(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, just to quickly bring you up to speed where we are in the story with 2 Samuel 4, at the end of chapter 3, if you remember, Joab had assassinated Abner. He had basically just murdered him in cold blood. And this is because of the fact that Abner had previously killed his brother in battle. And it really wasn't Abner's fault. If you remember the story, Abner was running away and Asahel was chasing him and Abner told him, look, stop chasing me, I don't want to kill you, it's over, and yet he wouldn't listen. So Asahel kept chasing after Abner, Abner had to defend himself and he was killed in battle. Well, Joab wants to revenge his brother, but instead of fighting any kind of a fair fight or fighting in battle, Joab basically calls Abner over under the guise of wanting to negotiate with him or speak to him further about uniting the kingdom, and Abner basically is just stabbed by Joab and just murdered in cold blood. And David does not want anything to do with it, he doesn't stand for it and laments it. Now, the part of the chapter that I didn't quite get to last week, because it's kind of a long chapter last week, and I didn't quite, plus I kind of went off a little bit toward the end there, but I didn't really get to the very end, so I just want to point out verse number 39 of chapter number 3. And this is David speaking about Joab, who had murdered Abner in cold blood. He says, and I am this day weak, though anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, referring to Joab, be too hard for me. The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. So it finishes up with that statement, the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. And it reminds me of the famous verse that says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Vengeance belongeth to me. He said, I will repay. Now, Joab seemingly gets away with this crime, because for the next 33 years he's not punished. But 33 years later, if you remember, King Solomon is told by David on his deathbed to bring Joab's whore hairs, his gray hairs, to the grave in blood. And so Solomon, of course, has Joab executed 33 years later for the crime that he had committed of murdering Abner. You see, when the Bible says the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness, God has ordained human government to carry out justice on this earth. Okay? Now, that justice was eventually carried out 33 years later, but it should have been carried out at that time. Now flip over to Romans chapter 13, because a lot of people get confused about this doctrine of the death penalty, or of people being punished for their crimes on this earth by human government. And this is going to come up later in the chapter, again, with 2 Samuel chapter number 4. And the reason that a lot of people are confused is because you hear a lot of ignorant statements where people say, well, we're not supposed to judge. You know, only God can judge. We're not supposed to judge. And then they'll say, well, you know, God's going to punish the evil doer. They'll take that verse at the end of 2 Samuel 3, or similar statements in the Bible, and say, well, God's going to punish the evil doer. But here's the thing. God will often use man to carry out his will on this earth. And so just because a human being does something does not mean that they were not the instrument of God. God can often do things using a human being to get it done. I mean, often when the children of Israel are being punished in the Old Testament, God brings in some foreign army that is basically his hand, his instrument of judgment that he uses. Now, in Romans 13, the Bible says in verse number 1, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, watch this, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So God has ordained human government as a revenger to execute wrath upon the evil doer. So just because David says in 2 Samuel 3.39, the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness, does not mean that he doesn't expect human government to carry out his will and to reward the evil doer according to his wickedness. And this goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 9, when the death penalty was first instituted. And why was the death penalty first implemented for murder in the first place? Because before the flood, the whole earth was filled with violence. And there are a lot of crazy things that people will say about why God destroyed the world with the flood. And then to confuse the matter even more, there's a Hollywood movie that came out that was a big blockbuster success amongst the world and even amongst Christians that said, oh, this is great. But actually this Noah movie that came out last year completely twisted and perverted the story from God's word. In fact, the director of the film bragged and said, I have made the most unbiblical biblical movie of all time. That's what he was quoted as saying. I have made the most unbiblical. But the movie was a huge success. Why? Because people want lies apparently. And they don't want to hear the truth. More people went to see that movie than actually want to come to a Bible preaching church and hear the real story of Noah taught. And in that perverted film, it's all about the environment. And in fact, all of Cain's descendants, they're so wicked because they eat meat, unlike the wonderful vegetarian Noah. Now look, nothing could be further from the truth because Cain was the one that was the teller of the ground, if you remember. And Abel was the keeper of the sheep. So they've got the story all backwards. Not a surprise. But oh, it's just so horrible. They eat meat. Isn't that terrible? I mean, you think that God flooded the earth because people eat meat? And then the moment they get off the ark, he's like, start eating meat, Noah. I mean, these people are so corrupt that, you know, they can't understand the word of God. And they claim that the movie's, you know, pretty true to the Bible, although we took some liberties. You know, and then out of the other side of his mouth, the guy's saying it's the most unbiblical biblical movie of all time. Okay. But the bottom line is, God destroyed the earth in the flood because of the fact that the earth is filled with violence. And it mentions that several times. If you actually read the account in Genesis 6, three different times he mentions the fact that the earth was filled with violence, and that's why it repents God that he's made man on the earth. It has nothing to do with destroying the environment or eating meat as this, you know, new movie would portray. Other people will try to say that there's a mixture that happened between humans and angels, and that's why God had to destroy the earth. Other people will even say, for example, the Seventh-day Adventist, founder Ellen G. White, taught that, you know, animals and humans were mixing into hybrids. You know, I don't know how that works. But the Bible's clear. It was because the earth was overspread with violence that God