You would open your Bible to
the book of 2 Samuel. Chapter 23. Most everybody is
probably very familiar with the first part of this chapter. the
last words of David where he refers that God had made with
him an everlasting covenant. Both sure and steadfast in all
things. But I want to begin reading in
verse 8. Everything that was recorded
was recorded and written on purpose. That we may first and foremost
look for Christ. In his glory and his divine character
and that's what I want to look at tonight in verses 8 through
12 of 2 Samuel 23. Now these be the names of the
mighty men whom David had. The tachmonite that sat in the
seat chief among the captains, the same was Adeno, the Elanite. He lift up his spear against
800 whom he slew at one time. In these verses, it's going to
talk about the three mighty men of David. What I can understand,
this is the only place that they're mentioned. Not anywhere else
is all the scriptures that's written about David and everything
that David did and God worked through David. This is the only
place that they're mentioned. And the second one after him
was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, the Elhach, one of the three
mighty men with David, when they defiled the Philistines that
were gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone
away. And he arose and smote the Philistines,
and to his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword,
and the Lord wrought a great victory that day. And the people
returned after him only to stroll. And after him was Shema, the
son of Abel, the Herod, and the Philistines were gathered together
into a troop where it was a piece of ground full of lentils. And
the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of
the ground and defended it. And he slew the Philistines. And the Lord wrought a great
victory. What a story. These men are recorded. These mighty men of David. These men were under David and
these men loved David. These men came to David when
he was probably, not when he's sitting up on the throne, but
when he's running from Saul. They identified themselves with
David, and they stood by David, and they were faithful their
whole lives. Why? Because David loved them,
and they loved David. They loved him. So we can see
a picture here of David's mighty men. But also we see a picture
of us. When God saves us by His grace,
and He sheds abroad His love in our heart, we do. Love him. We will stand like
this man did. He stood when everybody left.
He stood in his ground and he defended it. Everybody may leave,
but not this man. Why? When God begins a good work
in a man, he'll finish it. God makes a man courageous. He
makes them courageous. He noticed it didn't say what
they had brought, but it said the Lord brought a great victory. The victory's His. Let me remind
you once again, He uses human instruments. It pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. So
see, we see here a story of these mighty men, who they are recorded
in the scriptures of what they did. We see a picture of ourselves. But the main thing is we see,
I want us to begin in the latter part of verse 9 and also verse
10. There are seven things that I
see in this verse, in a part of a verse, that picture our
Lord Jesus Christ and His great work of redemption. You know,
if you don't see Christ in this picture, you're looking at it
from the wrong angle. Up there where I live, I don't
know if you've ever heard of it, but it's called Grandfather
Mountain. You say, well why do they call it Grandfather Mountain?
Now you can see it from several different towns, and it just
looks like a real high mountain. But if you're leaving the little
town of Boone, going up Highway 105, you know exactly why they
call it Grandfather Mountain. It looks exactly like an old
man laying down. And when you see it, you see
it. And the reason people don't see Christ in the Scriptures
are looking at it from the wrong angle. And the way we see Christ
is looking at Him from God's angle. How does God see Him? God sees Him lifted up. All these
things, they're not just stories, they're pictures of Him. And
if you see Him, and if God enables us to see Him, oh, we'll worship
Him. We'll see Him. Look at the latter
part of verse 9, the first point. And the men of Israel were gone
away. All left. He stands alone. Isaiah chapter 63 verse 1, listen. Who is this that cometh up from
Edom? with dyed garments from Basra. This it is glorious in
his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. I
that speak in righteousness mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red
in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the
winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people
there was none with Me. What our Lord did, He did
alone. He did it without the aid of
anybody. He did it alone. All the disciples forsook Him
and fled. And even the Father forsook Him.
And here He stands alone. Alone. The prophet seems to have
in his mind an eye to the incarnation of Christ. When performing the
work of our redemption, when he saw him covered with blood,
as one coming up from a great battle, yet full of great strength. He cried as though he was astonished
when he saw him. Who is this that cometh up from
Edom with garments dyed red? It's Christ. It's our captain
who did it alone. When everybody left, this man
stood. This man. This man, when he bore our sins, he bore
them alone. When he drank the cup of God's
wrath, he took it alone. He was forsaken, alone. He died,
alone. He satisfied justice, alone. He put away our sins, alone. He brought in everlasting righteousness,
alone. The first thing I see, he was
alone? And the second thing, look at the very first part of
verse 10. He arose. When everyone else had forsaken,
he stood his ground. He stood. He rose up when the
Israelites fled. He stood his ground alone and
fought the Philistines. He set his face like a flint.
and he opened not his mouth. He stood his ground. He stood. He arose and stood as my surety
before the world was ever made. He stood. He arose. He arose. He arose to the occasion. He
did. He did. Which is what he did. He stood as our surety. My representative,
where's everybody else at? That boy, that picture's us.
