Okay, now let's look back at
2 Samuel chapter 12. The title of this message is,
When the King Goes Forth to Battle. When the King Goes Forth to Battle. Now, I want to direct your attention
first back to chapter 11 of 2 Samuel. Chapter 11, verse 1. As you may recall, this was the
beginning of David's great fall into the sin of adultery and
murder, lying and deception that he got caught up in at this given
moment. And it began with his shirking
his responsibilities. His responsibility as the king
of Israel, the leader of the people. But mainly his responsibility
to follow God, to follow God's way and God's revealed will by
way of command, and ultimately his responsibility to, as king
of Israel, to be a type of Christ, to represent Christ, the king
of kings. And it starts out this way. Look
at verse one of chapter 11. And it came to pass after the
year was expired. at the time when kings go forth
to battle, this was the time when the kings of the nations
went forth to battle, that David, instead of going himself as a
king should, as he should have, he sent Joab and his servants
with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children
of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem."
As we look at the time frame of all this, this is all going
on in some way, in some form, to some degree, during this period
of a year in which David descended into the depths of scandal and
sin with Bathsheba, and this was the time when he sent the
messengers to get Uriah to bring him back, and Uriah wouldn't
do what David wanted him to do, so he sent him back and told
Joab to draw back. This was all during this time.
So in between this time that David dropped his responsibility
and stayed home and descended into sin, into scandal, that
Joab was out there with the army fighting the Ammonites. David
did not lead his men into battle. And that was sinning with a high
hand in the position that he was in. And then he was tempted
with sin and he failed miserably. We see David's personal problems
there. We see how David is an illustration
of sinners saved by grace with all our weaknesses, with all
our remaining sin in the flesh that we have to battle. And we
see the need of a Savior there. We see the need of a Redeemer.
Don't you think about our Savior when he came into this world
and all the trials and the temptations that he faced. especially on
the Mount of Temptation when the Spirit led him up into the
wilderness after his baptism, and he was tempted of Satan 40
days and 40 nights. But he didn't succumb to the
temptation to sin like David, like you and I would. He didn't
succumb. He was victorious over sin. He
was victorious in every way. That's why we look upon him and
see him by the Word of God as the sinless Redeemer, the sinless
Substitute who remains sinless throughout. And when he was made
sin, we talk about that a lot, he was made sin. How was he made
sin? He became responsible legally
for all the sins of all of his people imputed, charged to him.
But he himself remained sinless. He wasn't like David in that
way. And so we see that separation of the type David and the anti-type,
which is Christ. You know, you can't make these
types, you know, as we always say, stand on all fours. You
have to make that separation. But now here at the end of all
this episode, at the end of all of David's fall and his scandal
and his scheming and how he was brought to repentance by God
the Holy Spirit through the prophet Nathan, now we see that he begins
again to lead his people in the battle. He goes back to the responsibilities
of what it is to be the King of Israel, to be God's anointed
King, to be a true type of Christ, a representative of Christ here
on earth, to teach the people about the glory of the King of
Kings, the glory of the Messiah. And that's when Joab sent word
unto him. And David, listen to Joab. Now,
this wasn't a command. It says there, Joab sent word.
