Alright, our lesson begins in
verse 17 of 2 Samuel 3. And Abner had communication with
the elders of Israel, saying, Ye sought for David in times
past to be king over you. Now them do it. For the Lord
hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David
I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines,
and out of the hand of all their enemies. And Abner also spake
in the ears of Benjamin. And Abner also went to speak
in the ears of David in Hebron, all that seemed good to Israel,
and that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin. So Abner came
to David, to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made
Abner and all the men that were with him a feast. And Abner said
unto David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel
unto my Lord the King, that they may make a league with thee,
and that thou mayest reign over all that thine heart desireth.
And David sent Abner away, and he went in peace. Now you'll
recall the last week we saw there can be no peace until Christ
has the bride that he redeemed. This week we see that there's
no sinner can have peace until he comes to Christ. The only
place peace is to be found is in our Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, I'm very glad when I see a person come, they hear the
gospel and they just get angry. I'm glad. if they keep coming
back. Because that person, even though
he's just angry at what he's heard, if he keeps coming back,
he'll have no peace until he's conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ,
until he bows to Christ in submission. Then he'll find peace. Abner's
been at war since David was a boy. Now he comes to David and he
leaves in peace. He left in peace. And he went
and told all Israel. Now, in times past, You sought
for David to be king over you. Now then, do it. And I tell those
of us here this morning, you've heard from this pulpit that the
Lord Jesus Christ is king. Every son of Adam must bow to
Him. Every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that He's Lord. Now then, do it. Now then, come to Him. You will
find peace. in submission to our Lord Jesus
Christ. You've heard it preached from
this pulpit that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners.
Now then, come to Him. Now then, come to Him and beg
Him for mercy. Beg Him for forgiveness of your
sin. Beg Him for cleansing from all
of your filth and all of your guilt. You've heard from this
pulpit, from God's Word, that you're empty. You're void of
any good whatsoever. Now then do it. Come to Christ
who filleth all things because He's all and in all. Now then
do it. Come to Him. You've heard from
God's Word that you are born ugly, defiled by sin. Now then do it. You come to Christ
who's altogether lovely. He says in His Word in Ezekiel
16 that He makes His people beautiful through my comeliness that I
put upon you, saith the Lord God. Now then, do it. Come to
Him. You've heard from God's Word
that you are all unrighteousness. There's no righteousness in us
whatsoever. Now then, do it. Come to Jehovah,
said Kenneth, the Lord our righteousness, and be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And you listen to what I'm about
to say, and you remember this. You must come to Christ as King. He will be your King. For he's
your Savior. How many times do we hear Brother
Henry say he will be Lord of all or he won't be Lord at all. You come to him as King. Now
God is God. And God's not obligated to save
anyone to do anything for anyone because they decided to make
a decision for Jesus. God is the sovereign. He's sovereign
over all, everything and everyone is in His hands to do with as
He pleases. And the question is not, will
we accept Jesus as our personal Savior? The question is, will
God accept us? That's the question. And Scripture
says He will, in the Lord Jesus Christ, will be accepted in the
Beloved. Now then, do it! Come to Him,
begging Him for mercy and forgiveness of your sins. You come to Him
as a beggar, remembering He's the King. And because Christ
is the King, He has the power to set His people free from the
dominion of sin. Now, every one of us have been
born into this world a sinner. We're sinners by birth, sinners
by choice, and sinners by practice. And sin has dominion over us. And if you don't think it does,
just go down to the funeral home. People die because we're sinned,
because sin reigns over us. Sin reigns under death, Paul
said in Romans. Well, just like God in David's
time promised to set Israel free from the Philistines by the hand
of His servant David, God has promised in His Word to save
His people from all their sin through the sacrifice of His
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, do it. Now then, seek
Him. The old timers used to say, close
with Christ. Now then, close with Him. Come
to Him. But unlike TV preachers who tell
you, you just make this decision for Jesus and the rest of your
days will be health and wealth and sunny days, that's a lie. Unlike them, I tell you, count
the cost. For you come to Christ, now you
count the cost. Our Lord said that in Luke 14.
