All right, brother, let's turn
to 2 Samuel 3. 2 Samuel 3. Read verse 39. 2 Samuel 3, 39. David is speaking. He says, I
am this day weak, though anointed king. And these men, the sons
of Zerubbabel, Zerui, be too hard for me. The Lord shall reward
the doer of evil according to his wickedness. The Lord had
anointed David long before he put David on the throne over
Judah. God the Father anointed all his
elect long before he ever made this world. When he anointed
the Lord Jesus, his son made him king. He anointed his people. He made us kings in Christ, blessed
us with all spiritual blessings, according as he chose us in Christ.
And when the Holy Spirit regenerates us and Christ calls us to himself,
he reveals to us that he is king, that he's made us kings. He's
the king and he's made his people kings through his precious blood.
I just read Revelation 1-5 to you. He redeemed his people. He made us kings and priests
unto God by his blood. But there's a long time from
the time he calls us to faith to when he'll bring us home to
glory to reign with him. A long time, and there's a lot
of trouble between the time when he calls you till he brings you
home to glory. Once David was put on the throne,
that's when new trouble started. Some new trouble started. Judah,
the whole tribe of Judah bowed to him as their king. And that
was the tribe he's from. They bowed to him as their king. But the 10 tribes of Israel,
and the half-tribe of Benjamin, the children of Israel, they
set up another king. You remember Abner had been the
leader of Saul's army, and whenever David became the king, Abner
didn't want to lose that position. And so he set up Ishabeth to
be the king and persuaded all the children of Israel to follow
him as king rather than following David. Well, Abner and Ish-basheth
had a falling out. They fell out with one another.
And so Abner, he's a politician. I mean, he was a politician.
He kept his finger in the air whichever way the wind was blowing,
that's which way he was headed. And he went to David, and he
told David he could persuade all the children of Israel to
come under David's rule. But he wanted to have a position
there, So David agreed, and David threw Abner and his men a big
feast. Well, Joab and Abishah, remember Joab and Abishah, they
were David's main men. They were his real powerful men
that was leading his army and leading his men. They were brothers,
and they were David's nephews. Zerui, that was David's sister. They were her sons. And they
already had bad blood with Abner, because you remember we saw last
year sometime, we saw this in Chapter 2, where Abner killed
their brother. Their brother, remember, was
chasing after Abner, and he wouldn't stop. And Abner just stuck the
spear out and stabbed him in the side and killed him. So they had bad blood with Abner
already. And when they heard that Abner
had come to David and made a league with David, they secretly lured
Abner out of town and they just flat out killed him. Killed him
in cold blood. And this made the people think
that David slew Abner. That's what the people thought.
It was not a good thing for David. It put a stain on him because
they The people just automatically thought that David had Abner
slain. Well, David, he didn't bring
Joab before the judges. That's what the law said. That's what the king was supposed
to do. But he didn't bring Joab before the judges, because Joab
was a powerful man. And Abishah, they were powerful.
Had all the people behind them. They were leading the army. David's
a new king. So he didn't bring them. before
the judges. He just didn't do it. But he
did throw an extravagant funeral for Abner. And David seriously
was mourning Abner. And he went along behind the
coffin, and he said at the funeral, he said some very good words
about Abner. David was a gracious man, because
Abner had not been good to David. Abner had been his enemy. But
David really truthfully mourned Abner and said some really gracious
things about him. And when the people tried to
get David to eat, he would not eat. He was fasting, showing
how he was mourning Abner, and he wouldn't eat till the sun
went down. Look here in verse 36, 2 Samuel 3.36, and all the
people took notice of it, and it pleased them, as whatsoever
the king did pleased all the people. For all the people and
all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to
slay Abner, the son of Ner. They realized it what David didn't
do this. And a king said unto his servants,
know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day
in Israel? And I am this day weak, though
anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zerui, be too hard
for me. Joab and Abisha, they're just
too severe, they're too ruthless, and they're too powerful. The
Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.