destroyed the earth. Now, how does God remedy that? Well, as soon as the flood is over and Noah and them get off the ark, he institutes a new law. He says, who so shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. Because if you remember when Cain slew Abel, he was not put to death. There was no death penalty in place for murderers in the days of Cain. But God corrects that when they get off the ark by saying, okay, from here on forward, so that we don't have to do this again, so we don't have to flood the thing again. He says, who so shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. So this isn't something that God says, well, just let me take care of it. No, he says, by man shall his blood be shed. So it's very biblical for human government to carry out the death penalty against murderers, for example. Now, in this passage, it says that he beareth not the sword in vain in verse 4. What is the purpose of the sword? It is to kill. And this is talking about human government having the power and the right and the authority to kill the evildoer to put to death those who commit murder, for example. It says he is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also for their God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Now of course, this is explaining that the purpose of human government is to punish evildoers. And in fact, according to verse 6, they should be continually attending to that very thing. Now is that what our government continually attends to? That's all they do, right? They just punish evildoers. No. Our government is out of bounds today. They want to rule and dictate all manner of other areas of our life that God never gave them authority over. But the authority God gave them was for the punishment of evildoers. Evildoers are those who harm other people. God instituted human government not to provide for our needs. That's his job. That's the church's job. That's our family's job. But God ordained government to punish evildoers. That's the only purpose. And that's what they're supposed to be continually attending unto. People will say, oh, the death penalty is so bad and it's barbaric and it's outdated and it's cruel and unusual punishment and all these things that they'll say. And honestly, the death penalty is very biblical and it's not cruel at all. It's actually what God has instituted to protect us as a society from falling into just total violence and total chaos and corruption. Now back if you would to 2 Samuel chapter number 3 verse 39 where it said, the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. Now first of all, we see that God uses human government to carry that out. David failed to carry that out. So what does Joab do when Joab gets away with murder literally, he murders Abner in cold blood and there's no punishment. There's no consequence. Well, what does he do later in the story? He does it again. And it's, you know, it's in the future. We're not going to get to it tonight, but he does the same thing to Emesa and he murders him in cold blood. Once again showing that, you know, if you would put a murderer to death, at least you've eliminated the problem. If the murderer goes scot-free, he's going to do it again. He's going to be a repeat offender. That's what we see in the life of Joab. But not only that, we can take from this just a spiritual truth that the Bible teaches over and over again, be sure your sins will find you out and that God will repay. He says, you know, be not deceived, God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. A lot of times we'll commit sins in our life and think that we've gotten away with it, but often it's just that God's judgment comes in a delayed fashion. See, 33 years went by before Joab was punished for that murder, but the punishment still came. He still was eventually punished. So a lot of people will go through their life deciding what's right and wrong by what happens in their life. Like, let's say they do something and get away with it, they say, well, God must be okay with me doing this because I, you know, nothing bad's happened to me so far. God must be okay with what I'm doing. But that's very foolish because a lot of times God's judgment is delayed or other people will do the right things and then things will go bad for them and they say, oh, God's not blessing me. I need to change what I'm doing. You know, Joab teaches us that you can do all the right things and still have bad things happen. You say, well, how do I know then if God's pleased with me? You know, if I can't go by my circumstances, if things are going good or going bad, how am I going to know? Here's how you're going to know. You read the Bible, you figure out what the Bible says is right and you do those things and you read the Bible about things that are wrong and you don't do those things and that's the only way to know whether or not God's pleased with you. You have to judge it according to the Bible because things might be going terribly in your life and God's pleased with you and you're just going through trials and tribulations that are temporary or things could be going great and God's angry with you up in heaven because you're disregarding his word, you're disobeying him, you're committing grievous sins because God's judgment doesn't just come immediately. Then it waits but he says, though it tarry, it will surely come. You know, just because there's a lag, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. Sometimes we'll do good things in our life and assume we're going to be rewarded right away but often the reward takes a while to get to us. It's just like when you sow a seed, you don't reap it the next day, you have to wait and the time comes when you reap. Both good and evil in our lives will be reaped. And so we have to, by faith, just believe that what the Bible says is right is right, what the Bible says wrong is wrong, and just obey the Bible, believing that in due season we shall reap if we faint not. And that's what the Bible's teaching us. But let's look at chapter 4 verse number 1. It says, and when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble and all the Israelites were troubled. Now remember this is Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, who has been ruling and reigning quote unquote but it was Abner who was the real leader who was pulling the strings. Well now that Abner's been killed and he's out of the way, Ish-bosheth can't lead on his own. He knows he doesn't really have the power to do what it takes to keep the kingdom together and Israel pretty much knows the same thing. They're all troubled too. They realize that it was Abner that had the power. It says, and Saul's son had two men that were captains of bands. So these are officers in Ish-bosheth's army. The name of the one was Baanah and the name of the other, Rechab. The sons of Rim and Abirathite of the children of Benjamin for Berath also was reckoned of Benjamin. And the Berathites fled to Getaem and were sojourners there until this day. So those couple of verses are just explaining to us that even though these guys are quote unquote Berathites, ethnically they're actually Benjamites. So these are actually relatives of Ish-bosheth and of Saul himself. So these are his own family and his own kin. It says in verse 4, Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel and his nurse took him up and fled and it came to pass as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame and his name was Mephibosheth. So this verse doesn't really have anything to do with the story that we're reading right now but he's just explaining something about another descendant of Saul that exists. Because now that Ish-bosheth is the one son of Saul that's left, they're just letting us know that there is a grandson of Saul that also exists. Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, but he's lame of his feet. He can't walk because of the fact that when Saul and Jonathan were killed and they were afraid of the Philistines who were coming in and invading that basically the nurse grabbed this kid and fled and, you know, she basically dropped him or tripped and fell and hurt him to where his feet were permanently injured and his name is Mephibosheth. He's going to come into play later in the story. It says in verse 5, the sons of Rimmon, the Berethite, Rechab and Baanah, these are these two officers in Ish-bosheth's army that are also related to him, Rechab and Baanah went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth who lay on a bed at noon. Now I don't know why this guy's laying in bed at noon. Maybe that has something to do with why he failed as a leader and why Abner was the one who had all the real power because this guy's laying in bed sleeping at noon for some reason. But it says that he's laying in bed at noon and they came thither into the midst of the house as though they would have fetched wheat and they smote him under the fifth rib and Rechab and Baanah, his brother, escaped. For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber and they smote him and slew him and beheaded him and took his head and gapped him away through the plain all night. And they brought the head of his Bosheth unto David the Hebron and said to the king, Behold the head of his Bosheth, the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life and the Lord hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed. And David answered Rechab and Baanah, his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Berethite and said to them, As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity. When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings. How much more when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own bed, in his own house upon his bed, shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth? Now what he's referring to is what we saw in chapter 1 where that Amalekite had come and claimed to have killed Saul and he thought that that was going to get him promotion and advancement. Of course David still loved Saul and David was upset that he died and, you know, wasn't going to reward the guy who was claiming to be his murderer and so he has that guy killed. Of course we proved from the Bible that the Amalekite was not really the killer of King Saul but that King Saul had killed himself and we proved that he was lying by comparing scripture with scripture. You know, when you read this story, it goes to show you that even David at this point doesn't believe the story that Saul was killed by that guy because probably when he ordered the guy to be executed, the guy probably recanted his confession that was a false confession and said, Wait, wait, wait, I didn't really kill him, I'm sorry, I lied, I just said that. Because David here doesn't say when a guy came and told me I killed Saul. Do you notice that? He just says the guy came and told me saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings. I took hold of him and slew him in ziklag who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings. Now why is that? Well flip over to Proverbs chapter number 24. Proverbs chapter number 24 is one example of why David reacts this way when he gets the news that his enemy, Ish-bosheth, has been assassinated in his bed. He's been murdered in cold blood while he lays in bed asleep. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 24 verse 17, the Bible reads, Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. So this is telling us that when our enemies fall or are destroyed or killed, we're not supposed to sit back, you know, like the grumpy cat and say, you know, good. Oh, you died? Good. You know, you got hurt? Good. You know, we're not supposed to glory in and take joy in our opponents, our adversaries, our enemies dying or bad things happening unto them. Now again, this is something where people get this all mixed up and I have to constantly talk about this because people get confused on this for some reason, but you know, they have a confused viewpoint of Matthew chapter 5 and they think that in Matthew chapter 5, the famous Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus was somehow just changing the whole Old Testament, just turning the whole Old Testament upside down and saying, you know what, let's reject all the teachings of the Old Testament and I'm going to give you all new teachings. Now that's not true at all and what's so ridiculous about that interpretation is that he specifically says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 78, he said, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. He said, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. So right before he gets into the teaching, he says, look, before we even get started, let me just lay down one thing. I'm not destroying the law or the prophets. I'm not here to change, I'm here to fulfill it, okay. And then he gets into the examples and he gives the example of, you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not kill, but I say unto you, you know, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause and so forth. So basically he expounds upon the Old Testament commandments and he takes the commandment, for example, thou shalt not commit adultery and expands it to, I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now notice, he's not saying, you've heard that it was said, thou shalt not kill, but I'm saying kill. You've heard it was said, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I'm saying commit adultery. You know, no, that's not what he's saying at all, is he? What he's doing is he's taking the Old Testament teachings, he's confirming them and then he's actually adding to them and strengthening them. And in reality, a lot of the stuff that he's saying is already taught in the Old Testament. Like for example, when he says, whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart, I mean, you can find that teaching in the Old Testament with scriptures like thou shalt not desire thy neighbor's wife or scriptures like lust not after her beauty in thine heart. I mean, those