Let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12. We're going to be looking at the end of this chapter from verses 26 through 31, and I'd like to begin by reading it together. And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah and have taken the city of waters.

And what that is likely referring to is at that time, in a fortified city, the king might not be right in that city proper. His house, at least, might be up maybe above them. And it seems that likely that's where the spring was that came out and fed the city with water. And Joab took that part, thus cutting off the water to that city, which means you're going to go down quickly now because you can only live about three days. And they may have had some stored, but probably not long now before the city fell.

Now therefore, he says, verse 28, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called after my name. And David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. And he took their king's crown from off his head. the weight whereof was a talent of gold, with the precious stones, and it was set on David's head, and he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.

And that's a very heavy crown, but what they would do sometimes with the royal crown is they would position it above the throne. And it would be over the throne, so it would be considered on your head, but maybe not resting on your head, because that's, I think, many tens of pounds. I think it's 75. I forget how many now, but it's a lot of weight.

And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln. And thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem. Now this battle that's described here is the conclusion of something that had begun back in chapter 10. And what happened was Hanun became king. He was the son of the king of the Ammonites that had shown favor or kindness to David in the past.

And David, when that man died, when that king died, David thought, well, let me show his son some kindness, some respect for the kindness that his father showed me. And so he sent some ambassadors there, but they treated them shamefully. They shaved off half their beards, and they cut off their garments up to, I guess, exposing their buttocks and sent them home that way, which would have been a long journey to go in that embarrassing manner. And so it was a shameful thing.

And so, uh, this battle began when, when the Ammonites saw that they were a stench in David's nose, they hired some, uh, some men from Syria to help defend their city. And so what we read in back in second Samuel 10, 14, I just want to read this one verse.

And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians fled, those men that they hired, then they fled also before Abishai and entered into the city. It was Joab on one side and Abishai on the other. Joab facing the Syrians and Abishai facing the Ammonites. So Joab returned from the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem. So he left them there. I don't know if this, probably the siege I don't think began there, but he let them go and then they turned their attention for a while against the Syrians to beat them back to make sure there was no counter offensive. But look at verse, chapter 11. In chapter 11, now verse one, here we see in the springtime, the battle resumes.

And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David 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. All right, so they put Rabbah under a siege.

And this is then, you know, chapter 11 goes into the Lord sending Nathan, to rebuke David for his sin, to expose David's sin to him, and to chasten David, right? The Lord began to chasten David, and we've looked all this time now at what the Lord did, working that repentance in David's heart, all right? And for what he had done with Bathsheba, laying with Bathsheba, committing adultery with her, and slaying Uriah to cover his sin, her husband. And so after all that, we come to the conclusion now of the siege of Rabba, of the Ammonites, about, this would be about two years later, right? Because David and Bathsheba had a child that died and then another child, Solomon, that lived. Now, many of the older commentators think that this battle concluded before Nathan came to David. And that might be. They think that because of the brutality that we find in verse 31 of what he did to the Ammonites.

And we'll look at that in a bit. We'll see that. But I don't think that it's necessary to say that this really happened earlier. It's possible. But when we look at this, as I want to do, look at this in light of the gospel and glean from this the gospel, pictures that are being taught to us here of our spiritual David, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't think it's necessary to, we don't have to say that it was before or after. It doesn't really matter.

The Lord knows. But there's gospel pictures touched on here. And that's what I want to focus on with you tonight. I wanted to give you that history, but I want to touch on the gospel now. with you. So the salvation, let me first say this, because this is important to understand, the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ for his people, he makes us new creatures. We're made new creatures in him.

We are given his spirit, and we are born again. And that spirit transforms us. We are conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God and by the teaching and leading of God the Holy Spirit. And our Father and the Son, they bless us. They give us the gospel. We are given an ear to hear that gospel, a spiritual ear to hear it by faith and to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe on him to the saving of our souls. And the scriptures teach us that if any man be in Christ, right? And Paul actually says, therefore, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

And so one of the characteristics, one of the things that changes, when we're just in dead letter religion, let me say this first, when we're in dead letter religion, if you recall, we're oftentimes telling others or looking at ourselves to see, well, what have I done for the Lord?

