Here in the book of 2 Samuel
chapter 23, I'd like to read beginning with verse 8, and read
down through verse 12. Verse 8 through verse 12. These be the names of the mighty
men whom David had, the Tachmeneite that sat in the seat chief among
the captains, the same was Adilio the Esnite, He lift up his spear
against eight hundred whom he slew at one time. And after him was Eleazar the
son of Dudo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with
David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together
to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away. he arose and
smoked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand
clave unto the sword. And the Lord wrought a great
victory that day, and the people returned after him only to spoil. And after him was Shammel the
son of Aji the Haraites, and the Philistines were gathered
together into a troop where was a piece of ground full of lentils
and the people fled from the Philistines but he stood in the
midst of the ground and defended it and slew the Philistines and
the Lord wrought a great victory and the Lord wrought a great
victory now in these verses here In this portion of scripture,
we have a list of the names of the mighty men of David. And
it speaks of one named Eleazar and says that this man, Eleazar,
arose and smoked the Philistines until his hand was weary and
until his hand claimed unto the sword. But in spite of the fact,
in spite of the fact that he was a man of war, a man of courage,
a man of bravery here that lifted up his hand and smoked the enemy
and continued the effort until his hand was weary, the scripture
says, it was the Lord that wrought a great victory. It was the Lord
that wrought a great victory. So we see here that God uses
human instruments, but we see that in the outcome and ultimately
it is the Lord that wins the victory. Well, this is very important
for us to remember. The real source of every victory
that the people of God, that the church of God enjoys in this
world, is a victory that the Lord himself must win. It's a victory that his own right
hand and holy arm must win for himself. It is in him, it is
by his power, it is because of his mercy, it is God indeed that
gives the increase. It is God that gives the increase.
Now, verse 12 speaks of another of these men, Shamia, but he
stood in the midst of the ground and defended it and slew the
Philistines, and the scripture says again, and the Lord wrought
a great victory. the Lord wrought a great victory."
So in both of these instances, though the men involved in the
battle are mentioned, it indicates, and certainly they had a part,
a great part in this, but it indicates that it was the Lord
ultimately that wrought that great victory. Now the victory
was not won without these men, it was not won without their
effort and without their strength as it were in battle, but the
victory was won uh... of course uh... by the lord and
by the ability given by god and the strength given by god great
grace poured out upon these men enable to do enable them to do
these great exploits in this day of of uh... facing the enemy
now then we say that god uses means well there's no doubt about
that we know that all throughout the word of god this is plainly
taught and set forth We know that God using men only adds
to God's glory, for men are such poor tools really to work with. Now, I heard about a painter
one time, and he was quite a celebrated painter. who gained quite a reputation
by using old, worn-out brushes to paint with. And many people
thought, my, my, what a painter, how skilled he must be to be
able to produce such good effects under such disadvantageous conditions. A man who had old, worn-out brushes,
but yet he could do brilliant work. What an artist he must
be. So when we look at men, when
we look at them in the light of what the Word of God teaches
about men, when we look at men in light of the fact that they
are born into this world, depraved and they're sinful, having no
appetite for the things of God, against everything that is high
and holy, against everything that God stands for. They're
against God and against holiness, against the Word of God by nature. And when we see that God takes
men, as they are and He remakes them and makes them into new
creatures in Christ Jesus and puts within them a zeal and puts
within them an enthusiasm and puts within them a desire to
do His will and His work Beloved, we see that God is to be glorified
in all of this. How can the Lord have won such
a victory with such poor vessels as He has used down through the
centuries? Now, when God wins a great victory,
God receives the glory, God receives the praise. I remember Moses,
reading about Moses, and how when the Lord sent and directed
him to go to Pharaoh, to speak to him. Of course, Moses admitted
his inability, that he just couldn't, he just didn't have the ability
to speak to Pharaoh. And of course, God recognized
this, but the Lord said, well, I'll be with your mouth, I'll
be with you. And certainly the Lord went on
to win a great victory in that situation, but man is a poor
vessel indeed, but it only adds to the glory of God that God
uses men to the accomplishment of His purpose. So, beloved,
you can bring the name up of any instrument that you want
to bring up, if you want to mention righteous, able, down to the
very last preacher. in this world which God will
ever use to preach his word, yet it shall be desperately true
in the end that the glory does not go to that vessel, it does
not go to that individual, it doesn't go to that preacher,
it doesn't go to the instrument, it goes to God, because it's
God that ultimately wins the victory. In 1 Corinthians 3 and