and told him to gather the rest of the people. This wasn't a
command that Joab was issuing towards David. He couldn't command
David. David's the king. But it was a request, and that's
the way it reads. In the original, it's a form
of a request. Please come, King David. Please come, O king. Our
king. My king. And we're going to see
this in a moment. We'll get into more detail of
this in just a moment. But Joab knew that he was not the one
appointed to be the great redeemer, victor of Israel. He knew it
was to be David. And so I want you to look at
several things as we go through these passages. Number one is
this. It's clear here that David had
a great, powerful enemy in the Ammonites. Now, these Ammonites,
there is a long history of problems, trouble. of Israel with the Ammonites. They were very well armed, well
manned. They had a reputation of being
a powerful, ruthless, very horrific army. They had a reputation of
being very cruel to their enemies, torturing and killing their enemies
in ways that the depraved mind can imagine and come up with. And these Ammonites were infamous
enemies of David and Israel. And Rabbi here, this city of
Rabbi, that was the capital city. That was the last stronghold
of Ammon. The word Rabbi in their language
meant great. This is a great city. And it
had a reputation of greatness. But it only had a reputation
of greatness in the eyes of men. In the eyes of men. And so here
David takes his army, he goes down, he takes the rest of his
men and meets up with the army and takes the army down into
Rabbah and he conquers it. And see, David here is a type
of Christ. Christ himself has a mortal enemy
who has always set himself against the Lord. And you know who that
is, that's Satan. The very first prophecy, the
very first preaching and promise of the gospel in Genesis chapter
3 and verse 15 spoke of the enmity between Satan and Christ and
his church, and how Satan would bruise the heel of our Savior,
speaking of his death, but not a permanent death, he would not
stay dead, he would be raised again from the dead, but that
Christ would bruise his head. And that relationship of enemies,
that stood and still stands even today and throughout until Satan
is thrown into the lake of fire. Now that enemy of Satan, Christ
declared war against Satan in the garden. And he's always gone
to battle with Satan, even unto the cross. And I want you to
look at John chapter 12. Turn to these passages with me. This
is what he speaks of when he's speaking of his death in John
chapter 12. And he says in verse 31, he's
talking about his impending death on the cross, going to battle. That's what he's doing on the
cross. Listen, the death of the Lord on the cross had nothing
to do with martyrdom. It had nothing to do with example. It had everything to do with
redemption. It had everything to do with
going to battle against sin, against Satan, and against the
curse. And he says in verse 31 of John 12, he says, Now is the
judgment of this world. He's going to battle with the
world and he's going to judge the world by his death on the
cross. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. This
is going to be the defeat of Satan, he says. And then he says,
if I be lifted up from earth will draw all men unto me. This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. When Christ went to the cross,
you see, Satan brought the whole human race into condemnation
and sin. through Adam, through Adam's
fall in the garden. Satan brought the whole human
race into damnation. And therefore the work that Satan
did had to be reversed, it had to be remedied, it had to be
accomplished by one much, much greater than Satan, God the Son
incarnate, God in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. And not
only has Christ declared war on Satan, But we who are in him
are at war with the devil also. I want you to look at the book
of Acts, chapter 13. Turn to Acts, chapter 13. At every turn, when we meet opposition
over the gospel we preach, the gospel of God's grace through
the blood and righteousness of Christ, we meet opposition from
men, but it's men who are inspired by Satan. And I'll show you why
in just a moment. But here, look at Acts 13, look
at verse 9. Here he's speaking of Saul, who
was also called Paul. This is Paul the Apostle. He's
confronting a sorcerer. Back up here in verse 8. Elymas,
the sorcerer, who was turned, who was against the apostles.
And it says in verse 9, Then Saul, who also is called Paul,
filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, that is, on
Elymas, and said, O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou
child of the devil. Now that word, the title devil
that is given to Satan means adversary or accuser of the brethren. And he says, thou child of the
devil, thou enemy of all righteousness. Do you know if you're an enemy
of Christ, you're an enemy of all righteousness, for he is
our righteousness. And then he says, wilt thou not
cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? So Saul stood against
him and called him, you're a child of the devil. Well, look at 2
Corinthians chapter 4. We've seen this passage several
times in dealing with the issue of what is Satan's main goal?
Now you think about this in light of what religion says, what most
people, what philosophy says, those who will even acknowledge
the existence of the evil one, of Satan. Most don't. But what
is Satan's main goal? We'll look at it here, verse
3 of 2 Corinthians chapter 4. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them." Now, there's Satan's main goal. His main goal
is to keep sinners from seeing the light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, from hearing the gospel and believing
it. Because, you see, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Satan desires to keep sinners
condemned. And the best way to do that is
to keep them ignorant of Christ and His finished work on the
cross, His death, burial, and resurrection, His righteousness.
You see, that's what was wrong with Israel in Paul's day. They
were ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
one of their own and would not submit to Christ, who is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it.
