War Again

Q: What does the Bible say about spiritual warfare?

The Bible describes spiritual warfare as a continual struggle against sin, the devil, and death, with God's aid being central to our victory. Spiritual warfare is a key theme throughout the Scriptures, particularly in the New Testament. Believers are depicted as soldiers engaged in a constant battle against spiritual enemies, including sin, the devil, and the grave. The apostle Paul emphasizes this in Ephesians 6, where he instructs Christians to put on the full armor of God to withstand the wiles of the devil. This imagery underscores the necessity of relying on God's strength and resources, rather than our own, as we face these challenges. Ultimately, the victory in this warfare is not attributable to our efforts but is secured through the redeeming work of Christ, who has already defeated sin and death on our behalf.

Q: How do we know salvation is a continual process?

Salvation is ongoing as believers experience daily struggles and continued reliance on God's grace throughout their lives. While salvation is definitively secured through faith in Jesus Christ, it is also an ongoing process known as sanctification. As believers journey through life, they face continual warfare against the remaining presence of sin, often referred to metaphorically as giants. This struggle highlights the necessity for constant dependence on God's grace. Scriptures such as 2 Corinthians 1:10 affirm that God has delivered us in the past, is currently delivering us, and will deliver us in the future, illustrating that salvation is not confined to a single moment but is an enduring reality shaped by grace. The experience of ongoing challenges and victories reflects our reliance on Christ from beginning to end.

Q: Why is understanding grace important for Christians?

Understanding grace is vital for Christians because it assures them that salvation and strength come solely from God, not their own works. Grace is the foundation of the Christian faith; it is the unmerited favor of God towards sinners. The understanding of grace liberates believers from the burden of trying to earn their salvation through works. Instead, they can rest in the assurance that their redemption is wholly accomplished by Christ’s sacrifice. The work of the Holy Spirit is also rooted in grace, empowering believers to live righteous lives despite their inherent weaknesses and sins. As Paul states in 2 Corinthians 12:9, God's grace is sufficient for us, highlighting that true strength is found in acknowledgment of our weaknesses and reliance on God's provision. This understanding of grace helps believers remain humble, steadfast in faith, and dependent on God's continual help and comfort in their spiritual battles.

Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 21. 2 Samuel 21. In the last message last week, we were looking at the deliverance of Israel from the spiritual famine that we experience because of our sin in our father Adam. And this gospel deliverance that we saw, that was pictured, well there's a gospel deliverance pictured in the atonement made by those seven men. They were Saul's descendants, seven descendants from Saul. And seven is a number of completion, of perfection, and it pictures there the perfect man, right? Seven men, the perfect man who gave their lives, not for any sin or crime that they had committed, but for the sin of another, which was Saul.

And that passage there, that gospel that we looked at there, it speaks to, it declares the redemption of our God for us through his darling son, Jesus Christ, who is perfect, the perfect Lamb of God, the perfect man, holy, sinless, spotless, who gave his life, not for any sins that he had committed, but for the sins of his people. whom the father loves and whom he loves and whom the father gave to him before the foundation of the world. And then, at the conclusion of that picture, we were told in verse 14, after that, God was entreated for the land.

And so, now we come to the back half of this chapter here, and what follows is a record of several battles that occur between Israel and the Philistines. and specifically the giants of the Philistines, those that were descendants from that giant of a man, Goliath.

These are relatives. Most of them are descended from him. One is a brother of Goliath. But in this, in the picture that we'll see tonight, in these battles, these enemies are vanquished. They're destroyed. They're defeated by the host of David's army.

Now, as this passage also relates to the gospel, we're going to see tonight how our God delivers us, how we brethren who believe Christ, who trust him for all our righteousness, how that we are delivered by the gift of God. All that that salvation entails of our Heavenly Father. And so this is specifically what we're gonna look at is we're gonna see this in the context in which the believer. is blessed, is spiritually saved, is provided for, and kept. And what we find is that the message which brought the knowledge of our salvation, of what Christ did for us at the first, that that's the same message that is declared to you, brethren, in all your troubles, in the midst of all your warfare, and all your struggles now after conversion. The same thing that blessed you and saved you at the first is the exact same thing that your God gives to you now. Today, in all your struggles to nurture you, to aid you, to comfort you, to provide for you, to preserve you, to keep you unto the end, it's the very same salvation. It's the very same gifts that our God gives us at the first and all the way unto the end. so that the one who saves you at the first is the one who saves you at the end and every day in between that. So let me just say this. I'm going to just kind of address the outline here, but I have a few things to say before we break it all down.

