All right, now if you'll turn
back to 2 Samuel 8. As I said, I've entitled this
message, The King Subduing His Enemies. And before I start,
I want to just read through 2 Samuel 8 and make some comments here
as we go along. But let me just go to some other
scripture. I won't have you turn to these
scriptures, but just some things to put these matters in perspective.
for us in our understanding of what I believe is going on here
and how we can see the glory of Christ here and our own experience
in salvation by the grace of God. The book of Isaiah chapter
40, there's a prophecy and it starts out this way, Isaiah 40
verses 1 through 2. Let me read them for you. And
this is the Lord instructing the prophet to preach to the
people of Judah, Isaiah preaching to Judah. And he tells him, he
says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Now that's a finished warfare.
There is no more fight. Her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned. Now right there tips you off
as to what kind of warfare that he is talking about. Her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. And I believe that is referring
to the fact that not only in Christ do we receive the pardon,
of our iniquities, but we gain a righteousness, a righteous
standing before God that we're complete and whole in Him. In other words, we gain more
than we lost in Adam. We gain more in Christ than we
lost in Adam. But the point I wanted you to
see there in that the testimony of the prophets, the testimony
of the gospel to a sinner who needs salvation is this, your
warfare is accomplished. Your warfare is over. Now, what
is that talking about? Well, that's talking about the
warfare that Christ fought in Isaiah's day that he would fight
by promise and prophecy and picture and time on the cross. And it's capped off by what the
Lord said in John chapter 19. What is it? I believe it's verse
30 when he said, It is finished. There's a work done. And that's
why we rest in Him, Christ, as our Sabbath. Because, you see,
when we rest in Him as our Sabbath, we're resting in a warfare that's
been accomplished, that's been won. He's the victor. He arose from the dead. And that
signifies His victory over sin. I quote quite often that passage
in Daniel chapter 9. I believe it's verse 24. where
it says, he made an end of sin. He finished the transgression.
That's the prophecy, you see. He brought in everlasting righteousness. That's done. And there's no more
fight there. And when he says, her warfare
is accomplished, what is that warfare? Well, I believe he's
talking about man, by nature, trying to save himself from his
own sins. You're fighting a warfare that
you can't win. If you're trying to save yourself
by your works, if you're trying to make yourself righteous by
your obedience and your attempts to obey, you're fighting a warfare
there that you can't win. But if you look to Christ for
all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all justification, for all
sanctification, for all redemption, what do you realize? Warfare
is accomplished. He did it on the cross. That's
the gospel message. It's the gospel of a finished
work. Now, yet we read, we just read in 2 Corinthians 10, when
we opened up our service tonight, when Paul said in 2 Corinthians
10 and verse 3, he said, for though we walk in the flesh,
that's just physical world, this physical body, what he's talking
about. You remember, sometimes flesh
doesn't mean sin. It just means the physical body.
You see, Christ, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
That's speaking of his physical humanity there, sinlessly. Now, ours is full of sin, you
know, but his wasn't. But the flesh, though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. So Paul's talking
about a warfare that believers are engaged in. And he talks
about weapons. The weapons of our warfare are
not fleshly. Not knives and guns and fists
and all that, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but if they're carnal, they're not mighty. But our weapons are
mighty. Pulling down of strongholds.
And he talks about the battlefield of the mind and the heart. Casting
down imaginations. That's the sinful reasonings
of man. Bringing everything that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God in Christ into captivity. to the obedience of Christ. In
Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, Paul writes to the Ephesian church,
he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
That's a warfare, isn't it? You don't wear armor if you're
not going into battle. And of course, every piece of
that armor, the armor of God, It's a beautiful picture of some
aspect of grace and mercy and the power of God in Christ to
save us, to keep us, to preserve us, and to bring us to victory
ultimately in all the battles that we have to fight. In 1 Timothy
1, verse 18, Paul tells Timothy this, he says, This charge I
commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which
went before on thee, that thou by them, by the word of God,
those are the prophecies, those are the word of God, by the word
of God that you might war a good warfare. You've got a warfare
to fight, Timothy. How do you reconcile that with
her warfare he has accomplished? Well, let me read one more to
you. In Galatians 5, verse 17, he
says, The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, the Spirit against
the flesh. These are contrary, the one to
the other. There's no peace there. There's
no truce there. There's no fellowship there between
the flesh and the Holy Spirit. You see, that's the battle within,
isn't it? That's the warfare of the flesh and the spirit.