That's Satan's goal, right there, to keep sinners from hearing
and believing the gospel. Now, we know that his goal cannot
be realized if God steps in and intervenes in the powerful work
of the Spirit and brings sinners to regeneration and conversion,
the new birth, brings them to life, gives them faith. But that's
Satan's goal right there. Now, that shows you that our
battle against our great enemy, Now David, his battle against
the Ammonites in Raba, that had to be fought with swords and
chariots and horses and spears and shields. But you see, our
battle is not a carnal battle. It's not a worldly battle. It's
a spiritual battle. And as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We don't
fight it with swords. We don't fight it with spears
or with guns and knives. That's why, listen, listen, anytime
you read in history about the Crusades, I want you to know
right off, you young people who study history, that there was
nothing Christian about it. There was nothing Christian about
it. Not one thing. The warfare that
we fight against our great enemies, against Satan, against the world,
and against the flesh, is not a carnal physical, fleshly battle. It's a spiritual battle. And
when we realize what Satan's goal is, which is to keep sinners
from hearing the gospel, then what does that tell us our main
weapon in this warfare is? The gospel. We preach it. He wants to hide it. He wants
to squelch it out. But we preach it everywhere we
go. We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach all that
he is, all who he is, in God, in man, in one person. All of
his offices, prophet, priest, and king, mediator, advocate,
substitute, surety. We preach all that he finished
on Calvary in making an end of sin and bringing in everlasting
righteousness. And that's the weapons of our
warfare. Turn to John chapter 8. Look
over here with me. When Christ was confronting the
Pharisees, and this is just a one episode in this great battle.
Now, he fought the battle on the cross. And he defeated Satan
on the cross. Now, Satan is still allowed to
wage war upon the earth for a time for several reasons, and I'll
get to that in just a moment. But Satan's a goner. He is. This world is, listen, Christ
said, He said, in me you have peace, in the world you have
tribulation. But He said, I've overcome the world. This world
is passing away. And no matter what science does,
they're not going to keep it going. It has its moment in time
that God has appointed before time, and it's going to be destroyed.
Because he's the victor. But look here at John chapter
8 and verse 44. Here he's confronting the religious leaders of his
day. And here's what he says in verse 44. You are of your
father the devil. Now these are religious men now.
These were the ones who memorized scripture, read scripture, interpreted
scripture, the Old Testament. These were the teachers, the
preachers, the evangelists, if you will, although their message
wasn't good news. It was to some, but it really
wasn't. Because any message that's not God's grace in Christ is
not good news to a sinner. But they were the missionaries.
He said, you encompass sea and land to get converts. And when
you've got them, you've made them twofold more the child of
hell than you are. And he says, you're of your father
the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning. Now Satan never pulled out a
knife and killed anybody. I don't care what they say. What did he do from the beginning?
Look at it. He abode not in the truth. He
didn't continue in the truth. He fell himself, Lucifer, from
heaven. It says, because there's no truth
in him, and when he speaketh a lie, now that's how he murders.
He speaks a lie. And it says, he speaketh of his
own. Now, what that means is he speaks
what's natural to him. That's what the natural man does
in religion. That's why he doesn't preach
grace, because grace isn't natural to man. You see, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. Anybody who preaches
the true grace of God, he's not preaching what's natural to him.
He's preaching by inspiration of the Spirit. He's preaching
out of a heart that's been washed in the blood of Christ. And so
he says, he speaketh on his own, for he's a liar and the father
of it. Now, our Lord told his disciples later on, he said,
marvel not if the world hated me before it hated you. He said,
they'll throw you out of their worship services, out of their
religious assemblies, John chapter 16, and think they're doing God's
work. That's how deceptive Satan is.
And he's a powerful enemy. Satan's a powerful enemy. But
I want to tell you something. Listen, Satan's more powerful
than we are. But he's not more powerful than
our Savior. And I believe that's something
of what Joab is admitting here. Now, Joab was a mighty warrior.
He was a mighty warrior. But he realized that God's purpose
was going to be carried out in victory, not through the might
and power of man, as mighty and powerful as he was, but through
the anointed King of Israel. And that's what we have to realize.
The victory is not going to be carried out through our words,
or our wisdom, or our power, or our works. It's going to be
carried out. It has been carried out, and it's going to be brought
to its final conclusion by our great victor, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who gained victory on the cross when he died for our
sins and established righteousness, which defeated Satan permanently.
Here's the second thing. Look back at 2 Samuel 12. The servants of David are in
constant battle with this enemy. Now, you know, after After David
came Solomon, and there was a relative period of peace under Solomon,
the kingdom of Israel. There were some skirmishes. There
were some problems. But you know, under David, it
was constant battle. It was a continual battle. Look
at verse 26. Joab fought against Rabbah of
the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. You see, he surrounded,
he cut off their water supply, but he didn't actually go in.
