? Because Christ is all and
in all. That's why. We live in Hebron,
don't we? We've joined. We're associated. The word church means an assembly,
a group, Well, Ephesians, I've got to read this, Ephesians 2.
I didn't include the language in my notes, but I'm going to
turn over there real quick. I've still got a couple of minutes.
Ephesians 2.11. Ephesians 2 11 wherefore remember
that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands that
at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise
having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ
Jesus you who were at one time who at one time were far off
or made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. That's why there's no peace with
the flesh, because the flesh is anti-Christ. Christ is our
peace, who hath made both one. Both Jew and Gentile. and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace." That's peace on his terms, by his precious
blood. There's real peace in his true
church. And that he might reconcile both
unto God. There's not only reconciliation
between people who otherwise would be
divided. He unites us, but also he unites
all of us to God. He might reconcile both unto
God in one body by that same cross, having slain the enmity
thereby. When he was slain on Calvary,
the enmity between us and God was slain. Peace made by the
blood of His cross, because His precious redeeming blood washes
away all of our sin. David, as these followers of
His, picture this beautifully. Their bond, what separated them
from the others, from the flesh, from those who rebel, was quite
simply the sovereignty of David, the honor of David, allegiance
to David. And it is Christ crucified. by
whom this world is crucified unto us. And we unto this world. They had one problem with David,
with Abner, or with Joab and all the others. They had one
problem with them. David. And there's one reason why this whole world can't all
just get along. It's Christ. There's a division
among the people because of Him. And I tell you this, we desire
peace, don't we? But not on the world's terms.
Not let's just all get together and sing Kumbaya and dishonor
the Lord. We're not in on that. I don't
want any part of that. As long as that's the terms,
it's war. But if you'll bow to Christ,
submit to Him, believe on him, love him, honor him. In other
words, if he saves you, then you and I are going to get along
real good. If he saved this whole world,
it'd be one big happy place. But I don't reckon that's going
to happen to you. And there's never going to be
perfect peace in here until that which will not bow to him is
done away with. I kind of look forward to it.
Let's pray together.