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And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel saying he sought for David in times past to be king over you Now then do it for the Lord hath spoken of David saying by the hand of my servant David David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines and out of the hand of all their enemies and Abner also spake in the ears of Benjamin and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebrew on all that seemed with good to Israel and that and That seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin So Abner came to David to Hebron and 20 men with him and David made Abner and the man that were with him a feast And Abner said unto David I will rise and go and will gather all Israel unto my lord the king that they may make a league with thee not there may its reign over all that thine heart desireth and David sent Abner away and he went in peace and Behold the servants of David and Joab came from pursuing a troop and brought in a great spoil 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 Nereh came to the king and he hath sent him away and he is gone in peace Then Joab came to the king and said what hast thou done behold Abner came unto thee Why is it that the house sent him away and he is quite gone? Thou knowest Abner the son of Nereh 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 from out from David, he sent messengers after Abner Which brought him again from the well of Syrah, 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 Asahel his brother and 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 Nere Let it rest on the head of Joab and all his father's house and let there not fall from the house of Joab one that hath an issue or that is a leper or that leaneth on the staff Or that falleth on the sword or that lacketh bread So Joab and Abishai his brothers flew Abner because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle and David said to Joab and to all the people that were with him rend your clothes and gird you with sackcloth and mourn after Abner and King David himself followed the vire 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 into fetters as a man falleth before wicked men So fell Asahel 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 swears saying so do God to me and more also if I taste bread or aught 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 Nere And the king said unto his servants know you not that there is a prince and a great man fallen to stay in Israel And I am this day weak Though anointed king and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness Let's pray we thank we thank you Heavenly Father for your precious words dear God and we thank you for pastor You have given us after your own your own heart dear Lord We ask that that you please bless him tonight as he preaches your word in Jesus name we pray. Amen This is an exciting church, huh? Second Samuel chapter 3 we're continuing the Bible study here. People are typically pretty tired on the midweek service So we try to keep things lively here wake you up a little bit, you know I didn't it wasn't supposed to go that way though. So, you know, but anyways Five years in we're only five years in right second Samuel chapter 3 Let me give you a bit of review from last week In regards to what's taking place here, of course We know Saul has died already and although Saul is dead His house is essentially still established when the Bible talks about the house of Saul It's referring to those who are still maintaining power In the land because of the name of Saul, okay And so you have Saul and his son Ishmael who has been propped up as the king of Israel By Saul's captain Abner now Abner, you know, he's not putting him in a position of power because you know He believes in Saul or because you know He wants he believes that the house of Saul has any integrity or he believes that he's doing the right thing You know Abner is doing this because he wants power. So he wants to maintain power in Israel He obviously has a pretty dominant position As being the captain of Saul and so he's he essentially wants to rule vicariously through Ishmael because Ishmael is not necessarily a Leader, he's the he's the son of Saul. He's not necessarily leader. He doesn't really know what he's doing He's kind of just there and he's obviously coaxed into the position of being a king And so Abner is the one who's really holding on to the reins there. He's really the one who is Essentially telling Ishmael what to do. He's kind of ruling vicariously through him And so this is taking place in chapter 2 and then what you have is a civil war taking place between Israel and Judah Because David is ruling over Judah, but the house of Saul is essentially everywhere else. Okay, and You have Joab who's the captain of David's army? And then you have Abner who's the captain of Ishmael's army meeting together at a pool and essentially starting like a little war to see who would win as They're fighting Joab's army obviously overcomes them Abner flees like he typically does as we saw at the latter in the first Samuel He flees he takes off. Well Joab has a younger brother by the name of Azael Okay, and you know the younger brother wants credibility He probably wants respect He probably wants to be a man of renown and so this is kind of like his chance to do so and the Bible talks About how he you know, it's like a row. He's pretty fast. He's running after Abner But the problem is you know, he's not a good of a warrior as Abner and Abner ends up slaying Azael Okay, and you know if you think about obviously Abner is not necessarily a great guy However, you know he is fighting in self-defense Right, this guy's coming after him and he's even telling him like go do something else go fight someone else and he keeps pursuing He's pushing that button and eventually he just gets killed. Okay, he he smites him with it with the spear It goes through his stomach and outside of his back and he slays him Well, Joab doesn't really take kindly to that obviously because it's his brother even though Abner essentially did it in self-defense And so they begin to fight and they're going to war and then Abner Appeals to Joab and says hey enough people have been killed. Let's call a truce. Let's call it quits for today We'll fight another day and Joab agrees to that and then they part ways But here's the thing with Joab is that you know, he doesn't really forget these things Okay, and when you read the story of Joab, he's very conniving he is He's someone who's subtle but not in a good way and you kind of he kind of has this Characteristics or these attributes of being just a really wicked person? Okay, and as we're gonna look at here in chapter number three, so that is where we left off in chapter two now we're gonna look at Abner's Defecting from Ishmael and then he's eventually murdered by Joab. Okay, look at verse number one We're gonna see a summary of David's sons in verse number one It says 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 