verse 6 and 7, It says, I have planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the increase. And in verse 7, it says, so then
neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase. And what those two verses there
teaches is that we have a power. Paul said, we planted. And he
said, Apollos, he's another man, he watered the word. But he said,
ultimately it was God that gave the increase. If anybody got
saved, if anybody got encouraged, if anybody was helped, if anyone
was blessed, really, it was God that gave the increase. And then
he goes on to say, taking the humble position that we must
take, and taking the humble position that L.E.E.s are here and Shamal
must take, and that is that ultimately we are nothing. He says, so then
neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase. He's to receive the glory. He's
to receive the praise. He's to be recognized. Now the
right thing to do then for us as believers in this world, whatever
our hand finds to do, Proverbs says, do it with all of our might.
But whatever we do, we must depend upon and look to the Lord knowing
that all ultimately depends upon Him. It is in His hands to give
the victory. It's in His hands to give the
increase. And so whatever we do, we must,
if you please, be, as one fellow put it, we must be humble, God-reliant
believers And personally, we must be resolute. We must be
resolute. Now then, one of the old warriors
said, trust in God and keep your powder dry. So God's people are
to trust the Lord, humbly submit to Him, bow to Him, but at the
same time be ready to be used of the Lord in whatever way that
God would want to use them. Let me ask a question. I've asked
this myself a number of times, I've asked it of myself, and
I just wonder how many times in this world as believers, those
of us that have traveled with the Lord for any length of time,
and have met with some of the discouragements and the adversities
of life, and have suffered some of the setbacks and some of the
bereavements that men suffer in this world, and some of the
plagues, the various plagues that come upon the poor children
of God in this world as they pilgrimage on their way to glory,
I wonder how often do we actually think in the terms of victory? How often do we think in the
terms of victory? Now I know that there are many
that are weary. I know that many times we may
be feeling quite well after the flesh, but we can become very
weary in the spirit and very weary spiritually speaking. Just weary, just kind of worn
out with things as they are and with the many, many uphill battles
that we have to face. every day of our lives. And so
we asked ourselves this morning, I want you to ask yourself, how
many times do we actually think in the terms of victory, how
often do we do that? Are we really counting on a victory?
Do we really believe that God can give us a victory? Can God
give us a victory as a church? Can God do something with us? Can God bless us? Can God increase
this church and can He give us that which we need to do that
which we feel ultimately would glorify His name? Can we believe
that and can we succeed in the effort that we put forth? And
then in our own individual lives, can we think in terms of a victory? We're very weary, and maybe you
remember as I read here about one of David's mighty men whose
hand it was that cleaved in this battle. His hand actually was
molded into the sword. And he was very weary, and he
just couldn't hardly get his hand to come loose from that
sword. And he had been greatly engaged
in battle. And you and I this morning, that
individual believers, we may just literally have become worn
out. And physically maybe feel that
we can hardly put forth any more effort. But brethren, we should
think in terms of victory. We find that Satan often attacks
our souls and we're rather filled with thoughts of defeat and discouragement
rather than victory. How many times have you thrown
up your hands and said, I'm just a failure. I'm just a failure. I'm really not accomplishing
anything in this world. My whole life has been nothing
but just one failure after another. And I dare not think too much
upon it because really I've had very little victory. I haven't
done what I should have done in my life. I've missed so many
opportunities to serve God, so many opportunities to do what
was right, and I've come so far short, and I see really what
a great sinner I am. I see clearly that I'm really
a great sinner. Well, you might go on to say
that you're a miserable and sinful wretch, and that may be very
true this morning. You may have just hit the nail
exactly right on the head. You may just be a sinful wretch. But I want you to wait just a
minute. I want you to think a little
bit this morning, and I want us this morning as members of
this body, as believers in Christ, and as members of the many-membered
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to think this morning
upon something positive. There is a place for acknowledging
our sinfulness, for admitting how great our need is, how much
we stand in need of the grace of God and the cleansing blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a place for that. And
certainly every one of us have come many, many times to that. But hear me this morning. If
we spend all of our time talking about how weak we are, and how
poor we are, and what a failure we are, we may never see the
kind of victory that these courageous men, these mighty men of David,
actually saw and experienced in their lives. I asked this
morning, do we think in terms of victory anymore? Or have we
just given up completely and said, well, we're just going
to consign ourselves to defeat? Brother, sister, listen to me.
