Let's turn it tonight to 2 Samuel
again, chapter three. In this chapter, we are reminded again of man's
fall, man's fall in sin, and that David's son, The Lord Jesus
Christ, he stands alone as the only sinless man who has ever
lived in this world. Adam was created sinless, that's
true, but he fell soon after his creation. But we see this
in this chapter as we look through it, that man is a sinful creature. Man is a fallen creature. I have
four divisions. I pray the Lord will bless all
of us tonight as we look at these things. First of all, in verse
one, we have a picture, a picture. 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. You say preacher, what do you
mean? We have a picture. Well, we will use what is written
here, what is recorded here to illustrate the war, the continual
war that goes on as it did between the house of Saul and the house
of David to picture what takes place in every child of God. In everyone who is a true believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a warfare, just as there was
a war between the house of Saul and the house of David. The house
of Saul would picture to us the flesh, that which is declared
to be the flesh in every child of God, and then the house of
David would would stand for the spirit. In everyone born from
above, there exists the flesh and the spirit. I want you to
look with me in Galatians chapter five. This is a doctrine that I know
we're all familiar with, but we see we have a picture of it
here in this first verse, which tells us that there was a war,
a long war. between the house of Saul and
the house of David. In Galatians chapter 5, in reading
verses 16 and 17, the scripture says, This I say then, walk in
the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. If you notice in those two verses
that every time we have the word spirit, it is capitalized. And we know if it refers to God,
the Holy Spirit, it should be, but some of these places do not
refer to God the Holy Spirit, but to the Spirit, that new man,
that new creation that is the result in every child of God
of having been born of the Spirit of God. The flesh that is represented
to us tonight by the house of Saul, the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, the house of David. And if you go back to our text,
We are told that it was a long war, a long war. And we know that this war begins
in every child of God when a person is born of the spirit of God,
and it will continue. This war will continue. It's
a long war if you live a long time in this world. It's going
to continue as long as we remain in this world. But we see that
the house of David, which I said refers to the spirit, that new
man, waxed stronger and stronger. And that the house of Saul waxed
weaker and weaker. The contest between the spirit
and the flesh. The believer, as we grow in grace
and knowledge of the Lord, the flesh gradually, gradually loses
its influence. over our outward walk. It gradually loses that influence
over our outward walk and we walk in the spirit. That's the
first thing that we see in this chapter. The second thing is
we have a besetting sin in verses two through six. A besetting
sin, and I use the term besetting sin as one of the commentators
used this word, calling the polygamy that David practiced his besetting
sin. Let's read those verses two through
six. And unto David were sons born
in Hebron, and his firstborn was Ammon of Ahinoam, the Jezreelites,
and his second, Chelieb, and if you notice in the margin,
we believe that his name was Daniel. His second son, Chelieb,
or Daniel, of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite, and
the third, Absalom, the son of the daughter of Talmai, king
of Gesher, and the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, and the fifth,
Shephetiah, the son of Abatal, and the sixth, Ethreum by Eglah,
David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron. Now I mentioned last week, you
may not remember, but I mentioned in the message last week that
much of the trouble, much of the trouble that David experiences
in his life is the result of this sinful practice, polygamy. It was the result of what John
Gill said was no favorable part of his character. Polygamy was
no favorable part of his character. We know that in the beginning,
God made Adam one wife, one helpmate, which revealed, which revealed
by what God did there, revealed that men are to have one wife
at a time. Now if a man's wife dies, or
if there's a divorce, that's different. But this is polygamy,
this is something that that David was guilty of. And we see that
all of these sons were born to him and his various wives in
Hebron. Where did this begin? It's interesting. If you look back with me in Genesis, in Genesis chapter four, we're
going to say that the first one that we are told committed this
This man, Genesis chapter 4 and verse 19, was a man by the name
of Lamech. Verse 19, and Lamech took unto
him two wives. It's the first time in scripture
that this is recorded, that a man had two wives. And the thing
to point out here is that this man was a descendant of Cain.
He was not in the lineage of Seth or of Abel. This man was a descendant of
Cain. And we know what the scripture
says about Cain. While you're going back to 2
Samuel, stop in Deuteronomy chapter 17 with me. Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse
14. God is here. giving the law to Israel a second
time before they entered into the land of Canaan. And in this
passage we're going to read now, he instructs them, he gives them
his law concerning a king, concerning a king and how the king should
conduct himself, a king over Israel. Beginning in verse 14,
we read, when thou come, unto the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein,
and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations
that are about me. 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 Excuse me, set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother.
