Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. See, this is relevant to me. The battles of the Bible are real stories about real people in the presence of the real God, and they are recorded and preserved for me personally, as it should be with you. When you read this, you should say, "This is for me." I may not need it today, but I might need it later. And so I'm going to keep this, and I'm going to understand it, and I'm going to give myself to it.
This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Second Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his continuing teaching through the Book of Second Samuel, chapter 10, on this edition of Cross Reference Radio.
So when he says, "Stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong," he's telling you as someone who's done it. What is the alternative? You're going through something, and your pastor says to you, "Just be strong and let's pray." Well, what should he say? Be a little weakling, just lie down and let life trample you, and never mind your loved ones.
Well, I hope the pastor never says something like that. Ephesians chapter six, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Now, maybe you feel like you've been told to be strong by God, but you've already saw defeat in the past.
Well, that's the past. This is now. You have to be strong. Second Timothy chapter two. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
See, this is relevant to me. The battles of the Bible are real stories about real people in the presence of the real God. And they are recorded and preserved for me personally, as it should be with you. When you read this, you should say, "This is for me." I may not need it today, but I might need it later, and so I'm going to keep this, and I'm going to understand it, and I'm going to give myself to it. In preparation, I'm saying, "I've gone over this so many times.
I'm tired. Is it worth it?" And then the Lord reminded me of a verse that He put in my heart many years ago when Satan was telling me, "Don't put so much effort into my Christianity. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." It settles it; it doesn't leave anything else. And in some areas, I struggle and maybe not be able to pull it off the way I want. But in other areas, I could take this thing, and that's what I'm going to do in my life.
It is something that I know I can excel. With concerning my God, then I'm going to excel. In another areas, I have to hide behind the Lord's mercy, and that has been profound. He says, "And may the Lord do what is good in His sight." Well, he didn't do that with Abner when David was going to appoint Admo the commander. Joab didn't say, "Well, you know, let it be the Lord's sight." He went and killed Abner, didn't he?
Well, he could say, "Well, yeah, well, he killed my brother. Yeah, but your brother was trying to kill him, so that was just." Wrong, but here, here he finds faith, and he never again looks so good as he does here.
So we got to stay on Joab just a little bit because he was the butcher of Israel, and he lived by the sword. He hacked his way through serving his king. There are some that might try to do that in ministry. They hack their way through ministry, insensitive to other people. I mean, now you can try to be sensitive to people and do the right thing, and you're still going to hurt them.
Some of them, not because you're insensitive, but usually because they're either wrong, thin-skinned, or sometimes it's just one of those confusing times in life where the devil gets in there and makes a mess of things. Jesus, he taught us about this insensitive approach to ministry. Jesus taught that ministry is not something we hack our way through. John chapter eighteen. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off his right ear.
The servant's name was Malchus. John always so careful to give us details about Peter's mess ups. He just he was just you know, and we ran to the tomb and I outran Peter and things like that. It's kind of it's amusing. I don't think John was being vindictive.
I think he was just reliving the moment as it was. It was Peter, and Peter took that sword. I think that's how John liked it. And it was Peter. I don't think it was that at all.
I think it was genuine. Anyway, Matthew, when he writes about this, he doesn't name Peter, but Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword." Well, that has spiritual implications because there are those who take the word of God and they die by the word of God and go to heaven. But here it is physical. But Christ is saying that's not how we do it.
We don't go around hacking people to serve our king.
So Joab, he of course has this shining moment, but otherwise he did not. But here he is filled with the Spirit.
Now, when in the New Testament we talk about filled with the Spirit, we Wrongfully tend to automatically think he's speaking in tongues or some. Not all of us, but some do, and that's not accurate. That sometimes it's true, but that would be a very limited meaning. It's much vast than that. He's filled with the Spirit here.
That's this courage and this exaltation of Yahweh. He has the capacity. He can be filled. This works against him because you know why aren't you filled again, Joab? What happened?
He evidently, like Esau, he found the flesh more suitable to his dispositions. Verse thirteen.
So Joab and the people who were with him drew near for the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him.
Well, he engages them. He attacks them. He attacks. Reads this aggressive. But remember, in his ranks are stout-hearted men, men who could keep ranks, who could hold the line.
Men who would not turn and run in the face of opposition, men who are able to influence other men in the right direction. Gender is not important at this point because the sisters can influence other sisters in the right direction, and of course we can influence each other regardless of male or female. With righteousness, you can encourage anyone. The word in season is not gender specific. You can be a man or a woman and give an encouraging word.
