Let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter
23. 2 Samuel chapter 23. My text tonight begins in verse
8 of chapter 23. And I've titled this message,
Standing in the Power of Christ. Standing in the Power of Christ. And of course, the theme of this
message, as you can tell from the title, is this, that not
only are we saved from our sins in the power of Christ, the power
of his glorious person, for he is God and man in one person. Therefore, we know that in his
very person, he's able to save us. And then the power of his
blood to save us from our sins, the power of his obedience unto
death, his righteousness to justify us. But not only are we saved
by his power, but we're kept by his power. We stand, we walk,
we abide, we obey, we persevere, not by our own power, but by
the power of God's grace in Christ. I think about the Apostle Paul,
and I don't know what Paul looked like physically. There's a lot
of speculation about that. I don't know what kind of a man
he was in his stature and all of that. But I know this, when
he described the gospel ministry that had been entrusted to his
care by Christ, and he'd been commissioned and empowered gifted
to go out and preach the gospel in many places where the gospel
had never been preached before, he asked this question. He said,
who is sufficient for these things? And the answer to that is not
I. And that's what Paul was saying. I'm not sufficient. For our sufficiency
is of Christ. And so that's what I want us
to focus on tonight. And I wonder, as we look at these
scriptures, it says here in verse 8, these be the names of the
mighty men whom David had. These are the mighty men whom
David possessed. Mighty men. This is the record
of David's mighty men. These are David's most outstanding
and bravest warriors, soldiers, his bodyguard, his generals,
You can read this also, a parallel to it, in 1 Chronicles chapter
11. There are variations, but there are no contradictions.
There are some additions, but no contradiction. Mighty men. Now, what does that term, mighty,
mean? Well, it means a lot of different things to a lot of
different people. But we could sum it up in this. It emphasizes
the character of excellence. Excellence. A mighty man. And these men were mighty for
several reasons, but not one because of their own name, nor
because of their heritage, nor because of their own strength.
They had strength, but they were mighty because of their association
with the King of Israel, the King David. They were mighty
because they belong to him. Look at it again. These be the
names of the mighty men whom David had. He possessed them. They were his men. Had they not
been his men, they might have been, in the eyes of the world,
mighty in different ways, but they wouldn't have been mighty
men of God, mighty men of valor. The scripture in Psalm 33 and
verse 16 says this. There is no king saved by the
multitude of an host. That's an army. A mighty man
is not delivered by much strength. Well, how is he delivered? How
is he saved? By the power of God in Christ. Now that's so. Now this term
might, you know, I wonder if we really understand sometimes
just how weak and pitiful and wretched and impotent and powerless
we really are. You know, in religion, men do
things by way of service and obedience, and they really glory
in those things. Now, my friend, if we do anything
that's pleasing unto God, we have nothing in which to glory.
Paul wrote, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Men and women in religion are
like that fella who was playing with a penknife. I heard a preacher
use this as an illustration and it's a good one. He's playing
with a penknife, a pretty little penknife. Have you ever seen
a penknife? And a man come up to him and he said, that's an
awful little knife, you can't do much with it. He said, you'd
be surprised. He said, well, what have you
done with it? He said, well, I took this knife one time and I cut the
tail of a lion off. He said, you're kidding. He said,
no, I cut the tail of a lion off with that knife. He said, well, you must be something.
He said, but you know, really, if you were really that powerful
and that good at what you do, why didn't you cut the lion's
head off? He said, well, somebody else had already done that. And that's the way we are. We
have our little moments, our little talents, our little times
of victory, and really, what success we have in any of those
areas have nothing to do with any power or any goodness of
our own. Isn't that right? Our prayers. Thank God for your prayer, Doug,
and for Joe's prayer. Ron's preaching, Alan's preaching,
but you men know as well as I do that if you stood here or even
got on your knees to pray in your own power, all it would
be is worthless, less than worthless, wouldn't it? We have nothing
in which to boast. You know what it takes. You know,
you think about it. We really don't have any power at all because
you think, you know, we try to keep our bodies healthy, you
know, and all that. But all it takes is one little microscopic
amoeba to lay us flat on our back. That's right. We catch a cold germ. And boy,
it's like we're dying or something, you know. Everything changes. Your whole perspective changes.
