Good morning. Good morning. It's
good to see you all again. If you would, turn to 2 Samuel
chapter 2. Bring with me all the well wishes
and thoughts from the people in Lexington, the congregation
down there. You have a whole family down there, whether you
know it or not. But they want me to tell you all hi. So hi
from the congregation in Lexington. This morning, I want to look
at this story that takes place in 2 Samuel chapter 2 and chapter
3. It's one story, but it continues
on between the two chapters. And I've entitled the message
for this morning, Man's Lie and God's Truth. And it's a befitting
title because that's what we learn. That's the teaching from
this story. This story exposes some things.
It exposes man. It exposes the natural man, what
he knows, and what he wants, and what he does with that knowledge,
with that desire. It exposes man's religion. Salvation
by works in the folly of that religion. And does this, thank
the Lord it does this, it exposes the gospel. It exposes the truth,
it shows us the lie, and then it shows us the truth, the truth
of who God is, the truth of who Christ is, and how he saves sinners. Before we begin, I want to give
you a little background concerning where we're picking up. Saul,
the former king of Israel, he is dead. He's died. And David
has been anointed by God through Samuel to be king over all Israel
and all Judah. And this happened long before
Saul ever died. But the kingdom right now is
split. You got Judah, tribe of Judah, and then you've got Israel,
which is basically all the other tribes. And Judah has aligned
themselves with David. David went to the Lord. He said,
should I go up to the cities of Judah? The Lord said, go up.
They'll receive you. So he went to Judah. Judah said, you're
our king. You're God's anointed king. You're our king. They received
him. But Israel, not so much. The rest of the tribes, not so
much. They're being led by a man named Abner. Abner. Abner was
Saul, the former king's captain and the host. He was his lead
general. And Abner is controlling what is going on over in Israel
at this time. Now what I'd like you to do,
we're gonna look at a few excerpts between these two chapters. Look
at 2 Samuel 2 and pick up in verse 8. But Abner, the son of Ner, captain
of Saul's host, took Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and brought
him over to Manhattan. Now listen to this, listen to
this wording. And made him king of Gilead. and over the Asherites,
and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all
Israel. Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was 40
years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two
years. But the house of Judah followed
David. Now this man, Abner, this is
important. This is the theme of Abner throughout
this entire story. Abner does not want David to
be king. That's his theme. And the reason
for that is this. He thinks he will lose if David
becomes king. If David reigns, I will be the
loser by it. He had a position of prominence,
of influence, of power, of authority in Saul's court. And he looks
at David. David's already got a Joab. He's
already got a second in command. If David takes the reigns, if
David's king, I'll lose all my control. So this is the theme
of Saul. He does not want David to be
king. And the truth of the matter is
this. Abner wants to be king. Abner's in control of Israel.
He wants to maintain that control. Abner wants to be king. But he
can't come out and say that. He has no legitimate claim to
the throne. He can't just come out and say
that. Nobody would support it. So he does the next best thing.
He installs a puppet king. Notice the language. He made
himself a king. He takes Ishbosheth, one of Saul's
sons. And this man, as we read on,
we will find out he is a weak man. He is impressionable. He's
somebody Abner can bully. He's somebody Abner can manipulate.
Ishbosheth isn't going to do anything but exactly what Abner
wants him to do. And Abner sees this and he says,
I'm going to make me a king, a king I can manipulate. And
he puts Ishbosheth on the throne. This is a good statement. Keep
this in mind. He who has the power to make a king is the king. Now, the story goes on, look
at verse 12. And Abner the son of Ner and
the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul went out from Manhannam
to Gibeon. And Joab the son of Zariah and
the servants of David went out and met together by the pool
of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the
pool and the other on the other side. Now, there's a contention. Abner has come out against David.
He's installed Ishbosheth, his king, over Israel. And this could
spark a civil war. You've got two sides. You've
got Judah and Israel. And this can't stand. The kingdom
can't remain divided. Somebody has to take the reins.
So they needed a pool, a pool to give him. Abner takes his
forces. They meet on one side of the
pool. Joab commands David's forces. They meet on the other side of
the pool. And it seems as if they're interested in diplomacy.
They're interested in a peaceful resolution right off the bat
because everybody just sits down. That's a good thing. That's a
good thing. Everybody just sits down on the side of this pool.