How many times the sisters have encouraged me? Just pastor that sermon ministered to me.
Well, that ministers to me back.
So I'll be expecting a lot more apples on my desk going forward. First Chronicles again, one of the most beautiful chapters in the Old Testament, because you have this whole army coming out to say, "This is our king," and it is a picture of the church saying, "This is our king." It's so difficult to get people to march together, and the Holy Spirit can do it. You just have to have people who are ready to be filled. First Chronicles chapter twelve, verse thirty-three. Of the tribe of Zebulun, there were fifty thousand who went to battle, expert in war with all weapons of war.
Stout-hearted men who could keep ranks. There are the stout-hearted. And then, verse thirty-eight of First Chronicles twelve: All these men of war who could keep ranks came to Hebron with a loyal heart to make David king over all Israel. I think boys and girls, younger believers, they should have heroes. You really should have someone that you you want to be like.
If you can't find them among people, you find them in the Bible. They're all over the place. You have someone that you can identify with. You know, maybe you say, "I like Esther because she got to the point where she said, 'Whether I die or not, this is what I have to do.'" Or maybe you like these men in chapter twelve of First Chronicles. Maybe I want to be one of those men.
If you have a problem with fear. One thing I think is very important is that you at least act brave, even though on the inside everything is on full of screaming or panicking. But on the outside, because it matters, this contagious fear is, but so is courage. As we saw with Joab, he says, "You know, take heart. We're not going to give in to these guys." Now, I'm not talking about doing things you're not capable of doing.
For instance, when I Before I learned to walk, steel you couldn't fake it. You could, but you'd dead. You'd be dead. You just either could or you could not. It was not something you could fake.
And if someone came and tried to pretend, they were going to be dead or hurt.
So my point is, I think it is a plus. You moms know this. There are times you know you're afraid, but you're not letting your kids know you're afraid. They can't see it, but it's there. But your bravery is in you, just you know, putting up that wall.
How beneficial it is to do just that. Anyway, the city here, when verse fourteen, when the people of Ammon saw the Syrians were fleeing, they also fled before Abishai and entered the city.
So Joab returned from the people of Ammon and went to Jerusalem.
So Abishai beat down the ones that were in front of the city. Joab took on the mercenaries. They both were successful. And then it says, "So Joab returned from the people of Ammon and went to Jerusalem." He terminates the campaign, but this is not over. Far from it.
For now, possibly they had too many casualties or ran out of supplies. David's going to send him back. We get that straight out in chapter eleven, first verse. And I have to tell you, the chronology, the sequence here in the chapters—it's a nightmare. It's not even close.
The historian is just all, "Oh, you know." Now I think I'll tell this part.
Now I think I'll tell this part. And he leaves it to us to try to. What is where? Who's going where? And so again, I'm going to try to give you that in a couple of verses.
But first, verse 15. When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered together.
So they're still at it. They did not just stop. You don't say to the Lord, rebuke you, Satan, and he just says, okay.
Sometimes he doubles down. But God is going to use their stubbornness. To reduce their military might in the region, he's going to just you know now's the time to purge this area of their strength, and David's going to do that. Verse sixteen. Then Hadadezer, well, we met him before, sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the river, that would be the Euphrates, and they came to Helam.
And Shobak, the commander of Hadadezer's army, went before them. I mean, he's got a gallant name. It's one of those superhero names. And stand back, Lois. Shobak is here, but he's going to get killed by Davis' men.
So here we have dead men marching, all because, again, let's not forget the paranoia that brought about all this death, unfounded, intense fear. Verse seventeen. When it was told David, he gathered all Israel, crossed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in battle array against David and fought with him.
So now David himself is there. He's not delegated this. He joins the battle and he brings with him stout-hearted men of war.
Now about this timeline.
Now you may research and find it to be not accurate. I doubt it, but no, I don't. It's very difficult, but this is the best that I can do, combining events from Second Samuel chapters ten, eleven, and twelve, and First Chronicles chapters nineteen and twenty.
So David sends condolences. As we started out, his ambassadors go to Ammon. But they are abused. The beards are shaved. The garments are cut, and they're sent away.
Ammon, anticipating David's rebellion, sends for Syrian troops to help. David sends Joab with troops of war to confront Ammon and the Syrian mercenaries, and they defeat them on the battlefield. Ammon retreats into the city. That's an important part of the story or the timeline. Joab returns to Jerusalem.