These men They arose, went forward, and they faced the enemy. Sometime
there wasn't very many around, and we see where the army of
Israel had gone away, the men of Israel had gone away, when
this brother here in verse 10, when he began to fight the Philistines. And so, I want you to know that
sometimes we may have to stand alone, but these brethren, they
went forward, and they faced the enemy. Now, Elie's are continued,
as we pointed out, until his hand was weary and claven to
the sword. He didn't say, this is a difficult
task, I think I'm just going to quit, I'm tired, I'm going
to just back off, and I'm going to let somebody else do it, I'm
going to let my children or my grandchildren down the way, let
somebody else take up the battle, and let them fight the battle.
They said, no, we're going to take up the sword, and we're
going to deal right now with what has to be dealt with. They
continued, and the Lord blessed them, and the Lord gave them
the victory. They were able to see the victory. Now what I'm saying is that we
today need to turn our eyes from our own weakness, turn them away
from our own weakness to the strength that we have in our
God. To the strength that we have
in the Lord. Now Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. I can do whatever it is God
wants me to do, I can do it. Whatever it is that God calls
upon me to do, I can do it through Jesus Christ. God can strengthen
me. Sure, I'm a man. And sure, I
have the weaknesses that all men have by nature. And sure,
we are depraved creatures in a state of nature left apart
from the grace of God. But I want you to know this,
there's strength in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can be strengthened
with might by the Spirit of God and enabled to do that which
God leads us to do, which He calls upon us to do. No doubt,
we could all make long lists of our failures that we've experienced
in our life, But there are those here that can't afford to sit
down any longer and say, well, I'm just going to dwell on what
miserable people we are. There's some here this morning
that they have more to do than to sit around in a morbid stupor. They have more to do. There's
people here that have families to raise. There's people here
that have afflicted bodies to deal with. There's people here
that have difficulties that they must face day after day. And we have to quit looking always
at this morbid side and start looking more to the strength
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we must, by faith,
press on in the way that God would have us to go. And we absolutely
have got to do this. Can we not also see the various
victories while we can all sit down and make a list of our failures?