He says, so that you cannot do the things that you would on
either side. Understand that. You know, a
believer cannot go the full swing, the full depths of his whole
depravity. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
of that? I am. And it's because of the
Spirit of God. And yet we can't go the full
extent of perfection to be like Christ because of the presence
of the flesh that still bothers us, that still wars against us,
that still contaminates everything we do. How many of you here would
say that you've ever had one second in your life as a believer
of perfect, uncontaminated love? I hope nobody would even think
about raising your hand. Because you know better. And
yet we do love. We do love, don't we? You know,
I think about that quite often, about when David said, I shall
be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. And John, when
he said it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. We really can't
even see what we're going to be. Paul said, I strive towards
the mark of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus. That's
what he's talking about. And it's a striving. So here
he says the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. So what I'm wanting
us to see before we get into this, there is a warfare that's
been accomplished. And that's by Christ on the cross
in our redemption. That's accomplished. We don't
have to fight to be saved. We don't have to fight to be
made righteous. We're already there in Christ.
Isn't that right? Do you understand what I'm saying? That warfare is accomplished.
We don't have to fight to be pardoned. Remember what God told
Isaiah to say there? Her iniquity is pardoned. We
have a full pardon of all our sins, past, present, future,
by the blood of Christ. That battle's been fought, and
he fought it, and he won it. But there is a warfare now that
is continuing to be fought while we're in this flesh, while we're
in this world, and that's to be fought. Now, that continual
warfare, and it's a warfare with the flesh, and don't ever listen. We know the world's against us.
It's a warfare with the world. We know that Satan, even though
he's been defeated at the cross now, And Christ said, He told
the disciples, He said, I've gained victory over the world,
even though there's victory there. We still have to fight that battle
while we're in this flesh, in this physical body, while we're
walking through this wilderness, this pilgrimage, you see, in
this earthly tent. But never forget now, one of
our biggest warfares, in fact you might say our greatest warfare,
is the warfare that we have to fight with self. the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. And I believe that's what this
chapter 8 is typifying. David the king subduing all his
enemies. But let me say this now. We fight
the warfare, but the victory is assured. There will be victory. It's an assured victory. The
outcome of this warfare that we're engaged in as believers,
as sinners saved by grace, the outcome is not in doubt. Don't ever think it is. The outcome
is sure, and the reason is, is because Christ ultimately is
the one who's fighting this warfare, and He's going to win it. He's
going to win. The Bible says that He who began
the work in us is going to what? Bring it to its completion. Philippians
chapter 1. It's God who worketh in us to
do His goodwill, His pleasure. Isn't that right? Christ is the
author and the what? Finisher of our faith. And so
for God's purposes, and it's for His glory, somebody might
ask, well, why does He leave us in this state? And why does,
because it's for His glory. That's why. That's exactly right. And that's the only reason we
need. Does it glorify God? If it does, it's good for us.
And you know what? Our fighting of this warfare
and this assured victory because of the power and glory of Christ,
you see, this is the king's victories we're going to be talking about
here. Our fighting this warfare may be the means that God uses
to bring one of his sheep into the fold. Did you know that? Because what Paul said there
in 2 Corinthians 10, we're fighting against imaginations, reasonings
of man. How do we do that? We preach
the gospel. We preach Christ and pray for
the power of the Spirit to make it effectual in that invincible
calling to the one of Christ's sheep. Call them into the fold.