teachings are already there, okay? So then when we get to the teaching that says, you know, you have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. The part that people are confused on is that they somehow think that somewhere in the Old Testament, the Bible said, thou shalt hate thine enemy. And it doesn't say that in the Old Testament anywhere. And he said, he follows that up by saying, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you. You know, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. He's saying, you know, do good to those that hate you and so forth. So he's teaching you to love your enemy. But here's the thing, the Old Testament also teaches you to love your enemy. Because right here in Proverbs 24, we see that we are not supposed to rejoice at the downfall of our enemy, are we? And glory in it and take joy and take pleasure in it. And God says, if you do, God might get angry at you and turn away his wrath from your enemy and turn his wrath on you because you're rejoicing in his fall. That's what the Bible says. This teaching is also taught in Leviticus 19 when it talks about how if your neighbor's ass falls into the ditch, you're supposed to pull it out. You're not supposed to just sit there and go, oh good. No, you're supposed to help him out, even if it's your enemy. Okay, you're supposed to help them and so on and so forth. So this idea of loving your enemies is something that is taught in both Old and New Testament. And somehow people have this bizarre idea that somehow the God of the New Testament is different than the God of the Old Testament. And I just can't drive it enough that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. There is no change. And it's so frustrating when you try to teach people biblical truths from the Old Testament and it's just like, oh, Old Testament. They just want to just reject it out of hand. Just throw it out. Now, obviously there are changes in the New Testament with the new covenant of the kingdom of God being taken from Israel and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. There's a change in the Levitical priesthood becoming the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. There's a change of the animal sacrifice being replaced with just Jesus' sacrifice, who is the lamb once slain for all. Of course there are changes, but we don't reject the teachings of the Old Testament. They are just as much God's word as the New Testament. They are as inspired by God as the New Testament. And even when Paul is telling Timothy, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, you know, the main thing he's even referring to is the Old Testament. You know, because the New Testament is still being written at that point. He's pointing to the Old Testament saying it's given by inspiration of God. And of course the New Testament is just as inspired as the Old. It's all God's word. It's all the truth. It all tells us who God is and what he believes about different things and what we should believe about those same things. Now, David is a person that we know a lot about in the Bible because we have 1 and 2 Samuel telling us all about David, then we have the book of 1 Chronicles teaching us about David, and then we have the book of Psalms which contain a lot of the prayers of David. And so we can get an idea of what type of a person he was. And of course the Bible tells us that although he made a lot of mistakes, he was a man after God's own heart and that he loved the Lord with all of his heart. And his heart was perfect with the Lord as God, meaning that his whole heart was completely dedicated to the Lord, you know, and he loved God. And he gives us the Psalms. And let me also emphasize to you that the book of Psalms is God's word. And that often when the book of Psalms is quoted in the New Testament, which by the way is the most quoted book in the New Testament, the book of Psalms, when the book of Psalms is quoted in the New Testament, it will often say something like this, Well spake the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David the prophet saying, and then quote Psalms, saying this is the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of David. So although Psalms for a large part was penned down by David, that does not mean that it was not spoken by the Holy Ghost and that it's God's word. So some people will take the words of Psalms and just say, Oh, that's just David talking. That's just David. Well then by that logic, you could just say, Oh, you're quoting for Matthew. That's just Matthew. Oh, you're quoting Ephesians. That's just Paul. And you know who talks that way? People that aren't saved, who just don't believe the Bible. I mean, you run into people that are like that, where they just believe the Bible is written by man. And they're just, Oh, that's just Moses talking. That's just David. I mean, no, it's the Holy Ghost talking. And so when we find in Psalms, for example, the teaching, go if you would, to Psalm 139, for example, famous Psalm about how the hairs of our head are numbered, how God knows all of our thoughts and how even while we were developing in the womb, God was forming and fashioning us and so forth. You know, the Bible says in verse number 19, it says, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Oh God, depart from me. Therefore ye bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee and am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Keep your finger there and flip back to Psalm 58. Keep your finger in Psalm 139. Go back to Psalm 58. And let's look at another Psalm of David here in Psalm 58. The Bible says in Psalm 58, verse number 10, the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say verily, there is a reward for the righteous. Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. Now when you have a couple of scriptures that seem to be saying two different things to you and that you think are contradicting each other, the problem is not with the Bible. The problem is with you. Now you have a few choices. What you can do when you have scriptures that seem to be saying different things. Because in one place we have a scripture that says, hey, when you see your enemy fall, don't rejoice at that or God might get angry at you and turn away his wrath from him. But here we see a scripture that says the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Then we have a scripture over in Matthew 5 saying love your enemies. We have that taught also throughout the Old Testament. But then we have a place in Psalm 139 where David is saying, do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee. He said I hate them with perfect hatred. Perfect in the Bible means complete. Complete hatred for them. Nothing but hate for them. So you say, well how can these things all be true? If you feel that there is a contradiction here, the misunderstanding is on your part. Now what people will often do is they will pick one. They will pick one and reject the other, but you can't do that. You can't just say, well I'm going to pick this one and reject the other one. No, no, no. If you believe that the Bible is God's word, then they must both be true. And they must be brought into agreement. You must, when you study the Bible, and this is an important key to studying the Bible, when you come to two things that are seemingly saying two different things, you need to bring those things into agreement by saying, okay, how can I understand this where these can both be true? Because we must always approach the Bible starting with the idea that the Bible is God's word. See, without faith you can't understand the Bible. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. It's through faith we understand the Bible, and the Bible says the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And the Bible says which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So the natural unsaved man looks at the Bible and says, oh, it's foolishness, it's filled with contradictions. But it's really just that he is blind. Because the Bible says that when a person is unsaved, they have the veil, just like the unbelieving Jews have that veil over their face where they couldn't look on Moses. And the Bible says that when their heart shall turn to Christ, then the veil is removed. The Bible also refers to being saved as being enlightened, because when you get saved, now you have the ability to understand God's word, because you've been spiritually quickened, and the Bible is spiritually discerned, and the way that we understand the Bible is by comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now a commentary is not a spiritual thing, it's a man-made thing. A dictionary is not a spiritual thing, it's a man-made thing. So when God says comparing spiritual with spiritual, he's saying we take the word of God and compare it with the word of God. So we take 2 Samuel 4, and we take Proverbs 24, and we take Matthew 5, and we take Psalm 139, and we take Psalm 58, and we compare them, and we put them together and say, just to start with, we know that this is all true, because we know it's all God's word. And then we understand what is being taught. Now how can this be true? How can it be true that over here it says, the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. And then if we were to back up to verse 6, we would see David praying this about these people. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. Let them melt away as waters which run continually. When he bendeth his bow to shoot arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the signs. I mean, he's praying for people to die and be killed. And he said in Psalm 139, I hate them that hate thee, O Lord. So how can these things all be true when God's telling us, hey, bless them that curse you. You know, and he's telling you, love your enemies and don't rejoice when your enemy falls in the ditch. Here is the simple explanation how all of this can be true. Is simply the fact that when the Bible is telling us not to rejoice when our enemy falleth, and to love our enemies, and to do good unto those that are our enemies, he's talking about people who have done wrong unto us personally, our personal enemies, our personal adversaries. And when he's talking about rejoicing and washing their feet in the blood of the wicked, he says, I hate those that hate you, O Lord. Did he say, I hate those that hate me? Did David say, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate me? Now if he were to say, I hate them that hate me, he'd be violating Jesus' teaching to love your enemies. He'd be violating Leviticus and Proverbs' teaching to love his enemies. Now David was a man who exemplified loving his enemies because of the fact that Saul was his enemy and he loved Saul. Jonathan, you know, was on the wrong team. He never lost his love for Jonathan and even Jonathan's son after Jonathan was gone. Ish-bosheth was his enemy. Do we see David hateful toward Ish-bosheth, rejoicing at his death, washing his feet in the blood? No. Why? The key is in 2 Samuel 4. Go back to 2 Samuel 4 where we are tonight and I'm going to show you the key word here that will help you to understand how to bring all these scriptures into synthesis. It says in 2 Samuel chapter 4 about Ish-bosheth, is there any doubt that Ish-bosheth is David's enemy? Of course not. This guy has been David's enemy for seven years. Look what the Bible says in verse 11. How much more when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth. Let me ask you this. Was Ish-bosheth, is there any evidence in the Bible that Ish-bosheth was an evil hater of the Lord, a wicked, reprobate, son of Belial, hater of God? No. Of course not. Ish-bosheth, in fact, you know, we see very little of his personality. The Bible doesn't really give us a lot of details. We just see that he's kind of a weak leader. He doesn't have a lot of boldness. He doesn't have a lot of courage. He lays in bed at noon and the one time that we really see him pipe up and say something is when he's rebuking Abner for doing what? Fornicating with one of Saul's concubines. Now that doesn't really show us that he's some evil, wicked person. I mean at least he's speaking out against sin in that instance. And he's saying, what are you doing laying with this concubine? So according to David's testimony here, David said he's a righteous man. Now we know that Saul was saved. Bible's crystal clear on that. And yet David was enemies with Saul. I mean there's no question that Saul was his avowed enemy for many years. But he was still saved. Now look, also we might have unsaved enemies. Does that mean that they're haters of God and sons of Belial? No. Think in your own life, and this really isn't that hard to understand. Think in your own life to people who've been your enemies in your life. Who would say I've never had an enemy in my whole life? Never. I mean we'd all say that we've had enemies even if you just go back to the playground. And when you were in school, you had people that were just your arch enemies on that playground. I'm not saying that it was right. I'm not saying that they should have been your enemies. But we've all been there and if we thought back to different grades of school, we remember our enemies. Too long ago for you to remember. Maybe in our neighborhood we'd think of it as, okay, we had kids that we played with in the neighborhood and these kids were our enemies. Fast forward into our adult life, we're on the job. There are people at work who are enemies sometimes, aren't there? People who stab us in the back, people who lie about us, people who break stuff and say that we broke it or whatever. Just people who are our adversaries and our opponents and people that are our enemies. You could think about people who are on rival sports teams and see each other as enemies or whatever. They're angry about whatever the feud, whatever the neighbor that went over the property line and they're on your property and they say, no, it's my property and you have a dispute about the fence and the fence is broken and