And they have the pool separating them so if tensions get high,
nobody can just pop off and maybe shove a sword in the guy who's
standing next to him and spark a full-blown civil war. This
is a good thing. They're trying to seek a peaceful
resolution to all this. But look what Abner does. Look at verse
14. And Abner said to Joab, let the
young men now arise and play before us. And Joab said, let
them arise. Then there arose and went over
by number 12 of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishmael, the son
of Saul, and 12 of the servants of David. Now Abner proposes
something that's called play. He uses the word play, but this
is no child's play. What he is proposing here is
gladiator-like combat. Abner says, I'm going to send
my 12 best. I'm going to take my 12 best
warriors, the best I can come up with, and I'm going to send
them out. Joab, you send your 12 best, and we're going to have
a little competition. Maybe a little taste of what
a battle would look like between our two armies. We'll have them
compete in this gladiator-like competition, and we'll see who's
got the better warriors. And Joab's in a tight spot here.
I don't envy him in this. He's been challenged, and if
he doesn't meet the challenge, he may be perceived as weak.
That may bolster Abner's confidence, and he may just send his army
over. Sparks the war right then. Additionally, if Joab's men actually
prove to be more valiant, the better warriors, that may discourage
Abner, and he may surrender immediately. So Joab arguably makes the best
decision he can. He says, let him rise. Let's
see where this goes. Look what happens. Verse 18. And there were three sons of
Zeriah there. Oh, I'm sorry. Verse 16. And they caught everyone
his fellow by the head, speaking of these 24 men, and thrust this
sword in his fellow's side. So they fell down together. Wherefore,
that place was called Helcathazrim, which is in Gibeon. That means
a slippery place. Now, they set out in this great
competition. I bring my best, you bring your
best. We're going to find out who's better, who's got the better
warriors. And at the end of this, you know, very interesting what
they find. They find that amongst these 24 warriors, there is absolutely
no difference between any of them. They are all the same. And the end state for every one
of these 24 men is the exact same. They all die. I'm gonna tell you about what
happens next. This competition, these 24 men engaging in this
gladiator combat, they all dying, this sparks a full-blown war.
It's a civil war between Judah and Israel. Joab's forces prove
victorious. They put Abner and his army on
the run. And so not only is Abner's army
fleeing, Abner is fleeing. Now let's see what happens next.
Look at verse 18 now. And there were three sons of
Zariah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel. And Asahel was as
light a foot as a wild roe. That means he was fast as a gazelle.
And Asahel pursued after Abner. And in going, he turned not to
the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner
looked behind him and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered,
I am. And Abner said to him, Turn thee
aside to the right hand or to the left, and lay thee hold on
one of the young men, and take thee his armor. But Asahel would
not turn aside from following him. And Abner said again to
Asahel, turn thee aside from following me. Wherefore should
I smite thee to the ground? How then should I hold up my
face to Joab my brother? Now here we are introduced to
this man Asahel, and this man Asahel is very, very important. This is Joab's brother. This
is the nephew of David. And if you read through the Chronicles,
when it goes through David's mighty men, Asahel is mentioned
there. He's one of David's mighty men, and he's referred to as
a valiant warrior. He is strong. He is courageous. He is battle-tested, and he is
capable. And Asa Hill goes out to the
battlefield, and he sees the army fleeing, and he spies everything
out, and he locks eyes with who? Abner. And he says, he's the
problem. There's only one problem out
here. There's only one reason we're in the midst of this civil
war. There's only one reason I've been hacking my countrymen
to death out here. It's him, Abner. He's the problem. He locked
eyes with him, and he took off headlong toward Abner. He says,
I'm going to take him out. I'm going to get rid of him.
And he wouldn't be dissuaded. He set off in single-minded purpose. A little foreshadowing. It's
kind of like he set his face like a flint. In a single-minded
purpose, he took off after Abner, the problem. And Abner said,
stop. Go after one of the younger men.
Seek your victory with one of them. Seek your glory with one
of them. And he said, no, you're the problem. You're going down.