I want to feel good about myself, or I want others to think that I'm one of them, and so we'll talk about and boast of what we have been doing. We'll speak of ourselves and what we're doing for the Lord and speak of fruits that we're seeing and things that we're doing and telling others because we want them to say, oh, you're a brother, right? So even though we don't think it a lot of times, even though we doubt it, we're looking for that confirmation. But when the Lord turns the heart, when he grips the heart, we stop worrying about what we're doing, right? And talking about what I'm doing for the Lord. And we start boasting of what Christ has done for me. And we may still struggle with our sin and have doubts about ourselves. But one thing we know is how gracious and merciful the Lord Jesus Christ is to me, to each of us. We can't help but recognize, Lord, you're so patient. Lord, you're so merciful. Lord, you're so gracious and so kind to me.

And so we speak of what he's doing, because we're not worried about what others are thinking of us. Not in that sense. I mean, we don't want to shame the name of the Lord. I'm not talking about that. What I'm saying is, we're not trying to convince, I'm not trying to convince you that I'm a believer.

I'm just talking about what Christ has done for me. And his spirit testifies. his children, right? His spirit does it. And so we don't boast of what we've done, we speak of what the Lord has done. Psalm 115 verse 1 says, And so that's a reflection, it's an attitude of the heart of God's people that we are redeemed by his grace because we're looking to him and we want others to see him and we're rejoicing in him.

And so it's not a competition. It's not me trying to convince you that I'm a believer by what I'm doing and not doing, right? That has ceased. We just love the Lord and we walk in that truth. We're thankful for his gospel, we're thankful for his spirit, we're thankful for the confession of faith, the hope that he's given to us, and that's what we speak of.

Now, I say all that because we're given this picture here of Joab, David's servant. And let's read those first three verses in 26 through 28. And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah and have taken the city of waters. Now, therefore, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called after my name.

Now, regardless of how you read that and think, you know, it might sound a little snarky. I don't know if he was being snarky, Joab, or if he was just being very sincere and honest, but it is an honorable thing to do. He's aware that I can't just go into that city.

He could have probably taken it with the army that he had that sieged the city. He probably could have taken it, but who would then receive the glory? he would receive the glory, right? And so he tells David, hey, you need to get up here quickly because they're gonna be, this is going down real quick now. I've got the waters, they're gonna be hurting really soon now and you've gotta come because David wasn't there, right? He was back in Jerusalem getting into a lot of sin and trouble back there.

And so the thing that we see here in Joab is this willingness to give David, his king, all the glory for capturing the main city there so that David would receive all the accolades. David would be the one who is recognized. What a great king he is. What a marvelous king he is that he just came in there and we just took that city and wow, what a wonderful king he is. There's a lot of differences between our Lord and David, right, in this sense here. But the gospel truth that we see in it is that our Lord Jesus Christ is not physically with us, but he is with us in spirit and in truth.

He dwells in our hearts by faith, and he promises to never leave us nor forsake us. And as the faithful in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're at war. in this world, right? There's enemies all about us. There's temptations and difficulties and afflictions and setbacks that are hard, right?

But we recognize that the Lord is the one who helps us. We recognize that it's by the hand of the Lord that we are helped and kept and turned and taught And it's by his blessing that we have anything. We have nothing to glory in of ourselves. We glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that salvation is of the Lord. And so the child of God who's made a new creature is happy, more than happy, for the Lord Jesus Christ to get all the glory and praise. And we believe it. We believe it really is because of him.

And one thing I've seen over the years of having the blessing to preach the gospel is that only a man who is very self-righteous gets upset when you're preaching the gospel and all the glories go into Christ and none of the glories go into the man. That's where It's like they just can't let go of it.

They're just afraid to let go that this is my righteousness and you're asking me to just reject all these good things I've done for the Lord and forsake those things. Then what do I have? Well, you have the Lord and you have his righteousness. You have nothing better that you could have but the Lord's righteousness.

But it's his grace and spirit that teaches us that. It's his grace and spirit that turns us from having any confidence in the flesh. And I'm not saying that, well, I think the Lord teaches us that, right? As time goes on, he teaches us that through the gospel, and he gives us that heart, and he makes us to see when we forget that, yes, it is the Lord's grace.