they don't want to pay half of it to fix it and their dog is using the restroom and your lawn and won't clean it up and their dog barks and their rooster crows in the middle of the night and keeps you awake. People have disputes and angry words and yell at each other and have altercations and strife because we're all humans and we all have people in this world that have been our adversaries. True or false? Now were all of those people reprobate sons of belial wicked people? No. In fact, the vast majority of them, if not all of them, were not haters of the Lord. They were just either they were saved Christians who we had a disagreement with for whatever reason or they were just Joe unsaved that doesn't hate God and delight in violence and worship Satan. So that's what you have to understand. There's a difference between somebody being your personal enemy and someone who is a hater of God, a hater of the Lord, an enemy of all righteousness. So that's where we have to draw the line here when we're understanding these scriptures. This guy is a righteous person according to David yet he's an opponent but that doesn't mean he should be murdered or assassinated in cold blood and that's where we need to draw the line. Now that means that when we have people in our life that cross us, we should love those people and when we have people curse us we should bless them in return and when we have people do ill to us we should pray for them and love our enemies and often by loving your enemies the Bible says you'll overcome evil with good and often by showing your enemies the love of Christ you'll eventually win them over and you will turn your enemies into friends but here's the thing, you're not going to turn the sons of Belial haters of the Lord into your friends because they've already been given over to a reprobate mind according to the Bible. So that's what you have to understand the difference there and a lot of people will you know label our church a hate group. You guys are a hate group. Now here's what's so stupid about that. Every single person on this planet hates someone, everybody. There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who admit that there are certain people that they hate and then there are other people who lie and say well I love everybody. I just love everybody. I mean just like last Wednesday I had a guy tell me you know hey Christ taught us we should love everybody and then literally 30 seconds later said blank you and said go to hell. I hope you burn in hell and I hope your children are taken away from you by the government. Okay and I was at his door giving them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay so this guy oh it's all about love but this guy clearly hated me. Any outside observer that would watch this guy cursing me to hell and cursing me with you know the child kidnapping services coming and taking my kids away, obviously this guy was expressing hatred toward me. Otherwise he has a funny way of showing love. You know I hope his wife understands his love language. You know because I wasn't feeling it. You know that's a funny way of showing love and you know who else has a funny way of showing love? God when he sends people to hell for all eternity. But yet people think God just loves everybody, nothing but love, love, love. Well then he's sending people to hell. You say how could a loving God send anyone to hell? Because he doesn't love those people. Otherwise he wouldn't be sending them to hell because God doesn't love everybody. Now look God has loved everybody. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But it's possible for a person to get outside of the scope of God's love and when a person dies without the Lord Jesus Christ they're done. And they have no more access to the love of God. When a person dies without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ now they are just under his wrath for eternity and they're doomed. And so that's what we have to understand that yes God is love but the Bible also teaches that God does have anger, wrath, judgment. So we can't just oversimplify God to just love everybody. In fact it's impossible to love the flowers without hating the weeds. It's impossible to just say well I just love everybody and everything. I just love pedophiles and I love the Pope and I love mass murderers. In fact I remember this one German reporter came and he was covering our church as this hate group and whatever and this German reporter said I don't hate anybody. And this guy was just this total left wing liberal and I asked the guy I said okay what about Adolf Hitler? He's like well that's the one person that I hate, that's the only person. So I mean isn't that silly that in 10 seconds I could identify somebody that this left wing liberal who says I don't hate anybody I could in 10 seconds identify somebody. And you know what I bet if I dug deeper I could find a lot more people that he hates. And you know what I've got news for you. All these bunch of sodomites in Phoenix Arizona and elsewhere they hate me. Is there any doubt about it? They hate my guts and you know what otherwise come visit my email inbox. And we can just do a little Google search on my Gmail. We can just search for words like, well I don't even mention the words, we pretty much just you know search for the worst possible words. And people are basically threatening me and cursing me for being so you hateful, I'm in a blank box. It's like whoa. So they hate me for hating. But the reality is that this is a mass brainwashing campaign that the media has put on okay to basically teach everybody that hate is always bad and anybody who says anything about hating any person or says anything hateful about anyone is bad and they're a hate group and they're hateful and they're a hate monger. And to see just oh hate is bad oh you're preaching hate oh you're hateful you're a hate group. But see here's the thing by calling someone you know a hate leader or a hate group or a hateful person. You know here's the thing I'm loving and hateful and happy and sad and angry and cheerful and because these are all human emotions that every human being experiences the whole spectrum in the course of our lives. Everyone goes through anger. Look Jesus went through anger. Jesus went through sadness. Jesus went through joy and happiness. We all go through the whole spectrum and the whole range of human emotion and we experience love and hate and everything in between because we're human beings. But this is just a brainwashing to teach you that basically some forms of free speech are not acceptable and that certain parts of the Bible are not acceptable and that preaching certain biblical truths are not acceptable because they're hate. And all this is is an attempt to silence the truth of God's word and to silence the critics of any filthy and wicked lifestyle. It's just it's hateful. It's funny because I put out different documentaries on different subjects and they're all hateful supposedly. It doesn't even matter what the subject. Now I