You count the cost. When you come to Christ, then
the warfare begins. Then it begins. When you come
to Christ, it just stands to reason you'll have warfare from
without, won't you? Those that hate our Lord are
going to hate you. And you'll have warfare from
without. But I'm telling you what's the truth. When you come
to Christ, you will have a long, hard, lifelong warfare from the
most unexpected place. From within. From yourself. Before
you come to Christ, you have no warfare going on inside you.
After you come to Christ, after you've been born again, buddy,
you've got a warfare. You've got a warfare over sin
that was never there before until you came to Christ. And the only
place that you'll find peace from that warfare is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, our peace. After, after Abner came to David
and he made peace. Abner's biggest troubles didn't
come from the house of Saul. They came from the house of David,
from David's own men. And what we're going to see pictured
here in the rest of this chapter is this internal warfare between
the flesh and the spirit. Look at Galatians chapter 5.
Now this is warfare. This is warfare where each of
these two natures would kill the other if he could. It's warfare.
In Galatians 5 verse 13, For brethren, we have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit. And you should not fulfill
the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit. He's putting all his energy into
fighting the spirit. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary,
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. You cannot. This warfare is going
on, and the only place to find peace from that warfare is in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Look back in our text, 2 Samuel
3, verse 22. Here is this picture of this
warfare. 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 in Hebron, for he had sent him away and he was
gone in peace. When Joab and all the hosts that
were with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner, the
son of Mer, came to the king and he sent him away. And he's
gone in peace. Then Joab came to the king and
said, can you imagine this man, how full of himself is he? He
came to the king and said, what has thou done? What are you doing? My soul. Behold, Abner came unto
thee. What is it that thou, why is
it thou send him away? And he's 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. And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers
after Abner, which brought him again from the well of Sira.
But David knew it not. And when Abner was returned to
Hebron, Joab took him aside to the gate to speak with him quietly."
He made this show speaking with him peaceably, and smote him
there under the fifth rib that he died. for the blood of Asahel,
his brother." Now, there's no denying this is the height of
treachery by Joab. But before we beat too hard on
old Joab, can you see yourself doing the same thing as Joab
did? You reckon, after the Lord saved
Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus had stolen from people for years. He cheated
them, he stole from them. I mean, Zacchaeus had to be a
hated man. Lord's safety. Here comes Zacchaeus, coming
towards you. This man stole from you all this
time. You think, boy, he's coming to steal from me again. I reckon
people were suspicious of Zacchaeus. I bet they were. A number of
years ago, I worked for a man, and he wanted me to do dishonest
and illegal things in order to make money for the company. I
wouldn't do it. He wanted me to lie under oath
and dishonest, immoral, and illegal things. And he fired me for it. He said, you don't care anything
about making money for the company? He fired me because I would not
do those things. In our household, he is he which shall not be named,
especially to Janet. And I asked her one time, I said,
that man came to service in the Lord's safety. Could you be kind
and gracious to him? And she said, I'd like to think
so. I'd like to think it would, but
it would definitely take grace. It would take God's grace. And
apart from God's grace, we do exactly what Joab did. Apparently,
he lacked grace. And you see this throughout Joab's
life. That's why in Galatians, Paul warned. He said don't bite
and devour, consume one another. He wasn't talking to people out
there in the world. He's talking to people in the
church. Don't you bite and devour and consume one another. We have
to be warned against this now, because that old fleshly nature
is still in us. And we need to pray for the Spirit
of Grace, the Spirit of Christ, that we don't consume our brethren.