Now, there are seven victories recorded here in chapter 8. I
believe that's significant. David's victory over all of his
enemies. There's seven of them. Seven
speaks of completeness. Seven is the number of the completed
divine work of God. That's why on the seventh day
he rested, on the seventh day, you see, of the week. Christ,
his death, he arose again on the first day of the week, that's
number eight, that's new beginnings, you see. That's why the male
child was to be circumcised on the eighth day, that's the new
beginning, signifying the new birth. So seven is the complete. And what he's talking about is
a complete victory, as pictured here by David, the complete victory
of Christ over all his enemies, the kings subduing his enemies. Christ cannot fail. Do you know
David could not fail here? He could not fail. Do you know
why? Because of the power of God and
the purpose of God. He could not fail here. And so,
what does he do? Well, let's just read through
it. Verse 1, he says, And after this, It came to pass, and when
you see that it came to pass, that's not just by chance or
happenstance or coincidence. This is the purpose of God. That's
why it came to pass. In other words, what God purposed
before time has its fulfillment in time. And so it came to pass
that David smoked the Philistines and subdued them, and David took
Methagama out of the hand of the Philistines. Now here he's
defeating all his enemies to the west of Jerusalem. And this
Methag-Ammah is another name for Gath. You remember who was
from Gath? Goliath of Gath. You see, that was one of the
crown cities. In fact, that word, Methag-Ammah, means mother city. That's what it means. And it
was a pride of the Philistines. Now you know the Philistines
were infamous enemies of Israel, and they were a continual presence
to Israel. But David subdued them, and he
took that city out of their hands. He defeated all of his enemies
to the west. And then look at verse 2. That's
the first victory. Here's the second one. And he
smoked Moab. and measured them with a line,
casting them down to the ground, even with two lines measured
he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive,"
had them lay down in two lines, one line he put to death, and
with one full line to keep alive, to serve him. And it says, and
so the Moabites became David's servants and brought gifts. That's victory number two. He
defeats his enemies to the east, Moab. This is the area, remember,
of David's roots. His roots go back to Moab with
Ruth. Ruth, who came out of Moab. God
brought her out of Moab and brought her into Israel. Represents our
roots in Adam. The flesh that remains, you might
say, from our fall in Adam. David once had a good relationship
with him. Remember, one time he left his
mother and father there. But now things have changed,
and we're not really told how or why, but it just goes to show
that there's never going to be any lasting peace with the flesh. That's just not going to happen.
There may be moments of peace with the flesh, but it will not
last. It's a warfare. Paul described
it in Galatians 5, you see, the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
the spirit against the flesh. And here's what he did, he made
them lie down on the ground, the soldiers that is, and he
measured them off with a length of cord and every two lengths
of them were put to death and the third length was allowed
to live and bring tribute to David. And you know what that
teaches? I believe it teaches that truth
that's taught in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 4, which says this,
the Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked,
for the day of evil. And what that means is this,
you know, everybody ultimately serves the purpose of the Lord.
Everything, everybody. Some do it willingly, some unwillingly,
but all do. How else could all things work
together for good to them that are called, that love God, who
are the called according to His purpose? Well, there's victory
number two. Look at verses 3 through 11 now. It says, verse 3, David
Smote also had a deezer, the son of Rehob, King of Zoba, as
he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates. And it
said, And David took from him a thousand chariots, seven hundred
horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen. And David huffed all
the chariot horses." Most commentators said that word means he hamstrung
them, or cut the Achilles tendon. But reserved of them for an hundred
chariots, their victory number three, that's his enemies to
the north now. This is probably what Psalm 60 was written about,
probably written to commemorate this battle. That Hadadezer there,
you know what his name means? It's a god named Hadad, and it
means Hadad will help us. Well, Hadad wasn't much help
that day, was he? You see, no idol can stand or
even be compared with the true and living God. God is above
all. There are no other gods before
Him. And it doesn't matter how much
Hadadezer sought for help from Hadad, he was praying to a God
that cannot save. And that's a sad, sad thing.
That's what idolatry is about. People praying and giving homage
and trying to serve a God who cannot save. Isaiah 45 deals
with that when he talks about those who bow down to the wooden
and the stone idols. But always remember that idolatry
begins here and here, in the heart and the head. That's where
it begins. And if you're not praying to
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant God of grace,
the God who justifies the ungodly, the God who saves sinners through
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're praying to a God that cannot
save. There's only one God who can save. But notice here it
says in verse 4 that he gave David all the land from Jerusalem all
the way to the river Euphrates. Now, that's a long way if you
look at a map. Somebody asked the question one time, why did
God give him all that? Why didn't David, you know, didn't
he say, well, we've gone far enough, fellas, we've got to
stop. No, sir. You know, this is a fulfillment of a prophecy
given to Abraham. Let me read it to you in Genesis
15-18. Mark this down. When God was
pronouncing the covenant blessings to Abraham in the physical realm,
and I'll show you the spiritual application of this too. It says
in Genesis 15-18, in the same day the Lord made a covenant
with Abram, saying unto thy seed have I given this land from the
river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. You know what Euphrates means?
It means fruitfulness. That's what it means. And you
know what that teaches us? That in Christ we have all the
blessings and fruitfulness of God's grace that he can give.
We don't need to realize that in an earthly, geographical location. We have all spiritual blessings
in Him. Listen to me. We have the forgiveness
of sins in Christ. Somebody might say, wasn't that
enough? It is, but that's not all God gives us. We have free
and full, unhindered access into the holiest of all through Christ.
