Now our lesson this morning is
going to look at the warfare of the flesh and the spirit.
And we know that there are two kinds of people in the world. And there are also two people,
not just two kinds of people, two distinct people inside of
every believer. And those two people are given
to us in picture in these verses. The people who follow David are
believers. They're the spiritual man. The
people who refuse to follow David are unbelievers. They're the
flesh. Those two people are in this
world, and those two people, the spiritual man and the flesh,
are inside of every believer. And there will always be a war
between those two people, between the flesh and the spirit. And
that's what we're going to see here in these verses this morning.
We're going to begin in verse 5. We ended last week where the
people of Judah told David that the men of Jabesh-Gilead went
and took Saul, and Jonathan took their bodies and buried them.
In verse 5, David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh-Gilead,
and he said unto them, Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have
showed this kindness unto your Lord, even unto Saul, and have
buried him. And now the Lord show kindness
and truth unto you, and I also will requite you this kindness,
because you have done this thing. Therefore, now let your hands
be strengthened, and be ye valued, for your master Saul is dead,
and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them."
Now, the men of Jabesh-Gilead, they had been faithful servants
to Saul. In the past, Saul had defended
them, and they remained loyal to their king, and they put themselves
in harm's way to go get the bodies of Saul and Jonathan Stop those
bodies from being abused by the Philistines and take those bodies
and give them a proper burial. And the Jews consider this a
great kindness. This is very, very important
to them that a person be given a proper burial. And David recognizes
them for doing this. And he prays that the Lord will
reward this good work of theirs. And he promises them he will
too. He says, I'll remember this and I'll reply to you this deed
that you've done. And he's telling them, now Saul's
dead. But I'm your king now, and now
you're under my protection. You're not left without protection.
Now you've come under my protection. And you know, it may seem, you
know, these men of Jabez Gilead, here is the end of Saul's reign.
They may have thought nobody noticed and nobody cared what
they did. And it may seem to you and me
that nobody notices and nobody cares what we do. They just,
you know, we think, well, nobody's not making a difference to anybody.
But look in Galatians chapter 6. Don't be weary in well-doing.
Galatians chapter 6. Beginning in verse 7, Paul says,
Now be not deceived. God's not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let
us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap
if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them which are
of the household of faith. Now Saul's not of the household
of faith, but he's part of all men, isn't he? He falls under
that category. And they did this good thing
for him. You see the picture here. And
there is a real need for the Lord to give us patience. Wayne
prayed for patience. There's a real need that the
Lord give us patience so that we will continue in well-doing,
that we won't get weary and quit. It's important now that the Lord
give us patience so we don't quit. Because we're in a war.
A believer is in a long protracted warfare between the flesh and
the spirit. The men of Jabesh Gilead, they
give us an example of a work of faith, men of faith. But now
all men have not faith. Look in verse 8, back in our
text here in 2 Samuel 2. Verse 8, But Abner, the son of
Ner, captain of Saul's took Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and brought
him over to Manae, and he made him king over Gilead, and over
the Assyrites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and Benjamin,
and over all Israel. In Ish-bosheth, Saul's son was
forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he
reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed
David, and the time that David was king in Hebron over the house
of Judah was seven years and six months. Now this man, Ish-bosheth,
he's a son of Saul, and his name means man of shame. Now who names
their son that? Don't name your son that. For
goodness sake, a man of shame? Who'd put that moniker on a kid?
And he lived up to that name. He is a man of shame. Ish-bosheth
wasn't even considered fit to go to the battle. The only reason
he is alive to be made king is he wasn't fit to go to the battle.
If he'd have gone to the battle, he'd have died with his father
and brothers. But he's left alive. Saul's dead. And Abner refuses
to bow to God's king. Now he knew it was the Lord's
will for David to be king of Israel. Saul knew that. Saul
said that several times. Abner knew this. But he refused
to bow to David. Because if he's going to bow
to David, you know what Abner's going to do? He's going to have
to give up his position. He's going to have to give up
this position of prestige. So what did he do? He made himself
a king. Ish-bosheth is who all men follow
by nature. A man of shame. Adam and everyone
who ever descended from Adam are men of shame. And that's
who we follow. You know, you say you follow
who you want. Men of the flesh follow themselves. We follow
a man of shame. We follow sin and shame. And
so what the flesh is going to do is make themselves a king. They're not going to find the
king. They make themselves a king and they will not bow to God's
king. And false religion tells you
that. Make Jesus your king. They tell
you, make yourself a king. Now, you cannot make the Christ
of this book king. You cannot do it. He's already
king. He is king. He was made of the
seed of David, according to the flesh. And he was declared to
be the son of God with power. He was made to be what he was
not, flesh. He was declared to be who he
is, king. You and I can't make him king.
He is king. And thank God he's given us the
grace to bow to him as king. But now all men have not faith.