Now look what happens. Verse 23. Howbeit he refused
to turn aside. Wherefore Abner, with the hinder
end of the spear, smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear
came out behind him, and he fell down there and died in that same
place. And it came to pass that as many
as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died, they all
stood still. Asahel's faster than Abner. He's
pursuing after Abner. Abner sees this and he delivers
this backward blow with the blunted end of his spear and Asahel runs
headlong right into it and that spear goes straight through him
and he falls down on the ground and he dies right there. And
the moment Asahel died, you know what happened? The battle stopped. Everybody on that battlefield
stood still. You could have heard a pin drop.
No one could believe everyone was awestruck that this mighty,
valiant, capable warrior could die. Now moving forward. Abner escapes. This pause in
the battle allows Abner to escape and essentially Joab allows him
to. Joab says, listen, we're going through this civil war.
I don't want to kill any more of my countrymen today. We're
going to let Abner escape. But this is not the end of the
war. This is just the beginning. The scriptures record. This war
goes on, long war between the house of David and the house
of Saul. But it also says this, the house
of David waxed greater and greater, stronger and stronger, and the
house of Saul weaker and weaker. David is sure to win, it's just
a matter of time. Before we get to the victory,
there's an exchange that happens between Ish-bosheth and Abner,
we should probably see. Look at 2 Samuel 3 and look at
verse 6. And it came to pass, while there
was war between the house of Saul and the house of David,
that Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul. Now what
I'll say about that is that, is this, that's bad. Man makes
himself strong, he strengthens himself, he is sure to fall,
he's sure to fail. The Lord strengthens man, he'll
stand. He strengthens himself, he will fall. Abner strengthened
himself for the house of Saul. Verse two, and Saul had a concubine
whose name was Ritzpah, the daughter of Ai. And Ishmael said to Abner,
wherefore hast thou gone to my father's concubine? Then was
Abner very wroth for the words of Ishmael, and said, Am I a
dog's head, which against Judah do show kindness this day unto
the house of Saul thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends,
and have not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou
chargest me today with a fault concerning this woman? Ishbosheth
is the king. He has authority over Abner.
And how does Abner speak to him? He says, how dare you? How dare
you call me into account over what I've done? Apparently Abner
had some sort of romantic relationship with one of Saul's concubines.
Ishbosheth didn't like it. Ishbosheth tries to call him
out on him. And Abner says, how dare you? Who are you to tell
me what to do? Who are you to try to hold me
to account? Look at everything I've done
for you. I've continued your family line on the throne. I've
kept you from David. I've been good to you, your family,
your friends. How dare you tell me what to do? He's talking to
his king. But keep in mind, this is a king
he has made. And he who can make a king is
the king. Now, look at verse nine. Abner
continues to speak to Iscrasheth. He says, so do God to Abner.
And more also, except as the Lord hath sworn to David, even
so I do to him, to translate the kingdom from the house of
Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over
Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba. And he could not answer Abner
a word again, because he feared him." The king's afraid of one
of his subjects. But here's the interesting part.
We get a very interesting piece of information here. Abner admits
something. He admits this. He has known
the whole time that David was the rightful king. This wasn't
an issue of misunderstanding. It's not as if he thought he
was doing the right thing and Saul's line was supposed to stay
on the throne. No, he is admitting right here, as the Lord has sworn
unto David, also do I unto him. What had the Lord sworn to David?
That he would be king. That the kingdom would translate
from Saul's house to David's house and David's house would
be set over that kingdom forever. Abner knew that. He knew that
David was God's anointed king. He knew that this was the will
of God. And you know what? He warred against it anyway.
He did this with his eyes wide open. But very interesting here. What
he tells Ishbosheth is this. He says, I'm switching sides.
I'm done with you. I'm going to align myself with
David. And when I read through this, I don't detect that he
is sincere here. It's not as if he says, I'm going to go throw
myself at David's mercy and I'm going to beg him for mercy and
see what he says. No, he's going to bargain. I
got something David wants. I've got influence in Israel.
I can bring everybody under his command. I've got something David
wants. I've got a bargaining chip. I'm going to go bargain.