We have the blessings of spiritual life. We have the blessings of
final glory. That's fruitfulness, you see,
just like Psalm 1, like a tree planted by the water that will
not be moved. His leaves shall not fade, but
always grow, always bring forth fruit, because of the river of
the water of life, because of Christ. And that's what that
signifies. That's why David had to have
all that land, from the River Nile all the way to the River
Euphrates. God promised it to Abraham. Every
place, God said, to Moses in Deuteronomy 11, whereon the soles
of your feet shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness
and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto
the uttermost sea shall your coast be, there shall no man
be able to stand before you." We're seeing that fulfilled right
here in 2 Samuel 8. For the Lord your God shall lay
the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that
you shall tread upon, as he has said unto you." And what is he
talking about there? It's not David. It's God. It's David's God, you see. That's
the way it is in our battles, everyday battles, whatever we
have to go through, battling ourselves, battling the world,
battling Satan. It's the greatness and the glory
and the power of Christ, not us, that wins these battles.
You see that? That's why we trust him. Look
at verse 4 over here. It says, and David took from
him thousands of chariots, 700 horsemen, 20,000 footmen. David huffed all the chariot
horses, but reserved of them for 100 chariots. Now, David
wasn't practicing cruelty to animals there when he did that.
You know what he was doing? He was taking their war horses
and he was turning their war horses into plow horses. farm animals. So their means
of war now became a means of sustenance for the people of
Israel. Somebody said that might not
seem very smart. Why not just keep them as war
horses for yourself? Well, remember what God said
through David in Psalm 20 and verse 7. He said, some trust
in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name
of the Lord our God. David didn't have to have those
horses, he had God. You see, that horse, you remember
back in that culture, the horse was a very great symbol of power,
majesty, glory, and war. Look at verse 5, he says, when
the Syrians of Damascus came to succor Hadadezer, to comfort
and help Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians. 2
and 20,000 men. There is victory number 4. He
defeats the Syrians of Damascus. Verse 6, it says, Then David
put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants
to David, and brought gifts. And the Lord preserved David,
whithersoever he went. Now hold to that thought there.
We are going to come back to that. The Lord preserved. The Lord helped. The Lord preserved
David, whithersoever he went. It says, David took the shields
of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer and brought them
to Jerusalem. It seems that gold shields seem
to be a picture of God's blessing and protection. And here we see
David capturing and taking these gold shields. You know, gold
is a symbol of divinity. And later on, even Solomon, later
on Solomon would make 300 shields of gold and call them the pinnacle
of the kingdom, symbolizing the Godhead. And look, it says in
verse 8, and from Betah, from Berothi, cities of Hadadezer,
King David took exceeding much brass, that's a symbol of judgment,
this is God's judgment now upon these foreign lands which in
their idolatry refused to pay homage to David, ultimately to
God. Verse 9, it says, when Toai,
king of Hamath, heard that David had smitten all the host of Hadadezer,
Then Toai sent Joram, his son, unto King David to salute him,
that is, to pay him homage, and literally to ask him of peace.
I don't want a war with you, David. I want to have peace with
you. And to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer
and smitten him, for Hadadezer had wars with Toai. And Joram
brought with him vessels of silver and vessels of gold and vessels
of brass. Later on, these were used to
build the temple by Solomon. And it goes on, it says, which
also King David did dedicate unto the Lord, that's what that
means, with the silver and gold that he had dedicated of all
nations, which he subdued. Now David didn't build it, Solomon
did, but these were the materials, part of it. Verse 12, Assyrian
of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and the Philistines,
and Amalek, and the spoils of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king
of Zobah. All these things you see. David
took what was the glory of the enemy, and he transformed it
into trophies of the power and goodness of God. That which was
being used for the selfish ends of man and for their idolatry,
David took them and used them for the glory of God. And those
shields of gold would end up in the temple, testifying to
God's work in and through David. One other thing there, this Toai,
this person, you know, Toai means wanderer. That's what his name
means. And I believe that that is significant there because
that could speak of the future salvation of the Gentiles. You
remember what he said, David, I don't want a war with you,
I want peace. And he brought tribute. And that's what happens
when God saves a sinner, when he saves you or a Gentile, there's
peace. He's reconciled to God through
the blood of Christ, through the righteousness of Christ.
And he brings tribute, not his works now, but praise and honor
and glory and worship and service unto Christ, just like Toadai
did. And these become part of that
temple. Just like those things that Toai
brought, they become part of that temple, which is the church.