Has there not been some victories too? Well, I believe there has
been some victories. There certainly has been in my
life, and I'm certain that there has been some in yours. There's
been some real victories that we could trace to the grace and
power of God in our lives. There's been some real blessings,
solid blessings, some real comfort that has come down from God that
God's been pleased to give us in the hour when we desperately
needed it and most needed it. and we've received some real
solid help and comfort and victory from our God. The Lord has wrought
a great victory many times in our lives. Should we not, in
spite of the fact that we're weak, anticipate that we're going
to get an additional victory in the future and expect victory
and expect to overcome Now one of the things the Word of God
teaches plainly is that God's people are overcomers. They are
overcomers. We overcome in the head of the
church. We overcome in our head, our
representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll overcome in Him,
and so we ought to expect to overcome. We've been called to
inherit a blessing, and we've been called to receive, as it
were, nourishment from the vine and from our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're weak, yes, but He is strong. We're unworthy, but He's faithful,
even when we believe not. He remains committed to His promises. He remains committed to the cause
that He has got us involved in, that He has included us in. God remains faithful to that
cause. I've seen that over and over
in my life. over and over again, when I just, as it were, maybe
not consciously, but maybe subconsciously just give up completely and said
it's over, nothing will ever come of it. And God has shown
that He never gives up on His eternal purpose which He purposed
in Christ and which He has got His elect involved in. If you're
one of God's elect, you are involved. and you will be involved until
you die and leave this world and then in eternity you'll be
involved in giving him praise that hath done all things well. How wonderful to realize that
the God that we worship and serve is indeed the God of victory,
the God of purpose and that the God of the Bible is not a defeated,
wimpy God. That the God of the Bible is
a sovereign God of almighty power and grace, and a God who can
accomplish his purpose. The scripture declares, and we
ought to believe it, that the God of the Bible is the God of
victory. David said in 1 Chronicles 29
and 11, he blessed the Lord before all the congregation, and he
says, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory,
and the victory. He says, Lord, Thine is the greatness,
the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven
and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. Thine, O Lord, is
the victory. That's what I want you to see.
Thine is the victory. Now, if we believe in a God who
is omnipotent, if we believe in a God who's sovereign, a God
who upholds all things by the word of His power, then, beloved,
we should anticipate that this great and mighty God can do great
and mighty things which we don't know. And don't confine God to
your little mental ability to, as it were, to envision something,
just believe that the God of the Bible is far more able than
you are even to ask or think. Shall we not lift up our heads
above the defeats and the setbacks and the troubles and the heartaches
of this life, and look to the victory that can be gained through
His power? Now the psalm that we read this
morning Psalm 98, and I'd like for you to turn back there. Psalm
chapter 98, it says, O sing unto the Lord a new song. In verse 1, For he hath done
marvelous things, his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten
him the victory. His right hand, his holy arm
has gotten him the victory. Well, You know, we've tried to
stress here in the little time we've been speaking this morning
that we do become intimidated by various things in this world
and we get the idea somehow or other that as God's maybe should
just live like intimidated people and people that are very, very
hesitant to raise their voice. in praise of the God that we
worship, the God that we serve. We get the idea that if we're
going to praise God, we've got to do it very quietly. If we're
going to sing a song unto the Lord, we ought to sing very,
very softly. But yet here it says in verse
4, now listen to what it says. It says, Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all the earth, make a loud noise and rejoice
make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Now, why should
we make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise unto the Lord? Well, beloved, it is because
His right hand, the Lord's done marvelous things, and because
His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory.
That's the reason. And so we ought not be intimidated
But we ought to lift up our voice unto the Lord. Now, we think
of that expression, the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar
off. The people at a distance heard
the joy as God's people praised Him for the victory when the
walls of Jerusalem had been built back and the city was again fortified. The joy of Jerusalem was heard
afar off. Can you get the picture? And
so the people of God, we ought to live as intimidated people,
feeling, well, we better not boast in the Lord, better not
say much about victory, we better not be expecting it because we've
had so much defeat, and maybe it'll always be that way. No,
beloved, let us raise our voices in praise, make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, make a loud noise and rejoice, and sing praise
unto God. Now we see God to be a God of
victory by the plain declaration of Scripture and we see it in
the examples of Scripture. Now I don't have time this morning
to get into but one example in the Word of God where this is
clearly set forth that the God of the Bible is a God of victory.
But here in Psalm chapter 98 and verse 1 when he's talking about that
his right hand, his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.