We run, we cannot fight, we cannot stand. We're weak creatures,
frail creatures. But what I see here in these
verses, I see the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, who took
upon himself human flesh to redeem a people. He stood, he arose,
alone. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. This reminds me of, remember
when they came to arrest our Lord in the garden? He said,
whom do you see? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And they fell backwards. You
know what he said? He said, if you've come after
these, you let them go. You take me. You know what he
did? He arose. That's me. He knew what he was about to
do. He knew this was the purpose for which he was born to redeem
a people. Look at the next point. He smoked the Philistines. Everybody was left. He arose
and he smoked the Philistines. These Philistines, you know,
as you read the Old Testament, they were always fighting against
the people of God. Turn with me over to 1 Samuel
17. I believe this just illustrates this. 1 Samuel 17. He smoked the Philistines. Most of y'all remember that Goliath
was a Philistine. Picture of the enemies of God.
those who hated and despised God. And here we see in 1 Samuel
17, Goliath, he's coming down to mock God and blaspheme God. And he stood, verse 8, and he
cried to the armies of Israel and said unto them, Why are you
come out to set your battle in array? I am not out of blessing,
can you serve us to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and
let him come down to me. He said, you choose your man
and you let him come down to me. God chose him a man. The man. And he went down and what? He
fought this Philistine. He fought the Philistine. You know the story how when David
came, he was the eighth son of Jesse and Samuel would have passed
him by. He would have known him the first
boy that walked in. God said, don't you look on outward
appearances. God said, I'll look on the heart. And God chose David. And David comes to the battle
and everybody's afraid. Everybody's scared of this big
old giant, this Philistine. And David's brother said, why
don't you come out here? Why ain't you back home watching
that little bunch of sheep? He said, you just come out to
mock the battle. You just come out to make fun
of it. Because we're just too scared to go fight him. And David
said, is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? And Saul
said, well, if you're going to go fight him, he said, let me
put my armor on you. Can you just imagine how David
looked? You probably couldn't even see
him. And David said, I've not proved this. And he took a swing
and five sleuth stones. And it says that David ran to
me. He smoked the flint steel. He
said, you come to me with a spear and a sword. that I come to you
in the name of the Lord. And he took that sling and hit
that giant and then went over and took the giant's own sword
and cut his head off. He smoked the blistings. I guarantee the blistings never
forgot it. They never forgot what David
did to their champion. Let me tell you this, the Lord
Jesus Christ to smote the Philistines in our behalf. He smote the Philistines. He rose to the occasion. He depleted
all of our foes and he did it alone. I always just when I try to read
scripture, I try to just kind of picture how it was. I picture
David just, we don't know what size he was, but I just picture
him a young lad, maybe 17 years old, somewhere along in there.
But I see him when he comes up out of that valley. That sword's
probably so big he can't even pick it up. He's just probably
dragging it behind him. And in the other hand, he's got
the head of the lion. He led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men. He smoked the Philistines. What is our enemy? Death, hell,
and the grave, sin, all these things were against us and he
smoked. He defeated the Philistines. He smoked them. He did it. This is what he did. So we see
all the men of Israel were gone away. He arose and smoked the
Philistines. And look at the next part of
the verse. until his hand was weary. I know you've probably seen movies
or different things on TV and you've seen these people when
they are in battle. This is not somebody standing
on this range or on this hill and they're shooting arrows at
one another. No, this is close contact. This
is a man taking a sword surrounded by the enemy. This man standing
alone And he spotted the enemy and it said, his hand grew weary. Eventually a man's going to grow
tired. You imagine just carrying the
sword, but every time you kill one, here comes another. And
his hand grew weary. You said, how can this be a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ? How can this picture Him and
His humanity? John chapter 4 verse 6. Now,
Jacob's will was there, and Jesus, therefore, being weary with his
journey, sat on the well. Do you get weary? He got weary. He's able to be felt with the
feelings of our infirmities. Does your hand grow weary? Do
you want to quit? Do you want to throw in the towel?
