Evening, everybody. If you would
like to, turn to 2 Samuel 2. 2 Samuel 2. There's a story that
spans between chapters 2 and 3, and I want to look at that
story tonight. And I entitled this message,
Man's Lie and God's Truth. And it's a very befitting title
because that's what this story does. It contrasts two things,
man's lie and God's truth. It exposes. It exposes the natural
man, what he knows. Natural man is not completely
ignorant of the things of God. He knows something of God, what
he knows, what he wants, and what he does with that knowledge
and that desire. It exposes man's religion, salvation
by works, and where it leads. where it ends everybody up with
that follows that path. But finally, this, it exposes
the truth. What is God's truth? What is the truth concerning
himself, his son, and salvation? What is the truth? That is a
marvelous question. It's all answered here. in this
story. Now, before we get into it, I'll
give you a little background here. Saul, the former king of
Israel, he is dead. He's gone. David has been anointed
by God through Samuel to be king over all Israel and all Judah,
both kingdoms, the entire kingdom. He's king over all. And David
goes to the Lord and he says, should I go up to Judah? And
he says, yeah, go. They're going to receive you.
And so he goes to Judah and David says, I'm your king. And everybody
in Judah says, of course you are. We've always known that.
And they receive him as their king, Israel not so much. Israel's basically all the other
tribes. Israel's commanded by a man named Abner. Abner is Saul's
former second in command, the captain of his host. Now, I want
you to see down here in verse eight what Abner does. But Abner the son of Ner, captain
of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth. the son of Saul, and brought
him over to Manhattan. And listen to these words, this
is very important. And made him king over Gilead,
and over the Asherites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and
over Benjamin, and over all Israel. Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was 40
years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two
years. But the house of Judah followed David. Now, Under Saul's
court, Abner had a position of power, prestige, and influence. He's a powerful man over there.
He had Saul's ear. And this is the theme of Abner
during this entire story. Abner desperately does not want
David to be king. Why? Because he will lose control. Right now, for about five years,
Abner has had control of Israel, and he desperately wants to keep
on to that control. And truth be told, what Abner
actually wants, he wants to be king. He wants to maintain the
control that he has. That's not appropriate. No one
would sign off on that. It doesn't have the right name.
So he does the very next best thing. He installs a puppet king. He takes a man, Ishbosheth, Saul's
son. He's got the right name. And what we'll read about this
man as we go on, he's a weakling. He is absolutely terrified of
Abner, and he won't do anything unless Abner gives him the go-ahead.
This is the type of king that Abner wants. Abner made him a
king, and if you have the power to make a king, you are the king
yourself. A contention boils over. The
kingdom's divided. Everybody's on the brink of civil
war. So the army of Abner goes down to the pool of Gibeon. The
army of David, commanded by Joab, they go to the pool. Let's see
what happens. Look at verse 12. And Abner the son of Ner and
the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul went out from Manhannam
to Gibeon. And Joab the son of Zariah and
the servants of David went out and 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. Now, it seems
as if everybody's interested in negotiations up to this point.
Nobody wants a civil war. Nobody wants to hack their countrymen
to death. So Abner comes up with his army,
Joab comes up with his army, and everybody sits down. Let's
let cooler heads prevail. Let's have a conversation, see
if we can work this out. They have this pool between them.
There's a standoff distance there. Nobody can get heated and shove
a sword in the stomach of the guy standing across from him
and spark a battle. This is a very wise thing to do. But look at
what Abner does here. Look at verse 14. And Abner said
to Joab, let the young men now rise and play before us. And
Joab said, let them arise. Then there arose and went over
by number 12 of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishbosheth, the
son of Saul, and 12 of the servants of David. Now Abner proposes
play here, but it is anything but child's play. What he is
proposing here is gladiator-like combat. He is essentially saying,
Joab, I'm gonna send you my 12 best. I'm going to send the best
I have. Joab, you send your best, and
we're gonna have a little competition. We're going to see who has the
stronger warriors, the more skilled warriors, who's better. Give
us a little taste of what would happen if our two armies go to
war. And job's in a tight spot. If
he says no, Abner may take that as a sign of weakness. He may
march in his army and try to fight Joab's army, kick off a
civil war. And if he wins, if his men win the day, he may avoid
a war altogether. So a couple of his guys may get
hacked up in the process, but he may save many of his countrymen's
lives. It's a gamble, but Joab says, yeah, let's see where this
goes. Let them arise. Look what happens. Verse 16. Speaking of the 24,
and they caught everyone his fellow by the head and thrust
his sword in his fellow's side, so they fell down together, wherefore
that place was called Helcathazrim, a slippery place, which is in
Gibeon. The purpose of this competition
was very simple. We are going to have a competition
and we are going to find out who is best, who has the better
warriors, and at the end of this, what did they find? they found
that there was absolutely no difference between any of them.