We need to find a way to get along. Now, these two men, they've
been at war a long time. Two generals, Davis General and
Saul's General. Now, Abner had come to David
and made peace. It's up to Joab to find a way to get along, because
this man is his brother now. We need to find a way to get
along, because if we don't, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll
bring reproach on the name of our Savior. And you can do it in zeal. Joab
had zeal for David. He had zeal for Israel. But in
his zeal, not directed by wisdom, he brought reproach on David's
name. That's the last thing any believer
wants to do, to bring shame and reproach on the name of our Savior,
the one who loved us and gave himself for us. And throughout
his lifetime, Joab has zeal for David. But he usually does the
wrong thing. Just time after time, he brings
reproach on David. And you think about it. Who would
you rather have? Would you rather have Abner,
who spent all this time fighting against you, who finally comes
and bows to me? Or would you rather have Joab,
who makes a show of, you know, being a supporter, but constantly
bring a reproach on your name? Who would you rather be? Well,
let's read on here in verse 28. David is not going to allow Joab,
to bring reproach on his name. In verse 28 he says, afterward,
when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless
before the Lord forever from the blood of Abner, the son of
Ner. Let it rest on the head of Joab, and in all his father's
house. And let there not fail from the
house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or
that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that
lacketh bread. So Joab and Abishai, his brothers, flew Abner. because
he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle. You
remember, Abner did kill their brother, but it was in the battle.
Here, Abner was killed deceitfully. And Joab brought reproach on
the name of David, on his kingdom. And David cursed Joab's house
forever. Now, there were men through the
years who descended from Joab, never knew Joab, never took part
in anything that Joab had done. But all their life long, they
had weeping sores on their body. They were lepers or they were
lame. You know, the ones that were
healthy were killed at an early age in battle, killed by the
sword. Or they were constantly hungry because they just never
had enough money to buy bread. And all that happened to them
because of the curse that David put on Joab, because of what
Joab did. It reminded me of the scripture,
Deuteronomy 5.9. by the Lord visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me," he said. Doesn't that sound a lot like
our father, Adam? It does, doesn't it? Adam's sin brought disease
and death and destruction upon all mankind. We were made sinners
in Adam. Cursed because of him. We live
under the curse because of Adam. Now, we're responsible for our
own sins. But this is how we were made sinners, because of
our father Adam. So verse 31, David said to Joab
and all the people that were with him, now you wring your
clothes and you gird you with sackcloth and mourn before Abner. And King David himself followed
the beard. And they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted
up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner. And all the people
wept. Now David tells the people to
mourn for the death of Abner. And he mourns too. Now everyone
can see David didn't have anything to do with the way this man was
killed. He's mourning after him. David's not going to allow Joab
to bring reproach upon his name. And the Lord will protect the
glory of his name. Just be ever so careful not to
bring reproach on the name of Christ. Don't do it. I remember
Henry saying one time, He's stuck with me for years. The Lord's
not going to put his people, one of his children, he's not
going to put them away until he's done using them or they've
embarrassed him. Don't bring reproach upon the
name of Christ. Do everything you can do not to do that now.
Well, verse 33, the king lamented after Abner. He said, "'Thy Abner
is a fool, Diath. Thy hands were not bound, nor
thy feet put into fetters, as a man falls before the wicked
So fellest thou, and all the people wept over him." David's
saying, did Abner die as a fool? Did he do something foolishly
and bring this death upon himself? No. Did Abner die as a guilty
man in chains? No. He was murdered in wickedness. Everyone should mourn. That's
what he's saying. In verse 35, "...and all the people came to
cause David to eat meat while it was yet day. David swore,
saying, So do God to me, and more also." if I taste bread
or aught else, till the sun be down. And all the people took
notice of it, and it pleased them, as whatsoever the king
did pleased the people." Now that's such a clear picture of
Christ our King, the new man that's been born of God. That
man can honestly say, whatsoever the king has done pleases me
well. I'm well pleased with whatsoever
the king has done. Spurgeon said, if the Lord had
done it, questions are out of the question. And the new man
just amens that. That's right. I'm pleased with
whatever he's done. But now the flesh, oh, just constantly
bucks against what God the King has done. But the new man rejoices.
Look at Mark chapter 7. In Mark 7, our Lord has healed many
people. The lame and the blind and the
deaf. And at the end of chapter 7,
verse 36, and he charged them that they
should tell no man. But the more he charged them,
so much the more a great deal they published it. And they were
beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well. Are you beyond measure astonished
at the grace of God to you? We can say he's done all things
well, can't we? And he will continue to do all
things well. Yesterday evening, Janet and
I were talking about believers. Have different personalities,
you know, they live in different places, they may have different
cultural values, different political values or whatever. But I thought
of six things. That every believer, I don't
care where you find them, every believer, will be plum pleased
with what our King has done. First one is this. I'm well pleased
that salvation is up for it. I'm so pleased with that. The
salvation of a lost sinner is entirely the work of God. I'm so pleased with that truth.