But it was a constant thing. It was going on all this time.
And when they weren't fighting the Ammonites, they were fighting
somebody else. We saw a series of battles that David fought
going through, establishing his kingdom. And it continued on.
It continued on. But the servants of David are
in constant battle with his sinners. David constantly waged war. He constantly went to battle.
And again, that picture is our Savior going to the cross. and
on the cross finishing his work. His life here on earth was one
continual trial after another. There was never a moment's peace.
I believe I mentioned to you a week ago or so about reading
in the book of Luke there when our Lord was in the upper room
with the disciples. And this was the night before
he was crucified. And you'd think, here they are, and of course
they sent away Judas. Judas was exposed. And here he
is with the 11 disciples. And if there's any time in his
life here on earth you'd think he might have just a little bit
of solace, a little bit of peace. Somebody told me last year, he
said, oh, if I could just have a little bit of peace, a little
moment. Well, if you think if there had
been any time that our Savior would have had that moment, that
moment of peace, it would have been then. But it wasn't so.
And here the disciples started arguing over who was going to
be first in the kingdom of heaven. And he had to set them straight,
his own disciples. Here he is getting ready to go
to the cross. They knew something bad was going to happen in their
eyes, in their human eyes. But they argue about who's going
to be first in the kingdom of heaven. You'd say, well, you'd
think they'd be better people than that. Well, that's not the
kind of people the Lord saves. He saves sinners. No, we're still
full of ourselves. That's why we have to battle
constantly. But you see this picture here,
you see David in constant battle, David fighting, David killing.
He was the man of blood, he was the man of war. That's a great
picture of our Savior in his earthly walk up into the cross.
Because the work wasn't finished until he went to the cross. God
sent his son forth to be made of a woman, made under the law,
to do what? To redeem. When was the redemption
accomplished? On the cross, when he died, he
said it's finished. That means he paid the debt in
full. He drank damnation dry. And so David, the man of war
in this constant battle with his men, is a picture of Christ
all the way up to the cross and the finished work. And then Solomon
is a picture of Christ after the finished work, the man of
peace, the man of rest. I think that's one of the ways
the history puts it. He was a man of rest. You see,
you don't rest until the work's done. The farmer, he doesn't
rest until his work's done. The soldier, he doesn't rest
until the battle's won. And that's the way it was. Well,
Christ, as I said, he's won the battle, but he allows Satan still
to attack the church. Why? I'll tell you why. First
of all, so that we might learn to depend on him, him alone,
and glorify him and him alone. So that we might constantly turn
to him. That's His glory. His people
worship Him, believe in Him, rest in Him, never look to the
arm of the flesh, never look to our own wisdom and our own
ways, but constantly turn to Christ. Not just one time when
we're born again and that's it, but every day, every hour. We sing that every hour of every
day. I'm leaning on Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. That's
why He's allowed Satan and the flesh and the world to continue
for a little while in these last days to plague us so that we
might continually fight this battle by turning to Him, resting
in Him, realizing that we have no righteousness but Him, that
we have no hope but Him. But secondly, He's done it so
that He will save His people out of this world. You realize
that Christ still has some sheep out there in the wilderness who
are lost? You realize that? I do. I know you do. That's why
we preach it on television. That's why we send it out in
CDs and DVDs and tapes. Because we're to be evangelists.
Listen, I know there are some people who think that instead
of Christ saying, feed the sheep, that he meant just keep the aquarium. But that's not what we're to
do. Listen, we're to get this message out. We're not to be
exclusive, elitist, like we're some little club that believes
in predestination and election. We believe those great doctrines.
But we're to be missionary-minded. We're to get the gospel out.
And I'll tell you what, to do that, we have to fight the battle,
don't we? And it's continual. And then,
thirdly, he does it that he might wean us away from the world. One old preacher, I can't remember
who it was, said, I preach as a dying man to dying men. And
that's what we are. We're all dying people. And this
world, as we get older, we realize more and more that this world
is not the end of all things. It's vanity of vanities. Brother
Ron, you read that. That's what the preacher concluded
in Ecclesiastes all through the book. But in Ecclesiastes 12,
vanity of vanities, all this vanity. We're going to meet God. We're going to stand before a
holy God and we're in this battle so that we might realize as we
get older and older and older that this world is not our home
and we don't need to cling to it. We don't need to love it. We don't need to live our lives
as if it were everything. We need to prepare for eternity. How do you prepare for eternity?