They were all equally matched. And this was the end state of
Gibeon, the end state of this great competition. Everybody
who competed died. Now, the bloodshed from this
small skirmish kicks off a whole full-scale battle, full-blown
civil war. Armies of Abner crash with Joab's
army. But the Scriptures record that Joab's army is the victor.
He puts Abner and his army on the run. Look what happens, look
at verse 18. And there were three sons of
Zariah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel. And Asahel was as
light a foot as a wild roe. And Asahel pursued after Abner,
and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left
from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him and said, art
thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. And Abner
said to him, turn thee aside to the right hand or to the left,
and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his
armor. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him.
And Abner said again to Asahel, turn thee aside from following
me. Wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? How then
should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? Now, here we're
introduced to the hero of this entire story, this man named
Asahel. His name means God appointed
or God made. This is Joab's brother and that
makes him David's nephew. And this man's fast. He's fast
as a wild roe. Fast as a gazelle is what the
scripture records. And if you look through the first
Chronicles account of David's mighty men, he's mentioned there,
he's mentioned as a valiant man. He's strong, he's capable, he's
battle-tested. And he surveys the scene, he
steps out onto the battlefield, and his eyes fall on one man,
Abner. What was he thinking? There's the problem. There is
one reason that me and my countrymen are hacking each other to bits.
There is one reason that the kingdom is not reconciled unto
David. There is one problem on this battlefield. It's him right
there. And Asahel took off in single-minded purpose to take
care of the problem, to put down the problem for good. And he
wouldn't be dissuaded. Abner said, turn to the right
hand, turn to the left. Go after one of the younger warriors.
Kill him. Take his armor. Seek your victory.
Seek your glory with him. Just stop pursuing me. Asahel
would not be dissuaded. You're the problem. You have
to go down. And Abner, he's very confident.
Abner is an old, grizzled warrior. Many battles, very malicious,
very violent. And when I tell you his type
at the end of this, you'll recognize personally how old and grizzled
in experience he is. Asahel is chasing after Abner.
What happens here? Look at verse 23. Howbeit he
refused to turn aside, wherefore Abner with the hinder end of
the spear smote him under the fifth rib, 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 the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still. Now Isahel is faster than Abner.
He's gaining ground on him. He's going to take out the problem.
Abner sees him coming. He takes that spear that's in
his hand and he turns it backwards. He is not pointing the sharp
end of the spear. He is pointing the blunted end of the spear
towards him. And Isahel runs right in that spear. The spear
passes directly through him and comes back out the other side.
Now, I can only imagine how terrible it would be and how much trauma
would be involved being stabbed by the sharp end of a spear.
But I want you to consider the end of a mop or broom, that soft,
blunted edge going through you all the way through your body
and coming out the other side, the amount of trauma and devastation
that would cause. That's what that man experienced.
And here's what happened when Asahel fell down and died. That
battlefield stopped. Everybody who came to the place
where Asahel died stopped. Everybody stood in awe that this
wonderful, valiant warrior could die. Now, the pause in the battle
gives Abner the ability to flee. Joab essentially lets him get
away. He thought, we're in a civil war. I don't want to see any
of my countrymen die. I'm going to let them go, and
we'll see what happens tomorrow. And you would think this would
be the end of the battle, but this is just the beginning. The
scriptures record that there was long war between the house
of Saul and David, but it also records this, that David waxed
stronger and stronger and the house of Saul waxed weaker and
weaker. David's definitely going to win.
God's already set it out. He's God's appointed king. It
is just a matter of time. Now before we get to the end,
the conclusion, I want you to see an interaction between Ishbosheth
and Abner. I think it's very beneficial.
Look in chapter three, and I want you to look at verse six. This is Abner speaking to Ishbosheth.