The outline that we're going to use tonight here is there's four enemies, four enemy Philistines that are listed here. Some of them are named, some of them have no name given in the scriptures, but they all descend from that family of the giants of Goliath, whom David defeated at the beginning of his military campaign, if you will, his career. And each one of these descendants of Goliath is defeated by a man who is named in scripture. And we'll look at the meaning of those names because that'll give us an outline, an outline from which we can draw the spiritual blessings that God provides for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, who defeats all our enemies. And so these things consist of not only how our Lord saves us at the first, but how he saves us on to the end. All right. So that's going to be our outline.

But before we look at the warfare being described here, I want to speak to you tonight about our salvation, about our salvation, and the fact that after we are saved, we've experienced, we know the truth of this, that there is a continued warfare. There's a continued warfare that brethren, that believers experience here. And actually the title of the message is Warfare Again, or War Again. War again. Here's war again. With all the trials and everything that David has gone through and how the Lord's delivered him, there's war again. And David, the psalmist, tells us that salvation belongeth unto the Lord.

It's his work. He saves his people. Thy blessing, he goes on to say, is upon thy people. And so, what we experience, what we see from the word of God, and what the Lord reveals to us through the experience which he gives us in grace, is that from beginning to end, the salvation of the believer is established by him. It's effectually given by him. It is kept by the Lord, it's maintained by the Lord, and it's accomplished unto the end. He does it all. Everything that we need, the Lord provides it for us.

Paul even touches on this when he was writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1.10, he said, God hath delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver us, presently right now is delivering us, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. And so all things are of him. He saves us. He saved us in the past. He continues to save us and he shall save us. He's the one doing the whole work. And so our text speaks of continued warfare, continued warfare.

God having told David, the sword shall never depart from thine house. And that was because of his sin of despising the Lord when he took Uriah's wife, Uriah the Hittite's wife, for his own wife. And all that entailed what David did, the adultery and the murder. And so that chief sin for David, and he despised the Lord, and the Lord said, the sword's never going to depart from your house.

And, you know, as I was meditating on that and thinking about that, you know, your chief sins and my chief sins, those which are giants to us, right, in our minds, the things that come repeatedly and attack us and just give us trouble and warfare and try us over and over again, they may be different from one another, right? Different from David, right? But still, these are enemies, great enemies to us. right, whether it's sins that we're talking about and specific, peculiar sins to us as individuals, if it's our like enemies, right, the enemy of sin in general, the enemy of the devil, the enemy of death, the enemy of the grave, these are all enemies that are too great for us, that we can't overcome and defeat and deliver ourselves from.

Christ has delivered us. Christ has defeated them. He's our triumph, but even after salvation, these enemies come. They continue to come, and there's warfare. In our minds, we get troubled by these things. We're perplexed. We're tried. We come into difficult, dark, anxious times in the flesh, but the one who's gonna save us, the one who provides for us, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these things are so with David that the sword would never depart from his house. And so it is, we see something of that as well.

We are made to know how that we in our flesh, in our works, in our thoughts, in our ways, have despised our God. In this flesh, by nature, we have despised God. We can't look at David and say, man, I'm glad I'm not like you. Actually, the Lord shows us that, brethren, we are like Him.

We are like Him, and we grieve for our sin, and we mourn for our sin, and we see how that our sin, it causes us trouble and great difficulties. And so what the Lord shows us is that this warfare hasn't ended. The enemy's defeated. Christ has defeated the enemy, but we experience warfare. To this day, we still feel it in our members. And that's because so long as we're in this flesh, because of the law of sin, which is in our members, this warfare will go on.