Amon again sends to Syria for more help, which they do get, and then David comes to confront this large Syrian force of Syrians and those from Ammon who are under siege. In the spring, David then defeats the Syrians again. Ammon retreats back to the city. But in the spring, now the reason why they would go to spring, war in the spring, is because it would be easier to feed your army. The crops are growing.
You just go take somebody's field and you can just raid it, or it's easier. Plus, the conditions, just the environment, better fighting for the kings.
Well, so in the spring, Joab returns to the city of Rabbah, where the Ammonites are held up.
Now here's where it gets interesting. He's sent by David. David is the second time he stays back in Jerusalem, and while Joab has besieged the city, David sins with Bathsheba. And then, of course, to cover when Bathsheba says, "I'm with child." Remember now, all of these events are taking time. When they said we're going to give you seventy-five pounds or a thousand talents of silver, it's going to take days to load it up, to trek it over there, and then to get the armies ready, the food ready for them, the animals necessary.
So this is a drawn-out thing. It takes us ten minutes to read it in a chapter, but many days, weeks, and even months are going by, and even a whole season here.
So Joab besieges Rabah the city. David is in Jerusalem. He sends with Bathsheba; she's with child. David wants to bring Uriah, her husband, back to Jerusalem so that he can cover his sin. But Uriah, such a noble—he is one of the mighty men of David too—is such a noble character.
He says, "There's no way. My comrades are sleeping under the stars. I'm not going to come home and just you know enjoy myself." And so he does not. David, the sin has just engulfed him by this point, and he just says, "Fine, take this note to Joab." And in the note, it is his death warrant, the death sentence for Uriah. He says, "I want you to attack the city, and I want you to put Uriah up front." And Joab knows he gets this.
This is a hit. He's going to kill him, and Joab, loyal to David, is going to do whatever he. Plus, there's blood to be shed. Joab's going to have his hand in it. He's almost psychotic.
Anyhow, Joab puts him up front. Uriah is killed in action. Joab takes the water supply to the city. Sends to David. David, you better come down and take the city, otherwise, it's going to be named after Joab.
And Joab really wasn't interested in that. He's loyal to David. David comes down. They take the city. And then they all pack up and go back to Jerusalem.
All of these people that gave him a hard time are either dead or now paying David money. Then Nathan confronts David. You're not going to get that timeline by just reading through the chapters. You'll have to put it together. Of course, I have my scriptural cross references to why I get to where I've gotten, but that's how it unfolds.
All of this war, these two episodes with the Syrians. Because of these dim wits, verse eighteen. Then the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred charioteers, forty thousand horsemen of the Syrians, and struck Shobak, the commander of their army, who died there.
Now, when I went through these chapters before, I spent time on dealing with some of the discrepancies, numerical disagreements where Chronicles would say this many and. Samuel would say this many. If you read enough commentaries, you're probably going to find one that gets it and gives you a good reason for what's going on. And I'm not going to go into it this time. Suffice it to say that I don't think there are the discrepancies that people think there are.
There are different ways to count them. There are different battles going on, and that will account for it. In some other areas, it is quite challenging, and it does look like a discrepancy. But for me, the jury is out. Because so many problematic verses in the Bible, in time, get solved.
In fact, that it's at such a rate that it's very easy to trust God's word when you look at it that way. Anyway, just like that, in the day of war, seven hundred charioteers, forty thousand horsemen dead. That's not counting infantry. You know, there's infantry. You're not going to send in.
You got to have sandals on the ground. There is no fool like an old fool. Yet, young fool can cause a lot of carnage. And this is what the Bible is telling us: that those who had no reason to act maliciously in fear never even considered repenting. The question is, where is it written?
That stupid people can menace so many other people's lives. Where is that written? Why is it that way?
Well, we know Genesis is two places. I'm going to go with this Romans and Genesis. First Genesis, chapter two, verse twelve. This is verse seventeen. What of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
You shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
Now you know God knew they were going to fail. You say, "Well, why did He let them fail?" Because there's no other way. There is no other way for love to exist without free will. I reject categorically this Calvinistic teaching that God forces people into heaven. You're going to heaven and you're going to hell, and that's that.
And that's bottom line Calvinism. There's no way around it. They don't want to tell you that, right? You have to press them to get that. I think God knows who's going to heaven and who's going to hell, but it's not the cause because there's no such love thing as love without free will.
It's a hostage situation. You're gonna love me, Alice. I don't care if I can't have you. Nobody's gonna have you. Many great Bible teachers line up on the Calvinistic side.