Listen, he's the only one fighting. Everybody else is gone. Everybody
else has deserted him. And his hand grew weary. What does this mean? Why is this
recording? What does the Spirit of God intend
for us to learn from the fact that our Savior was tired, weary,
beat down, exhausted from the toil and burden of the journey?
This is not recorded to reveal some weakness of our Savior's
character. He's the mighty God. The mighty
God. But this shows our Redeemer. This is intended to teach us
that He was. A real man. A real man. He had to be a man. He had to
be my representative. I cannot explain this, but he
was 100% God, never ceased to be God, even when he was in his
humanity, but he was still a man. And he's able to be felt with
the feelings of my uncertainties. Does your mind ever grow weary?
Do you not know which way to turn? This is when he was in
the garden of Gethsemane. And his sweat became as great
drops of blood. It says the angels came and ministered
unto him. He grew weary. He grew weary. He grew weary just like us. I
ran across this somewhere. I don't remember where I got
it. But it says that humanity of Christ is every bit as necessary
to our salvation as His deity. And every bit as comforting. I get comfort from this. Do you
need comfort? I ask you tonight, are you weary? Our life is a total, constant
battle. You defeat one enemy and here
comes another one, sticking up its old ugly head. And they are
the enemies of our God. Don't take it personal. But sometimes
we do take it personal. You know why? Because if God
shows you mercy, you love the King. And you stand the ground. And your hand grows weary. But
listen, his hand grew weary. He was a man. He was a man. He said he came not to be ministered
unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Psalm 22 verse 15, listen to
this. My strength is dried up like
a pop shirt. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws
and thou hast brought me into the dust of the earth. That's
talking about him. That's describing our warrant. These were the conditions to
which our Redeemer subjected Himself in the days of His flesh
when He was made sin for us, who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. This word, wearied,
it means tired, sick, worn out, exhausted, beat down, Burdened,
our Savior was wearied with His journey. Weary with fatigue from
His journey, weary with the cares for the souls of men, weary with
the burden of His heart, the burden He carried throughout
all the days of His life. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10, For
it became Him from whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. Through suffering. When you grow
tired and weary, now remember this, He grew tired and weary
for you and He would not lay down the sword. He would not. Would not. Would not. Look at
the next point. He was there alone, he arose,
he smoked the Philistines, until his hand was weary, and his hand
clave unto the sword. Though his hand grew weary with
the battle, He would not lay down his sword. He could not
lay it down. This is a matter of life and
death. You just picture this man standing
there and he stands there and he fights and he fights and he
fights and his hand grows weary and he will not lay down the
sword because the sword claimed to his hand. Somebody said that
that sword was probably so covered in blood You can just picture
it. I mean, blood everywhere. Blood
dripping down his arms. It was just like it welded to
his hands. He grasped it so tight. You know
what the sword is? It's the Word of God. How did
he defeat Satan? With the Word of God. When he
was, after he was baptized, he was taken into the wilderness
and tempted for 40 days. And then Satan came to him in
his weakness, in his weariness. And he said, why don't you just
turn these stones into bread? He said, God, I have commanded
thou shalt not live for very long, but by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God. He said, why don't you cast
yourself off this mountain? He said that He'll give His angels
charge concerning you. He said, lest you dash your foot
against the stall. He said, thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God. He said, why don't you just bow
down to Him and I'll give all this to you. He said, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. What's
He using? The sword of God. He never laid
it down. Even when He was hanging on the
cross, you know what He did? He fulfilled every scripture.
Because He is the Word. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. His hand laid to the
sword. He wouldn't let it down. Even when He was on the cross.
And it looks like He's in His weakest point. And I love reading
that where he's saved that thief on the cross. He's weakest? He looks like the weakest point.
He's nailed to a cross bearing the sins of many. And he says,
I thirst that the scripture may be fulfilled. And they gave him any grant.
And he said, listen to me, it is. He never laid down the sword. How do we defeat our enemies?
With the Word of God. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, casting down imaginations in every high thing.