can see why they think that my documentary aids the judgment of God is hateful. Okay I get it. But then I put out a documentary called The Truth About Birth Control. This is hateful. How? How is it? There's nothing hateful. It's about birth control. It's about the pill and the effects it has on women. How it's causing cancer and how it's causing silent abortions of their children and so on. Excuse me. This is hateful. You know you put out a documentary exposing Martin Luther King Jr. as a serial adulterer and as a false prophet who denied the virgin birth, denied the bodily resurrection of Christ, denied Jesus as the son of God, denied that the Bible is inspired by God, called Christianity a cult and all this other stuff and it's like oh this is hateful. This is just pure hate. You're just hateful. So basically anybody who has an opinion that you don't like it's just labeled hateful. Any opinion that isn't in line with TV is hate because they can get up and mock Jesus and it's not hate. They can make fun of Jesus Christ. They can make fun of Christianity. They can laugh at and blaspheme the things of God and nobody says this is hateful. I mean why doesn't anybody say oh the Noah movie is hateful. The Noah movie is hateful because it teaches that all humans should die and that only the animals should be left. I mean that's what the new movie. In the Noah movie God is telling Noah every human must die including you and your family to save the animals and he says the only people who want to save are the animals and basically he's just going to keep Noah alive long enough just to get all the animals on the ark, get them through the ark, let them off the boat and then him and his whole family need to die. That's what the Noah movie is about friend because it's all about saving the precious animals and the environment. So why doesn't anybody say this is a hate film. This hate, it's hateful to humans or it's hateful to the Bible. It's so stupid because by their logic you could call anything hate. I mean we could just look at anything we don't like, anything we don't agree with and say it's hate. We could just look at, we could basically look at, we could just look at the religion of Islam and say it's a hate religion because they teach that Jesus is not the son of God. That's hate. And Buddhism teaches that there's not a personal God and that the Lord Jesus Christ is not our savior so they're teaching hate. You know Hinduism has a God that they worship that looks like Goro from Mortal Kombat. That's hate. This is hateful. It's a hate religion, a billion people, part of a hate religion you know or just any politics we don't like. You know, oh you want to build a road through that farmland, that's hate. That's hateful. You hate that guy's farmland. Or I mean you could just take any religion, any doctrine, any movie, any sermon and find a way to say it's hate. That's what these people are doing, friend. What it is is just there's a certain agenda that the devil has basically said this is the program, it's pushed on TV, it's pushed through movies, it's pushed in newspapers, it's pushed in the magazines and anything that deviates from that is just hate. It's just hate. But see this is such a weird concept because according to the Bible there's nothing wrong with hate. There I said it. There's nothing wrong with hate because this is what the Bible says. There's a time to love and there's a time to hate. So it's not hate that's the problem. It's what you hate that's the problem. And love is great if you're loving the right things because aren't there some things that we're not supposed to love? So therefore if we love that which is right, it's good to love. But if we start loving the wrong things, that's bad. Love not the world, et cetera, et cetera. If we were to hate things that we shouldn't hate like our personal enemies or our brother in Christ or our neighbor, then there's a problem. But if we hate that which God commands us to hate and tells us to hate and hates himself, then there's no problem. So it's just this weird brainwashing. Say, why are you preaching about this? I'm trying to break the spell that's on you tonight because you've been lied to by the media. I'm trying to just break through and cut through and tell you something. Hate is not a cuss word. Hate is not a bad word. Hate is a family value. If you hate, I mean look, if you hate sin, if you hate wickedness and evil, it's like ah, hate, ah, it's hate. And you know what? These unbelievers, look, let's just get back to what the word of God says. The Bible says everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. You know what that tells me? People that aren't born of God don't love because everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That tells me that people who aren't saved don't have real love because real love comes from Jesus and from the Holy Spirit. That's where the love comes from. So these unsaved, foaming at the mouth, sodomite reprobates, they are not loving it. They're hateful people. They don't love. Look, you know what love, you know what love is in regard to a physical relationship? Love is a husband and wife that are faithful to each other. That's what the Bible would define as love. See fornication and adultery are not defined as love in the Bible. You know, you can call it making love, but it's not. Love is within marriage because the Bible says that this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and the Bible says love is the fulfilling of the law and love worketh no ill to his neighbor and that if we love our neighbors ourselves we shall not commit adultery. That's what the Bible teaches. So therefore, the only loving physical relationship that's true love is between a husband and his wife that love each other and are faithful to one another. You know, if a man is out committing adultery, that's not love to his wife and it's also not love to the people he's committing adultery with. And these bunch of filthy queers, they don't love each other. Oh, these two men love each other. No they don't. They use each other. The Bible says they leave the natural use of the woman and burn in their lusts one to another. They're just using someone for their own filthy, wicked, sinful gratification and there's nothing loving about it. Don't be deceived for one second. There are not two men on this planet who love each other in that way and it's real love. No. The only men on this planet that really love each other are men who love each other in a totally non-perverted way just as friends and as brothers in Christ and, you know, give each other a good firm handshake to show that love, okay? This is what real love is. It's of God. It comes from the Holy Spirit, okay? It's found in keeping the commandments of God and the degree to which we follow God's commandments. That's the degree that we have love, okay? So don't get sucked into this weird teaching of the world that just everything that's liberal and left-wing and sinful and anti-Christ is love according to them. And