Now the next several chapters
are about David becoming king, not only of Judah, but of all
of Israel. And when you read these chapters,
I'd like you, if you have time in the next week, to read chapters
2, 3, and 4. The subject If you would look at it from
a worldly point of view, and I almost hesitate to say this,
but I'm not going to hesitate to say this because that's the
way it is. You see politics, you see power, and you see sex.
That's the subject of these next two or three chapters about David
ascending to the throne. You see Abner pulling all these
political power plays. You see Abner getting with Saul's
concubines. You see David doing these political
things. And it's just, it lets you know
that while everything looks chaotic, the Lord is on the throne and
his purpose is being done. And I'm so thankful for that
because you look at these chapters and what happens, it, it, it,
it makes you feel bad. I don't know how else to say
it, but, uh, let's, um, let's begin with prayer that
the Lord would bless us in this. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come into your presence in Christ's name. And we ask in
his name that you would be pleased to meet with us. Open your word
to us, reveal your son to us. May we be enabled to glory in
him and his cross and what he accomplished. Lord, we ask that
we would be allowed to be given a glimpse of his glory and of
his greatness. and we ask that you would enable
us to believe your gospel. Now, Lord, bless us for the Lord's
sake. In his name we pray, amen. We're gonna begin with verse
eight of chapter two. But Abner, the son of Ner, captain
of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and brought
him over to Mahanaim. Now Judah had anointed David
king. Abner did not want David to be
king. Now Abner knew that God had determined
for David to be king. Look in chapter three, verses 17 and 18. This is when
David or Abner has tried to get Israel, he's got rid of Ish-bosheth,
and now he's trying to get back on David's good side. Verse 17,
and Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying,
you sought for David in times past to be the king over you.
Now then do it, for the Lord has spoken of David, saying,
by the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel
out of the hand of the Philistines and out of the hand of their
enemies. Now, Abner knew that God had appointed David as king. But Abner didn't want David to
be king. He knew he was going to lose
his position. You know, he was the general of Saul's army. And
if David's king, he's going to be knocked down a notch. And
he was very upset with the thought of David being king. And so he's going to do what
he can to make sure it doesn't happen, even though he knows
better. He knows God has determined it. But regarding, we know that
all of this is given to picture the kingship and the lordship
of Christ, and the natural man has no love for the kingship
and lordship of Christ if they think they'll be the loser by
it. You see, Saul, I mean, Abner said, we'll not have this man
reign over us because he thought he would be demoted by this if
David was promoted. There's another group of people
who see their only hope is in Christ being sovereign king,
that he can command their salvation, that he's got the right to do
that. So you have two people, those who love his kingship,
those who despise his kingship. That's who Abner was. Now, look
in verse 18. Now, there were three sons of
Zeruriah there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. And Asahel was light
afoot as a wild roe. This man could really run fast.
Now, these three boys were David's sister's boys, and they all became
part of David's mighty men. They followed David. Joab, if
you go on reading through this, he became the general of his
army. And you'll remember what happened
beginning in verse 12 of chapter 2. We considered this last week.
And Abner, the son of Ner, the servants of Ishbosheth, the son
of Saul, went out from Mahanaham to Gibeon. And Joab, the son
of Zeuriah, and the servants of David, went out and met together
by the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down there, one
on the one side of the pool and the other on the other side of
the pool. And Abner said to Joab, notice Abner's the aggressor.
He's the one who gets this started. And Abner said to Joab, let the
young men now arise and play before us. I guess it was some
kind of athletic contest. And Joab said, let them arise.
Then there arose and went over by number 12 of Benjamin, which
pertained to Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and 12 of the servants
of David. And they caught every one, these
24 men fighting, 12 on each side, they caught every one his fellow
by the head and thrust his sword in his fellow's side so they
fell down together. All 24 of them died. Wherefore
the place was called Ahelkathazurim, which is in Gibeon. And there
was a very sore battle that day and Abner was beaten and the
men of Israel before the servants of David. Now you can see why
this battle began after these 12 people killed each other,
all of a sudden it started this fight. And that's where the three
sons of Zeri Uriah come in. Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. And Asahel was light a foot and
as wild as a roe, as a wild roe, he was fast as a deer. And Asahel
pursued after Abner. Now evidently Abner was They
were fleeing for their lives. The servants of David were winning
the battle, and Abner's running to get away. This is a retreat.
