It feels good. Thank you. Michael, do I hang when you speak? I've never gotten too nervous
before. 90 seconds in it. A different team
than I used to see. That's that party guy. I kinda
like it. th th th th Good morning. We should turn
to 2 Samuel chapter 8. 2 Samuel chapter 8. And this is a very war-like chapter. I think you'll see that as we
read it. 2 Samuel chapter 8. And after this, it came to pass that David smote
the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Methagama out
of the hand of the Philistines And he smote Moab, and measured
them with a line, casting them down to the ground. Even with
two lines measured he, to put to death, and with one full line
to keep alive." Now, picture that in your mind. He put three
lines, he killed two, he spared one. And so the Moabites became
David's servants and brought gifts. And David smote also Hadiezer,
the son of Rehob, king of Zoba, as he went to recover his border
at the river Euphrates. And David took from him a thousand
chariots and 700 horsemen and 20,000 footmen. And David hoed,
I don't know howed, all the chariots. That means he hamstrung them.
He hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them
for a hundred chariots. And when the Syrians of Damascus
came to succor Hattie Azar, king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians
two and 20,000 men. Then David put garrisons in Syria
of Damascus and the Syrians became servants to David and brought
gifts. And the Lord preserved David
whether so ever he went. And David took the shields of
gold that were on the servants of Hattieazar and brought them
to Jerusalem. And from Bitha and from Be-rothi,
said he to Hattieazar, King David took exceeding much brass. When
Toai, king of Hamath, heard that David had smitten all the host
of Hattieazar, then Toai sent Joram, his son, unto King David
to salute him and to bless him, because he had fought against
Hattieazar and smitten him. For Hadiezer had wars with Toai,
and Joram brought with him vessels of silver and vessels of gold
and vessels of brass, which also King David did dedicate unto
the Lord, with the silver and the gold that he dedicated of
all the nations which he subdued, of Syria and of Moab and of the
children of Ammon, of the Philistines, of Amalek and the spoils of Hadiezer,
son of Rehob, king of Zobah. And David gave him a name. when
he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the Valley of Salt,
being 18,000 men. And he put garrisons in Edom,
throughout all of Edom put he garrisons. And to all they of
Edom became David's servants, and the Lord preserved David,
whether so ever he went." That was David's key to success. And
David reigned over all Israel. And David executed judgment and
justice unto all his people. And Joab the son of Zeruriah
was over the host. And Jehoshaphat the son of Ahudud
was recorder. And Zadok the son of Ahathub,
and Ahimelech, the son of Abathar, were the priests, and Saraiah
was the scribe, and Benaiah, the sons of Jehiadah, was over
the Cherorites. I can't say all these words.
You're all going to have to forgive me. I'll do my best. And Pelathites and David's sons
were chief rulers. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. And our desire is that his name
might be exalted. That we might be enabled to hear
from him. May we be found in him and Lord,
we thank you for his glory. And his greatness. And his salvation. Forgive us of our many sins for
his sake. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. As I said, this is a very war-like
chapter. All we read of is David smiting
his enemies, putting them to death. In verse 1, the Philistines
were smitten and subdued, and the mother city was taken, and
David had complete control. In verse 2, we read where David
made the Philistines to line up in separate lines, and then
he would to death two of the lines, and he would spare the
others. And that seems kind of harsh,
doesn't it? I mean, we read this passage of Scripture and we think,
what's going on? Is this a warlike and seemingly unmerciful In verses
3 and 4, we read where he smote someone, a king, and retook what
was rightfully his. He recovered the border. In verses
5 and 6, we read what he did to the Syrians. And it says that
the Lord preserved him wherever he went. And then in verses 7
and 8, we read of the accumulation of all this wealth, the brass,
the silver, the gold. And he was getting all this for
the temple, but he was accumulating so much wealth during this time.
And then we read of Toai, who saw that David could not be defeated,
and he asked for mercy. He asked for peace. He didn't want to fight him.