A life, you know. You think it's going to be the
end of the world or something. We think in ourselves that we
can conquer the world, especially in our youth. But now as we grow
old, reality kind of starts setting in, doesn't it? And then even
at that time, men and women have a tendency to think as they grow
older that they're getting holier. We really think we're getting
holier, but we're not. We're not. We're just as rotten
as we always were. I hope we grow in grace and knowledge,
but that's by the power of Christ, isn't it? Think about David's
deathbed words here. Look back at 2 Samuel 23 there. In verse 1, it says, These be
the last words of David, David the son of Jesse. That's a fallen
son of Adam, that's what that is. But there's a prophecy connected
with that because the prophecy of the Old Testament speaks of
the root of Jesse and the offspring of Jesse, root of David and the
offspring of David. It links him to the coming Messiah
in his humanity who was born of the seed of David according
to the flesh. That's the only reason David was here, ultimately. That's right. God to accomplish
his purpose of bringing Christ into this world to save his people
from their sins. And if our salvation depended
in any way upon King David, we would be miserable failures as
he was a miserable failure. Think about David. Think about,
I know, you know, we want to say, generally speaking, David
was an obedient man. He was the sweet psalmist of
Israel. But think of his failures. Listen, if David put out his
resume to most churches today as a candidate for their pulpit,
they wouldn't have him. Now, they wouldn't have him. He's an adulterer. He's a fornicator.
Isn't that what he was? That's what you are if you have
multiple wives and you have concubines. People say, well, I'm not going
to associate with a person like that. Well, go on then. I'm going
to eat with publicans and sinners. God saves his people from their
sins. And that's the issue, man. We're
all in the same boat together. And David, he learned some things
through his triumphs by the power of God and through his own failures.
Look at verse 2, "...the Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and
his word was in my tongue." Why do you reckon the Spirit of God
didn't stop speaking through David's tongue, given what David
did, given what David was doing? Why do you suppose that? Because
I'm going to tell you something. Salvation is by grace for sinners. That's why. Sinners like me and
sinners like you. And we think we can really do
something. You know, the Bible command of the gospel is, Christ
says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Men
think they can come to him on their own. They can't. We can't.
We have to be born again by the Spirit. John 6, 44 says, no man
can come to me except the Spirit which has sent me. Draw him.
And you look up that word, draw. It's the same kind of word that
they use when they cast the net out and the fish were caught
in the net and they drug it in. Isn't that right, Hal? They drug
it in. He's got to drag us. You say, well, that don't make
a whole lot of sense to me. That's because you're powerless
in your mind to understand the great mysteries of the nature
and ways of God. But you see, God will bring such
people to himself, just like a lost sheep out in the wilderness.
How powerless is a lost sheep out in the wilderness? If that
sheep is not found by the shepherd, picked up, and brought home,
that's a dead sheep. That's right. He's going to be
devoured. He's going to be some wolf's
dinner. And that's the way we are. And
here's David and all his weaknesses. He's dying. This is a deathbed.
That's how weak we are. We can't even sustain life. You
see, it takes an act of God's power to give life and sustain
life. And then he said, the God of
Israel, verse 3, the rock of Israel spake to me. That's the
rock upon which we stand. That's Christ Jesus, our rock.
He that ruleth over men must be just and ruling in the fear
of God, worship and respect and reverence of God. We have to
fight to do that. He shall be as the light of the
morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds,
as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. That's all the work of God, isn't
it? None of it's the work of us. And so he says, although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. This is God's covenant with his
people through Christ. We didn't, listen, we didn't
start this covenant. It's an everlasting covenant
before the foundation. We didn't ratify it with our
believing. Our believing didn't ratify this covenant. Because,
you see, we'll believe and we'll die out and we'll fight and we'll
fuss with the flesh and the spirit war. No, sir. This covenant is
ratified. Look here, ordered in all things
and sure, ordered by God and made sure by Christ. This covenant
is ratified by the blood of Christ. There's power in the blood to
ratify this covenant. And David said, this is all my
salvation. This is it. This is all of it
right here, 100%. And all my desire, although he
make it not to grow. Now, these mighty men were David's
men. And I want you to look back at
1 Samuel 22. Go back to 1 Samuel. Let me give you a description
or remind you, you remember when we went through part of 1 Samuel
here. Let me give you a description of these mighty men on their
own without David. He says in 1 Samuel 22 verse
1, look at it. David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Dullam. That's when he was running from
Saul. He hid in the cave of Dullam. And when his brethren on his
father's house heard it, they went down thither to him, and
every one that was in distress, And everyone that was in debt,
and everyone that was discontented, and look at that discontented
in your concordance there, it means bitter of soul, gathered
themselves unto him. And he became a captain over
them, and there were with him about four hundred men." Now,
that's a description of the mighty men before they came to David. Here they are in distress. That's
like being between a rock and a hard place. You've got no place
to go and you don't know where to go. You don't know the way.