And it came to pass while there was war between the house of
Saul and the house of David that Abner made himself strong for
the house of Saul. And Saul had a concubine whose
name was Ritzpah, the daughter of Ai. And Ishmael said to Abner,
wherefore hast thou gone unto my father's concubine? Then was
Abner very wroth for the words of Ishmael. of my dog's head,
which against Judah do show kindness this day unto the house of Saul
thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends, and have
not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou chargest
me today with a fault concerning this woman?" This is the one
time in scriptures that it's recorded that Ish-bosheth tried
to correct Abner. Remember Ish-bosheth, by name
at least, is the king. Abner is subordinate to him in
name only. Is this how you speak to your
king? How dare you hold me accountable? How dare you, you tell me that
I have done wrong. Apparently Abner was messing
around with one of Saul's former concubines. Eshbosheth didn't
like it. He says, look at everything I've
done for you. I put you on the throne, I protected your family
name, I protected you from David. Who are you to call me into account? Is this how a man talks to his
king? It is if he's the king that he's made. But Abner's gonna
show his hand here. He's going to reveal something
to us that he hasn't said up to this point. Look at verse
nine. This is Abner speaking to Ish-bosheth. He says, so do God to Abner,
and more also, except as the Lord hath sworn to David, even
so I do to him. to translate the kingdom from
the house of Saul and to set up the throne of David over Israel
and over Judah from Dan even to Beersheba and he could not
answer Abner a word again because he feared him. Abner says, that's
it, we're losing, I'm switching sides. I'm gonna go side with
David and he reveals something, something he has known the entire
time. He's known the entire time that David is God's rightful
king. He's known it from the very beginning.
He's known it this entire time. He went into this thing, this
rebellion, eyes wide open, knowing this is God's king. I'm warring
against God's king and God himself. And he did it anyways, because
he did not want to lose control. Now, Abner makes an attempt to
align himself with David. And you can read this later on
tonight for yourself if you want. But when you read the exchange,
I do not detect that Abner is sincere. He doesn't throw himself
at David's feet. He doesn't beg for mercy. He
doesn't say, David, I'm wrong. You do with me as you see fit.
That's not it at all. He tries to bargain. He comes
up and he says, listen, I got influence over here in Israel.
You want to be king, right? You make a treaty with me, be
at peace with me, spare me. I'll use my influence. I'll get
you what you want. I'll help you become king. You'll have
my cooperation. And David does something that's
very out of character for him. He agrees to this with terms. David
thought, being politically savvy, yeah, okay, he's got some cooperation.
I need to be king. We need to end this war. I'll
just sweep under the carpet everything as Abner has done. The insurrection,
the killing of Asa Hill, I'll just sweep that under the carpet
for the sake of having Abner's cooperation in making me king. Now, a thought on that while
we're here. If you want to know what God
is not like, what he's not like, he's not like what David is doing
here. absolutely no man's cooperation to be king. He is king. He rules
and He reigns, and we are going to talk about that here in a
minute. But He needs absolutely no cooperation from any man to
be king. One day every knee is going to
bow, and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the tune of the glory of God the Father. He is king. He doesn't need any man's cooperation
in being king. And here is another thing He
will not do. He is not going to sweep anything under the carpet.
He's not going to allow one sin to go unpunished. This is the
truth. Every sin that has ever been committed, never will be
committed, has either already been punished in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, or it will be punished in the person
of the man who committed that sin. But every sin will be punished
that he might maintain his title as a just God and a Savior. If you want to know what God
is not like, He is not like what David is doing right here. David may be willing to overlook
Abner's indiscretions, but there's somebody who won't. Joab, Asael's
brother. Look over here in verse 22. And behold, the servants of David
and Joab came from pursuing a troop and brought in a great spool
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 was with him were come, they told Joab, saying,
Abner, the son of Ner, came to the king, and he hath sent him
away, and he is gone in peace. Then Joab came to the king and
said, What is thou done? Behold, Abner came unto thee.
Why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is 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. Now as a man, Joab's wrong here.
He has no right to speak back to his king in this way, but
Joab is probably looking out for David's best interest here.
And he's probably right. Abner probably was a snake in
the grass. He was trying to buddy up to David, and as soon as he
got the opportunity to usurp David, he was going to. But like
I said, David is willing at this point to overlook Abner's indiscretions,
his sins, what he has done. But Joab can't because of Asahel. Look at verse 26. 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 in the gate
to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth
rib the same way Asahel died, that he died. for the blood of
Asahel, his brother. Now, once again, as a man, Joab
is wrong here. He is doing this without the
king's knowledge and without the king's consent. And if you
go on reading, what you find is David actually mourns for
Abner and he curses Joab and his entire house. That being
said, this is the single event, this putting down of Abner forever. You know what this leads to?
the complete reconciliation of the kingdom under David. All
of Israel comes to David and says, you're our king. We've
known it the entire time. All hail David, and the entire
kingdom is united under David once Abner has been put down
for good. Now, it's a lot of reading, and
that's a long story. Where's the gospel in all that?
