Let us turn tonight to 2 Samuel
chapter 21. 2 Samuel chapter 21 and beginning
with verse 15. Moreover, the Philistines had
yet war again with Israel. And David went down, and his
servants with him, and fought against the Philistines, and
David waxed faint. And Ishmael, which was of the
sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three
hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword,
thought to have slain David. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah,
succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men
of David swear unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with
us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. And
it came to pass after this that there was again a battle with
the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibachai, the Hushite, slew
Zaph, which was of the sons of the giant. And there was again
a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jerijim,
a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the
staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was
yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, and had
on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four
and 20 in number, and he also was born to the giant. And when
he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, the brother of
David, slew him. These four were born to the giant
in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and the hand of his
servants." We looked at the first 14 verses in this chapter last
time, and I thought about skipping over these last verses, but no,
I believe that the Lord would have me to preach from them tonight.
I entitled the message, Continuous Battles. In these verses that
I've just read, we see the defeat of four giants of the Philistines. And if you notice in that last
verse, in verse 22, we read that they fell. These four were born
to the giant in Gath and fell, that is all four of them fell
by the hand of David. and by the hand of his servants."
Now to understand that verse, we must see that David was the
one who killed this first giant that is mentioned, Ish-ba-bin-Ab. Abishai assisted him. Abishai
assisted him, but David delivered the death blow to this giant.
And these four that are named were not the sons of Goliath,
the giant that David killed when he first came on the scene, but
one of these men was a brother to Goliath. And they were all
born sons of the giant, the sons of Anak. I don't know if you
remember, but when the nation of Israel was in the wilderness,
Moses allowed 12 men, he sent 12 men into the land of Canaan
to spy out the land. And the 10 that came back with
an evil report and discouraged the nation and caused them in
unbelief to have to spend 40 years in the wilderness. But
part of the evil report that they brought back was They're
sons of Anik there. In other words, there were men
that were considered to be giants, giants in the land. And after
all these years now, 430 years, I believe, when the judges ruled,
and now after Saul's reign and David's reign, because it's coming
to the end, his reign, that there were still giants among the Philistines
in the land that God had given to the nation of Israel. And I have three lessons for
us from these verses tonight. First, I want you to notice the
word again. Again, we see it in verse 15,
18, 19, and then the word yet in verse 20. But in verse 15,
we read, moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel. And then in verse 18, and it
came to pass after this that there was again a battle with
the Philistines. And then verse 19, and there
was again a battle in Gob. And then in verse 20, and there
was yet a battle in Gath. We could only guess tonight how
many battles had taken place in the life of David. How many
times that he had gone out to battle since that first time
that he slew Goliath. Yet here we are told of many
others in the end of his life. He's an older man now. And I
just wanted to let this be a reminder to every child of God, every
one of us tonight who know Christ as our Lord and Savior, that
as long As we are in this world, we are always in enemy territory,
always. We see that again, again, again,
yet the Philistines continue to battle with the nation of
Israel. And God's people in this world,
we've heard this so many times, but I hope it registers with
us that we have three enemies and they're real enemies. They're
real enemies. These are not bugaboos or anything
like that. They're not scarecrows to try
to scare God's people. But we have the enemy, of course,
of the world and Satan and the flesh, that is our old nature. We'll always have these three
enemies to contend with. I was trying to remember, I believe
it was John Knox. You know, John Knox was a great
reformer in Scotland. But on his deathbed, he evidently
was in some type of a coma for a while and then he revived.