He was grateful for what he did with his enemies. And then in
verses 12 and 13, David achieved for himself a name. 1 Chronicles
14.7 says, the fame of David went out into all the lands.
And the Lord brought the fear of him on all nations. Now I
want you to think about this. This is the conquest of David
to where he actually became the most powerful man in the world. He was the king of the world
at this time, not just Israel. He was the most powerful man
in the world and all of his enemies were defeated. And he set up
garrisons to keep the land subdued that he had conquered. And the
scripture says, the Lord preserved David wherever He went, or the
Lord saved David wherever he went. Now the secret to David's
success was what? The Lord. If God be for us, who
can be against us? Now, This chapter of David's conquest,
chapter 8 of 2 Samuel, is in between 2 Samuel 7 and 2 Samuel
9. Some might say, well, that's
brilliant. 8 is generally in between 7 and
9, but here's the point. There's a point behind this. In chapter 7, God promised David
the Messiah would come through his loins. In chapter nine, we
have the beautiful story of Mephibosheth, what God would do for Christ's
sake. And chapter eight is about all
the conquests he made in order to get to the place where he
could say, is there any of the house of Saul that I can show
the kindness of God to for Jonathan's sake? That's how that starts. And the only way that can happen
is if he gets all these conquests which indeed he did, chapter
eight, is about him subduing the entire civilized world to
himself at that time. And I think that's so powerful.
The Lord brought the fear of David on every nation. Everybody
was afraid of David because of his power and his military conquests,
and it's because of what the Lord did for him. Now, verse
one, And after this, it came to pass that David smoked the
Philistines and subdued them. And David took Meth-eg-am-muh
out of the hand of the Philistines. And that word literally means
the mother city. David bridled the mother city. That's what it means. He bridled
them. He took control of the mother city of the Philistines. Now, isn't that what happens
when God saves somebody? The new man bridles the old man. Now the old man's still there,
but the new man bridles the old man so that you cannot do the
things that you would. Thank God for that. He bridled
the mother city. And then this is almost scary,
verse two. And he smoked Moab and measured
them with a line, casting them down to the ground. Even with
two lines measured he to put to death and with one full line
to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David's
servants and brought gifts. They brought him tribute is what
that means. They started being taxed. Now, this seems harsh,
doesn't it? Three lines of many men. In two of the lines, he kills
everybody. And one of the lines, he spares them, and they become
his servants. Now, what am I going to say about
that? This is a demonstration of God's
sovereignty. He saves whom he will. He passes
by whom he will. David chose to slay two-thirds
of these people. Now, before somebody says, how
could that be right? The Moabites deserved death.
The Moabites were enemies. As a matter of fact, this was
prophesied that this would take place in Numbers chapter 24.
A star shall arise out of Israel, a scepter, and shall smite the
corners of Moab, which is speaking, first of all, of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We know that. He's the star. But it's also
talking about King David. It was prophesied that this would
take place. And before anybody gets upset
and says, why was he so harsh? Whenever I say something like
that or even think something like that, what I'm saying is
I'm more merciful than God. God's merciful. God's just. The Moabites that died deserved
to die. They were enemies of God. They
were wicked men. They deserved to die. God, in
His mercy, spared a bunch of them and made them servants.
And whenever I have a problem with God's sovereignty, why didn't
He just save everybody? I said this recently. If salvation
were up to you or me, nobody'd be saving me. Now I can say I'd
be merciful. I can say, oh, I'd save everybody.
But after you've sinned against me 1,000 times, 2,000 times,
at one point I would lose patience. I'd say, no. Thank the Lord he's
not like that. His mercy is continual and his
grace is continual. So David demonstrates is a picture
of the sovereignty of God and salvation. He made these wicked
Moabites that he spared, he made them servants and they gave gifts. And what a blessing that was
to them. Verse three, David smote also Hattiezer, the son of Rehob,
king of Zoas. He went to recover the border
as river of Euphrates. He took what he had come into
it. They had taken this and he took
it back over. And David took from him a thousand
chariots and 700 horsemen and 20,000 footmen. And David hamstrung
all the chariot horses. What that means, I guess he cut
their Achilles heel or something like that, but he made it to
where they could not be used in war anymore. He didn't take
them for himself. Now, if I were David, I would
have said, well, I'm going to use these horses for myself and
I'm going to put them in my army. That's the way I would have taken
them, but not David. He put it to where they couldn't fight
anymore. Now, what does that tell us?