And Asahel pursued after Abner, and you can imagine that he knew
Abner was the problem, and he wanted to kill Abner. Abner brought
all this trouble and all this sorrow on, and he wanted to kill
Abner. Abner was a rebel. He was a rebel
against David, and he deserved to die. And Asahel pursued after
Abner, and in going, he turned not to the right hand nor to
the left from following Abner. He zeroed in on Abner. He was
going to try to kill him. Then Abner looked behind him
and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. And Abner
said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left,
and lay thee hold on one of the young men, one of these other
guys, and take his armor. But Asahel would not turn aside
from following of him. And Abner said again to Asael,
I can't imagine all this happening while they were running. But
he said, 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 he knew he could kill him.
He was a mighty warrior, Abner was. And he knew Asael was no
match for him, even though he could run fast. And he says,
turn to the side. I don't want to kill you. Because
I don't want to face your brother, Joab, after this. How could I
face him? I don't want to kill you. Now he's giving Asahel,
the opportunity to give up. 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. Asahel, in his misguided zeal
to destroy Abner, he loses his life for it. 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, stood still. They weren't expecting this.
And they see this mighty warrior, one of their main men, lying
there dead. And they just stood still and
looked. Joab and Abishai, they were Asahel's brothers, Two of
the three sons of Zeruriah, Joab also and Abishai, pursued after
Abner. And the sun went down when they
were come to the hill of Amaiah that lieth before Giah by the
way of the wilderness of Gibeon." Now they wanted vengeance for
their brother. They wanted to kill him. And you understand
that. Now, verse 25. And the children of Benjamin
gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop. All of a sudden he's given reserves
and they become one troop and they stood on the top of a hill.
David's men were at the bottom of the hill. Abner and all these
new recruits he has are at the top of the hill. Now who has
the military advantage? The fellas on the top of the
hill. He has the advantage and this stops the servants of David. And then verse 26, and then Abner
called to Joab and said, and this seems so hypocritical because
he's the one that started all this. But now he's trying to
put an end to it. And Abner called to Joab and
said, Shall the sword devour forever? Knowest thou not that
it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it
be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?
Now, like I said, this seems so hypocritical. He's the guy
that started all this. And it's his fault it all happened.
But now he says, says, how long y'all going to keep this up?
How long y'all going to keep following after your brethren,
this civil war that's going on. We're brethren. We're in the
same family. We're in the same company. We're
all under Israel. And we have this fighting going
on within. Verse 27. And Joab said, as God liveth,
unless thou had spoken, surely then in the morning the people
had gone up, everyone from following his brethren. It's because you
said this, that this is going to stop. Now, what I thought
about in this civil war between brethren, how horrible, how horrible
when there isn't unity between God's people. I don't know of
anything more terrible than that and yet it's something that happened
quite often in the New Testament. I can give so many examples because
here the thing that is what we're dealing with is we're dealing
with flesh. We're dealing with sinful men
and women. were dealing with flesh. So you
look at the conflict that took place early in the New Testament
with the early church. Remember, there was a fight because
they felt like the Jewish widows were being given preference over
the Gentile widows, and so there was a murmuring that went on
in the early church. Right? Somebody's not treating
somebody fairly, and somebody wasn't treating somebody fairly.
It was wrong. That happened between brethren. I think of Paul and
Barnabas in Acts chapter 15. They had that disagreement over
whether or not Mark got to go with them. And the scripture
says the contention became so sharp between Paul and Barnabas
that they departed asunder. And we don't read where they
ever got back together. Now, Paul ended up admitting
to being wrong because he said, bring Barnabas with, I mean,
Mark with me later on, for he's profitable to me for the ministry.
But the fact of the matter is there's this contention between
these two faithful And it's one of the saddest things that you
ever come across. Look at what happened in the
Church of Corinth. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. We'll get back here in a minute. When Abner says, how long should
brethren be pursuing one another and hurting one another. It is
totally, I mean, he was a hypocrite when he said that, but it is
totally wrong. Look here in first Corinthians chapter one, verse
10. Paul says to the church at Corinth, Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. For it has been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Cloas,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that everyone
saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas,
and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Are there
divisions within the body of Christ? No. No. Look what he says to him in chapter
three. He picks this up. He says, and I, brethren, could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ, I fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto
you were not able to bear it. Neither now are you able for
you're yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and
strife and divisions. Are you not carnal, and walk
as men? Look in chapter five, verse one.