By resting in Christ. By looking to Him alone. I think
about that a lot. You see, he's reigning right
now. Christ is reigning right now. And the Bible says in 1
Corinthians 15, 25, he must reign till he hath put all enemies
under his feet. All enemies are going to be put.
Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so Peter wrote in 1 Peter
chapter 5 and verse 8, listen to it. He said, be sober. That
means clear thinking. Be vigilant, ready to go to battle. because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
He said, Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 6, be strong in the power
and the might of the Lord. Put on the whole armor of God,
and every piece of that armor is something directly related
to the grace of God and the assurance of our salvation by Christ and
him alone. And you stand ready, ready to
fight. Being a servant of Christ. Listen
to me now. Turn back to 1 Samuel 17. Let
me show you this. This is where David fought Goliath. Let me show you something here.
1 Samuel 17, look at verse 46. Let me give you these two things.
Being a servant of Christ. Being a sinner saved by grace.
Being a child of God. It means to be in this battle. We're going to see that. You've
got to be in this battle, warring against Satan, warring against
the flesh, warring against the world. All right? But it also
means, secondly, knowing that the victory is his. And that's what I believe Joab
was indicating there when he said, David, come down. Bring
the rest of the army. Come down here. The victory is
yours, you're the king, you're God's anointed. Somebody said,
well, Joab must have been able to do it himself. Well, he may
have, but I'm going to tell you something, in salvation, we sure
can't do it ourselves. No, sir. The battle is not ours,
it's the Lord's. But look, David said that, he
knew that. 1 Samuel 17, look at verse 46,
this is where he was standing before Goliath. And in verse
46, he says, this day will the Lord deliver thee, talking to
Goliath, into mine hand. He said, Now I will smite thee,
and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses
of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the
earth, and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth
may know that there is a God in Israel." In other words, David
is saying, I'm not doing this to make a name for myself. But
to glorify God, and he says in verse 47, all this assembly shall
know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the
battle is the Lord's, and he will give you in our hands. That's
why God allows Satan to roam this earth, seeking whom he may
devour, to plague us. That's why he allowed him to
plague Job. Remember that? You read about
that. He allowed Satan to take Job and twist him around
his little finger, but he couldn't have Job so. Job couldn't lose
his salvation. Job couldn't lose his justification. Job was a just and righteous
man because he had a Redeemer who was promised to come. Isn't
that right? That's the only reason Job was
a sinner saved by grace. But God allowed Satan to take
Job and take everything he had, except his salvation, except
his soul. Why? Because he wanted Job to learn
the lesson that we're all learning, and learning every day, that
the battle is the Lord's, God's in control, He's wise, He knows
what He's doing. Sometimes I don't know what God's
doing, but I know this, He knows what He's doing. And you know
that's a comfort to God's people. Think about that. But now listen
to me. We're in this constant battle.
But here is the third thing, listen to this, the enemy king
will be dethroned, and David alone shall reign. Look at verse
30 of chapter 12 of 2 Samuel. It said, He took their king's
crown from off his head. He is dethroned. The weight whereof
was a talon of gold, seventy-five pounds of gold and precious stones
taken off his head, and it was set on David's head. David took
his crown. The enemy king was dethroned.
And David alone reigned." And it says, "...he brought forth
to spoil the city in great abundance." Very great. You know, this king
of the Ammonites, I don't know what his name was, but he was
a true king. He had power. He had a reputation.
He was feared among men. But he was only temporary. Isn't
that right? Only temporary. Man's power,
man's wisdom, man's religion, man's wisdom, man's riches will
only last for a little while. Now, we're in this constant battle
with Satan, with sin, with the flesh. And Satan has real power
in the world. The Bible tells us over and over,
I would not have you ignorant of this now. Don't ever take
him lightly. Don't ever take Satan lightly. And Satan's power
reaches its zenith, its height, in the spirit of Antichrist.