Do you know David was actually obeying a commandment of God
in doing that? Turn with me for a moment to
Deuteronomy. Chapter 17. Or 16, Deuteronomy 16. Beginning in verse 14. I'm sorry, 17 chapter 17, verse
14. When thou art come into the land,
which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shall possess it and
shall dwell therein and shall say, I will set a King over me.
Like as all the nations that are about me. The Lord told them
they were going to do this. You remember when they asked
for Saul? He said, this is what's going to happen. You're going
to ask for this king. Thou shalt in any wise set him king over
thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose, one from among thy brethren
shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger
over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses
to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end
that he should multiply horses. For as much as the Lord has said
unto you, you shall henceforth return no more that way." Here's
the point. The king is not allowed to trust
in horses and chariots and armies and military might. That's why
he was not allowed to multiply horses to himself. Now, if I
was David, I would think I would hear a thousand chariots. Look
how I can take these and make my army so powerful. But he was
not allowed to do that. How come? Proverbs 20 verse 7
says, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will
remember the name of the Lord our God. Now, I think this is,
I want to say this carefully, but I think this is so glorious.
The Lord hamstrings us and he makes it to where we can't look
anywhere but Christ. We don't have any other options.
The only place we have to look is Christ. We can't look to our
might, our military might, our works. We're not allowed to look
anywhere. The Lord fixes us to where we
can't look anywhere but Christ. And that's what David is doing
this time. He's not gonna take these many horses to try to increase
his army and increase his military might. No, he makes it to where
they can't be used for that. Turn with me for a moment to
Psalm 33. Psalm 33. Beginning in verse 16. There is no king saved by the
multitude of an host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety,
neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him." Now what is the
fear of God? The fear of God is what creates
a fear of sin. That's why we're afraid of sin.
The fear of God And the fear of God makes me afraid to look
anywhere but Christ alone. I'm afraid to look to myself
in any way. I know myself. We look to Christ
alone. Now let's go on reading. Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that
hope. Hope is a confident expectation
with regard to the future. Upon them that hope in what?
In His mercy. In His mercy. That's my only
hope. It's found in His mercy. Oh, Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. That's the believer's hope. To
deliver their soul, verse 19, to deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in
him, because we've trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. Now all my hope, all the hope
of every believer is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not me, in him. And let our hope be upon, let
your mercy be upon us according as we hope in thee. Is all your
hope in Christ? Now you can answer that question.
Are you looking to yourself or are you looking to Christ only?
If all your hope is in Christ, His mercy is upon you. What a
blessed thought. Now go back to 2 Samuel chapter
7, I mean chapter 8. Verse 5, And when the Syrians
of Damascus came to succor Hadesar, king of Zoba, David slew of the
Syrians two and twenty thousand men, and he put garrisons in
Syria of Damascus. And the Syrians became servants
to David and brought gifts. They paid tribute. And the Lord
preserved David, whether so ever he went. Look in Verse 14, and he put garrisons
in Edom. Threw out all Edom, put in garrisons.