Where's the truth in all that? Question. What's the natural
man like? You, me, every man, woman, and
child that's ever born in this world by nature, what are we
like? We are just like Abner. I hope that in this reading we
got three things about Abner. Number one, he knew the entire
time that David was the rightful king. He rebelled against David. He did not want him to be king.
Why? Because he didn't want to lose
control. So what did he do? He installed a puppet king. He
made himself a king, a weakling, one that could be manipulated,
one who would only do what he told him to do. And he said,
that's my king. The natural man is absolutely
no different all the way through the ages. Now I'm going to read
a little bit out of Romans chapter one. You can turn there if you
want, but I'm just going to read two scriptures. You can listen
if you want. The natural man has some understanding
of God, he's not completely ignorant to the things of God. This is
what Romans 1 verse 20 says, it says, for the invisible things
of him, speaking of God, from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, clearly, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse. Every man knows, what does our
pastor say every time? That God is. You can look out
at the creation right now. We're gonna drive home tonight
and we're gonna see those stars in the sky. And you consider
the vastness of this universe, the fact that you can set your
watch by that sun rising and that sun setting. You consider
your body right now and the intricacy of your body, the fact that right
now your heart is pumping blood and you're breathing and you
weren't even conscious of it until I brought it to your memory.
All that splendor declares what? Somebody made that. There in
fact is a Godhead, that means a divine one, a God. Somebody
who created all this. And if he is of eternal power,
power without beginning and power without end, that means he himself
is eternal. He always has been and he always
will be. And when you look at this creation,
you come to this conclusion, somebody very, very wise made
this. much wiser than I am." And someone very, very powerful
made this, much more powerful than I am because I'm not wise
enough or powerful enough to make all this. And what do we
see in that? That a natural pecking order
has been established. There is a God. He is wiser than
I am. He is more powerful than I am.
Therefore, he's king. He's up here. And where am I?
I am underneath him. I am subject to him. And what
is the natural man's response to that? It's rejection. He should seek him. We should
seek him to find out more about him, to find out what his expectation
and his purpose is for us, but we will not. And there's no excuse
for that. This is not a matter of misunderstanding.
Wasn't a matter of misunderstanding with Abner. Abner knew the entire
time that David was the rightful king. He had the right information.
He just darkened his own counsel. He did not like what he saw. Paul addresses that. Verse 21
he says, Because that when they knew God, they glorified him
not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. Everybody sees this, that there
is a natural pecking order. God is, he is king, I am below
him. When a man sees that, his countenance
is darkened, his understanding is darkened. He avoids what he
sees, his face is turned from what is clearly seen. Now the
question is this, who darkens that heart? Does a man darken
his heart? Does the Lord darken a man's
heart? Yes. You remember the Exodus? The
Lord's dealing with Pharaoh through Moses. Moses would go to Pharaoh. He'd say, let my people go. That's
what the Lord said. The Lord would rain down a plague on that
man every time he resisted. And every time Pharaoh noticed,
he saw very clearly, there's a pecking order here. God of
Israel, He is God. He has power over me. He's raining
down plagues. And it says interchangeably after
those conversations, Pharaoh hardened his heart. And sometimes
it will say, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Which one is
it? Yes, Pharaoh hardened his heart. He did not like what he
saw. He turned his imagination. He
turned his face from what could be clearly seen. And the Lord
hardened his heart. And I think this is beautiful.
I think the first person ever heard say this was Henry Mahan.
It is a marvelous statement. What does the Lord need to do
to harden a man's heart? Just leave him alone. Just not
intervene for that man. That's what grace is. That's
what mercy is. It is the Lord intervening on behalf of a person,
reaching out with that arm of sovereignty and omnipotence,
and grabbing him and drawing him to himself, stopping him
in his tracks. If the Lord's gonna harden a
man's heart, this is the only thing he needs to do, is just
leave that man alone to do what he naturally wants to do. There
is absolutely no excuse. And that rebellion, that natural
rebellion, it becomes more fierce, becomes more fiery when the true
picture is seen from the scriptures. It's not just that he is more
wise than I am. He's omniscient. All knowledge,
everything that there is to know is housed in one man. His name
is Jesus Christ. All knowledge is housed in Him.