Paul said it this way, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And that is obedience to Christ, bowing before him and giving him all the glory. That is obedience. That, when you tell of others what Christ has done for you, that is obedience to Christ, just as much as it is to turn from temptation, if you will, or whatever it is, just bowing before Him and coming to Him in prayer, coming to Him when you're troubled, coming to Him with all things, casting all your care upon Him, because again, He's your Lord, He's your King, He's your Savior.

He's going to guide you. He's the one that's going to keep you. Now, the reason for this spiritual character being witnessed in believers is because we are made willing bondservants of the Lord. And I want to just show you a few examples. I'll be turning to Romans 1. Romans 1. The willing bondservant serves to honor his Lord. That's our life. He's our Lord. We're at his command. We rejoice to see our Lord glorified and worshiped and honored. and to be praised and honored, right? We rejoice in that.

And in Romans 1, 1, what does it say? Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul is made a willing bondservant. That's what that word means, a bondservant. And he's a willing bondslave of Jesus Christ. And as a servant, Paul is called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by the prophets in the holy scriptures, right? He's called those servants.

He's put them, gave them his spirit and led them to record these scriptures here concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. And the thing that we see with Paul is that it's all of Christ. Paul truly was a bond-servant of Christ, so that Christ was everything to him, and he served him, and when he spoke, he spoke of him, and he worshiped him, and he glorified him before men.

When he testified of him, and he said, all my righteousnesses, which I had worked up and gathered together as a Pharisee of Pharisees under the law, I was blessed by God to count them dung, but a pile of garbage, a pile of dog poop that I want nothing to do with. All right, just dung. He just wanted nothing to do with it. He had no confidence in it.

And he said, I want to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. And one way that you're definitely gonna suffer is by the obedience to Christ, which means by bowing to him before others and submitting to him before others. and confessing him before others, because you that glory in him rather than yourselves will be rejected, and you will suffer the sorrows of that as our Lord was rejected and was crucified. But it wasn't only Paul.

In James 1.1, if you flip there, James 1.1, you'll see very quickly, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the same word. He's a bond slave of Christ.

And then flip over to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter one, verse one. I think it's verse one. Let me just cut it right down there. Yeah, Peter. Well, Simon Peter, a servant, a bond slave, and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That was verse one, right? Yeah, yeah, verse one there.

And notice, he gave God all the glory. we've obtained like precious faith. We didn't have it, it wasn't ours, it's not of this flesh. It was given to us when he created, when he gave us a new birth and formed that new man in us by the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so those who've been saved by Christ, we boast of his righteousness, we glory in him, we cast all our crowns before him. When we read in Revelation chapter four, And John describes that the throne room, where the throne is, and says there was 24 seats with 24 elders there. And it says there that they would fall down before the throne, before him who liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before him. and say, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.

And so that's the picture there, the gospel picture that's being brought out to us here in Joab doing that. And so come back now to 2 Samuel 12, where we see this pictured that this crown, giving up our crown, casting it before him because he deserves it. So look at verse 29 and 30.

And David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. And he took their king's crown from off his head. The weight were of was a talent of gold with precious stones. And it was set on David's head and he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.

And so, Who was crowned the proper king? David. David is the proper king, not Joab. Joab could have conquered the city. Joab could have had the crown put on his head, but he gave that up. He said, you better get down here because you need to take the city. There can only be one king in Israel. This is how, I mean, if Joab did that, and what happens, that's how military coups happen, right?

Because all the men are with Joab. Joab's with the men, and they're all with him, and then they think that he's the one, that he should be king, that he should get this glory. But he knows rightly, I don't want nothing to do with that. I don't want to be, I don't want the worship of the men. I want David to have that. That's his place. He's the king. I want nothing to do with that. I like my position very much. And so, So that's why David had to be crowned king and not Joab. So brethren, it is with us.

There's only one king. There's only one king. It's not us and Jesus, it's Christ. Christ Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came in the flesh for us to suffer and die for us. He's the King. He's the Glorious One. He's the Savior. He's Almighty God. He is our God and Savior. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Think of the wonderful God and Savior that you serve, brethren. Remember that we are being conformed to His image and conformed to confessing Him. And just in everything, turning that glory from us to put it on Christ, because He's worthy of it. He deserves it. It's not of us, it's of Him.