And then in verse 2, the Lord hath made known his salvation,
his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. Now, unquestionably, here I think
the specific reference is to the sternest battle and the grandest
conquest that ever was fought and won on the battlefields of
this world. This was the hour of crisis the
prince of the world was cast out. It was when our Lord Jesus
Christ, after he had come to the climax of his earthly ministry,
when our Lord was in the garden of Gethsemane, and when our Lord
was crucified, put to death. Through the victory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Those of us this morning that
know Him, we know that while the world looked upon the Lord
Jesus as He was hanging upon Golgotha's tree, as the Lord
Jesus was bleeding out His life's blood from those five bleeding
wounds, We know that the world looked upon Him as though they
had had a victory over Him, that He had fallen in defeat, and
that His very purpose was defeated. Now, we know that the Lord Jesus,
after He died, that He was put into a barred tomb The Lord Jesus
was there buried in the tomb. But yet we know that God, while
the world looked upon and said, it's over, he's defeated, we
won the victory over him, we shut his mouth, we put him away,
and he's forever, the world is through with this man called
Jesus. Well, we know that the Lord had
given him power to take his life. to come forth out of the grave,
that not only did he lay down his life, but he had the power
to take it again. The Lord Jesus, God had given
him power, the Father had given him power, and the old song says,
vainly they watch his bed, vainly they seal the dead, death cannot
keep his prey, he tore the bars away. Up from the grave he arose
with a mighty triumph over his foes. He arose a victor from
the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah
Christ. arose and so beloved the Lord
Jesus came forth out of the grave and he come forth and as one
old preacher said we're not working up to a victory we're working
down from one and the Lord's people are on this side of the
greatest victory, the greatest conquest that was ever won. When
God hung His Son on a cross to die, beloved, that was my death
to sin, and that was what brought everlasting, eternal salvation
to my soul, and it's what purchased for me eternal glory to come. Now, we can see that the Lord
Jesus Christ then that he was victorious, and that the purpose
of God did not suffer defeat, as some say that it did. We see that the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said, I've come not to do my own will, but the will of
Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
that sent me, of everyone which He has given me, that I should
lose nothing, but that I should raise it up again at the last
day. And so, beloved, the Lord Jesus
Christ He has won the victory. And the purpose of God, we're
told in the book of Isaiah, chapter 42, I think it is in verse 4,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, that He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. And so we can count on Him to
bring the victory. Now then, I wanted to emphasize a couple
of things. I believe the time is coming
whenever you and I as the Lord's people are going to be able to
celebrate, we're going to be able to celebrate this great
victory, the greatest victory of all times. when our Savior
overcame, came out of the grave, and conquered sin, Satan, and
death. And in the book of Isaiah chapter
40, we're told by the prophet, he said, you preachers, you go
out and you comfort, you comfort my people, you say to my people,
you speak comfortably to them, and you cry unto her that the
warfare is accomplished. You tell them that the war is
over, that the war's been fought, the battle's been fought, and
that His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory,
that it's been accomplished what God in His eternal purpose demand
that the Lord Jesus accomplish, it has been accomplished, and
He died and He bought His people, He paid the price of their redemption,
and they are saved. I think this morning that the
point I want to make is that victory is a happy word. I remember when the Second World
War was over, and I remember what a celebration that took
place. I was just about, oh, I think I was probably around
12, 13 years old at the time. when the Second World War was
over. And what a celebration. My, what a celebration. Everybody
was celebrating this great end to a terrible war. And the United
States, all over the United States, it was a time of great celebration. Should victory be celebrated?
Well, the victory of the Lord Jesus will be celebrated in glory. This victory that I've told you
about this morning is victory over sin, Satan, and death. We begin here every Lord's Day
to celebrate that victory. We're celebrating it today when
we sing the hymns of Zion and talk about our Lord Jesus Christ
and His mighty triumph. When we talk about His victory,
when we talk about the good news of the gospel, we are celebrating
the victory of the Lord Jesus. When we talk about a hope which
we have, a hope that springs eternal in the souls of God's
elect, we're celebrating the victory which our Lord won on
Calvary and in the resurrection. But the ultimate victory celebration
is coming when the Lord Jesus comes back. When he comes back
into this world, the ultimate celebration is when He comes
back. We've been talking about Him.