Every tribe of Israel, with the exception of Judah, refused David
and followed Ishmael. They wanted a man of shame to
rule over them, rather than the man after God's own heart. And
that ought not surprise us. That's the way flesh always acts. The descendants of these people,
years and years and years later, are going to say, the son of
David, we will not have this man to reign over us. We have
no king but Caesar. They made themselves a king,
which by their own admission, they hated. They'd rather have
that man that they hated reign over them rather than God's Son. That's what this flesh is. And
it'll never get any better than that. And this is very, very
important now. There is no salvation apart from
bowing to Christ. None. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the Savior of sinners. He is the friend of sinners.
But before He's our Savior, before He's our friend, we will bow
to Him as King, begging Him for mercy, admitting He'd be just
in sending me to hell, but begging Him for mercy. Now, we bow to
Him first as King. We must recognize that the Lord
Jesus Christ has the crown rights to do with me as he pleases. And whatever it is that he does,
it's just and it's right. And nobody can complain against
it because whatever he does, it's just and it's right. Now,
I know the flesh hates the sovereignty of God. They hate a God who's
sovereign. I know that. But now they love
the Jesus of their imagination, but they do not love the Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. People are very willing to have
this little Jesus fight the battles for them that they can't win
themselves. All Israel loved David when he went out and fought
Goliath. They were very happy to have David go fight the battle
they could not win, but they won't have him as king. And that's
the way the flesh is. They'd love to have this little
Jesus go fight the battles that I can't win myself, but they
won't bow to him as king. The king who does as he pleases.
People are very willing to have this little Jesus be their co-pilot,
but they won't have God be king who's in control. They love a
co-pilot because a co-pilot, he ain't in control. He's just
a helper. They don't want God who's in
absolute, utter control of everything. They're very willing to have
this little Jesus be their counselor and their advisor, but they won't
have him as king. You know why they like an advisor,
a counselor? Because you don't have to take
his advice. He's just giving you advice. If God's king, you have
to bow and obey. You obey the commander in chief.
They won't have him as king. People are very willing. to have
this little Jesus be the gift giver. Remember when David went
and spoiled those Amalekites? He took everything they had.
He said, this is David's spoil. And what did he do with it? He
sent gifts to all those cities. Well, everybody loved David when
he was giving gifts, didn't they? But they won't have him as king
who sovereignly dispenses his grace to whom he will, when he
will. They won't have him as king.
People are very willing to have this little Jesus be their healer
that they can call on any time they want and heal all their
problems. But they won't bow to him as king who kills and
makes alive at his will. That's the flesh. And this is
so. Whatever God does with me or
with you, he'll do it as king. He'll not abdicate his throne.
he will give up his authority to please anyone. If God damns
me, he's doing it as king in justice. And if God saves me,
he's doing it as king, acting in sovereign mercy, and at the
same time, still satisfying his justice by pouring out his justice
on Christ my substitute. I can promise you this, if God
damns me, That's my decision. That's my fault. That's my decision.
That's the end result of my decision. If God saves me, it's not my
decision. It's His sovereign decision,
His sovereign choice, His sovereign will as the Almighty King. Now, the war begins in earnest
when Christ is declared to be King of Kings. See here in our
text in verse 12, and Abner the son of Nurn, the servants of
Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, went out from Aenaeum to Gibeon.
And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, she is the sister of David, so
Joab is David's nephew. And the servants of David, they
went out, and they 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 of the pool. 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 twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ish-bosheth,
the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And they
caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword
in his fellow's side. So they fell down together. Wherefore,
that place was called Helcath-hazurim, which is in Gibeon." These two men, the armies of
these two kings, they come out and they meet by this pool. And
they're sitting there across this pool looking one another,
eyeing one another with a Mexican standoff kind of. Abner finally
says, let the young men arise and play. And they arise and
they come out and they meet each other, grab each other by the
hair of the head. And at the same time, they thrust their
sword into each other's side and all 24 of them die. Now,
I've looked and looked and looked at this, and I believe I can
give you the key to this passage of Scripture. The key to it is
the word play. When Abner says, let the young
men arise and play, he doesn't mean let them arise and let's
play a game and have fun. The word play that he uses there
means to make a mockery, to mock, to make sport of, or to laugh
mockingly. This thing of bowing to David
as king looks like a great big joke to Abner. He's mocking it. And that's what bowing to King
Christ is to false religion. That's what it is to the flesh.
They make a mockery of sin. What God calls sin, they call
a choice or a lifestyle. They make a mockery of the kingship
of Christ. They mock him as king. They put
him in a subservient position to men. They make a mockery of
his kingship. They make a mockery of his blessed
person. They make a mockery of the blood
of Christ. They say, it's up to you to make
it effectual. The blood of Christ is not enough.