and was able to speak to those around him. And he made this
comment, he said, I've just fought the greatest battle of my life. On his deathbed, I've just fought
the greatest battle of my life, spiritual battle. And what was
it? What was it? Well, he said that
Satan tempted him to trust in his works. You're the great John
Knox, and look how God has used you. Look how he's used you in
bringing reformation into Scotland, tempting him to trust in himself,
to look away from Christ and trust in his own works. The greatest
battle he's had in my life I've just experienced. We still have
the old man. Even though we, if we are his
children tonight, we have been regenerated. We've been quickened
and you hath quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. We've been quickened. We've been
regenerated. We've been resurrected. And yet
we still have that old nature. We've been given a new nature,
but we still have that old nature. In fact, the apostle Peter tells
us in his second epistle that we have become partakers of the
divine nature, partakers of the divine nature. That doesn't mean
that every child of God has a little part of the divine essence of
God, that God is somehow divided up and we receive a little particle
of that divine nature and so we become in essence our gods,
little gods in ourselves. Some people have taught that,
but that's not what Peter is saying at all. He's talking about
the fact that we have received a new man. A new man, completely
new. When we came into this world,
and that's the reason he's called an old man, is because he is
as old as we are. At our conception, that original
sin, which we received from our father Adam, and it was given
down to us through our fathers, that he's as old as we are, the
old man, the flesh. But also, thank God, we have
a new man. And this new man, according to
Paul in Ephesians, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now, when you think about that,
remember that when Adam was created, he was created in the image of
God. not his physical body, that's
not what that has reference to, but that moral image of God, righteousness and
true holiness. We lost that when our father
Adam sinned. We know that sin entered into
the world. Look with me and keep your places
here, but turn with me to Galatians chapter five. In Galatians chapter 5, at verse
17, the apostle says, for the flesh,
what do we say that is? That old nature, that old man.
For the flesh lusteth against the spirit. What is that? That's
that new man. That new man that is created
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, his spiritual For the
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary the one to
the other. And they always will be. They
always will. It's kind of like trying to mix
water and gasoline. It's not gonna happen. It's not
gonna mix. And in every child of God, we
have these two principles or natures, and there's always going
to be a conflict. There's always going to be. And
if a person doesn't have that, then that's pretty good indication
he's never received a new nature. But this new nature, as Paul
refers here, is the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh. These are contrary to one another. so that you cannot do the things
that you would. Now that's true of both the flesh
and the spirit, isn't it? The flesh, if it had its way,
it would do nothing but sin. But it cannot. Why? And if the
spirit had its way, this new principle, this new man, it would
never sin. So neither one, the flesh nor
the spirit, will always have their way. There will always
be that conflict. Well, saying this is true, Paul
declares it so, what advice does he give us? What does he teach
us? How are we then to deal with this? Well, look at the verse
before that, in verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
spirit, And you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now what
does that mean, walk in the Spirit? Well, I'm sure there's many things
it means, but I would just think of it as meaning this, walk in
the Spirit. The Word of God, which we have
in our hands, is a product of the inspiration of God the Holy
Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, this should
be our guide. This should direct our steps,
the word of God. So that's part of walking in
the spirit. We study the word of God. We
search the scriptures that we might learn how to glorify God,
how to live for his glory, and then walk in the graces of the
spirit. If you look down further in the
chapter where he tells us the fruit of the spirit is love.
This is a way to walk in the spirit, isn't it? And there's
a wonderful verse in the Gospels where the Lord Jesus Christ said,
how much more, if you being evil, you're familiar with this verse.