But he's going to be destroyed. You see, it is only for a short
time. God allowed Satan to afflict us only for a short time. Look
at 1 John chapter 3 with me. 1 John chapter 3. He is speaking
here of the work of Christ to put away our sin and to establish
us in the assurance of His grace forever and ever and ever. And
it says He was manifested to put away our sin. Verse 5, you
know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him,
in Christ, is no sin. We have no sin in Christ because
He finished sin. He made an end of it, finished
the transgression. He put it away, the scripture
says. That's what the Baptist said. John the Baptist, behold
the Lamb of God which beareth away the sin of the world. Look
at verse 8. It says, he that commit a sin
is of the devil. And he's talking about a continual
life of unbelief there. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. And Revelation 20,
you can read that on your own, tells us he's going to be cast
into the lake of fire, and he'll never rise again. That's his
destiny, you see. That's the destiny of all who
die in unbelief. And here's the fourth thing.
Now, it's this. There shall be great judgment
poured out on David's enemies. Look back at 2 Samuel 12. Look
at verse 31. It says, He brought forth the
people that were therein, put them under saws, under harrows
of iron, and under axes of iron, made them pass through the brick
kiln, and thus did He unto all the cities of the children of
Ammon. And so David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.
Now, you can go to 1 Chronicles chapter
20 and read about this too. There's a little bit of controversy,
differences over the interpretation of this. Some say that this represents
the cruel death, the sentence of death, and carrying out of
that sentence that David placed upon the army of the Ammonites. And I believe that's what it's
talking about. Others say, well, that's just too cruel, you know,
that David's just being too cruel there. And that means all he
did is he just made them slaves, made them servants. And I don't
believe that's what it is. And if you look at 1 Chronicles
chapter 20, especially verse 3, I believe you'll agree with
me. But you read that on your own. We won't turn there. Some
might say, well, this is just too cruel. Well, here's what's
going on. David inflicts the sentence of
death upon the enemy Ammonites because these are the very types
of things that the Ammonites did to their enemies. And you
may say it's too cruel. But you see, there's a biblical
principle that's operating here, that we read about in Galatians
chapter 6, and it simply says this, what you sow, so shall
you reap. If you sow sin, you'll reap sin. That's why we must look to Christ
for salvation, or there's no hope for us. Now, what is the
sentence upon all sin? It's death. Is it an easy death? No, it's a cruel death. But it's
not cruel because it's unjust, because God is just in all that
He does. And I'll tell you, this is a
picture of the dealings of Christ with the ungodly when He comes,
when He comes a second time. There'll be no grace, there'll
be no mercy, there'll be no compassion. You see, the day of grace is
over then. When Christ comes a second time to judge this world
and to gather His people, at that time there'll be no grace.
There'll be no mercy. There'll be no compassion. We
really have no idea. And let me give you a caution
here, too, because I hear people talking about this, you know,
saying, well, so-and-so is under the wrath of God. Now, there
are people who are under the wrath of God. Let me show you
who. Look at John chapter 3. There are people under the wrath
of God. What is the wrath of God? Well,
it's a sentence of condemnation. It's the sentence of eternal
death. I've heard people say, well, before we believe the gospel,
we're under the wrath of God. Not so. Not so. Now, let me ask you this before
you argue with me on that. Tell me what the wrath of God
is. It's not a it's not a headache that you wake up with in the
morning. It's not a flood. Now, those are manifestations
of wrath upon sin. Don't get me wrong, you say.
But I'm talking about a person being under the sentence of condemnation. If you believe the gospel today,
were you ever under the sentence of condemnation eternally? No. You were chosen before the
foundation of the world in Christ. You see what I'm saying? Justified
in Him by His righteousness. Now, we did fall in Adam. We
fell into sin and death. But God's people were never,
never under the wrath of God. You can't even describe the wrath
of God. You know what I think of as the
wrath of God in two ways. Number one, Christ on the cross
when He was made sin. Now, He was under the wrath of
God. Have you ever experienced anything like that in your life?
If you think you have, you're just fooling yourself. What our
Lord suffered on that cross was truly the wrath of God for my
sins, so that I wouldn't have to experience it. And then secondly
is hell itself. Now do you know what that's going
to be like? You know something about it in the scripture, but
not very much. All I know is it's awful. And
it's just. But look here at John chapter
3, look at verse 36. It says, He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Now, he didn't have everlasting
life because he believes, but having everlasting life, he believes.