You have to do something to make it effectual. And when they say
that, they're making a mockery of the blood and the sacrifice
of our Savior. Now my advice, based on this
scripture, is this. Do not get drawn into a battle
with these people on their terms. The gospel is not to be debated. It's to be declared. Look over
Matthew chapter 7. Don't get drawn into a battle
with these people on their terms. I'm not saying don't talk to
them about the scripture. Don't talk to them about the
Lord. Don't tell them how God saves sinners. I'm not saying
that. I'm saying don't get drawn into a debate with them on their
terms. They're not looking for Christ.
They're looking for a debate is what they're looking for.
Look here in Matthew chapter 7 verse 6. Our Lord says, Give
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls
before swine. Because what are they going to
do with them if you do? They're going to trample them under their
feet and then they're going to turn again and rend you. And
that's exactly what happened to these men of David who went
out to play. They cast their pearls before
swine and got turned and they were rended and killed. My dad had a quote on his office
wall. I thought it was so funny. It
said, don't enter into a debate with a fool. He'll drag you down
to his level and beat you with experience. And that's what will
happen to us if we get drawn into a debate with these people
on their terms. Everyone loses when the gospel
is debated. If we sit around and debate the
gospel. There's an article by Henry in
the bulletin about, you know, arguing about election. Everybody
loses when we debate the gospel. The gospel is not to be debated.
The gospel is to be declared, to be preached in clear and simple
terms to sinners. But when someone makes a mockery
of the blood of Christ, of the sacrifice of Christ, of the kingship
of Christ, of the person of Christ, everybody loses. And there's
no life in it. What happened when people did
things Abner's way? Everybody died. Nobody lived.
There's no life in it. Everybody loses when the gospel
is debated. So verse 17, there was a very
sore battle that day. And Abner was beaten, and the
men of Israel before the servants of David. And there were three
sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel. And
Asahel was as light a foot as a wild rose. And Asahel pursued
after Abner, and in going he turned not to the right hand
nor to the left from following Abner. And Abner looked behind
him and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. And Abner
said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand, or to thy
left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men. Take his armor."
It's like, take one of these fellas, you know, leave me alone.
Take one of these fellas. What a general. But Asahel would
not turn aside from following of him. And Hadler said again
to Asahel, turn thee aside from following me. Wherefore, shall
I smite thee to the ground? How then shall I hold up my face
to Joab thy brother? Howbeit he refused to turn aside.
Wherefore Abner, with the hinder end of the spear, smote him under
the fifth rib so hard 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 that place where Asahel fell
down and died, stood still." Now Asahel was a very fast runner.
He was as fast as a wild deer. In 1 Chronicles 11, 26 we read
that he was a valiant warrior. This man was fast, he was a valiant,
fearsome warrior. But fleshly speaking, now fleshly
speaking, Asahel was no match for Abner. Abner was bigger,
he was stronger, he was more experienced, he was probably
better armed. And what Abner is telling him in verse 21 is,
now, Asahel, go pick on somebody your own size. This is not a
fair match between you and me. You pick one of these young men,
because this is not a fair match. And Asahel would not listen to
him. And he must have felt like that
the Lord was with him. I read a lot of the writers and
they say, well, Asahel was full of pride. I don't know how they
get that from the scripture. He must have felt like the Lord
was with him just like the Lord was with David when he went out
to fight Goliath. That was no match either, was
it? It was no match for Goliath because the Lord was with David.
So that's how it must have felt like that the Lord was with him.
And I admire his single-mindedness. I really do. He refused to turn
to the right hand or the left hand. He could have handled any
of those men to the right or the left, but he refused to do
it with single-minded focus. He was chasing after them. And
you know, that's how a pastor must be. That's how a preacher
of the gospel must be. Single-minded. Just with a single-minded
purpose. Not to turn to the right or the
left. To stay the course on the Lord Jesus Christ. To preach
Christ to sinners. For the eternal good of people
and for the glory of God. You have to be so single-minded
about that. There are many distractions that
can pull a man to the right or the left. Be single-minded. And you know, that's how all
of us should approach worship, really and truly, with a single-minded
focus. I don't care what it is that
we do the rest of our week. Nothing is as important as what
we do right here. Absolutely nothing. And it's
easy to get pulled off to the right or the left. I'm talking
about even things that seem like, you know, good things. It's easy
to get pulled off to the right or to the left. There is just
one gospel, just one, there's not Variations, there's not,
well, these have some good things, and these have some good things,
and these have some good things. No. There's one gospel. There's
just one. Don't go off to the right or
the left. There's just one gospel. Don't get pulled off on a tangent
about something that may be in somebody's mind related to the
gospel. Be single-minded. There's just one Savior. Just
one. There's just one son of God. He sent to this earth and made
flesh and dwelt among us. Have a single-minded focus on
him. Don't be pulled off to the right or to the left. And we're
in a war now. Be single-minded. We're in a
war between the flesh and the spirit. And don't get pulled
off to the right or to the left. And look over in Ecclesiastes
chapter 9. In this war, remember this. Here's
something to remember. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 11, I returned and saw
under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to
men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill. But time
and chance, and that's what men think is chance. Time and, he
should have said probably there, the purpose of God. It seems
like chance does, because we don't know what God's purpose
is. But time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth
not his time. As the fishes that are taken
in an evil net, as the birds that are caught in the snare,
so are the sons of men, snared in an evil time when it falls
suddenly upon them. They didn't know it was coming.