If salvation in any part is left up to man, no one would be saved. I'm pleased, salvations of the
Lord. Secondly, I'm pleased, and every
believer is pleased, with God's electing love. Now, election
is a hated doctrine of the flesh. Election is not predestinating
anyone to hell. Not at all. Men send themselves
to hell through their own rebellion, their own sin, and their own
unbelief. It's not God's fault. Election is always unto salvation. Look at Romans chapter 9. Romans 9 verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." Now what is the
purpose of God according to election? It's the salvation of sinners.
God's purpose in election, not sending you by hell, His purpose
in election is to save His people. And the only way that's possible
is through electing grace. If the choice were left up to
man, our nature is so sinful and depraved and dead that every
son of Adam would choose hell rather than choose salvation
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what our
nature would choose. If it wasn't for God's electing
love, no one would be saved. Paul goes on in verse 12, it
was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it's
written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unrighteous because he hates Esau? God forbid! For he sayeth to Moses, now you
just remember, God's a king. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's not of him that makes a
decision for Jesus. It's of God that showeth mercy. Sovereign, electing mercy. Look
over in Romans chapter 11. This is something every believer
is well pleased with. In verse 1, I say then, hath
God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Watch ye not,
don't you know what the scripture saith of Elias? How he maketh
intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed
thy prophets, they've digged down thine altars. And I'm left
alone, and they seek my life. Boy, doesn't that sound like
us today, in our day? The world's going to hell in
a handbasket. There's no faith anywhere. Nobody
believes you. We're the only ones left. Look
at this little group. Well, you just remember what
he says here in verse 4. Well, what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men
who have not bow the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, just
like in Elijah's day at this present time, also there is a
remnant according to the election of grace. The only reason anyone
believes God, God's reserved unto himself his people, a remnant
according to the election of grace. I'm well pleased with
God's electing love, his electing grace. That remnant is going
to believe God. and they'll be in glory with
Christ. Third, every believer is well pleased in God's salvation
through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am
so pleased that all of my sin has been washed away under the
sin-atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so pleased
with that I don't have to put away one of my sins. I don't
have to straighten myself up and clean myself up in order
to be accepted by God. I'm accepted in Christ, in his
blood, in his righteousness. I live because he took my place. He died. He took my punishment.
He died the death that I deserve and shed his blood to put away
my sin. I'm so pleased with that. Human
language just, it feels like I've cheapened that to try to
express How wonderful his sacrifice is for his people. I'm well pleased
with that, aren't you? Fourth, I am completely pleased
with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not looking for another. John, I'm looking for exactly
what you preached Wednesday night, this morning. I'm not looking
for another. I'm so pleased with this gospel.
This is the only gospel that will save sinners. It's good for me to hear it over
and over and over again. It's good for those I love. It's
good for my town. It's good for my community. I'm
so pleased with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not
looking for anything else. Now, I grant you, there's a lot
about this Word I don't know. I read and I think, I don't know
what that means entirely. Maybe I don't know what it means
at all. There's a lot of things God our King does I don't understand. But what God has given us an
understanding of in this life, more than enough of this life,
isn't it? I'm well pleased with the gospel of Christ. Fifth,
I am completely pleased with God the Holy Spirit moving where
and when He will, calling His people out and giving them faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter 3. I'm so
pleased with that. In John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus
answered and said unto him, unto Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not, I said unto thee, ye must be
born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth. And thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or
whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit."
I'm so well pleased with that. That God the Holy Spirit moves
when He will. He comes. You don't know where
He came from or where He's going. You just know He's been here,
just like the wind. I'm so pleased that God moves and calls His
people out. I'm so pleased. And I know John
is. It's not up to him beg people
and pull them down the aisle to get them saved. He preaches
the gospel. God, the Holy Spirit, makes it
effectual to the hearts of his people. I'm well pleased with
that. So pleased. If it was left up to me, we'd
be in a mess. Just a complete mess. And six,
I'm so pleased that Christ gets all the glory and salvation.