And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. Now, it's true. In this life,
they haven't experienced the full measure of that wrath, and
they don't realize they're even under it. But it's coming. It's
coming. And that's what I believe we
have pictured back here in 2 Samuel 12 with David dealing with these
Ammonites. It's the sentence of all sinners
without Christ. That's what it is. Is it any
wonder that the Apostle Paul prayed in a fervent prayer when
he was writing to the Philippian church, O that I may be found
in him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. This is why we need a substitute. This is why we
need a redeemer. This is what, listen, what do
we deserve? We deserve the wrath of God.
What would we have if we didn't have Christ? If we weren't washed
in his blood and clothed in the wrath of God? Flee from the wrath
to come. That's what John the Baptist
told the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Flee from the wrath to come.
Paul writing to the Thessalonians, he says, You turn to God from
idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His
Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which
delivered us from the wrath to come. And then listen to this,
lastly, All of David's servants returned with the king to Jerusalem
after the victory. Did you notice that in verse
31 of 2 Samuel 12 at the end of that verse? It says, so David
and all the people returned unto Jerusalem. They returned there
and they gloried in their king and they told of his mighty works
and power. And that's a picture of Christ
in the redemption of all his people. You realize every sinner
from whom he died is going to return unto the heavenly Jerusalem
with him. Not one is going to be missing.
He said that in John chapter 6. Let me just conclude with
just reading you some verses out of the book of John. You
could go to others. But John chapter 6, verse 37,
he said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came
down from heaven. not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which is sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing." You see, David didn't lose anything. "'I should
lose nothing,' Christ said, but should raise it up again at the
last day.' And he went on to say, And this is the will of
him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day.'" The blood of Christ. ensures our eternal glory with
Him. The righteousness of Christ,
given to us freely, ensures our eternity with Him in heaven.
That's what he said, we read it earlier, John 12, 32. And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me. Who's the all men there? All
who are drawn unto Him, all who come to Him. And then let me
read you this. John 17, 1-4. These words spake
Jesus, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify
thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should what? Give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou sent. And he said, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which you gave me to
do. Now, how can I know that I'm in the king's army? Joab
knew that it had to be David. God's anointed. He knew he couldn't
do it. Joab was looking to David alone. That's who he was looking
to. Well, are you looking to Christ
alone for salvation, for wisdom, righteousness, holiness, redemption,
for victory? Joab was engaged in the battle.
He was fighting. He knew the victory wasn't his.
He told him. He said, let's not take the city
and be called after my name. If it's called after Joab's name,
it means nothing. But what about David? He's God's
anointed. He's God's chosen. He's the type
of the Messiah. You see, men can build churches.
They can build organizations. They can build buildings in their
name. And what does it mean? What does
it mean? For a little while, he gives
them bragging rights. You see, I don't want to pastor
and lead a church that any man built. And I don't want somebody
to follow me saying, well, this is the church that Bill Parker
built. I want to pastor the church that Christ built. That's what
we want. Because that means something,
you see. That's going to last. The gates of hell will not prevail
against that. So are you engaged in his battle, you say? Not your
own. Everybody's got their own little
private battles. Are you engaged in his battle against Satan,
against sin, against the world, against the flesh? And then listen. You know, Joab said there, he
said, if I take it, it'll be called after my name. Joab's
saying, I don't want that. Well, are you content? with Christ
being glorified and His name being exalted and honored and
uplifted. You know, are you like John the
Baptist? I must decrease, Christ must increase. Are you content
with that? Or you say, well, where's mine?
I had a man ask me that one time. A preacher. And he was talking
about writing all kinds of books. He said, well, where's my name
going to be? And I told him it's going to be on a tombstone somewhere
if you can afford to get one. I guess that means something.
to somebody. But who cares where our names
will be? I believe I'm being honest with
you from my heart. I just soon as they put on my
tombstone, I forgot his name, but he preached Christ. Don't remember what his name
was, but he preached Christ. And that's the way it ought to
be. Because you see, there's salvation in His name, not in
my name. And are you content with His
name, His glory, His victory? Well, if you are, you're in the
king's army, in the king's battle, aren't you? All right.