Every brick in that church is God's people. Built upon the
rock Christ Jesus, held together by the chief cornerstone and
full of Him, whom to know is life eternal. He defeats his
enemies to the south there in verse 12, Ammon. And that battle
is described over in chapter 10, I believe. But his victory
here If you look at verse 12, when it speaks of Syria again,
I believe that's Edom, and you can refer to that in Psalm 60,
but that's victory number five. In other words, what he's doing
here, you see now he's defeating all the enemies to the north,
to the south, to the east, and to the west, everything that
surrounds us. You say, everything that's surrounded
you, he takes care of. And that's a great, great lesson
for us. Everything that comes against
us from every direction, Christ is going to defeat ultimately.
And one day they'll never bother us again. One day we won't be
bothered by sinful flesh. We'll be perfect in Him and by
Him. One day we won't be bothered
by the world or Satan or the opposition that comes from there.
We'll be perfect. So here's victory number six,
his victory over the Ammonites. And then number seven is his
victory over the Amalekites. All of these things. Look at
verse 13. He says, And David got him a
name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the Valley
of Salt, being 18,000 men. David became famous throughout
the land, you see. And, you know, just like when
the gospel began to be preached throughout the Gentile world,
the name of Christ began to spread out. Now I know, and you know
too, that as that time went on, that that name began to be corrupted
by men. There's such false Christianity
today, false Christ counterfeit. But still, the name of Christ
has gone out through the world, and he will bring his sheep home. He'll bring his people into the
fold. In verse 14, it says, And he put garrisons in Edom throughout
all Edom, put he garrisons all they of Edom, because they became
David's servants. And here it repeats what was
said over there in verse 6, The Lord preserved David, whithersoever
he went. Verse 15, it says, David reigned
over all Israel, and David executed judgment and justice unto all
people. I'll come right back to that
here in a minute. It says, verse 16, And Joab the son of Zeuriah
was over the host, that is the army, Jehoshaphat, the son of
Ahilad, was recorder, that is, the historian. Zadok, the son
of Ahitab, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were the priest,
and Saraiah was the scribe. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada,
was over both the Sharethites and the Pelethites. These were
guards, and David's sons were the chief rulers. David set up
the order of the kingdom, just like Christ sets up the order
of His church. puts us where He wants us and
gifts us the way He wants to, to the praise of the glory of
His grace. Now, let me just conclude with
this. There are four keys to David's victories here. I want
you to see them. The first one is really back
up in chapter 7. Chapter 7 and verse 1. Here's
the first key to David's victories. It says, in chapter 7 and verse
1, And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, And
the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies."
Now even though, what that teaches us here, now David's fighting
battles here in chapter 8. He's going to fight a battle
over in chapter 10. But even though he's fighting
battles, he has rest. And what a great picture that
is of true salvation. Yes, we've got battles to fight.
The work on earth is not yet done. In this sense, we still
have to war with the flesh, with the devil, with the world. But
we have rest, and our rest is in Christ. We have the rest of
his finished work at the cross, but we also have the rest of
his assured victory over all his enemies, north, south, east,
and west. that we have to face until we're
called home to be with the Lord. We rest in Him. And that speaks
of the grace of God. You notice there in chapter 7,
verse 1, it says, God gave this to David. David didn't earn it.
And we're going to see later on he does everything that a
human being can possibly do to lose it if it were conditioned
on him. Aren't you glad that salvation
and all of its victories is not conditioned on us, but on Christ,
the King of Kings. So that's the first key, the
grace of God, the power of God. He gave us victory at the cross. He continues to give us victories
every day. And He's going to give us ultimate
victory when He comes again and gathers us unto Himself and judges
the world. And it's a gift. It's all a gift.
There's none of it that we can earn or deserve. It's all a gift.
The second key to David's victories is the praise that's been repeated
here in chapter 8 twice in verse 6 and verse 14. It says, And
the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. That speaks of his preserving
power and grace. Not only does God save us, not
only will He bring us to glory, But everything in between is
all according to his power and grace. He keeps us. He keeps
us. Somebody said he's got us on
a leash. He'll let us go so far, but he's going to bring us back.
And so we see that in David's case and in our case, it's not
our hold upon Christ that is the foundation of our salvation,
but it's his hold upon us. When it says the Lord preserved
David, it could be said the Lord helped David, but either way,
it's the same. We persevere in the faith. We
continue by God's grace, but only because He preserves us
by His grace. And that's the key to victory.