But God did, it was God's eternal purpose, but we didn't know it
was suddenly coming upon us. And here's what I want you to
remember about this. No matter how successful we've been in
the past, we need to remember we are always completely and
totally dependent upon Christ. We're dependent completely upon
him. Sean could tell you this, a runner,
He may have the race of his life. I mean, he was so fast, he just
blew the field away. John, if he quits training, he's
going to lose the next one, isn't he? I mean, he just is. You have
to keep training hard. And a believer, the Lord may
have given you some victory in the past, but I promise you,
we'll lose the next one if we're not looking to Christ alone.
We'll lose the next one if we're not depending on his strength
alone. The moment we start depending on our strength, we're going
to lose. I don't know if that's what happened
to Ask the Hell or Not, but could be. We may have been successful
in some way in the past, but we are never any match for sin
or for ourself. Ourself. We're never any match
for that. I thought this week, you know, I felt like the Lord
richly blessed our lesson last week. I was so thankful that I had to spend as much time
this week in prayer and study and preparation for this week's
manna would have been stale. You can't quit. You just can't
quit looking to Him and depending upon Him. And for whatever reason,
this was a very ugly end for Asahel. Can you imagine how fast
he was running in the combination of how fast he was running, how
strong Abner must have been, to thrust the blunt end of that
spear clear through his body. I mean, what a horrible, ugly
end. And when everybody else finally
caught up, they stopped and went no further at this horrific sight. They were shocked that this swift,
valiant man was brutally killed. And they were so shocked they
just couldn't go on. A few weeks ago, we looked at
this as a warning to believers about falling. And you know,
when a brother falls, it can be so traumatic. A brother that
we put a lot of confidence in, it can be so traumatic to everyone
else, it stops everybody else in their tracks. Now that's going
to happen. It's happened time and time and
time again. It's going to happen again in
the future. And when it happens, be disappointed. But don't be
discouraged into quitting. Look at Psalm 146. Psalm 146,
verse 3. Put not your trust in Don't put your trust in even
the best of men, nor in the Son of Man. In them there is no help."
Now, the best of them, his breath goes forth, he returns to his
earth. In that very day, his thoughts
perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. Happy is he whose hope is in
the Lord his God. Put your hope in the Lord. Don't
put so much trust and confidence in even the best of men, in the
best of believers. But you know, as Asahel is chasing
Abner here, it seems like Abner's starting to realize, I'm on the
wrong side here. This battle is not going my way.
It's going against me. And it appears that he wants
to stop. But he can't figure out how to
do it. It appears like he has no interest in killing Asahel.
But he can't figure out how to get out of it. He can't figure
out how to stop. And many people, they get some
sense spiritually. And I'm on the wrong side of
this thing. People have a conscience. God put a conscience in people.
And they get the feeling I'm in trouble here. And they want
to stop sinning against God. They want to stop rebelling against
Him. They want to stop their mad, headlong rush into hell. But they can't figure out how
to do it. They can't figure it out. And the flesh never will.
So usually what they do, left to their own devices, is they
get busy in religion. And what they'll find out, sooner
or later, and my prayer is sooner, they'll find out bodily exercise,
the fleshly motions of religion, religion is not in the flesh,
it's in the spirit, it's in the new man. And Abner could have
stopped this whole war the same way people could end their war
against God, by begging for mercy. It is my prayer that God would
cause us to beg for mercy. Just beg God for mercy. God's
reconciled. May you be reconciled. Beg for
mercy. Just give yourself up and throw
yourself at the feet of Christ the King and beg Him for mercy. It's going to take a little while.
And we'll see this in a few weeks. But finally, that's what Abner
does. He comes to David and begs for
peace. And you want to know what? David welcomes him with open
arms. He gives him mercy. Oh, he celebrates with him. This is my brother. And he has
mercy on him. David's just a man. How much
more merciful is the Lord to a sinner begging for mercy? Always come to him. Come to him
and beg him for mercy. He'll be merciful. I've got a
lot of notes left. That's a good note to quit on
it. We'll just quit right there. We'll pick up here in a couple
weeks. I thought when I started this
week, I thought, well, I don't know if I've got enough comments
to last 30 minutes. But we'll pick up here in a couple
weeks.