Titled this, Weak Kings. Weak Kings. That's what God's
saints are. That's what you and me are. We've
been anointed by the Lord and made kings by the blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ. You that have been called by
him. But in ourselves, we are weak. We're weak. Weak kings. I wanna show you first of all,
the Lord Jesus has created in us a new spirit, a new spirit. But brethren, our flesh is nothing
but weakness. Our flesh is weakness. We've
been chosen of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of the
Lord Jesus. We've been quickened and called
by the Holy Spirit of God, anointed King. But in our flesh dwells
nothing good. In our flesh we are total weakness. I am this day weak, though anointed
King. You know, our Savior declared
this. He was without sin, knew no sin. He was holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. But he was touched with all the
feelings of our infirmities. He took flesh, he was a real
man. The son of God came down and
took flesh and was a real man. And every infirmity, every weakness
that you and I have due to our sin, our Lord was touched with
all of them. When he walked this earth as
the God-man mediator, he felt and experienced all the weakness
of our flesh. And in Gethsemane's garden, he
said it. He said, the spirit indeed is
willing. but the flesh is weak. The flesh
is weak. He asked the apostles just to
pray with him for one hour. And he went away and he's sweating
great drops of blood and in agony and his soul is troubled, facing
the cross and bearing the sin and curse of his people. And
he comes back to his apostles and they're asleep. Ain't that
us? Just asleep. And he said, the
spirit indeed is willing. That new spirit he's put in his
people is willing, but our flesh is weak. Now, how much more is
that true of you and me? If Christ could say that and
he experienced that, and he's without sin, how much more you
and me who are only sin in our flesh? You all got my email that
Brother Darwin had a stroke a few days ago. And last night, I talked
to him on the phone. And we talked for a good little
while. And after we hung up, that's
what got me thinking on this. And I just kept thinking about
how strong we can be one day, and the next just weak as water. And really, all the time, we
just don't know it. But all the time, we were as
weak as water, just weak. There's so many friends that
we have that are up in years now and you see them, you know,
it's like all of a sudden you see it and see them age. And then you have, we have brethren
that are young that get sick and just, and it's all due to
sin, brethren. Sin has completely, totally wrecked
us. made us just to where we have
no strength whatsoever. And you that have been called
by the Lord, there's a new man created in you, a new spirit
by the Lord, created in his righteousness and his holiness, Christ dwelling
in you, one with that new spirit. But in our flesh of Adam, nothing
has changed. He's not using anything that's
of Adam. He hasn't used it. our sinful
flesh. It's going back to the dust.
We start dying the day we're born, and it's going back to
the dust. It's gonna return to the dust
from which God made it. You know, Rebecca, she'd been
barren a long time. Look at Genesis 25. She'd been barren all her days,
and just like you and me coming to this world barren, dead in
sins, can't produce any fruit, barren. And her husband entreated
God for her, just like Christ our husband interceded on behalf
of his people with God. And God heard her husband, and
he granted her husband his petition, and he made her have children.
Christ has interceded for his people, and God the Father's
heard him. He come and created life in us by the Spirit, gave
us faith and repentance, all the fruit of His spiritual fruit,
it's all of Him, because of Christ intercession. Look here now, verse 22 says,
and the children struggled together within her, Genesis 25, 22. And
the children struggled together within her, and she said, if
it be so, why am I thus? Why am I thus? And she went to
inquire of the Lord, And the Lord said unto her, two nations
are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated
from thy bibles. The one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. There's two manner of people
in every one of God's saints. Everybody that been born again
of God, there's two manner of people in us. There's an old
man of sin, That's only sin. And there's a new man created
in the righteousness and holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they're in a constant warfare. They're struggling against one
another continually, just like Jacob and Esau were in Rebecca's
womb. With us, while we live on this
earth, as long as we live in this body, our old man, our signature,
will always be the elder. He's gonna always be older than
our new man. Always. But we've been anointed
king in our new man. And because this old man, though,
we're going to have to constantly cry like David did. I am this
day weak, though anointed king. But you know what Christ had
promised us? Just what he promised Rebecca, the elder shall serve
the younger. That old man's going to always
be the elder in us. but he's gonna serve the younger,
he's gonna serve the new man. That's not gonna be by us, that's
gonna be by Christ. Just like David was king, but he was weak. We've been made
king, but we're weak. But this is the promise of the
Lord. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under
the law, you are under grace. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. So he's not gonna let the old man of sin have dominion
over so as to separate you from Christ and make you to go off
in unbelief and apostasy and fall and fail. He's not gonna
permit that. He's gonna make the new man prevail.