People say, well the Word of God is out of date, it just won't
get the job done. It gets the job done. It's the
preaching of the gospel that destroys every enemy and every
foe. I'll say, commit this word to
who? Faithful men. Everybody in here, if God has
revealed Himself to you, He revealed Himself to you through the preaching
of the gospel. Somebody that would not lay down
the sword. And let me tell you this, They
will never lay down the sword. They'll never lay it down. Never. Never. Never. He would never lay it down. Never. Hebrews 4.12, for the word of
God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder. of soul and spirit and
of the joints and the marriage and is a discerner of the thought
and the intent of the heart. He continued fighting until the
battle was won. Until he had defeated every last
one of them. I see this man standing there,
and he's fighting, and he's fighting, and his hand grows weary, and
he won't lay down the sword, lay down the sword, and when
everything's finished, he's the only one standing. I like that song I heard Mike Bartram
sing one time at Don Fortner's. You know, there's a line drawn
through the ages, and on the stand of the old rugged cross,
On one side are the angels of glory, on the other side are
the forces of evil. And from the midst of the darkness,
he cries, it is finished. The battle is over. There will
be no more war. Don't that describe him? He's
not a defeated savior. He's the conqueror. Oh, He stood
His ground. He would not lay down the battle.
He would not quit. And it says He wrought. He wrought. Who did? He did. He wrought a
great victory that day. What a victory. What a victory. Sin has been defeated. Death
has been defeated. Satan and all his foes were destroyed. Yes, they were. The Bible says
we were all of our lifetime. lived in fear of death. Let me
tell you this thing, and I don't have to fear death anymore. He's conquered it. He wrought a great victory. Yes, he has. Our redemption was
accomplished. What a victory! What a victory! Nobody, no Old Testament saint,
none of them, none of them, no angel, no human being could pay
my sin debt. All the blood that was shed in
the Old Testament never took away one sin, never took away
one sin. But this man, when he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, for effort, sat down at the right hand of
the Son of God and took away my sin. What a victory. It's gone. Now that's not a victory. I don't know what is. What a victory. The price is
paid. He was victorious. What a victory. What a victory. We read to you in Psalms 98 verse
1. I was singing to the Lord a new song for he had done marvelous
things. His right hand and His holy arm
have gotten Him the victory. His right hand and His holy arm. This was done by Him alone. by
His right hand the power, by the mighty arm of His strength,
in which no mere creature could ever have performed what He did.
And this He did in a way of holiness. His holy arm did it in a way
that maintained and secured the glory of divine holiness and
justice. He wrought a great victory. Isaiah 25a. He will swallow up
death in victory. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Did you hear that? He that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Why? He won the victory. He won it. Alone. Alone. Colossians 15 verse 17, but thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look at the last point. That's
part of verse 10. And the people returned after
him only to spoil. Those people who had fled earlier,
I can just see them start creeping up out of the bushes. They're going to get the spoil
from the battle. They that fled, when they saw
what a victory was obtained by him, returned and came after
him, not to help him smite and to win the battle, but to spoil
those that were slain and strip them of what they had. Eliezer
was pleased to see them in the field again. I dare say he did
not say one rebuking word to them. He didn't say, where was you
at when I signed the battle? He said, just come on. You see
all this? You see all this? I did this
for you. You know what we're doing? We're
just gathering the spoils. He didn't do anything. He did
it. He did it. He led captivity captive and
he gave gifts unto men. First Samuel chapter 30. Remember
the story when I think David was living in a place called
Ziklag and he left and when he came back His family was taken
captive and his wife and his children and they burnt the cities
and everything. Can you imagine coming back and
seeing everything just in a mess? And it said, David encouraged
himself in the Lord. Now listen to me. You may go
through hard times. You may go through severe trials.
You can either just sit down and quit. Or you can encourage
yourself in the Lord. And he said, I want to go get
what they took. And he did. And in verse 18,
And David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken away.
And David rescued his two wives, and there was nothing lacking
to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither
spoils nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered
all. And David took all the plots
and the herbs which they had drove, which they drove from
before those other cattle and said, you know what they said?
This is David's fall. This is David's fall. They knew
whose it was. While our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
redemption for us by the death upon the cross, He recovered
all that we had lost by the fall. Nothing was left in the enemy's
hands. And he gathered, and we gather up everything, now listen
to me, everything that was lost in Adam, we gained it. That's the storm. That's the
storm. Isaiah 53, 12, Therefore would
I divide with him a portion with the great, And he shall divide
the spoiled with the strong. Because he poured out his soul
unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bared the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
And in Romans chapter 8 it says, We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Let us thank God, when we are
weary of the battle, that our great General did not quit until
the battle was won. He did not quit. He did not quit. We have received great spoil,
and for that which we did nothing to obtain, it is Christ's spoil,
and I am a joint heir with Him, and if it's His, it's mine. What
a great victory we have in Christ. May God bless His blessings on
His Word. Amen.