I do not think he's sincere, but he says, I'm going to switch
sides. That's what he's going to do. So he sends messengers
to David, says just that. I've got influence here. You
want to be king? You're the rightful king. I recognize
that. I've got some influence in Israel. If you make a treaty
with me, an alliance, a covenant, peace with me, I'll give you
what you want. I'll bring you everything you want. And David
does something that's very out of character for him. He acts
in a politically savvy mentality. He looks at us and says, all
right, I'm the king. I don't want any more bloodshed,
no more civil war. He's got some influence. I'll just, everything
he's done, the insurrection, the killing of Asahel, I'll just
sweep that under the carpet. I'll just forget about all that
for the sake of having Abner's cooperation, so I'll have the
kingdom under me. A word on that. If you want to
know what God is not like, He is not like that. He does not
need the cooperation of a man to be king. He is the king. He
rules over all men in absolute sovereignty. We're going to talk
about that here in a minute. But he does not need the cooperation
of men to be king. He is the king. And the truth
of the matter is one day every knee is going to bow and every
tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. No cooperation of man needed.
And here's the other thing he doesn't do. He doesn't sweep
anything under the carpet. Not one sin, not one sin that
has ever been committed will go unpunished. Every sin that
ever has been committed or ever will be committed has either
already been punished in the person of Jesus Christ or it
will be punished in a man. One of the two. But no sin will
go unpunished that he may maintain his title as a just God and a
Savior. But if you want to know what
God is not like, He's not like what David's doing right here.
Now, David may be willing to overlook what Abner has done
for the sake of cooperation, but there is somebody who's not
willing to overlook it, and it's Joab. Look over here at verse
22, chapter 3. And behold, the servants of David
and Joab came from pursuing a troop and brought in a great spoil
with them, but Abner was not with David and Heber, for he
had sent him away and he was gone in peace. When Joab and
all the hosts that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying,
Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him
away, and he is gone in peace. Then Joab came to the king and
said, What hast thou done? Behold, Abner came unto thee.
Why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is quite gone?
Thou knowest Abner, the son of Ner, that he came to deceive
thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know
all that thou doest. Now, Joab's wrong here. He doesn't
have any right to talk to his king in this way, but he's probably
looking out for David's best interests, and he's probably
right. Abner probably is a snake in
the grass. Abner's just trying to get himself in good with David,
maybe maintain some of his prestige, his power. And at some point
he's going to use what information he has to usurp David. Joab's
probably right. But Joab has a different motivation. Another one. Asahel. Asahel,
his brother, died at the hand of Abner and Joab can't let that
go. Let's see what happens. Verse
26. And when Joab was come out from
David, he sent messengers after Abner, which brought him again
from the well of Sirah. But David knew it not. Joab did
this without David's consent, without his knowledge. And when
Abder was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate
to speak with him quietly and smote him there under the fifth
rib, same way Asahel died, that he died for the blood of Asahel,
his brother. Now, Joab's wrong here. He's
doing this without the consent of the king, and if you go on
reading, you find out David's pretty upset about this. He actually
mourns for Abner. He curses the house of Joab.
He gets very, very upset. That being said, this is the
catalyst. The death of Abner, the death
of the problem, leads to this. The unification of the kingdom,
and David sitting on that throne, being the most feared man on
the face of the earth. That's a long story, a lot of
moving parts. Here's the question, where's
the gospel in all that? What can we learn? What is the main theme of Abner
in this story? Well, it's quite simple. Abner
knew that David was the rightful king over Judah and Israel, God's
appointed king. But he did not want David to
be king because he thought he would be the loser by it. He
would lose his sense of control. And what did he do in response
to that? He made himself a king. He installed a puppet king that
he could bully, that he could manipulate into doing what he
wanted them to do. Now, what is the natural man? Me and you, the way we are born
in this world, what are all men like? We're just like average. There are things that the natural
man knows concerning God. Men are intuitively, are born
with an intuitive knowledge of some of the things of God. And
here's what Romans 1.20 says about that. It says, for the
invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even this, His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse. No Bible needed, no preacher
needed. Intuitively, every man knows this just by looking at
the ocean. Just by looking at the stars in the sky. Just by
looking at a mountain range. Here's what he knows. He knows
God is. Somebody made that. He made it
by an intelligent design. He made it with purpose. And
he must be very, very wise. Much, much wiser than I am because
I can't create that. And He must be very, very powerful. Much more powerful than I am
because I can't create that. And that means in this natural
pecking order, the pecking order of life, He is up here. He is
God. He is King. And I am down here
and I am subject to Him. And that means I should seek
Him to find out what His expectation is for me. To know Him. know
what he wants. And here's the problem with man,
he will not. With that intuitive knowledge he does not follow
and he does not seek after God. He rejects it. He rejects that
natural pecking order of God being on top, being king, and
man being on bottom, being subject to the king. And this rejection
gets even more ferocious, it gets even more violent when the
full truth from the scripture is revealed. Not just that he
is very wise and wiser than I am, he's omniscient. He's never learned
anything. There's nothing he doesn't know.