I'm so pleased with that. And how I look forward to the
day. I know you long for the day where
you can join that heavenly host in a perfect body, with perfect
mind, a perfect tongue. Give him all the glory he deserves.
Oh, I'm so pleased with that. Now, I know the flesh is going
to fight against that every step. I got a few scriptures for you
to remember when this warfare is going on now. Just remember
these scriptures. Look at 1 Samuel chapter three. This is when the Lord came and
told Samuel, Samuel's just a boy, he's going to kill Eli's two
sons. That'd be a trial, wouldn't it?
You flesh like that? No. Well, look at 1 Samuel 3,
verse 18. And Samuel told him every whip,
told him everything, hid nothing from him. And Eli said, it's
the Lord. Let him do. what seemeth Him
good. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
seemeth Him good. What seemeth good to the Lord
is good. I bow to it. Let Him do it. Look
in Genesis chapter 18. Here's when Abraham is interceding
for Sodom. That the Lord would spare Sodom. In verse 18, verse 23. And Abraham drew near, and said,
Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perventure there
be fifty righteous within the city. Wilt thou also destroy,
and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous
with the wicked. And if the righteous should be
as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of
all the earth do right? Yes, he will. He will. And then
last, look in Job chapter 13. Now you know the severe trial
of our brother Job. In Job 13, verse 15, this is
what he says, ìThough he slay me, yet will
I trust him.î Why are you going to trust the
Lord even though he slays you? That seems cruel to men in the
flesh. Why are you going to trust him
even though he slays you? Look at verse 16. He also shall be
my salvation. That's why I trust him. That's
why I bow to him. He's all my salvation. That's
why. Now just remember those verses
as this warfare goes on inside you because the flesh is constantly
going to rebel against what the Spirit is pleased with. Back
in our text, 2 Samuel 3, verse 37. For all the people and all
Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to slay
Abner the son of Ner, and the king said unto his servants,
Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day
in Israel? And I am this day weak, though
anointed king, and these men, the son of Zeruiah, be too hard
for me. The Lord shall reward the doer
of evil according to his wickedness." Now, the first thing I see here
is a picture of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
King of kings. God has anointed him king. Yet
there came a day he was made weak. He was made flesh and dwelt
on this earth. And during the days of his flesh,
there came a day he was cut off. That word weak actually translated
there is, be cut off. There was a day that Christ was
cut off. That's how salvation is accomplished.
By Christ being cut off for the transgressions of his people.
Suffering the punishment that we deserve. Second, this is a
picture of the warfare between the flesh and the spirit. David's
anointed king. He's not strong enough to get
rid of Joab. He just doesn't see a way he can do it. Well,
I say to every believer, you're anointed a king and a priest
unto God. You've been made a child of God. I mean, think of that, how wonderful
that is. Yet, we're not strong enough
to get rid of this old nature. I've been anointed a child of
God. And one thing I can't do anything
about is old Frank. I can't get rid of him. You've
been redeemed. You've been made perfect in Christ. But you're still weak in the
flesh, aren't you? Can't subdue that old nature and you can't
get rid of that old nature. But you will someday. You will
someday. You know when David finally got
rid of Joab? Joab was a thorn in David's side his entire reign.
David reigned 40 years. Joab was a thorn in his side
that every day of 40 years. David got rid of Joab and David
died. As David lay dying, he told Solomon,
don't you let the gray-headed Joab go down to the grave in
peace. And one of the reasons he cited
was how he killed Abner. Don't you let him do it. And
Joab, after all those years with David, he really never served
David from the heart. After David died, he did not
support Solomon as king. He supported Solomon's brother
as king. He rebelled against David. He showed his true colors
and Solomon had him killed. That's the only way we're going
to get rid of this old nature. To have this old nature put to
death and put it in the ground and have that new man be set
free and go be with the Lord forever. Then we'll have perfect
peace, perfect peace eternally. And we'll say throughout eternity,
It's because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace found only in our
Lord Jesus Christ.