And all they of Edom became David's servants, and the Lord preserved
David whether so ever he went. Now what about this thing of
garrisons? Garrisons were military outposts. They were military
outposts of Israel where he put in all these different countries
to make sure they stayed in line. Because if he didn't have these
garrisons in these countries, they would rise up, they'd rebel,
they wouldn't do what he said to do. Now, aren't you thankful
for the garrison of God the Holy Spirit in you? Aren't you thankful for the garrison
of the new nature he's put in you? What would happen if you
didn't have that garrison? What would happen to you if God
didn't put that outpost in your heart? You'd be as bad as the
devil, wouldn't you? No question about it, I'd be
as bad as the devil. And the only thing that preserves
me is the garrison he's put within. The garrison of God the Holy
Spirit. The garrison of a new heart and
a new nature in that old rebellious man that keeps us in. Thank God for that. And look
how it says, The Lord, it says this twice, both in six and verse
14, the Lord preserved David, whether so ever he went, the
Lord preserved David. And that's the word that's generally
translated saved. The Lord saved David, whether
so ever he went. Now, salvation is of the Lord. And the reason David was so successful
in all these military conquests is because the Lord was with
him and the Lord saved him and the Lord preserved him wherever
he went. And isn't that a wonderful thing
to think about the Lord preserving me wherever I go, whatever I
do, the Lord's hands on me. This is true of every believer.
The Lord's hands on me, whether I'm aware of it and when I'm
not aware of it, which is most of the time. The Lord's hand
is on me. If God be for us, who can be
against us? That's why David won. And this
is bringing him to the point to where he can show mercy to
Jonathan. Because of these conquests, he
becomes the most powerful man in the world. Verse 8, and from
Beta and from Berothi, cities of Hattiezer, King David took
exceeding much brass. Now, this is interesting. You'll remember, David said,
I want to build you a temple. The Lord said, no, you're not going
to build me a temple. You're a bloody man. It's going to be
your son that builds my temple, which pictures the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking of Solomon, but
it's the Lord Jesus Christ that builds the temple of God. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ that makes the church. and he said, you're
not going to do it, you're a bloody man, your son's going to do it,
but David was allowed to take in much brass and much gold and
much silver and Solomon would make the temple. And it was made
of gold and silver and just all this stuff came for the building
of the temple and David was allowed to collect all this. Now, verse
9, when Toai King of Hama heard that David had smitten all the
hosts of Hattiezer. Then Toa sent Joram his son unto
David to salute him. And my marginal reading says
to ask him for peace. To ask him for peace, to look
for, I can't fight you, I know that, I would be destroyed. And
to bless him. And that word bless means to
kneel before him. Now, when this Toa, he had some
God-given wisdom. He knew he could not possibly
defeat David. David would destroy him. David
was the king of the world. David had complete control. And
he knew he couldn't stand before him. So what did he do? He kneeled
before him and said, let us be at peace. It's up to you. I know
I can't do anything to make this peace. Would you be at peace
with me for Christ's sake? And he kneeled before him. Now
that's what anyone does who has any spiritual understanding at
all with regard to the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
people all over the world, won't you accept Jesus? Won't you let
Jesus have His way? Won't you accept Him as your
personal Savior? And all that foolishness. That's all it is.
It's foolishness. You don't come into the King
of Kings saying, I'm going to accept you. No way. You don't
come to the King of Kings like that. You come kneeling before
Him. He's the Lord. He's the King.
And I'm seeking peace from Him. Oh, would you be at peace with
me for Christ's sake? Would you make my peace for me? Having made peace, the scripture
says, by the blood of His cross. Now this is the way somebody
comes to Him. They come seeking peace and they kneel before Him.
Verse 11, which also King David did dedicate unto the Lord, this
silver he got with the silver and the gold, which he dedicated
of all nations, which he subdued. He took all this stuff they gave
him and he dedicated it to the Lord for the building of the
temple. Syria and of Moab and of the children of Ammon and
of the Philistines and of the Amalek and of the spoil of Hattie
Azar, son of Rehob, king of Zola. He had all this vast riches and
look what verse 13 says, and David got him a name. When he
returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt
being 18,000, David got him a name. You know what that means? David
got all the glory. David became the most feared
man upon the earth at this time. He subdued everybody. Now understand
this. The Lord Jesus Christ does what
he does for his own glory. He gets himself a name. He's got that name that's above
every name. And if anybody else was seeking
to get themselves a name, you know what it would be? It'd be
wicked. It'd be wrong. But when he seeks to give himself
a name, it's totally different, isn't it? Because of who he is.