There is nothing to be known that He does not know, because
He is the point of contact for everything. Everything flows
from Him. He is the beginning of all things.
It's not just that He is more powerful than I am, but He's
sovereign. Nebuchadnezzar saw that. He doeth according to His
will in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand. Nobody can stop Him,
or nobody can say unto Him, what doest thou? That's the God we're
dealing with. That's the God of the Bible.
And that rebellion gets more fierce when a man sees that. Why? Because of the implication.
The implication is this, the same one Abner saw. I don't have
any control. Salvation is out of my hands.
This is not a God that can be manipulated. This is not a God
who is scared of me, who I can tell him what to do and he responds
to me. I am a sinner in his hands and he can do with me as he sees
fit. That's the God of this Bible.
That's the God of this book. When a man sees that, he says,
no. No, that can't be God. And he darkens his imagination.
He darkens his heart. And what does he do? What did
Abner do? He made himself a king. What
does the natural man do? He makes himself a god. And those
idols take on different names and different forms all the way
through the generations, but they're always the same. They
always fit in this exact same box. He wants to help, and he
can, but you have to do the thing. There's something that he requires
of you. There's something you have to do. He can help. He wants
to. But you have to do the thing.
He responds to you. And you think of the Jesus Christ
that is preached from most pulpits tonight. What are his attributes
that men say he has? He loves everybody. He wants
to save everybody. You got to do your part. You've
got to enact your will. You have to do some sort of good
work to get his attention. He wants to save you. His hands
are tied. He just can't. He's a weakling. There's nothing
he can do. He makes himself a king because he's comfortable with
that God. Now, if a man is going to make
himself a king, he's going to make himself a God. What does
he have to do next? He's got to make himself a religion. That's
what we see at the Pool of Gibeon. That's exactly what's going on
there. Abner comes with his forces to the pool. Joab comes with
his forces. Abner says, I'm bringing my best. Joab, you bring your best. That's
salvation by works. Bring your best. Whatever you
want to offer up to God, whatever your best characteristics are,
your best works, your will, whatever it is, you bring your best, I'll
bring my best. And in man's religion, in salvation
by works, they have to change the standard. They can't use
God's standard for acceptance. Because what is that standard?
perfect righteousness, perfect holiness, and perfect sinlessness.
This is the truth. This is the honest truth. For
me to be accepted by God, for Him to say to you and me, well
done, my good and faithful servant. I have to be sinless as Jesus
Christ is sinless. I have to be holy as Jesus Christ
is holy. And I have to be righteous as Jesus Christ is righteous.
That's the standard. And a natural man says, no, we
can't use that standard. Because while the natural man
doesn't have any understanding that he is totally depraved,
that we are born that way. Totally unable, totally sinful,
totally depraved. He doesn't have any knowledge
of that. Everybody will agree, nobody's perfect. I have a conscience,
you have a conscience. Our conscience burns when we
do wrong. Everybody's felt that burn. Everybody agrees, all natural
men agree, nobody's perfect. So we can't use God's standards,
we have to change the standard. then becomes the standard? What
becomes the standard? I guess whichever one of us makes
the best vein showing in the flesh. Whichever one of us looks
like he at least has a lot of power over sin, and he's growing
in holiness and righteousness, I guess we'll use him as the
standard. And if a man can be the standard that means I can
be the standard. You can be the standard. Anybody
can be the standard. You know the Lord actually addressed
that in His ministry. This is Matthew 5.20, He's speaking
to these people. He said, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, I
don't want to be disrespectful in any way, but that is the understatement
of the century. Of course it had to exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. They didn't have any, but why
would he make this statement to these people? Because that's
the standard they were using. Well, these guys, I mean, you
can't even get close to them in the marketplace. They're too holy. They hold you
off. They look like they have a lot of power over sin. They're
growing in holiness. I guess we'll just use them as
the standard. The Lord was saying, that's not
the standard. These guys aren't righteous at all. They have no
righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only thing
I'll accept. That's it. That's the only one. But if we
have to change the standard and a man can be a standard, that
means you can be the standard and I can be the standard. And
that means we're in a competition. just like the Pool of Gibeon.