Now that's the first requirement for a man who would be the king
of Israel. He had to be an Israelite. He
could not be a foreigner. Okay. But he shall not multiply
horses to himself. Israel's strength, their military
strength was in their God. A man shouldn't trust in horses
or weapons of warfare. No, his trust should be in God. He shall not multiply horses
to himself. That's number two. Number three,
he shall not 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, never
again. Go back into Egypt, back into
the world. Now notice, neither shall he
multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away, neither
shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Look
at these requirements. He was not to multiply wives,
nor gold, silver and gold. And it shall be, this is so important
here, when the king was set upon the throne, notice what he was
to do. It shall be when he sitteth upon
the throne of his kingdom that he, notice that, he shall write
him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the
priests, the Levites. The Levites had the law, but
the king was required himself to copy the law of God, to copy
the word of God. I assume that would help him
to remember, don't you? As he copied the word of God,
he was to do that. And it shall be with him, and
he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may
learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this
law and these statues to do them, that his heart be not lifted
up above his brethren." You know, power, when a man comes to be
a king, riches, wealth, and power many times goes to a man's head. And that's a, you know, when
a person increases in wealth, it's one of the most dangerous
times for a child of God. It really is. Most people think
just the opposite. But when a child of God increases
in the wealth of this world, it is one of the most dangerous
times because it has a tendency to take us away from God. I was thinking about what the
Lord Jesus Christ said to that church at Ephesus. this afternoon
when he said, thou hast left thy first love, thy first love,
you've left it. And nothing turns a man's heart
away from his first love anymore than the things of this world,
the riches, the silver and the gold. But God told Israel in
his law what was required of a king. Let his heart be not
lifted up above his brethren. Pride, right? Pride. We're all
cut out of the same cloth. Man's on the throne or man's
out sweeping the street. We're all cut out of the same
cloth. We all have descended from our father, Adam. We're
all sinners by nature and by choice. And none of us have anything
to be proud of. I think I said this last week.
The only thing any of us can really call our own is our sin. That's it. Everything else we've
been given. You say, well, I worked hard
for what I have. I don't question that. I don't
doubt that. But who gave you the strength?
Who gave you the mental ability to do the work that you do, the
physical strength? God did. Everything that we have
comes from him, doesn't it? It comes down from God. Pride
is something that will creep in. Turn not aside, that he turn
not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left,
to the end, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and
his children in the midst of Israel. Now, back in our text,
I think it's in chapter 5, 2 Samuel chapter 5. We see the number
of wives that David had there in Hebron. And we know eventually
he's going to come to Jerusalem. Look in chapter 5 and verse 13,
I believe it is. Yes. And David took him more
concubines and wives out of Jerusalem after he was come from Hebron.
And there were yet sons and daughters born unto him. If you look at
this list here in 2 Samuel chapter 3 that we read, if you look at
this list, you're going to find that I think it's four of these
men who are named were all murdered. They were all killed. The first
one, his firstborn, Ammon, remember he raped his half-sister. And his brother, Absalom, who
is mentioned here, He killed him, Ammon, out of revenge. And then we know that Absalom,
he also led a rebellion against his father, tried to steal the
kingdom from David, and he was slain. And then there's that
other man there that we read of that also was killed by Solomon. And I thought about this, his
besetting sin, you know, the scripture says, let us lay aside
every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us, that
many good man, many Bible pastors and preachers over the years,
have thought that every believer has one besetting sin. I think
I've always thought myself, we all have the same one. It's unbelief. But maybe that what they taught
and believed may be true. And if so, I can agree with what
I believe it was Arthur Pink called this David's besetting
sin, polygamy. I'm thankful tonight, and I know
that you are as well, that the Lord Jesus Christ, he has one
bride. One bride that he loves and that
he has redeemed and he will never put away, never. There's a verse
in Isaiah 54 and verse 5 which says, for thy maker is thine
husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.
And thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth shall he be called, thy maker. Thy maker is thine husband. And when we think about you or
me, my maker, your maker is my husband. He made me, he created
me, right? He created all of us, all men
are his creatures. But he's also recreated us, new
created us in Christ Jesus. Our maker is our husband and
he is the Lord Our God who will never, never forsake and never
put away his bride. And he only has one. He only
has one. All right, here's the third thing
in this chapter. We have a weak ruler and a treacherous man. Verses seven through 21. A weak
ruler and a treacherous man. And Saul had a concubine whose
name was Rizvah, the daughter of Eah. And Ish-basheth said
to Abner, now remember Ish-basheth is Saul's son, that Abner, who
was the commander-in-chief of Saul's army, the army of Israel,
he made this man Ish-basheth king when Saul was killed in
the battle. And Saul had a concubine whose
name was Rizvah, the daughter of Eah. And Ish-bosheth said
to Abner, wherefore hast thou gone in unto my father's concubine? Then was Abner very wroth for
the words of Ish-bosheth, and said, Am I a dog's head which
against Judah to 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? 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
word again, because he feared him. And Abner sent messengers
to David on his behalf, saying, whose is the land? Saying also,
make thy league with me, and behold, my hand shall be with
thee to bring about all Israel unto thee. And he said, well,
I will make a league with thee, but one thing I require of thee. That is, thou shalt not see my
face, except thou bring Michelle, Saul's daughter, wherein thou
comest to see my face. And David sent messengers to
Ishmael, Saul's son, saying, deliver me my wife, Michelle. which I espoused to me for an
hundred foreskins of the Philistines. And Ishbosheth sent and took
her from her husband and sent from Thalthiel the son of Laish. And her husband went with her
along weeping behind her to Behurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go,
return. And he returned. And Abner had
communication with the elders of Israel, saying, you sought
for David in times past to be 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, out of the hand
of their enemies. And Abner also spake in the ears
of Benjamin. And Abner went also to speak
in the ears of David in Hebron. That seemed good to Israel, and
that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin. And Abner
came to David, to Hebron, and 20 men with him. And David made
Abner and the men with him, that were with him a feast. And Abner
said unto David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel
unto my Lord, the king, that they may make a league with thee,
and that thou mayest reign over all. that thine heart desireth. And David sent Abner away, and
he went in peace. A weak ruler, this man by the
name of Ish-bosheth, Ish-bosheth. And I'm calling him a weak ruler
who allowed Abner, he allowed Abner to set him up as king.
Now he knew, no doubt in my mind, he knew as well as his father
Saul knew. that God had ordained that David
be the king. He's a weak man, and for whatever
reason, he allowed Abner, who was a conniving man, to set him
up as the king. And I'm calling Abner a treacherous
man because we see how he betrayed Ish-bosheth, how he betrayed
his king after he had set him up. And Abner's message to David
in verse 12, you notice he asked David in verse 12, whose is the
land? Abner sent messages to David
on his behalf saying, whose is the land? In other words, the
land of Israel, to whom does it belong? Well, it belongs to
David. It belongs to you. It doesn't
belong to Ishmael. This was evident. The Lord had
given it to David. He was to be the king over God's
people. Now, as we see this plot taking
place, we cannot help but know that behind the scenes, There's
one who is reigning and ruling and working all things after
the counsel of his own will, and that is God. God is in control
here. He may use wicked men, evil men,
to accomplish his purpose. but he is the one who is in control. And sometimes when people hear
a statement like that, they say, well, that makes God the author
of sin. No, in no way. The greatest example
of this is in the death of Christ. Those men who crucified Christ,
they did exactly what they wanted to do. It was an awful, heinous
sin, and yet they did exactly what God had determined before
the foundation of the world should be done. Now, they didn't do
it because it was God's foreordained purpose. They did it because
they hated Christ. But they were still accomplishing
God's will. And the same thing is true here.
Abner, with all of his scheming and plotting to overthrow Ishmael,
we know that God is ultimately in control. In Psalm 75, verses
6 and 7, we read, For promotion cometh neither from the east,
nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is judge. He put it down one, and raiseth
up another. And it is God, ultimately, who
is putting down this ishvosheth. You notice if you read these
verses, Ish-basheth accused Abner of having sexual relationship
with one of his father's concubines, one of King Saul's concubines.
We can't help but remember. Now, there may be more there
than what we see. And I say that because remember
after Solomon came to the throne, His brother, one of those men
that's listed there in that list of sons, he asked Bathsheba,
Solomon's mother, to ask her son if he could have that concubine
that was David's. And Solomon said, well, he's
asking for the whole kingdom. Now, I don't know what that meant,
but I know what it cost him. It cost that man his life. Saul,
you notice here, Ish-bosheth accuses him of this sin, and
Saul never denies it. He never denied that he was guilty.