everything that's biblical and the truth and righteousness is just hate. And in fact, they just want to teach, well, anything that's negative is hateful except when we're being negative about you and your Bible, then it's not hateful. And they say, oh, violence. Violence is always wrong unless it's our violent people coming and taking your kids away. I mean, how could you be more violated than somebody coming and taking your kids away from you? So when violence wears a shiny badge, well, that's fine because it's doing our bidding. But they say violence is never the answer. Okay, then why do you want to use violence to enforce all your laws? See how it just, you know, it's just, it's always a one-way street with the devil and his minions, okay? So we don't want to get sucked into this and you run into so many Christians who are confused because they're hearing this from the world all the time just over and over again, just don't hate, don't hate, don't hate, don't hate, don't hate, don't hate, don't hate, just mindlessly being repeated and parroted, don't judge, don't judge, just the same thing over and over again. Look, it's a lie. It's a fraud. And we need to quit listening to it and go to the Bible. And when we go to the Bible, we're going to find it's a book of love and hate. It's a book of joy and sadness. I mean, we need to accept all of it. It reminds me of what Job said to his wife. Are we going to receive only good at the hand of the Lord and not evil? You know, shouldn't we receive everything that God has for us and not just only take the part that we like? And God says not to take one word, not to diminish one word from his law or his word. So let's finish up quickly in 2 Samuel chapter 4. I think it's a great chapter to show this delineation, don't you? Where it shows how, here's David, the man who, let me just ask you this, are there people that David hates? According to Psalms, I mean, he's talking about some people that he hates. But here we see David loving his enemies. And he's not hateful toward his bosheth at all. And in verse 11 he says, how much more then when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed shall I not thou therefore require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth. And what is he doing in that verse? He's saying I'm going to carry out Genesis 9's teaching of the death penalty upon a murderer. He's saying you've committed murder, premeditated, because you snuck in, you planned it, you went in there. And not only that, they also mutilated the body, you know, which is also a wicked thing to do. And David commanded his young men, verse 12, and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet. Now look, see what happens when you mutilate the body? What happens to you? You know, God made their wickedness come back on their own head, now they're getting mutilated. Now their hands and feet are being cut off. And it says, and hang them up over the pool in Hebron. And remember, cursed is everyone that is hanged upon a tree. You know, this is another way to really desecrate these guys for the evil that they've done. But they took the head of Isbasheth and buried it in the sepulcher of Abner in Hebron. So the contrast there is between the burial and the hanging up of the body from a tree. Because the Bible teaches that we should bury our dead out of our sight. And you know, today it's become popular, I'll close on this, but it's become popular to just say, oh just cremate, just cremate me. Don't bury me, just cremate me and scatter me at sea, the Neptune Society or whatever. And the reason why people are going with this cremation is because it's cheaper. Now I have to say this, it's really sad how it's become so expensive to bury people. And it's really a burden on people when their loved one has died and then they have to sit there and raise all this huge amount of money to bury people. It costs way too much. Back in the olden days, behind the church, there was a piece of land that was set aside. The graveyard towns would just have a piece of land and it would be the graveyard and they'd pitch in and maintain it and everything. Now we have these crazy costs and because of it though, now people are turning to this heathen practice of burning people instead of burying them. Now burial is taught in the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 15. It teaches that when we bury that dead body, it's like, it's symbolic of the sowing of a seed. Because we believe that when we sow that seed, that that person is going to be raised up one day. Because the Bible says of the resurrection that it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. And so when we bury the body, it's the planting of the seed that we believe and are testifying that one day that person will rise again. And you know, it's a whole sermon of itself, but there are all kinds of scriptures about burial. You look up all the times that God says that we should give people a burial and it's honorable for people to be buried and so forth. And it's not, it's a pagan practice, you know, to sit there and cremate people instead of burying their body. And you know, you just, and I always, this is what I say as far as my last will and testament here, you know, in case I die tonight, God forbid, but I need to be buried. Now I'm not saying put me in some gold plated casket with all kinds of ornaments and stuff like that and bury me in a big fancy place right in the middle of Tempe, you know, with a gigantic, you know, 10 foot tombstone or whatever. But all I'm saying is just put me in a pine box and dig in the earth and bury me. You know, find the cheapest place, you know, or go out of town or whatever and bury me somewhere though, because you know, that's what a Christian deserves to be buried when they die. You know, that's what the Bible teaches. And you know, and, and this is what is Boscheth at least was given this, you know, final dignity by David as a sign of respect from David. And we should respect our loved ones and bury them. And if it's expensive, we need to bite the bullet and pay for it or find a cheaper alternative, find a cheaper cemetery or whatever. You know, I'm not opposed to that. Obviously you have to be sensible about these things and not waste a lot of money. But at the same time, give people a burial for crying out loud. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and everything that we could learn from this chapter. Second Samuel chapter four, Lord, we see just another cold blooded murder. Seems like there's been a murder in virtually every chapter of this book of Second Samuel, Lord, because we live in a world where violence abounds. But Lord, I pray that you'd help us to not love violence and that we would abstain from obviously committing murder and also that we would have the correct beliefs about how murder should be punished and about just love, hate, and these biblical principles. Help us not to be brainwashed by the world we live in, but help us to get our mind renewed from your word. In Jesus' name we pray.