We've been singing about Him. We've been preaching about Him.
But to see Him, oh, to see Him, our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who
became our representative, who stood in our place and suffered
the vengeance of Almighty God, and bore all that incarnate God
could bore with strength enough, but none to spare, our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we see Him. When we see Him. We're going
to celebrate, really, and sing aloud of the great victories
which He's won. Now, why go around talking about
defeat then, if you're a child of God, you're headed for the
most glorious victory there has ever been. The most glorious
victory celebration that there's ever been. And I don't want any
of you to come to the place or get to the place like many do
in our day, and we read about them every day, who come to the
end of themselves and don't know what to do and don't know where
to look. Beloved, the place to look. is
to look to our God, that God that wins the victory, that God
that gives the victory, that God that gives the increase,
and look to Him. You're going to rise to meet
Him in the air if you're living when He comes, and if you're
not, your body will come out of the grave. Well, we know our
bodies will be sown in weakness, but they'll be raised in power,
and that little seed of your body will come up on resurrection's
glorious morning and there will be an absolute victory. Glory be to God. You're going
to have a victory. You say, Preacher, but there's
been all kinds of failure in my life. That's alright. But
God's going to raise your body. That old body in which you suffered
many defeats and failures, God's going to raise it up. And there's
going to be a glorious, glorious victory. Now, in heaven, there will be the
Well, we experience here all of this, you know, these feelings
that just seem to drag a person down. And, you know, the Scripture
says, where iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold.
And it's difficult to keep our love warm, it seems, for the
Lord. Do you love the Lord as much
as you did when the Lord saved you? You know, Scripture talks
over in the Revelation there about lukewarmness. leaving your
first love. We struggle with these things.
We struggle with this. And we need to get our hearts
and our vision as it were this morning set on that distant heaven
and on that the crown, the palm, and the robe, and the kingdom,
and the welcome song. We need to think in terms of
victory what then shall be the marvelous matchless glory of
the song you remember when the children of Israel came across
the Red Sea and they were marvelously delivered and the Egyptians they
you know they pursued the children of Israel when they came out
of Egypt and they got to the Red Sea and Moses said stand
still and see the Lord's salvation they did the Red Sea parted and
they went across and the Egyptians pursued them but see the Egyptians
they did not, they should have but they didn't take into account
the power of God that God could open that Red Sea and make dry
land for his people to go across and they didn't take account
of that and so the people of God went through and out on the
other side and then they sang a song out on the other side
a song of victory, how that God had cast the enemy into the flood,
and the horse and the rider had to be thrown into the sea, and
a great celebration and songs of praise unto God. Well, beloved,
there's going to be a marvelous, matchless glory, and a song which
will be sung at the last, upon Mount Zion, when ten thousand
times ten thousands of the warriors of God shall surround the Lord
Jesus, the Conqueror, and sing glory to the Lamb. Glory be unto
Him who loved us and hath redeemed us by His blood out of every
nation, kindred, and tongue. Glory be unto Him. And we will
be standing there singing before the throne. So my effort this
morning is that we need to anticipate not defeat but glory and victory
because the right hand of the Lord is engaged to give him the
victory and he will get the victory and so let us anticipate and
onward march and may the music of song and celebration of our
captain's praise the captain our Lord Jesus Christ be in our
hearts as we make whatever effort that we are commanded to make
and whatever effort that we are privileged to make in the service
of the Kingdom of our God. Well, that's the thoughts that
I had upon my heart this morning to give to you, and I guess maybe
that probably everything that I said this morning may be more
applicable to me than it is to anybody else here. And I'm not
going to say you can't take it with you and you can't have it,
but it certainly was my need this morning to focus again upon
our God being an overcomer.