That's what Christ will do. But we fail quite often, every
day, because of our flesh. David, he was to uphold the law.
He's the king now, and he had a responsibility. He was to uphold
the law. He should have brought Joab in,
and he should have brought him before the judges and let them
bring all the evidence against him, and he should have died.
You know, the Lord said in Noah's day, the Lord said, if a man
sheds another man's blood, then that man's going to die. And
that's what David was to do. But he didn't do that. He didn't
do that. He was weak. He was afraid. He saw these men had so much
power. And they were ruthless. He had
been with them. He had seen them fight in battle.
He knew they were the valiant men for David. And he knew that. And they were kin to him. And there's all kinds of reasons.
But David didn't, he didn't bring them before the judges. Brethren. in me that's been born again,
the Lord's taught us, he's taught us, we can't uphold the law,
we can't fulfill the law, we could never obey God's holy law
like God requires, and we still can't do it like God requires,
because of our flesh. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Can't be justified by the deeds
of the law. We can't uphold it. But you know, This is the good thing and this
is why we come here, this gospel. This is what we continually need
to hear. This is the children's bread. This is what's gonna strengthen
us in the new man. Our Lord Jesus has fulfilled
that law completely for his people. He has come and completely fulfilled
it and put away all the sin of his people. Then he sent us the
gospel and quickened us and made us to know he's done it for us
and made us to know it is finished. He's accomplished it. Listen
to Galatians 2. Actually, let's go there. Galatians
chapter 2. This is so important. I was talking
to a man one time about this verse. He said, well, it's not
that important. I said, oh, I think it is. I
think it's vitally important. Galatians 2, verse 16. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's Christ obedience. That's
his doing. That's how we're justified, by
Christ's doing. He fulfilled the law. Even we
have believed in Jesus Christ. Now that's your faith in him.
Why do we believe in him? That we might be justified by
the faith of Christ. If you've got a Bible that's
taken that distinction out, and both of them says in Christ,
you get you a Bible that says of and in, because that's a vital
distinction. One's talking about Christ's
doing, and the other's talking about your faith in him and his
doing. We're not justified by works,
we're justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of
the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But you know, here's another
thing. Our flesh is so weak that at times we can't do even the
light and easy yoke that Christ has given us now that we're under
His grace. We can't even keep His commandments
that's so light and easy that He's brought us under, that light
and easy yoke. Believing on the Lord Jesus seemed
like it ought to be the easiest thing in the world. Trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. and loving our brethren for whom
Christ died. That seems like it ought to be
so easy, but brethren, we're so weak in our faith that we
can't even believe on Him as we should. You let trouble come,
you let the storms come, and you let the sea start raging,
and you get some illness, or you get some terrible thing happen
in your family, or whatever it is. And we get so full of unbelief. Our old man, that's all he is,
is unbelief. And you think, did I ever even
believe the Lord? You thought that was just you,
but that's not just you, believer. That's every one of God's people.
We all go through that. And loving our brethren that
Christ died for ought to be something we just excel in. But we get so full of our sinful
flesh sometimes and we just, we don't love Christ as we ought
and we don't love our brethren as we ought. We can't ever depend
on, look to our faith and we can't look to our love. Not at
all. And the Lord's gonna keep us
knowing that. But here's what we need to remember. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? It's his love for us
that's saving us. It's His faithfulness by which
we're saved. He gives us faith and unites
us to trust His faithfulness, but even our faith is so weak,
so very weak. It's His faithfulness. And our
love, oh, it can get so cold. His love is the love by which
we're saved. Sometimes you just don't feel
like you believe Him. You don't feel like you love
Him. But listen, we have His word. We have His Word and He's
given us His Word. He's going to save us. He's given
us His Word. Trust His Word. Even when you
don't see yourself and you know you just don't have faith like
you ought and you don't have love like you ought, trust the
Word of God. It's His faithfulness and it's
His love. Listen to Martin Luther. Feelings come and feelings go
and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God. naught else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for one of some sweet token, there is one greater than
my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging
word till soul and body sever, for though all things shall pass
away, his word shall stand forever. Now let's look secondly here,
turn to Revelation 19. Though our Savior has made us
kings unto God by his blood, and though he's promised we shall
reign, he's the power of God and salvation, not us, brethren,
he is, not us. Look here, Revelation 19, 11.