Everything that there is to know is housed in God, in Jesus Christ. And anyone who has any perceived
wisdom whatsoever, he has it on loan from God. He is the source
of all wisdom. He's omniscient. He knows all.
He's the source of all knowledge. Not only is he omnipotent, he's
much more powerful than I am. He's sovereign. absolutely and
utterly sovereign. He rules over all men, all circumstances,
at all times. His purpose and will always being
done in all things. And a man sees that, he says,
no, no, absolutely not. Why? Because he perceives he
will be the loser by it. I'd lose my sense of control.
If I'm in the hands of a sovereign and he can do with me as he sees
fit, that means he can say to me or he can damn me and whatever
he does is right and he can't be influenced in any way. I can't
manipulate him. I can't bully him. I don't get
a say in this thing. No, I will not have that man
to rule over me and he rejects what he sees there. He rejects
the God of this Bible. What does he do? What did Abner
do? Abner made himself a king. Man rejects the God of the Bible,
the God he sees in the creation, and he makes himself a king.
He makes himself his own God. He conjures a God in his imagination
and he assigns him whatever attributes he wants him to have. What do
you think those attributes always are? Weakness? Inability? Subject to the will
of man? Subject to the works of man?
That is the God of this world, isn't it? It is the Jesus that
is preached from most pulpits around the world right now, is
it not? He loves everybody. He wants to save everybody. He
just can't do it. He can't do it unless you do
your part. He can't do it unless you do and you fill in the blank
with whatever word they use. You receive him, you do something
good so that he'll shine his light upon you, whatever it may
be. He wants to save you and he died for everybody, he loves
everybody, but he can't get the job done. That's the God that
man makes in his imagination because he rejects the sovereign
God of this Bible who saves according to his own will and his own good
pleasure completely and utterly for Christ's sake. and by His
grace. That natural rejection. Now not only does He make a God,
He makes His own King. If you're going to have a God,
that means you have to have a religion. I've made my own God, now I've
got to make my own religion. What is the religion of man? Salvation
by works. Whatever form it takes on. If
you do this, God will do this. It always works that exact same
way. You know how that's illustrated in our story? in a very interesting
way. It's at that pool of Gibeon.
Abner's forces come to the pool. Joab's forces come to the pool.
What does Abner propose? He says this, give me your best.
I'll provide my best, you provide your best, and you know what
we're gonna do? We're gonna compete. That's man's religion right there. That's
salvation by works. I'm gonna bring my best before
God. My best will, my best works, the best I can possibly muster,
and we're gonna see if God's pleased with that. And I can't
use the actual standard. What is the standard? What is
God's standard? God's standard is Jesus Christ. The very righteousness
of Jesus Christ, the very sinlessness of Jesus Christ, the very holiness
of Jesus Christ. We can't use that standard. Nobody
can meet that standard. So we'll make our own standard.
Who's the standard? The guy sitting next to me. What we'll do, we'll
have a little competition. I'll bring my best. I'll show
you, at least outwardly, how I'm putting down sin. I'm getting
more holy. I'm doing all these righteous things. And you bring
your best, and we'll compete. And we'll see who's more pleasing
to God at the end. Who's going to have the bigger crown in glory? Who's going to have the bigger
mansion? Who's going to be higher in the pecking order? And what's
interesting about this religion, it doesn't breed any salvation.
It doesn't breed any worship of God. It certainly doesn't
breed any brotherly love, no gracious attitude, no merciful
character. You know what it breeds? Hate and malice for your fellow
man. Because you're always trying to do better than him, and you're
always hoping he'll fall, so you can look a little bit better
than him. That's man's religion right there. That religion of
my best and a competition based on my best. But I think this
is very interesting, very telling. These 24 men enter into this
competition. They're going to compete. We're
going to find out who's the best. Who's got the best warriors?