And I'll show you that even in Romans 7, Paul addresses this very thing in Romans 7, verse 20. Verse 20 there, he says, now if I do that, I would not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. There's a law of sin in our members, right here. Like Philistines in the land, they're still present.

I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. We look forward to laying down this flesh. and not being burdened by the sin and the infirmity of this flesh. We look forward to that day.

We delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, in this body here, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. members that law of sin right and it's that's why whenever we're looking at the philistines here just remember you're looking at a picture of sin in the land sin in the members it's still there always warring always coming to to try and and to accuse and to and to to give you up to bring you into darkness right to cause you to stumble and to take you if it could.

Now, added to this point, Paul likens believers to soldiers. We're described as soldiers in the scripture. He even told Timothy to endure hardships as a good soldier. And he describes brethren, believers, as soldiers. Turn over to Ephesians 6. We're outfitted for war. In Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 13, the enemy's going to come against us. The enemy's going to come in various manners and forms and ways, at times, in season, out of season. He's coming.

But Ephesians 6, 13, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, we stand in the truth of Christ, and he is our righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts concerning these things, brethren. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. As he's hurling accusations and insults at you, Because of the weakness that we feel in this flesh, trust the Lord, believe the Lord, stay upon him and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto. with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, Paul says, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Just as our brother prayed at the beginning of the service, right? Because again, the Lord, he ministers to your hearts through the warfare you're going through, through the gospel. through the hearing of faith. Through the same thing that blessed your heart at the first is gonna be the very thing that blesses your heart and continues to bless your spirit and strengthen you and nourish you in the new man.

It's that same word. of Christ. And our Savior is called the Captain of our Salvation. He's the Captain of our Salvation. And the Scriptures link His glory right now, His present glory, to His sufferings, to what He suffered. Saying in Hebrews 10, verse 10 through 11, For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." And warfare is a suffering thing.

I've never been a soldier. I used to play it when I was a little kid. I used to pretend, but just, I mean, that was baloney, but just the things I've experienced just in camping and just being in soggy, wet, humid, mosquito-filled situations, I can't imagine how difficult and trying warfare would be. Like real action, where you're just uncomfortable and you've got grit in your boots and your teeth and everything and everywhere. I just can't imagine how difficult it would be, but it's something like that. We suffer, and it's a struggle, and it's a warfare, and it's not pleasant. It's not always pleasant.

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." And so, if he suffered, is it going to be any different for us? If the master suffers, he told us that so shall it be for his servants. We, too, will not escape that. There will be warfare, days and times of warfare, as we see with David.

And then in Hebrews 12, 1 through 3, he encourages us, saying, wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, looking unto our captain, the author and finisher of our faith. Again, going back to that, he's the beginning and the end, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."

And so, don't faint when the warfare comes again. War again. And war again. You'll see it. Four different occasions are listed in this text that we're getting to. Four different times after everything else that David has gone through here. Our Lord and Savior who suffered for us obtained our eternal redemption. Obtained it.

And promises that he shall come again and bless us. And he shall once and for all destroy our enemies. and overcome the last enemy, which is... which is death, the grave will not be able to constrain us and contain us any longer. And behold, he says, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

And that work of obedience that we do, brethren, is the obedience of faith. It's trusting Him. And He ministers that to you through the Word being preached, which comforts you and gives you joy and rejoicing in Him and keeps you going, looking to Christ. That is the obedience that He's speaking of.

You're staying upon Him. You're not being turned from your Captain, your Savior, your Lord, your God, your all. He's everything to you. And that's because he's blessed you. You feel that. You believe that. You hope in him. That's your hope, because he's given it to you.

And he keeps nourishing that and strengthening that through the gospel, through the gospel, unless we should fall away. But he's keeping us. It's the witness. It's the witness that he gives to us. And so that's what we're going to see here in these verses.

So in that light, it says in verse 15, in 2 Samuel 21 verse 15, moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel. And so that word moreover is connecting it to the account that came before. That spoke of the atonement, the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for us. Moreover. Now following on from that, war again. War again. See that? It just, it continues.