And what was the purpose of that competition? We're going to compete. We're going to hack each other
to bits, and we're going to find out who's stronger, who's better,
who's got more power. We'll compete. You bring your
best, I'll bring my best. We'll find out who's more pleasing
to God, and we'll find out one day who's gonna have the bigger
crown and glory, and who will have the bigger mansion, and
who will be whose servant in the kingdom of heaven. Just hacking
each other to bits. And here's what this religion
does not produce. It doesn't produce any salvation. It doesn't
produce any worship of God. This is the other thing it doesn't
produce. It doesn't produce any brotherly love whatsoever. No
care and concern for your brother. No gracious attitude. No merciful
character. Why? Why? What does it produce? Hate and
maliciousness to the guy sitting next to you because you're in
a competition. And the whole time you're just
hoping he falls so that you look better by comparison. That's
that religion. What was the purpose of Gibeon?
We're going to compete and we're going to find out who's better.
What did they find? At the end of that competition,
24 men went into that ring. Nobody came out. What did they
find, as far as who was better? They were all the same. And one
day, everybody's going to find this out. If the Lord saves us
here, we're going to know it right now. One day, everybody's
going to know this. Amongst men, there's no difference.
There's no reason to compete. We can't compete. This is what
Paul said, Romans 3.10. He says, as is written, there
is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good. No, not one, not one. Don't enter into this competition.
You don't have anything to fight with. You don't have any strength.
Everybody's the same. Claire, you said that. There's
no difference between men. That's the truth. In the eyes
of God, there is no difference between any man. We're all sinners.
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil and that continually. You can't take that two ways.
That's what he sees. That's the truth about all of
us. And what was the end state of Gibeon? What happened at that
pool? Everybody who competed died. And this is the warning
of this book. This exposes man's lie. This
is the warning. If you come to God on these grounds,
you bring your best. You want to enter this great
competition. This is your end state. You will die at the hand
of God himself. No salvation in that religion.
Now, if that's man, and that's man's lie, what's the truth? Truth is Asahel. Asahel means God appointed or
God made. This is God's appointed prophet,
priest, and king, Jesus Christ. That's who Asahel represents.
Hope there's three things you got about Asahel. He was a man
of single-minded purpose, and he wouldn't be dissuaded from
that purpose. Abner said, turn to the left hand or to the right.
Just leave me alone. Asahel, no, you're going down. He took the battlefield. He spied
out the problem. And he said, that problem is
going away. And I want you to listen to this. I thought this
was glorious when I saw it. Maybe you'll enjoy it, too. The
only reason that Abner is finally put down forever and the entire
kingdom is reconciled unto David is why? because Asahel died. David was going to let Abner
go, but the blood of Asahel cried to Joab and he could not let
him go. The reason Abner is put down
forever and the entire kingdom is reconciled unto David, there
is just one reason. It's because Asahel died. Our Lord is just like Esau. He's
a beautiful type right here, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a
man of single-minded purpose. God appointed him, appointed
him to a body. God became flesh and he dwelt among us, made of
a woman, made under the law. And he lived 33 years and he
lived in a single-minded purpose. He came here with one purpose,
just one. And we don't have to guess what
that was. He told his mom when he was 12
years old. She came looking for him. She said, where'd you go?
Where'd you go? Why would you do this to your
father and me? This is what she said. He said to her, how is
it that ye sought me? This was God speaking to her,
not a 12 year old boy. How is it you sought me? You
don't seek me, mom. I seek you. That's how this works.
This is what he said. Wish ye not that I must be about
my father's business. He was a man of single-minded
purpose his entire life, 33 years doing one thing and one thing
only, his father's business. And we don't have to wonder what
that business was. He tells us in John 6, 39, and
this is the father's will which is sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, that I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. He was simply reciting what happened
in that covenant of grace that took place before not one pillar
of this world was ever built. That's where the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they communed with themselves.
Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8, who will go for us? Who will be champion? And Christ said, I'll go, send
me. And Father said, this is the
task. I have a people. I love a particular people. You
love a particular people. The Holy Spirit, he loves a particular
people. Been with us for the generations. And I'm putting
them in the one place of safety. I'm putting them in the rock,
in the cleft of the rock, while I pass over. He handed them to
Christ. Where can they maintain? Where
can I put them that they will be safe throughout the eternities?