What do they find at the end of the day? That there's no difference
between any of them. They're all evenly matched. And this is what Paul has to
say about men. This is Romans 3.10. As is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way, and they are together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. And one day everybody's going
to see this. One day when the Lord closes the books and he
wraps this thing up, we're going to see there is no difference
in men. Turns out we're all the same.
We're all born dead in trespasses and sins. We have all sinned
against God. All the imaginations and the
thoughts of our heart are only evil and that continually. There
is no difference in men. None are righteous. None doeth
good. And when a man approaches this
way, This way of salvation by works, this way of competition,
it always leads to the exact same thing. What happened to
these 24 men? They all perished. They all died. What happens in this religion?
Man's religion. The competition. The works. Everybody
dies. Because nobody can stand before
God. God won't accept a thing from me or you. He can't. He's
God. He's holy. Now, that's the lie. That's man and man's lie. What's
the truth? If that's the lie, what is the
truth? You know who the truth is? The truth is Asahel. Now I'm gonna give you four things
about Asahel real quick. Number one, he was a man of single-minded
purpose. Number two, that man entered
the battlefield and he spied out the problem. Abner, he was
the problem. And in that single-minded purpose,
he took off to destroy that problem. Three, he would not be dissuaded.
He would not turn from the right hand or the left. Abner said,
go find somebody else. Nope, you're the problem. I'm
going after the problem. And listen to this. Think about
this. The only reason Abner is finally
put down for good is because Asahel died. David was going to let him go.
He had made a treaty with him. But because Asahel died, Joab
put him down. Now, who do you think this represents? Could there be any question in
anybody's mind? This is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth.
He is God's truth. Our Lord came into this world
with a single-minded purpose, and we don't have to wonder what
that purpose was. When he was 12 years old, he
went down with his family to Jerusalem for the Passover. When they were coming back, they
thought he was with them, but he wasn't. He had stayed behind.
And so they get all the way back, and they have to go back to look
for him. You know where they found him? They found him in the temple.
and he was listening to the teachers and they were asking, he was
asking them questions and everybody was astonished by what he had
to say, his knowledge. I think it's funny, they were
astonished because he was 12 but he was God. They were speaking
with God, they had absolutely no idea. His mother comes, she
comes looking for him, she issues him kind of a soft rebuke and
this is what he says to her. He says, how is it that you sought
me? Wist ye not that I must be about
my father's business? He came to this world in a single-minded
purpose. What was that purpose? To do
the will of His Father. And we don't have to guess as
to what the will of His Father was. John tells us, John 639,
and this is the Father's will which is sent me. That of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. You know when that was given?
That was given in the covenant of grace before the world ever
began. The father looked to the son, he says, I have a people.
I have a people I love. They're called the elect. They're
the ones I've chosen. And I'm putting them in the only
place of safety. I'm putting them in you. And
I'm making you 100% responsible for them. I am not going to look
to them for anything. I'm going to look to you, their
surety, for everything I demand of them. That they might return
to me without a scratch on them. That I might be able to receive
them as who they are. Sons and daughters, my children,
your bride, you are tasked with this. You will lose nothing,
but you will raise them all again at the last day. And Christ came
into the world with a single-minded purpose, to do his father's will,
to save his elect people. And when he came to this world,
he was stepping on a battlefield. And as soon as he stepped on
that battlefield, he surveyed the scene, and he spied the problem.
He spied Abner. What's my problem? What's your
problem? My sin. That's my problem. That's my Abner. He came to this
world, He spied out the problem, the sins of His people. It's
your sins that have separated you from your God. That's what
separated God's people from the Father. Our sins had separated
us from our God. He spied out our error. And in
single-minded purpose, He took off. He said, I'm going to take
care of the problem. I'm going to remove the sin.
And He was victorious. And somebody says, well, hold
on. Asahel dies. Exactly This is our Lord's victory
This is his great victory it is in his death for he hath made
him sin For us who knew no sin that we might be made the very
righteousness of God in him the father made him after He made
him the sins of his people and he died under the wrath of God
for those sins But in that death was the great victory This is
the accomplishment of salvation for everybody the Father gave
Him. And listen to these scriptures.