Our Lord, He saved us. It doesn't mean that He didn't save us. It's actually a picture that He has saved us and that He is teaching us and instructing us and keeping us. And so, when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we are given the knowledge of our deliverance, from the punishment of our sins and everything that our Lord has done for us in giving us eternal life with himself, all in his grace, it's not long before believers begin to notice war again.

War again. There's peace, and then there's war again. War again. Here it comes again. I thought that would never happen again. I thought I'd be up here on the mountain for the rest of my days, and now I'm down in the valley. War again. war again. And so it comes.

But in this warfare, that's where the promises of God and His Word are made certain and sure to you. That's where you begin to feed upon Christ, the bread of heaven. And you're walking by faith in that warfare. You're dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ more and more through that warfare. And that's where you're learning to turn him. And that's where the certain verses and promises jump out at you and mean something to you.

And you hang on to them. And Christ is precious to you. And your brethren are made precious to you because these are your brethren that you're in the foxhole with. These are your brethren that you're in the body with. And you love them. And you love your Lord. And you need your Lord. But you're seeing your need of him in the war again, in the war again.

He's blessing it and sanctifying it unto us. And so we're going to experience his grace and power by literally experiencing it. You're going to go through experiences, afflictions, and trials where you are learning and experiencing his grace and power. Not in a fake, just a saying kind of way, but in a real way. In a real needy way, as needy sinners finding all their hope and satisfaction in Christ.

In the same way we were saved in the beginning, that's how we're going to be saved throughout. Paul said, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Nope, and the Lord doesn't turn us back to the flesh either. You won't be turned back to the flesh in Christ. We're saved by the Spirit in the beginning, not by the works of the flesh. Not at all.

Therefore, the Lord, you should expect, and he does, he continues to minister to you the gospel. He provides the same thing that delivered you at the first, is going to be the very same confidence you're given throughout every trial and difficulty. Confidence in Christ. Your eyes are going to keep being turned back to Christ. because that's how the Lord saves his people throughout, from beginning unto the end there. And so as he saved in the beginning, so he saves to the end.

Paul confirms this also in Galatians 3.5, saying, he therefore that ministereth to you the spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.

And what is the hearing of faith? It's your hearing the preaching of the gospel. which declares to us that through faith we are saved. You're hearing declared and exalted Christ, whom though we see not with our eyes right now, yet we believe, we know. Though we never saw him the way the apostles saw him, yet by that word, by this word, we believe. That's his testimony. That's his work in you. It's a spiritual work, which he gives to his people to stay upon him through that hearing of faith, through the preaching of the gospel. And so it is then in verse 15 and 16 now of 2 Samuel 21.

Moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel. And David went down and his servants with him and fought against the Philistines. And David waxed faint." David still, as the king, in the context here, he's the king of Israel. He's still going out. He's going out with the men. He had trouble when he stayed behind. Now he's going out with them. He's going to be with them in the battle.

But the reality is he's getting older. And as you get older, I can tell, as I get older, you just, you wear out. You feel sore for a lot longer than you used to. And you just, you know, your body takes longer to recover and you get out of breath a little quicker. And so he's not as young and fit as he used to be. And the scriptures tell us that David waxed faint. He got tired. He was feeling winded and not able to aggressively attack the one he was fighting here.

Verse 16, In Ish-be-be-nab, which was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword thought to have slain David. And so David, in his old flesh here now, is no match for this ish bebe knob, right, with his new sword. And he's girded and fit and he's ready. He's young and fresh for the fight.

And David's fixing to be destroyed by this descendant of Goliath here. Verse 17, but Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, suckered David. And that's a good word, right? He ministered to him. He provided aid and comfort to David, to help David in his moment of need there. He came and suckered David and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swear unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. Now, there's a spiritual picture in this, which you that know the gospel will readily understand here.

The Philistines are a picture of sin in our members. That law of sin and our members which rise up and fight. They bring the warfare to us as it were. And those sins like giants, they would destroy us. Especially those ones that are peculiar to us. that we've struggled with and just know. And those giants come and they destroy us. And we're going to learn in our warfare here that we can't fight against these giants.