He just lets Ish-bosheth know that he was king because he made
him king, and he remained king only because he kept him in power. that he owed his life, Ish-bosheth
owed his life and his kingdom to him. But then Abner, of course,
betrayed his king and he would bring all Israel over to David. He talked to the elders of the
tribes of Israel and then the elders of the tribe of Benjamin
and it was very apparent It seems to me when David said, I'll make
a league with you, but there's one thing you've got to do. You've
got to bring me my wife. My wife that I was given by King
Saul, and I had no dowry to pay. I was a very poor man, and he
told me 100 foreskins of the Philistines. That's all I want. And I gave him 200. She's my
wife. Unless you bring her to me, you
won't see my face, and there's not going to be a league made
between us. And so I assume David wrote,
it says David wrote to Ish-bosheth, and I guess Abner convinced him,
give him his wife, give him his wife. But all in his plot to
overthrow that Now the last thing, the fourth thing, we have the
death and funeral of Abner. The death and the funeral of
Abner, beginning in verse 22. And Abner said again, no, verse
22. And behold, the servants of David
and Joab came from pursuing a troop and brought in a great spall
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. And Joab came to the king and
said, What hast 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. And when
Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner,
which brought him again from the well of Sirah. 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 that he died for the
blood of Asael, his brother. Afterward, when David heard it,
he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever
from the blood of Abner, the son of Ner. Let it rest on the
head of Joab and on all his father's house and let there not fail.
from the house of Joab, one that hath an issue, or that is a leper,
or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or
that lacketh bread. So Joab and Abishai, his brothers,
slew Abner, because he had slain their brother Asael at Gibeon
in the battle. And David said to Joab and to
all the people that were with him, Bring your clothes. Gird
you with sackcloth. Mourn up before Abner. King David
himself followed the buyer. And they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice
and wept at the grave of Abner. And all the people wept. And
the king lamented over Abner and said, died Abner as a fool
died. Thy hands were not bound, nor
thy feet put into fetters. A man falleth before wicked men. So fellest thou. And all the
people wept again over him. And when all the people came
to cause David to eat meat, while it was yet day, David swore,
saying, so do God to me and more also, if I taste bread or else
till the sun be down. And all the people took notice
of it, and it pleased them, as whatsoever the king did pleased
all the people. For all the people and all Israel
understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner
the son of Ner. And the king said unto his servants,
Know you not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day
in Israel? And I am this day weak, though
anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zeruah, be too hard
for me. The Lord shall reward the doer
of evil according to his wickedness." Just a few comments on that.
Joab was one of David's nephews. He was the son of one of David's
half-sisters. Now remember, David was the youngest
son in Jesse's family. And that makes me believe, even
though David died before Joab, that Joab maybe was older than
David and had influence over David, had power over him for
some reason. And David here shows his weakness.
He shows his weakness when he allowed Joab to speak to him
like he did here in verse 24 and 25. He's talking to his king
here. That's not permitted. That's
not permitted to speak to your king like that. What hast thou
done? He's not answering to you, Joab.
He's the king. He shows his weakness here. And
you remember after he died, or when he was dying, he told Solomon,
he said, you take care of Joab. Joab killed him. Solomon executed
him, remember? But these two nephews of David,
all through his life, as we read through, we see the power they
had over David. Now David tried with his lamentation
and fasting to make it clear to everyone that he was not responsible
for Abner's death. He was not involved in that.
David had assured Abner of safety, of safe passage, no doubt, if
he would come to his camp. And then Joab deceived Abner
and killed him. Now, David made it clear that
he was not involved in Abner's death. But you notice what he
didn't do. He did not punish Joab. He did
not punish Joab. He was the king, the judge of
all Israel, or of Judah at this time, and eventually all Israel.
And Joab, though he didn't serve as an avenger of blood, it is
true that Abner had killed his brother, but he did it in self-defense. He did it in self-defense. And
David, He showed his weakness here in not executing or having
Joab executed for murder, because that's what the law required,
remember? The person that sheds blood of
another, then his blood is to be shed. All that David, if you read what
David says here about Abner, he was a prince, he was a mighty
man, but he doesn't say a word about his relationship to God. And I wrote down here in closing,
in death, will it count? Will it count that a man was
a prince? In death, will it count that
a man was a great soldier? No. The only thing that will
count in death is did he die in the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ? All these other things, they
may be well and good, but this is essential, that a person trust
in Christ, know him as Lord and Savior. David doesn't say a word
about that, because he couldn't. Abder, after all, was a wicked
man, an evil man. Okay, Bill, if you will, let's...