I saw heaven open, Revelation 19, 11. I saw heaven open, and
behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True. That's him, Faithful and True.
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes
were as a flame of fire, and catch this right here, and on
his head were many crowns. On his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. That's
his name, faithful and true, and the Word of God. And the
armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, and that with it he should smite the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. Our Savior has made us kings,
but on His head are many crowns, many crowns. He's the power of
God and salvation. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. He's the power. We're saved by
His strength, not our own. What are these crowns? Well,
one, He wears the crown as the creator and the governor. All things were made by Him and
for Him, and by Him all things consist. He's the king of providence. He's ruling everything that comes
to pass in this world. And now, brethren, He's always
been that king. He's always been the creator
and the ruler of all providence. But now, as the risen victorious
God-man mediator, He has the crown of being the head over
all things to the church. He's the head over all in the
universe, and especially over His church. All power belongs
to Christ our King. He's so pleased in what Christ
has done for His people and so glorified His righteousness has
been manifest so that God has raised Him and set His King in
His holy hill of Zion. And He wears the crown as King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's not only your King and my
King, you who He's made Kings, He's the King of you who he's
made a king by his blood. But he's also the king of every
ruler that ever ruled on the face of this earth. He put them
there and he rules their hearts and he turns the king's heart
like a river whether so ever he pleases. Because he's king.
He's all powerful. He's the king. But here's what
I want you to especially know. That's the crown. Crown is creator.
Crown is governor. Crown is the as the head over
his church crown, as the king of all earthly kings, and even
of kings that we can't see, princes and powers and principalities
and rulers of the darkness. The devil can't wiggle his toe
unless our king gives him permission. But here's what I want you to
get. On his head are many crowns. Listen, Paul said this, he said,
henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at the last
day, and not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing.
There's a crown of righteousness laid up for me. Where's it laid
up? It's on his head. It's on Christ's
head. The righteousness that He's going
to give us, that He's imputed to us, and that we're going to
be made in body, soul, and spirit one day, the righteousness is
all of Christ's obedience. It's not our obedience, it's
His obedience. And He's got a crown of righteousness
for each of His people. He is the righteousness of all
His people. He, if you think I'm talking
about a literal crown, if that's all you want, that's nothing. We're talking about righteousness,
the crown of life, the crown of righteousness. Righteousness,
life is Christ. And He has that, and He wears
that, and He's laid it up for His people. And brethren, when
He quickens and calls you and makes you to know He is all your
righteousness before God, He makes us bow to Him, and come
under the power of his scepter just like a servant bows to the
king. Every time we're weak due to
our sinful flesh, you know how we're renewed? That sharp two-edged
sword goes out of his mouth. He sends this gospel and he renews
you inwardly in that inward man that he's created because he's
the power to do that. And in that great day when he
brings you into that And glory, look here at Revelation, look
at chapter 4. When He brings you into that
glory one day, and everything's going to be His
creation, it's going to be created in His righteousness and His
holiness. Everything will be the righteousness of Christ in
glory. That new Jerusalem made up of
His people. And look, you're going to do
what the 4 and 20 elders did. Look here, Revelation 4.10, it
says, The four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat
on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever,
and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou
hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and
were created. That's what we're going to do. We're going to bow just like
you do now, but you're going to do it perfectly in that day.
Give him glory, glory to the highest. Now, current term, we're
going to do 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12. I'm going to wind this up. 2 Corinthians 12. Yes, you're weak.