He says to this church, now this is, the point I'm making is wherever
you have a local church, a local assembly, you got people who
ought to be at perfect union with one another, and you've
also got flesh, and you've got sinful individuals. I'm a sinner,
you're a sinner. It creates problems, doesn't
it? Look what he says to the church in verse one. It's reported
commonly that there's fornication among you, sexual immorality,
and such fornication as it's not so much named among the Gentiles
that a man should have his father's wife. Look in chapter six. Verse one. This was going on
in the Church of Corinth. Dare any of you, having a matter
against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the
saints? Now, what if somebody thought I did them wrong, then
they're going to take me to court over it that was a member of
this church? I'm going to sue you. I'm going to make sure you
lose everything you've got. Now, wouldn't that be a very
sad thing where someone, a believer, actually sued another believer? an unbelieving court to settle
the matter. He says, Do you not know that
the saints shall judge the world? And if the world be judged by
you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye
not that we shall judge angels? How much more then things that
pertain to this life If then you have judgments of things
pertaining to this life, set them to judge which are least
esteemed in the church. I speak this to your shame. Is
it so that there is not a wise man among you, not one that shall
be able to judge between the brethren? But brother goeth to
law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore
this is utterly a fault among you. Because you go to law with
one another. Why do you not rather take wrong?
Why don't you rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded and ripped off
rather than to bring such reproach on the gospel by doing this?
Look in chapter eight, verse nine. But take heed, lest by any means
this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to them that
are weak, to where you don't even care about your weaker brother.
For if any man see thee which has knowledge set at meat in
the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is
weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?
And through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish, for
whom Christ died?" Now it's not talking about him going to hell,
but it's talking about the the problems that it's caused because
his weak conscience is emboldened to do what you do and he's actually
going against his conscience and sinning when he does it.
And through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish for whom
Christ died, but when you sin so against the brethren and wound
their weak consciences, conscience, you sin against Christ. Wherefore
if meat make my brother offend, I'll eat no flesh while the world
stands lest I make my brother to offend. They were indifferent
here about the weaker brethren. If you read in chapter 11, you
can read where they were actually becoming intoxicated at the Lord's
table. That was going on there. If you
read in verses 12 through 14, you read of all the competition
that was going on because of the gifts. They were speaking
in tongues. They had that ability, that ability
to speak in other languages, and they were competing, speaking
in tongues at the same time, trying to one-up each other.
I mean, go into the Church of Galatia. He said that they were
going into legalism and he said, if you bite and devour one another,
take heed that you be not consumed one of another. Philippians,
you had the two women that were at odds and so on. And so the
point I want to make is how easily brethren can become at odds. How easily and how wrong. And
that's what, was going on in this passage of scripture. Now
look back in to our text in 2 Samuel. Verse 27. And Joab said, as God
liveth, unless thou had spoken, surely then in the morning the
people had gone up, everyone from following his brother. So
Joab blew a trumpet and all the people stood still. and pursued
after Israel no more. Neither fought they anymore. The fight was over, verse 29,
and Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain
and passed over Jordan and went through all Bithron and they
came to Mahanaim. We were introduced to this earlier
in the chapter and Mahanaim means Two people, two places, a company
of two places. That's what the word means by
definition, a company of two places. This is significant.
Now remember Abner is the bad guy. He represents the bad guy
and he goes to a place of two places. Verse 30, and Joab returned
from following Abner. And when he had gathered all
the people together, there lacked of David's servants nineteen
men and Asahel, but the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin
and of Abner's men, so that three hundred and threescore men died."
Now we have Abner going to Mahanaham, and we have David and his people
returning to Hebron. Look in verse 32. And they took
up Asahel and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which
was in Bethlehem and Joab and his men went all night and they
came to Hebron at the break of day. Now we have these two companies
going to two different places. One goes, I hope I'm pronouncing
it right, to Mahanaham, but it means two, two companies. And we have David and his men
going to Hebron. You know what that means? Unity. One association, one company. The bad guys, for lack of a better
word, I guess I'm labeling them, we're just as bad as he is, I
realize that, but the one who started this problem, he goes
to the place of two, and David and his servants, the men that
represented David, go to Hebron, the place of one. I've even heard
of churches called Hebron Fellowship and Hebron this and Hebron that,
and it's supposed to mean unity. Now here's the point. The truth, is always just one. Christ. Christ only. Grace only. Faith only. God's glory only. The truth is
always one. Error is always introduced by
one plus something. Christ and. Christ and, whatever,
fill in the blank, whatever you wanna call it. Christ and. Now Abner went back to the place
of two. David's servants went back to
the place of one. Now if there is civil war and
strife between brethren, one has been abandoned. Always. One has been abandoned. There are now other issues. Now, somebody is not seeking
Christ's glory when there is strife, there's self-interest
being sought. And that's so obvious to see
in Abner, particularly in the next chapter, when we see all
of his political maneuvering. trying to get this and get that.
I mean, it's unclean, all the things that take place with Abner.