There's only one place. Send me. Send I. I'm your champion. And he gave them to Christ. And
he came to this earth with a single-minded purpose to save everybody his
father gave him. And he did exactly what his father
sent him to do. He took the battlefield, walked
onto the battlefield, and he spied out the problem. What was
his people's problem? This is the scripture Isaiah
59 to but your iniquities have separated between you and your
God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not
hear. What was the problem? What was
the wedge that kept the father from his people? There was a
wedge driven there. What was that problem? It was Abner. It
was our sin. God can have absolutely nothing
to do with sin. And Christ took the battlefield.
He said, it has to be taken away. It must go. And you think of
those 33 years, how much discouragement he saw along the way. Satan tempted
him for 40 days and 40 nights. He was just trying to find something
to work with. Is there anything in him that I can work with?
And you know what? He couldn't find one thing. Not a thing.
He just left him alone after 40 days because this was a holy
and perfect and righteous man that did no sin and knew no sin,
and there was nothing there to work with. And he tried a little
while later with Peter. He inhabited the body of Peter
after the Lord told the disciples that he would die and that he
would be raised again in the third day. And this is what Peter
said, he said, be it far from the Lord, this shall not be unto
thee. Satan said, I'll try again. Maybe
I can use flattery. Maybe there's some pride in there
I could work with. This is how he responded. Get thee behind
me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but then be of
men. Nobody down here is faithful
to my father, but I'm going to be faithful to my father. I'm
going to do what my father sent me to do. And I think the greatest
discouragement came at Gethsemane. Gethsemane, he took that cup
and he saw what was in the cup. He saw the sins of his people
and he saw what he would have to become. He would have to be
made those sins and stand in that sin and that shame before
his father. And he sweat great drops of blood and he said this,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, nevertheless,
although this heaviness is upon me, nevertheless, thy will be
done and not my will. I'm gonna do exactly what my
father sent me here to do. And he did just that. How can
Asahel be the savior, the hero, the champion of this story? Asahel
died, exactly. For he hath made him sin for
us, that knew no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness
of God in him. He went to that cross, bearing
the sins of his people, the wrath of God came down upon him. You
remember what happened in the story? That spear, That blunted
edge of that spear went through Asahel and went all the way out
and continued out and it was gone. It was gone. What is the
effect of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people?
Don't take my word for it. Listen to this. Psalm 103, 12,
as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. In a measurable distance, what
did the death of Christ do? It removed the sins and the transgressions
of his people far away. They're gone, never to be seen
again. First John 4, 10, here in his love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation. The sin removing sacrifice for
us. What did it do? His death removed
the sin. Finally this, Romans 5.10, for
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved
by his life. When Asahel died and Abner was
put down, what happened to the kingdom? Completely reconciled
under David. This is what the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ did for his people. It removed the wedge
and it reconciled all God's people back to the Father. That means
they are eternally secure. Nothing lacking, nothing needed
from them. Eternal redemption has been accomplished.
Things couldn't be any better for these people. Am I one of
them? It's a great question, right?
Look back in your text, 2 Samuel 2 verse 23. Second Samuel 2, 23. How be it he refused to turn
aside, wherefore Abner with the hinder unto the spear smote him
unto the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him. And
he fell down there and died in the same place. And it came to
pass that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down
and died. What did they do? They stood
still. Now when I'm brought to this
place and when the Lord brings his people, these people whom
he died for, to this place, to this message, the only way a
man can be saved, it's only for this one reason, is if Christ
bore that man's sins in his body, suffered the wrath of God for
him, and died for him, and put them away. That's the only thing
God will accept. And that is the only thing, that's
the only way a man can be saved. When I'm brought here, I stand
still there. I've got no place else to go.
The gods of this world, those impotent weaklings, they're not
going to do me any good. It's going to take a sovereign to save somebody like me. And
that great competition is not going to do me any good. I can't
compete. I don't have any strength. I don't have any ability. I can't
compete. I've got absolutely nothing to bring to the table.
The only thing I have, this is my only hope. This is it. is
that Jesus Christ died for me and he put away my sins and he
reconciled me to God. That's my only hope of getting
in. I don't know if I'm elect. I don't know about all these
other things. All I know is the only way I will be saved is if Christ
died for me. I stand still there and I cannot
move. I don't want to move. This is all I have. And folks,
that is called faith. That is the very evidence that
he died for you. Now that is a very interesting
story and the greater Asa Hill is beautiful. I'll leave you
there.