You're anointed king. You're weak. And enemies are
all too hard for you, too severe, too ruthless. Too powerful. But our flesh,
though it's, you tell you what the flesh is, I'll tell you what
your flesh is. Mine and yours together. It's
a continual thorn. It's a continual thorn. And it's
gonna be till we drop it. All God's saints have a thorn
in the flesh. It is the flesh. But Christ promises
what he promised Paul right here. 2 Corinthians 12, nine, he said,
He said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient
for thee. You wouldn't know that if you
didn't have this sinful flesh. You have this sinful flesh so
you see I'm weak, I can't defeat my enemies. It's his grace that
is my sufficiency, not me. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. You see his strength
by, against the black backdrop of your total weakness. Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, in my
weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore,
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm
weak, then am I strong. When I'm weak, the very place
Very best place for us to be is at Christ's feet. Weak, begging
Him to help us, begging Him. I woke up this morning begging
Him, begging Him, Lord, please save me from me. Just save me
from me. Stop me. Just stop me. Subdue me and save me. I pray the power of Christ may
rest upon me. That's my prayer. It's never
good, never, ever, ever good for you and me to think we're
strong. You know why the Lord said he
gave Paul that thorn? Because he gave him great revelations
of things above, things that Paul said, I can't even utter
what I saw. And he said two times, he said,
lest I be exalted above measure. Lest I be puffed up in pride,
the Lord humble me by giving me this thorn, and make me see
my utter weakness, and make me depend on his power. Oh, though
the Lord be high, yet he hath respect unto the lowly, but the
proud he knoweth afar off. The best place for us to be is
at his feet. Weak, totally weak. Now, you
that have never believed, and anybody that's hearing this,
that'll hear this whenever, today, God willing, 20 years from now,
I pray those that never believed on Christ, it does no good to
fight against the king. It does no good to fight against
Christ Jesus, the power of God. That's a losing fight. Best thing
a man can do is bow down and ask him for mercy. He's loved. Our king delights to show mercy
to needy sinners. If you're a needy sinner with
no power and no ability, You fit the exact qualification of
those He came to save. You know, everybody is that way,
but there's not very many people that know it. It takes the Spirit
of God to make you know it. But if you come to Him a needy,
begging, just begging, pleading for mercy, He will delight, He
delights to show mercy, and He'll save you. Follow Him in baptism,
confess Him before men, declare to this world, I'm crucified,
The world's crucified to me and I unto the world in Christ. I'm
following him. I'm his, I'm dependent on him
and his power. He said, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be
damned. And you who he has called, remember this. Remember this
right here. 2 Corinthians 4, 7. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. clay pots, weak, worthless clay
pots, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us, not of us. Our old flesh is perishing day
by day, but he keeps renewing the inward man day by day. Whatever
we think is our strength, and I'll tell you something, it comes
so easy and so subtly and it just takes you over and you don't
even realize it's happened. And you've just, the devil don't
come whipping you into pride, he comes wooing you to be lifted
up in pride. He sends you compliments and
he adds some numbers to you and he adds a little bit of riches
to your account and he does things that that seems so good and make
you feel so secure. And next thing you know, you're
just all securing yourself and not trusting Christ at all. Anything that is our strength,
anything that is our confidence except Christ is no strength
at all. It's no strength that we have
to be saved from it. We don't have any strength in
how many people we have on our side. Oh, I got a lot of people
saying good things about me. So what? We don't have any strength
in riches. We don't have any strength in
any power and any position we have in this world. It's not
strength to have any gifts and abilities. If you have any gifts
or abilities that are truly good gifts and good abilities to be
used spiritually, the Lord gave them. And He's the only one that
can make you use them wisely and make them profit anybody.
And not our good works, that's not gonna save, that's not anything
to put strength in. Listen, Psalm 33, 16, let's look
here and we'll be done. Psalm 33, 16, look here. Psalm
33, 16. There is no king saved by the
multitude of a host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. You know, I always say we're
a mess and a mess. You go home tonight and read
Proverbs 14, I believe it's Proverbs 14, 4. Where there's no ox, the crib
is, I'm paraphrasing it, but where there's no ox, the crib
is clean, the stall is clean. Much increase with the strength
of an ox. A lot of mess when you have the
strength of an ox. Anything we put confidence in
that is our strength in this flesh or this world is going
to be a mess. Dung, Paul called it. There's
no king saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty man's not
delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy to
deliver their soul from death. That's what he's delivering us
from, ourselves, death. And to keep them alive in famine,
our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield,
for our heart shall rejoice in him. because we have trusted
in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon
us according as we hope in thee. That's our prayer. Lord, let
your mercy be upon us. We hope in your mercy and your
power, your ability, you to save. And I tell you, that's the place
to be. The Lord's nigh them that are
of a broken heart. He's nigh them that are of a
broken heart. He save us such that we have
a contrite spirit Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Every one of them. See, if he's gonna be the Savior,
and he's gonna get the glory of being all salvation, that
means he's gonna save us out of every single affliction. He's gonna do the saving. Trust
him. He's our strength, brethren.
Amen.