You talk about distress, see. Well, they went to David. And
that's the way we are by nature in ourselves, weak, pitiful,
between a rock and a hard place. We don't know the way of salvation
until God stops us in our tracks and picks us off the dung heap
of this world of sin and religion and drives us to Christ. Picks
us up off the dung heap, as Hannah said. And in debt, trying to pay a debt to God's
law and justice. Fell in Adam, ruined in Adam.
In Adam, owing a debt. Until God brings us to Christ,
who paid our debt in full on Calvary. We were powerless to
pay that debt. We had no mightiness to pay that
debt. Now it's paid. Now we're mighty
because the debt's paid. in Christ and by Christ, by his
blood. The price was his blood, his
death. And then he says, those who were
discontented, disturbed, cast down, blessed are those who are
poor in spirit. We see ourselves like that old
publican. God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the kind
of people that are described over here in verse 8 of 2 Samuel
23 as the mighty men whom David possessed. And they were mighty
because they were David's. My friend, the only mightiness
and excellence that we can claim is as we are saved by the grace
of God in Christ, as we are possessed by Christ, as we are associated
and identified and in union with Christ. And that's it. The Bible
says, let not the strong man glory in his might. Jeremiah
chapter 9. You know what a mighty man in
the Bible is really? He's one who depends solely upon
the Lord for all his strength and all his power. He's one who
really sees himself for what he really is. You remember the
Apostle Paul when he was struggling with his thorn in the flesh,
that thorn in the flesh, he said he entreated God three times
to remove it. And God told him, he says, my
grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength God's strength
is made perfect in your weakness. That's why Paul said one time,
when I'm weak, I'm strong. That doesn't make sense, does
it? If you know the Lord, it does. Because see, when we see
our weakness and our lack of power, that's when we depend
upon Him the most. We're strong as we're saved by
the grace of God in Christ, and as we stand in Christ, righteous
in Him, and as we live by Him. Paul wrote in Galatians 2, verse
19, he said, For I through the law am dead to the law, that
I might live unto God. That power to live unto God is
not ours. He said, I'm crucified with Christ. There's the foundation
of it. He died, I died. He was buried, I was buried.
He arose again, I arose again. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. I'm not the source of it, and I'm not the power of it.
But Christ liveth in me, he says. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, in this physical body, I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. There's
our power. We who are so sinful and weak
in ourselves are truly mighty. as we stand in the power of Christ,
putting on the whole armor of God. Be strong in the power of
the Lord and in the power of His might. Here in these first
few verses, I'm not going to read through all these verses
because these names are too big. You thought I'd try it, didn't
you? But I'm not mighty enough to try it. I might have Alan
come up here and try to read through them, then I'll get up
and preach on them afterward. You could do that, couldn't you? We've got a list of them here,
don't we? He starts out here, from verses
8 to 12, he starts out with the exploits of David's top three
soldiers. One named Josheb, he's not really
named in verse 8, but he's named over in 1 Chronicles chapter
11, beginning in verse 10 and 11. What he's identified here
by the place where he comes from. Look, it says, these be the names
of the mighty men whom David had. And he says, the Tachmonite,
that sat in the seat, chief among the captains, that's Josheb or
Joshobeum is how his name is pronounced in some circles. And
that name is mentioned, the name of the place is mentioned because
I believe it has a significance in its meaning, that Tachmonite. What does that mean? That means,
thou wilt make me wise, God will make me wise. All wisdom comes
from God. Preached on that this morning
out of the book of James. And his name, Jeshobim, or Jesha,
means this, the people will return. So in the wisdom of God, his
people will return by the power of his might. And he mentions
a man named Eleazar, he mentions Shema. Here, these mighty men,
there's two things that are written down here that are so significant
that we need to focus in on. They're in verse 10 and verse
12. Look at verse 10. He's here talking about Eleazar,
and he said, this man, he arose and he smoked the Philistines
until his hand was weary. You remember when David himself
smoked the Philistine giant, Goliath, Goliath of Gath. And who did David say won that
battle? Fought the battle and won. He
said, this is the Lord's battle. Well, look here, he says, and
his hand clave unto the sword. This Eleazar, he would not let
go of the sword, that's a picture of a believer clinging to the
Word of God. The Word of God is our sword.
You see, our words mean nothing. Our words are powerless, but
the Word of God is sharp and powerful, sharper than any two-edged
sword, cutting asunder the soul and the spirit, dividing asunder.
reaching even unto the thoughts and the intents of the heart."