It's been foredeined from the foundation of the world that they're going to be wrong on this point. Still, brothers and sisters of the Lord, nobody. I'm not questioning their salvation. I just strongly disagree with them. And anyway, so God is saying, I'm going to have a kingdom with people who had a choice to love me under fire or not.
I won't have the or nots. I'll have the wills. And that's Genesis too. I'm going to put this tree here, and I know you're going to mess up. But I'm still going to give you a chance after you mess up.
In fact, the phrase that I've been using a lot recently. In fact, God says I'm going to put skin in the game. I'm going to die for those who want me.
So Romans chapter five verse twelve. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world. And death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. And then Paul goes on to say, also by one man salvation, grace has come. And so the answer: Where is it written that stupid people get to menace the lives of decent people?
Well, there it is, Genesis and in Romans. And our performance is being measured. How we going to? Respond to this war zone that we are born into, this wrong kingdom that we're born into, that we had no say so in being born into. We're still held accountable for what we do with what God says, and that is called faith.
And without faith, it is impossible to please God. You don't have to like it, but it's a fact. There are too many truths in Scripture to ignore. And to be so afraid that you cannot embrace God's promises is the worst paranoia of all. And so, God, in the end, in Revelation, He says, "Cowards will not enter the kingdom." What kind of cowards?
Somebody running from a you know a problem in life? No, those who are too afraid to commit to God in the face of all of the truths that are astounding. And for us. Perhaps the cleanest proof that God's word is true in our lifetime is the nation Israel. It's just too many prophecies surrounding it to say to the Bible, "I can't trust you." You'd have to be cowardly to look at the Scripture in light of all the evidence and still deny God, and then fit into that category in the last chapter of the Revelation.
And so, paranoia is no joke. It is fear. Making the decisions, and God expects much more from us than to just let fear dictate these things to us. And so the Apostle John said, "Perfect love cast out fear." He was a man that suffered for the kingdom. He was a man that was sent to the Isle of Patmos, where they thought they could remove him from influencing.
And what does he get? The revelation of Jesus Christ to John, the Apostle. And they just made it worse for hell. How many countless people are going to be in heaven?
Well, not countless to God, but to us are going to be in heaven simply because they trusted what God said, because they knew it was true. I think for me, the biggest element of faith is that I have met God. He has spoken to my heart. He has introduced Himself to my heart, and there's nothing I can do about that. And I will not say that that did not happen.
In an instant, I knew Jesus Christ was right about everything, and I was not. Oh, I could tell you a color shirt I was wearing, maybe, but I could not tell you anything about the creation of God, sin and humans, and salvations. I submitted instantly to Him, and so have you. Who have been born again? Verse nineteen.
And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them.
So the Syrians were afraid to help the people of Ammon anymore.
So that's how we know the city sat by itself. One of the reasons. And Joab besieged it. We'll get that first verse next chapter because the Assyrian says we can't beat David, and they ended up. Paying tribute to him, David conquering as far as the Euphrates.
So, what else was David doing with all of these things? He was still gathering treasure for the building of God's house. What a way to live—to live in such a way that your victories on the battlefield are going to be given to God in some way. It's not a fundraising statement. It's that he have a life, and David centered so much so that when it comes time for David to die and he's handing over the reins of Solomon, he is so into it.
He's in Solomon. I made this temple. I saved for it with all my might. I want you to watch it. Be a man.
Be a king. He's into it right up to the end. You really can't miss it after you read it. Anyway, I close with this verse, First Kings chapter eleven. Verse thirty-six.
God's saying this about David because we know he's going to sin. It's coming next. We know he's going to fall into darkness morally, never spiritually. He never falls into idolatry. He never gets confused about who God is.
He just becomes a victim of his flesh, and that's not trivializing because he paid, and so did others, and he does more than once because he has that whole thing with numbering the people. We get to, but that's coming.
So here's the verse I want to close with. This is after David's death, sometimes after near Solomon's death. My servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.
So my point is, when it's all said and done, God is just bragging on David, nonetheless, and we know why, because David won the spiritual war.
Well done, good and faithful servant. This has been the latest edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is teaching through the Book of Second Samuel, which details the reign of David as king of Israel. There are so many life lessons to be learned during these years of David's life. We're glad you've tuned in to hear more from God's Word.
This radio ministry comes to you from Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you're interested in Accessing more messages, just like this one, you can listen online or download these messages at CrossReferenceRadio dot com. You can also subscribe to our podcast by going to your favorite podcast app. We can't wait for you to step into the next teaching that Pastor Rick has for us.
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