Turn over to Zephaniah. That's gonna be after all the other prophets. If you get to Zechariah, we've gone too far. Zechariah's towards the back there. Yeah, so after, it's before Haggai, it's after Habakkuk and Nahum. For us it's on 1164. You're already there anyway. All right, so Zephaniah chapter three. Chapter 3, verses 14 through 17.

Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not, and to Zion, let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing.

And so he gives us all that we need, including the heart that we need with the enmity removed and to rejoice in him and worship him for what he's done for us. And so that's a picture there in those scriptures of the gospel that I see here showing how that our Lord is worthy of all praise. That was an honorable thing that Joab did, and it was the right thing that Joab did, and that's the heart that he gives to his people, that same heart there. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He's everything to us. Now, that brings us then to verse 31, what David does with his enemies that fought against him. Look at verse 31.

And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron. and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln. And thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

Now, the first few times I read this, I thought, I think it's saying that he employed them. He basically made them their slaves to work these tools and, you know, to cut down timber and lumber and to, you know, to do that work for the brethren or for Israel there. But then I read the companion scripture and it was clear then after that. In 1 Chronicles chapter 20, it's very clear then.

It says in chapter 20, verse 3, and he brought out the people that were in it and cut them with saws and with harrows of iron and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon, and David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

Now, a lot of commentators, older commentators from like the 17th and 18th century, they had a lot of trouble with that because they said that's very uncharacteristic of David, who delighted in mercy, but he was doing some very cruel, torturous things to these people. This was some very hard ways to die and to be afflicted in that manner, but I think You'll see that I don't think that it is a problem in that sense.

For one thing, historically, the Ammonites did these things to their enemies, to the Israelites and to others. This is what they did. It says back in 1 Samuel 11, 1 Samuel 11 verse 2, it says, The Ammonite answered them, this was a city in Israel, saying, on this condition will I make a covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for reproach upon all Israel. And that's a cruel thing to do, to just leave them with one eye, and they wouldn't be able to fight anymore, and it would just be an embarrassment and a shame because Israel didn't come and help them. This is when Saul was becoming king.

And then it's written, again, Amos 1.13, it says, thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.

And so in other words, this was a penalty that matched the cruelty that they showed to others, right? It was just showing them that same hard punishment that they showed to others there. Now, another thing that we see here, this is a raw picture of justice without mercy. This is justice without mercy, what he did there. There was no mercy shown there.

In the great flood of Noah, all who were in the ark received mercy. They were provided for. The flood didn't touch them. They were touched, but the ark was touched. for them, and so the ark bore the wrath of God, and they were carried safely through, that picture of Christ. But all who were without that ark, they perished. Injustly, without mercy. They all perished without mercy. And the point is, is that there is one in whom justice and mercy is met together. There's only one in whom justice and mercy is met together in perfect peace, and that is upon the cross, where Christ died as the substitute of his people.

He took their place on the tree, bearing the wrath of God for their sins, for those that were given to him of the Father before the foundation of the earth. He bore their sins, and he bore their punishment for those sins to make satisfaction to the justice of God, that God could be and would be merciful to them and gracious to them for their sins, right? Because their sins were put away. Their sins, our sins are removed from us. You in Christ, you that believe Christ, our sins are removed from us. And God is merciful to us and gracious to us and receives us because Christ has made us righteous in Him and made us acceptable to the Father, having satisfied the justice of God, having propitiated God's wrath so that we go free and live unto Him. And so that's where justice and mercy meet together in perfect righteousness.

And Romans 5.21 says that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

And again, Psalm 85.10, in Christ mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And so, in him Justice is satisfied. It's satisfied.

And that's why we have fellowship and peace with God and have nothing to worry about. The only time we worry is when our eyes are not on Christ. And when we're looking at ourselves and looking at what we're doing or not doing, that's where we get into trouble. But when we're looking to Christ, there's peace. peace and joy and fellowship there.

Now, those who remain the enemy of Christ and his people, he gave a parable even in Luke. In Luke 19.27, the parable of the talents, he said, But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me.

And all those outside of Christ will be slain. They will be cast out into utter darkness, into hell, eternally separated from the true and living God. There's no peace for them. All who do not believe Christ, all who do not submit to him in faith, they shall die the eternal death and suffer that sorrow. But if mercy is what you seek, Mercy is what you seek. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Amen.