But you know, Joab is just as ruthless. If you go on reading
about Joab in the next chapter, he is just as ruthless as Abner. But with these things in mind,
like I said, the comforting thing about all this is you see all
this horrible stuff taking place, particularly in Chapter 3. God's
purpose is still being done. You know, I think of all the,
how sick did you get over the bombing in Paris and the people
getting killed and all this horrible stuff taking place. And you just
think how, but you know, God is still on the throne controlling
ruling and reigning. And although we can't see good
coming out of any of this, I mean, this, this chapter three, it
just seems so chaotic. It seems so fleshly, it seems
so fleshly ambition, and yet David, in all this, David is
being made king. Look in chapter three, verse
one, now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house
of David, but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of
Saul waxed weaker and weaker. And that takes place, David becomes
the unified king. But with that in mind, I'd like
us to close by looking briefly at a few verses in Ephesians
chapter four. Ephesians chapter 4. This is
a chapter that we ought to have before us quite
often. Paul was writing from a Roman
prison and he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. I love
that. He doesn't say a prisoner of
Rome. He says a prisoner of the Lord. That's why I am where I
am. I beseech you that you walk worthy. of the vocation wherewith you
are called. Now I want you to think about
the calling the Lord has given you. When I think about the Lord
determining my salvation, me being united to Christ, me being
elect, me being saved by his grace, me being given his righteousness,
the difference the Lord has made with me. He saved me. There's
others, many who have been passed by and he saved me. Why me? Do you ever ask yourself that
question? I know you do. Why me? Why would he have such favor
on me? Now, this calling wherewith he's
called me, I want to work worthy of that calling. I want to glorify
him. This is what he's saying. I,
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. And what is this
worthy walk? With all humility, lowliness. I love what Calvin said. I know you've heard me say this
before. John Calvin was asked, what are the three most important
Christian graces? He said, first, humility. Second,
humility. Third, humility. Taking the lowest
seat. Esteeming others as better than
yourself. Better. Humility has a high view
of others and a low view of self. Humility is a just estimate of
yourself. A sinner saved by the grace of
God. First thing he mentions, humility. With meekness, meekness is an
attitude toward God that believes everything he does is right.
That's what meekness is. Whatever God does is right. Whatever
he sends my way is right. He's God. I trust him. That's what meekness is. And
long-suffering, long-tempered, forbearing one another, And that
word forbearing more than anything else means putting up with one
another. Putting up with one another. In love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now look
at the use of the word one. There's one body. There's one
church. The church of God's elect. The
general assembly and church of the firstborn whose names are
written in heaven. The spirits of just men made
perfect. That's what the scripture says about the church. There's
only one body. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ. One spirit,
God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the one body, even as
you're called in one hope of your calling. Now, I love the
clarity of this. There's one hope. Nothing to
get confused about. There's one hope. My hope is
that I belong to Christ and that he paid for my sins. That's the
only hope that I have. I don't hope because I'm a preacher
and I understand this and I understand that or because of anything.
No, my one hope, my only hope, and it's any believer's only
hope, is that Christ died for me. That's the only hope I have. There's one Lord. the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
who's revealed in scriptures. There's one faith, the faith
of God's elect. You know, all believers believe
the same thing. You know, that's comforting.
I would be scared if believers believe differently, but they
don't. You see, we've all had the same teacher. We're taught
the same thing. We have the same need. We need
Christ. Oh, how we need Christ. But there's
only One faith, that faith that looks to Christ alone, one baptism. Now, baptism is a huge issue
in the scripture. It doesn't save anybody. You're
not saved because you go under the water and come back up. But
the whole gospel is defined in this issue of baptism. In baptism,
here's what I'm confessing. Here's my only hope that when
he lived, I lived. When he died, I died with him. When he was
raised, I was raised. That's the one hope seen in baptism,
which is always by immersion. As a matter of fact, the word
baptism is not a translation. I think it's, uh, this shows
the weakness of all translations. It's called a transliteration.
Uh, the Greek word was baptized or baptizo or something like
that. And the fellas who were translating. the Bible didn't
want to translate it immersed because none of them are immersed
and were condemnable. So they decided, let's just go
ahead and keep it in the Greek word. And that's, that's, that's
not right. And that's a, that's a reason
to know that King James is my favorite translation. I have
no doubt it's the best translation, but it is a translation. You
know, some people have this King James only thing where they think
like the King James only is inspired. It's a translation. Only the
original is inspired. Now I love the King James Version,
but it just the one baptism, one immersion is the way it should
be said. One immersion. One God and father of all who's
above all and through all and in you all. Now here's, here's
the point. One. One. Dave and his servants
went back to Hebron. One. That's where I want to be,
don't you? Hebron. One. True unity. Abner, they
went to two. Two is always Christ and, and
may the Lord deliver us from Christ and. Now, like I said,
if you can, look over this third chapter of 2 Samuel before we
meet again. I know next week is our Bible
conference, which I'm very excited about, but that's an interesting
chapter and I hope it'll be helpful as we look at it together. Okay.