I'm not even going to make much comment. I want you to listen
to this. What is the effects of this victory, of the death
of our Lord Jesus? This is it. Psalm 103, 12. As
far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. Gone. How far is the East is
from the West? An immeasurable amount. They're
gone. First John 4.10, here in His
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. You know what a
propitiation means? A sin-removing sacrifice. The sin has been removed. Everybody He died for, the reason
for God's anger has been removed because the sin has been removed.
It's been punished, paid for, put away, never to be seen again.
And listen to this. This is Romans 5.10. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
That sin that separated God's people from the Father, Christ
bore it in His body, He paid the debt for it, and He actually
removed it. And now, full reconciliation has been made. Full reconciliation. That means, right now, if you're
a believer, if this is your hope, you've got nothing else. You
have been reconciled to God. God couldn't be any more pleased
with you than He is right now. You're in Christ. You have everything
that Christ has. We have to be just like Christ.
That's the standard. We are in Him. We have His righteousness.
We have His holiness. We have His sinlessness. Completely
and utterly acceptable through this great victory. What's the
victory? It's His death. The death is the victory. And make no mistake, I want to
be as adamant about this as I can possibly be. Everybody Christ
died for, they are saved. They can't be lost. It is impossible
because God can't fail. Asahel can't fail. Christ can't
fail. He's a valiant man. Now, I want to conclude this thing
by asking a question. A moment of introspection, if you will.
Am I in this number? The Father gave Him a people.
He gave Christ a people. He accomplished salvation for
a people. The victory was in His death. He died for a people. Can I count myself in that number?
Can I tell you, if I can, if I can, I have peace, I have joy,
I have comfort, I have rest. Despite whatever may be going
on in this world, there's true joy, there's true peace in that.
If I can count myself in that number, I want to know. Who's
your king? I want you to answer that question
in your own heart and your mind. Who's your king? Well, we're
like Abner. We've made our own king. Made
a king that's weak, a king we can manipulate, a king who's
going to do what we want him to do. Or is Christ our king?
The sovereign, the holy, that one who does according to his
own goodwill at all times. Who's your king? Whose hand are
you in? What's your religion? Is it the competition? Salvation
by works, bringing my best before God? Is it that? Or is my only
hope in this, that I will be received on the wings of free
and sovereign grace? All, every bit, for Christ's
sake. What's your religion? Third question. Where do you stand? When Asahel
died, what happened on the battlefield? Do you remember? Everybody stood
still. Everybody who's saved at that
cross does the exact same thing. They stand still. They stay right
there. This is all my hope. This is
everything I have. This is my only hope of salvation.
This man came into the world. He bore my Abner in his body.
He put it away, and he has reconciled me back to God. That's it. That's
all I have. If that's not enough, I'm going
to go to hell. Because that's all I've got. Where do you stand in all this?
And I'm not asking you whether you think you're elect, whether
you think you're safe. I'm asking what your hope is. Do you have
anything other than this? That this man bore your sins
in his body and he put them away and he reconciled you back to
God. Is that your only hope? If that's the case and you stand
there, I want you to understand something. That is the very evidence
that he took the battlefield for you. He bore your abnor in
his body, and he died for you. That means you have been reconciled
back to God. You leave here right now in the
graces of the Father, and that's an unchangeable state. You are
a child of God, a child of the King, not just a subject in his
court, but a child. That means you stand to inherit
everything his children are to inherit everything He has. Everything
that's coming to Christ, all the acceptance, all the love,
everything God has to offer, it's coming to you. It's coming
to you because of who you're in and because of who your Savior
is, your Esau. That's an amazing story, isn't
it? I'm going to leave you there. It's been a pleasure being with
you this morning. Let's have a quick, brief word
of prayer. Our most heavenly Father, Lord
God Almighty, we come to you once more through your blessed
Son. We thank you for that blessed message we just heard. Thank you that you've provided
the only means for a multitude that no man can number to come
to you. We ask that you would teach us
your way, Lord, that you would bless us upon our hearts fresh
in us, cause us to worship you as you should be worshiped, the
one and only living true King, the King of all. Again, we remember
those who are weak and weary, Lord, that you strengthen them
if you would. We ask that you would bless our
fellowship together today and that you would meet with us again
this evening, cause us to come back here and of worship. Lord, we ask that
thy will be done for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's stand together
and sing hymn number one. Hymn number one.