My words can't do that, but the power of God's Word can, and
the power of the Holy Spirit can cut us to the quick, can't
it? The power of God's Word is to slay us from any hope of salvation
by our own power, by our own goodness and our own works. That's
what Paul described in Romans chapter 7. when he talked about
how the law, how he thought he knew the law, and he thought
he was keeping the law. But then when he saw the law,
the reality of the law, how far the law reached, and the fact
that the law condemned him based upon his best efforts to keep
it, best efforts to make himself righteous by his deeds, he said,
I died and sin revived. I thought that matter was taken
care of, but the Word of God in power. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians and he thanked God that the word came not just
in, the gospel came not just in word only, not just in words
you're hearing with the physical ear, but it came in power. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And you know why? Because God
in his power through Christ has given them faith to believe.
It's the gift of God, not of works. Not of yourself. But look
at the next line there in verse 10. It says, And the Lord wrought,
that means worked, a great victory that day. Who did? Who worked
it? David? No. David as a type of Christ. We can look at him as a type
of Christ, as the king of kings. This Eleazar? No. He says the
Lord. That word Lord, that's Jehovah.
That's the God of grace. He wrought a great victory that
day. And look what happened. This
is the wisdom and power of God. and the people returned after
him only to spoil." That means when God got through, the only
thing that was left for his people to do was to gather up the spoils. And that's a picture of Christ
on the cross. When he got through with his work at Calvary, in
dying for our sins and said it's finished, you know all that's
left to do? Us just to receive the benefits
and blessings, the spoils of His great victory against Satan,
against sin, and against the world. We're blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Why? Because
we're so good? No, we're no good. Because we're
so powerful? No, we have no power. Because
of His power. and his work and his goodness,
his blood, his righteousness alone. He goes on, he talks about Shammah,
that's another one of David's first three mighty men. It says,
he went into a troop of Philistines and he gathered up food, and
the people fled from him. And it says in verse 12, look
at that. He says that he stood in the midst of the ground and
defended it, and slew the Philistines. And look what happened again.
The Lord wrought a great victory. We stand in the power and might
of our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord. He wrought a great
victory. He did it, not us. Salvation
is of the Lord. completely, not partially. And then verse 13, we see a passage
that we've dealt with before. I don't know if you remember
it, but you remember when David was in the cave of Dullam, he
got thirsty. I know he was feeling pretty
low at this time. He was fleeing from Saul. In many cases, he
had acted wisely, especially, you know, that's one thing David
did do wisely by the power of God. He didn't really seek vengeance
upon his enemies. He almost did one time. But that
lady came to him. I can't remember her name. I
should have wrote it down, written it down, but came to him and
stopped him. And he said, thank you, Lord,
for stopping me from getting personal vengeance upon this
fellow. But he was in this cave of Dullam.
And look what happened, verse 13 says, three of the thirty
chiefs went down, came to David in the harvest time under the
cave of Adullam, and the troop of the Philistines pitched in
the valley of Repham. That was close to David's hometown,
Bethlehem. And it says David was then in
a hold. He was held up there. The garrison of the Philistines
was then in Bethlehem. And David longed and said, oh,
that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,
which is by the gate, just a drink of water from my hometown well.
And it says in verse 16, three mighty men break through the
host of the Philistines. They overheard David. And they
broke through, just three fellows now, and drew water out of the
well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought
it to David. They risked their lives just to bring their king
a drink of water. They risked their lives in service
of their king. Now David didn't pick these fellows
out and say, now you three, you get over and get me a drink.
He didn't command them. He didn't force them. You know
why they did it? Because they loved their king. Their king had taken them in,
when they were in distress, when they were in debt, when they
were low of spirit. Their king had taken them in
when nobody else would. Nobody else wanted them. Saul
didn't want them. In fact, you remember, I told
you how Saul, how he got men to serve him, he had to bribe
them. You can go back and you can read that in 1 Samuel 22.
Verse 6 and 7. He had to bribe his men to serve
him. That's false religion right there.
See, it's not by grace. It's not service out of love
and gratitude and grace. It's serve God for what you can
get out of him. What the preacher or the church
or the denomination promises you. If you do this, God will
give you this. That's a mercenary. That's not
a bond slave of Christ. That's what Saul had to do. But
these men just heard their king longing for a drink of water
from his hometown well, which was taken and surrounded by the
Philistines, and they risked their lives. They broke through
the hose, look at it, verse 16, of the Philistines, and drew
water out of that well. And it says there, they brought
it to David, nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but
poured it out unto the Lord. He gave it as an offering. He
felt so moved by the love and loyalty of these mighty men that
he wouldn't drink it himself. He wouldn't use it for his own
selfish purposes to quench his own thirst, but he offered it
as a drink offering unto the Lord. He worshiped God. He said
in verse 17, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this.
Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of
their lives? Therefore he would not drink
it. These things did these three mighty men. That's something,
isn't it? What a picture of the kind of
service and obedience and love that our mighty God in Christ
requires of us. And they brought this to David
because they loved him. And then in these, from verse
18 to 23, we have two other men of renown, Abishai and Benaiah
and their exploits. And then in verses 24 through
39, we have the 30 mighty men listed. And I'll read one name. Look at the last verse. Verse
39. You can read all these names.
Some of them you might recognize. David's mighty men. Remember,
they were men that David possessed. They were associated with him. The last one, Uriah the Hittite. Thirty and seven and all. Uriah
the Hittite. You know who Uriah was. That
was Bathsheba's husband, whom David stole his wife and connived
around to murder this mighty man of God. This mighty man of
valor. Mighty man of David. Somebody
asked, well, why did the Lord record Uriah there, just to goad
David? No, I'll tell you exactly why
he did it. Because Uriah was one of David's mighty men. And
you're not going to leave him out. And you know what? There's not one sinner for whom
Christ died who's going to be left out in the listing of his
mighty men. Sinners saved by grace. Doesn't
matter how it embarrasses me or you. You may say, well, I
don't want that fellow here. I don't want that woman here.
You may say, I don't want to associate with that guy. If they're
one of God's, let me tell you something. They're just as washed
in the blood of Christ as you and I are. They're just as clothed
in his righteousness as you and I are. They're to be baptized
and confess their Savior just like you and I do. And they're
to take the Lord's Supper just like you and I, because it's
a memorial to the Lord of glory who died for them. And don't
you set up your rules and regulations and your hoops for them to jump
through that's not in this word. That's right. Even your rye the
Hittite, that's mentioned. Well, this is a picture of our
salvation and our union with Christ. Paul wrote in Philippians
chapter 4 and verse 13, he said, I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me. I think about in the book of
Matthew chapter 9, there were some blind men that approached
our Savior. And it says, two blind men followed
him, crying and saying, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And it says, And when he was
come into the house, the blind men came to him. They wanted
to be healed of their, they wanted to see. And Jesus saith unto
them, it says, Believe ye that I am able to do this. Now, you know what that is? That's
the essence of faith right there. He didn't look at me and say,
Well, now, do you believe enough? Or do you have enough faith?
Or do you want it bad enough? No, he just simply said, do you
believe that I'm able to give you sight? And they said, yea,
Lord. And they gave God their sight.
He's able. Paul wrote in Hebrews 7 and verse
25, Wherefore, Christ is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for us. He wrote in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12, he says,
I'm not ashamed, but nevertheless, I'm not ashamed for I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. Let me tell
you something, a Christ who does not have the ability to keep
you is one who does not have the ability to save you to begin
with. He's able to save to the uttermost
completely. Our strength is in His person.
He's God and man. Our strength is in His redemptive
work on Calvary to die for our sins. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Our song
of the redeemed is worthy is the land that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory
and blessing. There's power in His blood. He's
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit
of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. We have the strength
of His Spirit for we must be born again or we can't even see
the Kingdom of God. That means to understand it and
know it. We certainly cannot enter it. So that we're born
again not by the blood of men, not through flesh and blood.
Flesh can only produce flesh. The Spirit produces spirit. And
that's why we must be born again. We're born again, not of the
will of man, not of our own free will, not of the will of men,
not of the will of others, but of God. It's the strength of
his spirit that draws us in Holy Spirit conviction out of ourselves,
out of our sins to Christ as our savior. And that's how he
draws us. We have the strength and power
of his advocacy. For when we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And think about
it in Revelation 12 and verse 10, when it speaks of that loud
voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and
the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the
accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night." And you remember what it says later on
there? It says, and say, how did they turn him back? How did
they put down Satan? Huh? By the blood of the Lamb
and the word of their testimony. And then we have the power of
his return, the strength of his return. In Matthew 24 and verse
30, our Lord teaching of his imminent return. He said, then
shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of Man coming in clouds of heaven with power and great glory. What's he going to do? He's going
to, in his own power, gather his people unto himself and judge
the wicked unto damnation. So what do we do? What are these
mighty men? Flee to Christ. Flee to him,
rest in him, plead his might, his power, his strength. That's
what David said how many times in the Psalms? He's my rock.
He's my strength. He's my refuge. He's all we got,
but he's all we need. He's more than all we need. He's
everything. All right.