You pray it, I pray it all the time. If you being evil know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
him? We ask for his. Presence, don't
we? His power, His anointing, His
filling. Yes, that the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
Walk in the Spirit. Let these be manifest in our
life through the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Walk in all
lowliness. One of the first signs of growth
in grace is growing in humility. They go together. When we grow
in grace and knowledge of the Lord, we're going to grow in
humility. And I think of the blessed man
in Psalms 1, the way he is described, and I know that is speaking especially
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is a blessed man, but he's
a model for us. And it begins like this, blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Walk
in the spirit. Don't walk in the counsel of
the ungodly. We look to the word of God. We
look to God as our counselor. We're not looking to the world
and the philosophers and the psychiatrists and psychologists
of this world to show us how we are to live. And I'm not speaking
evil of those people, but God's people, we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as our counselor. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly. We don't take our counsel from
this world. And he goes on, nor standeth
in the way of sinners. And remember this, evil companions
corrupt good manners. And it does matter who we spend
our time with. It does. If a person who spends
their time with lost people, more time with lost people than
they do with God's people, it's going to rub off. It is. You can't change that. and the
last thing nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Some people
are just, they're so scornful, aren't they? They're so negative
about everything and about everyone. No, those people stay away from. Stay away from so it doesn't
rub off on us. I used Arthur Pink's illustration
a couple of weeks ago in a message And this was his illustration,
I'll give it to us again. He said that Satan tempting the
Lord Jesus Christ was like striking a match and throwing it into
a barrel of water. Satan tempting the Lord Jesus
Christ. Satan tempting you and tempting
me is like striking a match and throwing it into a barrel of
gunpowder. No, our Lord said, the prince
of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me. There was nothing
in him to answer to Satan's temptation, but there is in us. We have these
enemies. As long as we are in this world,
we're going to have these three enemies. And we see this concerning
the David and the nation of Israel at this time. Again, and again,
and again, these enemies came and joined them in battle. In John Bunyan's allegory, I
don't know if you've ever read his allegory, The Holy War. Most people have read Pilgrim's
Progress, and that's certainly a wonderful book, and so is this
one, The Holy War. But in this allegory, he pictures
man so like a castle. like a castle, in which Satan
attempts to enter and live into that mansion that is in the heart
of man. And he's got several gates, he's
got five gates into man's soul. And they're the five senses.
There's the ear gate, the eye gate, the nose gate, the mouth
gate, the feel gate. And all of these gates Satan
uses And I was thinking about the eye and ear gate especially,
what we see, what we watch. David in one of the Psalms said,
Psalm 101 verse three, he said, I will set no wicked thing before
mine eyes. What we see, what we take into
our mind through the eye gate, is it clean? Is it pure? You
know, you look there in Philippians where Paul lists those various
things. Think on these things. And the same thing about the
ear gate, what we take in through the ear. Well, that's the first
point. The second point, I want you
to notice back here in our text, the word succored in verse 17. And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah,
surrounded, suckered him and smoked the philistine and killed
him. Now, the last battle that we
read up before this battle in which Israel was engaged was
that battle with Absalom. And you remember in that battle,
David wanted to go. He wanted to go out with his
soldiers, but they said, no, no, you're not going to go. They
convinced him not to go that time. But this time, and he's
older now than he was then, this time, I guess he had a stubborn
streak in him like some of us men have. He went to battle. He went out to battle. Matthew
Henry said he was older, but not indolent. In Psalm 71 and
verse nine, David prayed this. cast me not off in the time of
old age, and forsake me not when my strength faileth." Well, we
see that prayer was answered here in this situation. He waxed faint because he was
older, and the battle would take the strength away from him. But
this man, Abishai, suckered him. I was talking to my wife, Pat,
yesterday, I believe it was, about this man named Abishai. You know, he was Joab's brother.
Joab was an evil, wicked man. But this man was loyal to David. Now, on three occasions, he wanted
to kill three different men, and David wouldn't let him. But
in every one of those cases, it was because They were David's
enemies. Two times when they came upon
Saul, once in a cave and once when he was asleep on the ground,
when this man said, let me, let me nail him to the ground. Why would he want to do that?
Because Saul was seeking David's life. And then when David was
fleeing from Absalom, there was this man by the name of Shimei.
Remember the, came out there and threw rocks at him and cursed
him. Let me go over and take his head
off. No, no. He was a loyal person. He was one of the three worthies. As you read on through the scriptures,
you see that David had various echelons, I guess you'd call
them, or levels of warriors. And this man was in the second
group of the three worthies, this man. Abishai. And I was speaking to my wife
about it. And she said, Was he one of those
three men that broke through the line of the Philistines to
get that water? And I tried to find that out.