We can't defeat them. We can't overcome our enemies. We don't take on the enemy of our souls. We don't take on the devil. We don't dare and challenge. Wicked things like that, that's not what we're called to do at all. And our sins and death and the grave, we're not gonna beat them by our works and by our fortitude and strength and trying to do things in this old fleshly nature, to be strong in this fleshly nature. What we're learning is that our deliverance is of God. It's of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It's His work. And the way He saved you at the first is the way He's going to save you throughout. Now, the name Abishai, who was the one who succored David and smote the Philistine and killed him, means father of gift. father of gift, and what do we know of the father of gifts, right? That every good gift is from above.

It's given by our God, and the father sent the gift, the unspeakable gift of his only begotten son to do for us this warfare, to accomplish this warfare, to defeat our enemies as only he can do for us, because we cannot do it ourselves. And so he sent the gift, and then the Son, having obtained our redemption, what does he do? He gives us the gift of the Holy Ghost to dwell in us, to regenerate us, meaning to give us a new birth, because that first birth in Adam is dead. And so the Spirit gave us that new birth, and the Spirit continues to minister to the new man born of the incorruptible seed of Christ, that work of Christ in us.

And so the spirit continues to bless us and help us and aid us and fight this warfare that we can't fight in this flesh by our own strength. We're like David who waxes old, who gets faint and can't do it. We'd be destroyed. We would be destroyed, but he cannot be destroyed. And so, this is what we're learning, is that we're being taught to turn to Him, to rejoice in our Savior.

Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10. He said, Paul saying what the Lord said to him, right? Paul who was weak, Paul who saw his infirmity, wasn't able to just go in the strength of his own flesh, the Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for thee.

I've provided for you, Paul. I'm providing for your weakness. I've put away your sin, and I'm your strength. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." And so Paul says, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And sure enough, every time that I am reminded of the infirmity of my flesh and I turn to the Lord, Lord, help me.

Help me with the message. Help me to preach to my brethren. He does. The message is always better when the Lord does it. When it's him, it's always made much more precious to the brethren. It's always better when I'm weak and know it. And crying out to him for his grace and strength. Because all the glory is his. And I believe that's what Paul's saying there. I'd rather be reminded, he's saying, of my infirmity and weakness, so that I don't come into the pulpit thinking I've got something and can do it. It's better for me to know I'm nothing for you to be blessed. Because it'll be to your improvement, your help, your blessing. It'll be better.

What we see there is it's not about us deceiving and putting on a show and making ourselves out to be something, because we're not. We're not. We're not anything. We know it. We know that we're not able to stand in the strength of this flesh. We need the spirit. We need his strength. We need his grace to keep us.

And so Paul went on to say, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities. in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong." That's when his power is made evident in us, and I think we all appreciate our brethren, not because we're all strong and mighty, but we love one another. We're thankful for who each of you are and what you have or don't have. We're just thankful for one another because we see the strength and the provision of our Lord in a blessed, peculiar way that we wouldn't otherwise see or notice in other circumstances were different, perhaps. So the Lord knows.

Moving on to verse 18, and it came to pass after this, right, so that's one thing, right, that was one warfare. Then after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob, right, another place there. And Gob means cistern, and like, you know, it just keeps coming back to the cistern as a well of sin, as it were, right, it just keeps on, This keeps on coming back to the same place, to this cistern, this place of God. And here we go again, war again.

But then we read that Sibachai, the Hushethite, slew Saph, which was of the sons of the Giam. And there it is again, another son of the Giam. And Saph means tall. That's what it means, Saph. He slew the tall one, Saph, there. And he's a son of the Giam. And sin like these descendants of the giant Goliath there, they keep coming back. They attack us. They tempt us. They try us. They would destroy us, right? They're trying to go at us.

But our God gives us the same word, which delivered us at the first, is going to be the same word that delivers you time and time again. All right, time and time again. In other words, he gives you the gospel. He declares to you Jesus Christ and him crucified. He provides for you what he has done and accomplished for us on the cross. And because he hath made our Lord to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And he accomplished that redemption, that reconciliation on the cross. And then he brings it and ministers that reconciliation our hearts that we would see that our God loves us and all that he's done for us graciously. He's not our enemy. He's our friend. He's our greatest friend.