And then here's the third key to victory, verse 11. You notice,
whenever, and we're going to see this too in the next chapter
dealing with Mephibosheth. You know, it's very common. For
kings in that day, if they conquered another country, they would kill
off the whole family of the opposing king. Well, we know David didn't
do that because he made Jonathan a promise, and that's why he
asked in verse 1 of chapter 9, is there anybody in Saul's house
that I can bring back in, that I can preserve and show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? And of course, you know that's
a picture of the covenant of grace, Christ and the Father
and the Spirit. But it was also common when they
would conquer another country that the king would take all
the spoils for himself. And not only that, he would display
all those spoils, all the jewels and all the gold, all those things
for his own glory. But David didn't do that. David
was gifted by God here with these victories. And it says that David,
it says in verse 11, King David did dedicate unto the Lord with
the silver and the gold that he had dedicated of all nations
which he subdued. Now, that's not just giving the
Lord a tenth. That's not just giving the Lord
a little tip. What David is doing there in
dedicating them to the Lord, he's saying, Lord, it's yours.
It's not mine. None of it's mine. It's all yours.
I'm just a steward of your grace." And not only did he recognize
that they belonged to the Lord, which we should do with everything
we have. Listen, everything in salvation, it's of the Lord.
Everything that we have is of the Lord. You know, I often say
that about just, you know, take the next breath. God gave it
to you. It didn't even belong to you. I mean, he could take
it just like that. But he also took these things,
instead of spending them on himself and for himself and for his own
glory, he used them in the worship of the Lord because it was these
things, among other things, that they were given and that they
had and that they got that was used for the temple. So what's the key here? David
worshipped God. He worshipped God. And you know,
that's the desire of God. Christ told that woman at the
well, that's what God desires, He said, a people to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. That's what God wants. You don't
have to walk around here on this earth saying, I wonder what God
wants. No, He wants His own glory. He wants us to worship Him. And
His people will, because you know why? Because He gives us
a heart to worship Him. That's the key. And then fourthly,
look at verse 15. It says, And David reigned over
all Israel. This is the fourth key. It says,
And David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.
As king, he ruled in judgment and justice. Now, first of all,
it's only right for a king to do that. We have civil magistrates
today. We hope those civil magistrates
that they deal in their office of authority in judgment and
justice with all people. We hope that they're not crooked
and that they don't show favors to this one and then bring out
personal vengeance on this one or take bribes. So first of all,
it's only right for a man that has given this kind of authority
to deal in judgment and justice. But you know what the main issue
here for King David is? It is for him to rightly typify
and represent the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the number one
right there. He's in a position like no other
person. You see, the King of Israel,
the King that came from the line of Judah, the house of David,
you think what an awesome responsibility that is. And I think about this
a lot because think about the awesome responsibility of standing
before people and preaching the gospel. Greg, you all know something
of this. Aaron and Joe, and some of you
other men who have taught classes. And when you teach our children,
the men and the ladies who do, that's an awesome responsibility
because you want to make sure that what you say is correct,
that it represents God aright, that it tells the truth on who
God is and who we are and who Christ is and God's way of salvation. We want to know that. I don't
want to get up here and lie to you. and lie to ourselves. When you think about King David,
it was through his earthly line that the Messiah would come,
made of the seed of David according to the flesh. But the responsibility
of the office of the King of Judah, he must represent the
promised Messiah aright. His scepter must be a scepter
of righteousness, and that's why he must deal in judgment
and justice. Now, David couldn't do it perfectly because he was
a sinful human being just like us, a sinner saved by grace.
But the one whom he typified, he's the one who truly dealt
in judgment and justice. Isn't that right? When did he
do that? Well, he did it in his walk.
He did it in his words. But he did it mainly on the cross
of Calvary. when he went there for our sins.
And judgment and justice rained down on him, shot him right through
to the heart as he died for our sins and made an end of sin. enabling God to be just and justify. You see, this truth of judgment
and justice are not just philosophical concepts to be debated or discussed. This is the reality of the God
who saves by His grace. If there's going to be any mercy,
it's got to be according to strict justice. If there's going to
be any grace in salvation, it must be according to truth. If
there's going to be any love from God, it must be consistent
with His holiness. And that King who sat on that
throne, as a type of Christ, must deal that way in judgment
and justice. Judgment and justice. Well, that's
the keys to His victory, as you say. And we're going to see how
David, in the next chapter, As he's dealing with justice, justice
against sin, in chapter 8, in defeating all the enemies, we're
going to see in chapter 9 how he deals in mercy, with one name
a feather shaft. Covenant mercy. Covenant kindness,
we call it. And we see God as both a just
God and a Savior, through Christ. And that's a glorious thing.