And I didn't, I was not able to find out if he was or he wasn't. But you know, there was a time
when David said, Oh, I wish I could have a drink from that water,
that well there in Bethlehem. And we were talking about this
the other day. I know some of you here, because
of your age, you don't know what it's like to put a bucket down
in a well and draw water up. You've never experienced that. Well, that's the way they got
water out of the well, I guess, back then. He said, oh, I wish
I had a, well, here's three men. And just because he desired it,
they risked their lives going through enemy lines to get to
that well outside the city of Bethlehem and draw water and
bring it back to David. And what did David do? He poured
it out. He poured it out to the Lord. It was a sacrifice. It was an
offering as far as David was concerned because these three
men had risked their lives in getting this water. But this
man now is at David's side and David grows weak. He's faint
in the battle and Abishai succored him. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter two. I believe we only have this English
word eight times. I believe that's correct. In
our translation, in the King James translation of the scriptures,
the word sucker or suckered, but here in Hebrews chapter two,
in verses 17 and 18, we read, wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren. that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he
himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that
are tempted. What does that word mean? Well,
it has several meanings. It means to befriend. to befriend the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you
imagine that, that he calls us his friends? Isn't that amazing? Think about
it. You know, we've heard these things
and read these things and sang these things for so long, I believe
they lose, it becomes old hat to us, but can you imagine the
king of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person in
the Godhead made flesh, that he would call you or me a friend. We sing that hymn sometimes,
what a friend we have in Jesus. I love that hymn. I love to just
sing it slowly. Sing it slowly. Just let it sink
in. What a friend we have in Him. All our sins and griefs to bear. It also means not only to befriend,
it means to assist those in need. To succor. That's what this man
did for David. He assisted him in need. He was
weak. and would have been killed, this
giant would have killed him. And it also means to strengthen
the weak. One writer said, the Greek term
is even more striking and beautifully expressive. It signifies to hasten
in response to a cry of distress, literally to run to the call
of another, to run to the call of another. One of the early
fathers of the church, he interpreted it like this. He gives out his
hand unto them with all readiness. And he illustrated it by that
passage in Matthew where, remember when Peter got out of the boat,
the Lord Jesus was walking on the water. Peter got out of the
boat, the Lord told him, come. And he started walking and then
he saw saw the wind, it says the wind boisterous. What did
he cry? Help! Help! And immediately, the Lord Jesus
Christ held out his hand, saved him. It's a sucker. You know,
when we think about that, he's the same today. Isn't that what
the scripture says? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He's the same today. We read
through the Gospels, which give a narrative of his life during
his public ministry. And did anyone ever come with
a need and the Lord turn them away? Of course not. Of course not. The Lord Jesus
is the same. Pink said, whatever your circumstances,
the succoring Savior is all sufficient and enters sympathetically into
your condition. We sang that hymn, Never Alone,
last Wednesday night, I believe it was. The first line is, I've
seen the lightning flashing, heard the thunder roll. I've
felt sin's breakers dashing, which tried to conquer my soul. I've heard the voice of my Savior. He bid me still fight on. He
promised never to leave me, no, never alone. David was suckered,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who suckers us, our high
priest. One other thing. A reminder of
David's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We see here in our text tonight
that David was succored or helped in his hour of need. So was the
Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Luke chapter
22. I'll close here. Luke chapter 22. I'm just going
to read these few verses because they call for a sermon by themselves. Luke chapter 22 and verse 41. Our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane,
he withdrew from the disciples and he was withdrawn from them
about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed saying, Father,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thine be done. Now, watch this. And there appeared
an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. As I said,
those verses call for a message all by themselves, don't they?
But the only thing I would point out to us here, suffice it to
say here, the humanity of Christ. that he was a real man. He knew everything, with the
exception of sin, that you and I know. We see him weary, sitting
on the well from his journey. We see him with hungry thirst. And here we see him in the garden,
and an angel comes and strengthens him. He is a real man. And he's still a real man, isn't
he? He is. He'll always be. He's
the God we will see in heaven, right? The Father, God, Absolute
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can't see a spirit, but he
became flesh. born of our bond. And he said,
to see me, Philip, is to see the Father. And in heaven, we'll
see him who is both God and man. Was it? Philip who said, my Lord
and my God. Let's be