And Sibachai, who slew this giant, that means wood of Jehovah. Wood of Jehovah. And it was on that tree of wood that our Savior willingly went and hung on that tree. And so that's the provision that your God has made for you to deliver you time and time and time again from every giant that comes to attack you and oppose you in the warfare. Sibachai comes and delivers you.

That reminder of what our Savior has done for us on the tree. What He did for us. What shall we say then to these things if God before us who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And so God is testifying to you that you're his. As the warfare comes and he keeps ministering to you the gospel, he's testifying that you're his and he's gonna keep on delivering you the same way he's always delivered you in Christ.

All right, verse 19. And there was again a battle in Gob, right back at that cistern there, with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. So back here at the cistern, the battle comes again. This time, Elhanan, the Bethlehemite, slays the brother of Goliath, the giant. And Elhanan means, God is gracious, God is gracious.

And that's what the Lord has given to us. He continues to be gracious to us. He continues to tell us my grace is sufficient for thee. Look to me, look to me. And that help is from Bethlehem, which is the house of bread, which speaks of him who is the bread of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ who nourishes us, strengthens us, keeps and provides for us.

And just, I mean, you can't even imagine if now suddenly the Lord did this and said, all right, turn it over to you now, save yourselves, work it out, right? You've got to do this now in the strength of your own flesh. We're finished. We're done for. And we're going to tear one another apart, trying to make ourselves look the best. It won't be good. It won't be pretty at all.

Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And he went on to say, I don't frustrate the grace of God. I'm not trying to frustrate his grace, for if righteousness come by the law, Well, then Christ is dead in vain. In other words, our life, our rule of life is Christ and the gospel. It's the gospel. That's how we live. We walk by faith, not by the yoke of the law. He's the one that keeps us.

And then finally, verse 20 and 21, and there was yet a battle in Gath, meaning the wine press. There was yet a battle in Gath. where was a man of great stature that had on every hand six fingers and on every foot six toes, four and 20 in number, and he also was born to the giant. So here's this man who's a peculiar man with six fingers and toes on each hand and foot there, and he's of great renown in the land and of great stature there. and he's a descendant, he's born of the giant, and this man is as an accuser of the brethren, who comes to accuse you and insult you, right?

And when he comes to trouble you, he comes to trouble you at the winepress, all right? And who trod the winepress? The Lord Jesus Christ trod the winepress alone for us. He bore the wrath of God, which was against us, in Himself, by Himself, to obtain our redemption. And the accuser comes, and he comes right to that winepress, as it were, to cause you to doubt that Christ's death was for you.

I know He's a Savior, but I don't know if He saved me. And sometimes in people, they doubt whether any of it's true. Is this really true? Is there really a God? Did Christ really come and do these things? or it causes us to doubt that we, because our sin is so great and so terrible and such a giant that we could never be saved. Christ would never save a wretched like me. He comes to the wine press each time there. And it says, verse 21, and when he defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, the brother of David, slew him. And that name Jonathan means whom Jehovah gave. whom Jehovah gave."

Brethren, the Father gave His darling Son, the best. He gave His Son. to deliver us. And His blood is sufficient. His sacrifice is more than sufficient to put away all our sins, to put away the wrath of God which was against us. The Father is satisfied in the Son.

He is well pleased in the Son and tells us that all who believe the Son shall never be ashamed. You that trust Him and hope in Him, stay upon Him. Don't cast aside your reward. Keep looking to Christ. He's got it. He's got everything. He's everything, brethren. He's obtained our eternal redemption. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.

It's accomplished. It's done. Don't doubt him. And then finally, verse 22, these four were born to the giant in Gath and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. And so it is, brethren, that our Savior has done it. He's accomplished. He's won the war. He's won the war. These warfares, these little battles, these wars continue, war again, because this is where the Lord is taking these words, the precious promises of these words, and making them effectual in your heart, making you to see and to know them and to experience His grace, to know that we really are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. So, I pray the Lord bless that word.

War Again

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about spiritual warfare?

How do we know salvation is a continual process?

Why is understanding grace important for Christians?

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War Again

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about spiritual warfare?

How do we know salvation is a continual process?

Why is understanding grace important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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