For him to act with less of a motive than his own glory would be wrong
on his part because of who he is. He's the son of God. He's
the God-man. And he does what he does for
his own glory. And you know, an unbeliever can't
understand this, but a believer cannot stomach any teaching or
preaching that doesn't give him all the glory. That's just the
way it is. He got him a name. Verse 14, and he put garrisons
in Edom. Throughout all Edom put he garrisons. Oh, I'm so thankful for his garrisons.
And all they of Edom became David's servants. And the Lord preserved
David, saved David, whether so ever he went. Now look at verse
15. And David reigned. over all Israel, the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, someone who
loves his reign and his sovereignty is Israel. Israel, God's people. They love, Lord reign over me. Let your grace reign over me.
Cause me to do your will. Every believer rejoices in the
reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And David reigned over all Israel.
Look what David did. And David executed judgment and
justice unto all his people. Now, what a commendation of the
kingship of David. He executed judgment and justice
to all his people. Now, what kind of king would that
be? That's the best kind of king there is, isn't it? But here's
the point behind this. This isn't just that he treated
everybody fairly, although he did. And this is talking about
justification, really. Justification. That's the execution
of justice and judgment. Every child of God is justified
before God. This is what he does to every
believer. He justifies them and he executes
justice and judgment. Now, listen real carefully. When I am brought into heaven,
God is going to be giving me exactly what I deserve. That's hard to say that, isn't
it? That's hard to say that. But
here is the point. The work of Christ on my behalf
made it to where I am without guilt before God. And God's going
to say to me and every other believer that has had their sins
put away and has been given the very righteousness of Christ
as their righteousness before God, He's gonna say, well done,
thou good and faithful servant. And you're thinking, how could
he say that to me? I know how he could say it to me because
of what Christ did on my behalf. It's so real that I am, every
believer is, the very righteousness of God in him. Now what a glorious
thought. And so he executes justice and
judgment. And I'm gonna be brought into
heaven because I deserve to be. That's how real the work of Christ
is as a substitute for his people. He really became what I am on
the cross. And when God punished him, it's
because he deserved to be punished. My sin became his sin. God wouldn't,
now think about this, God wouldn't have punished him if he didn't
deserve it, would he? God's just, God's holy, God's righteous.
He'll only do that which is just and right. And when Christ was
punished, God was giving him what he deserved because my sin
literally, actually became his sin so that he was guilty of
it. And his righteousness, his perfect obedience, literally
becomes my personal righteousness before God. Surely shall one
say, said Isaiah, surely shall one say, in the Lord, have I
righteousness, and in the Lord have I strength." That's the
confession of every believer. And our David, the Son of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He executes justice and judgment for all
His people. And that's why it's so secure.
That's why salvation is so sure. Because of the justice of our
great Son of David. Verse 16, Joab, the son of Zeruiah,
was over his host. He was his main general. And
Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was his recorder. You know, I
practiced reading these things so I could read them right. I
never can. I'm sorry. And Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
and Ahimelech, the son of Abathar, were the priests, and Saraiah
was the scribe, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over
both the Cherithites and the Perithites, and David's sons
were chief rulers. Now, he's the most powerful man
in the world. Now look what he says next. And
David said, Is there yet any that's left of the house of Saul,
my enemy, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake. Now, because of the triumphs
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father says, is there any
of the house of Adam that I can show the kindness of God to for
Christ's sake? Now, this warlike chapter, I
think it's interesting. This is one of the people, the
Old Testament God was different back then, and the God of the
New Testament's a God of love, the God of the Old Testament
was a mean God, a God of wrath, and so on. And they'll come up
with all those foolish arguments. Remember, the Bible, everything
in the Old Testament, everything, is given to illustrate the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And this warlike
chapter, is simply given to demonstrate to us how the Lord was the aggressor. He went after, when He came to
this earth, He came with this purpose, to save His people from
their sins and to defeat all their enemies. And that's exactly
what He accomplished. And oh, how we love His reign
over us in justice and judgment. We'll pick up in chapter 9 next
week, Lord willing.