now, what is this referring to? Well, obviously David is the king now Even though but even though Saul's dead, there's still people who are advocates of Saul you understand I mean the majority of Israel is still under that Saul rule that Saul's leadership and They haven't necessarily, you know seen David as the legitimate king as of yet Okay, because it's for shed this on the throne But when you look at both kingdoms just in general you can see oh The house of Saul is actually getting worse and then the house of David seems to be growing stronger and stronger and stronger Now why is that? Well, you know, obviously we can see we're gonna look at a couple things here that in this particular text But in general when you look at what they symbolize, you know, David essentially would would symbolize Jesus Christ He symbolizes the New Testament believer Whereas Saul would essentially symbolize the Jews of the New Testament. Okay, who represent the false religion of Judaism? okay, and When you look at the New Testament, you see that the Judaism had a pretty powerful hold on the Jews, right? I mean everyone was fearful of the Jews. They were afraid to be put out of the synagogues I mean there is a pretty strong big stronghold with the Jews Because of Judaism, but then when Christianity came on the scene Jesus Christ came and you know He's winning people to Christ You got the disciples and then they start growing you start seeing that Christianity became Starts to get stronger and stronger and Judaism becomes to get weaker and weaker right Judaism begins to lose its influence Over the Jews over the Gentiles over different regions where they have stretched forth and made Proselytes whereas Christianity was just spreading all over the place. Okay Now more specifically look at verse number two. We're gonna see how he grew stronger and stronger It says in verse number two and unto David were sons born in Hebron and his firstborn was Amnon and a of a Hinnoham The Jezreel itis and his second chiliab of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite and the third Absalom the son of Makka the daughter of Talmai King of Geshur and the fourth of Adonai Excuse me the fourth Adonai the son of Hagith and the fifth Shephataiah the son of Apataw and the sixth Ithraim by Egla David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron now when I read this I thought to myself what significance is this? You know, why would you just name his six sons? What's the point of this? There's a couple things I want to mention in this regard first and foremost This is in no way shape or form advocating for David's behavior of just having a bunch of kids with a bunch of different women Okay Because people will take a story like this and say okay I can have a bunch of kids with a bunch of different women as long as I marry them, you know And it's okay because you know, God doesn't seem upset with this. But but here's the thing God is displeased with this though He said well doesn't say that he's displeased with it Well, yeah Cuz he doesn't have to repeat himself because he already said in times past that he's not approving of this type of behavior So he doesn't approve of polygamy he doesn't approve of having different children with different wives and Especially I mean just in general for his people but especially for the Kings Because in Deuteronomy gave the command to not multiply wives. Okay now Why would Kings be tempted to multiply wives? Well for one When you're the king, you're just essentially the most powerful person in the land You understand and sometimes power can corrupt people you understand when you have too much power And then you just kind of you know, this guy's over here like well, I want a bunch of wives who's gonna stop me I mean no one's stopping David from multiplying wives Even though it's pretty much generally noted that it's wrong for him to do so Everyone knows what God's law says about that They know that it's not right, but no one's gonna stop him because he's he's David same thing with Saul So He's the king. So essentially he just allowing himself to fulfill his desires his lust to just have multiple wives But for another reason would be it's like a flex as a king to have multiple wives Okay, it's a flex to say, you know I have multiple wives and I can take care of all these women kind of thing and it's kind of a flex to him but also so that he can have Multiple children you understand because for a king it's important to always have an heir ready Right in case something happens to him his legacy continues, you know, his son after him can still You know take over the house of David so to speak. So these are some of the reasons why he's doing this It's not right. Okay, you know, this is what the heathen does and Israel should have never Adopted the way of the heathen in this regard. He should have just allowed God to multiply his sons through one wife and Multiplied, you know his influence by not multiplying wives He should have just allowed God to just take care of him in general, but he didn't and he had all these kids He said well, you know, it's not bad. You know, he's got six kids and you know, they're all serving God Well, not necessarily because out of all these six Okay, half of them just were really bad You know you have Amnon who raped his sister Okay you have Who we got here. We have Amnon. We have Chillia we don't really know much about him. We have Absalom who persecuted his own father. Okay, and sought to destroy him went to war with his father you Have Adonijah who when David died, you know Essentially seized the kingdom for himself and then he had to get taken out by Solomon Thereafter and the other guys you don't really know too much about the Bible doesn't really describe too much about them They're not necessarily men of renown They didn't take up after their father really the main one Who takes up after their father from a spiritual perspective is Solomon and he's not mentioned here. Okay now let me mention this is that of course as I said that the House of David growing stronger and stronger in the house of Saul growing weaker and weaker is a picture of Jesus Christ It's a picture of the Jews but to a certain extent, you know It could also be a picture of that millennial reign because once Jesus Christ takes over He's inheriting a world that has essentially submitted themselves to the Antichrist to the things of Satan And so, you know, although he's gonna just whack the heads off of the leaders in the millennial reign right off the bat There's gonna be people who don't agree with Jesus administration you understand But it doesn't matter because his house is gonna grow stronger and stronger and the house of Satan will grow weaker and weaker. Okay? but also let me say this is that when you think about David when you think about Saul and you think about the New Testament Aside from the fact that they picture believers and they picture the Jews Judaism growing weaker, you know The Bible also says here and I think the reason why he's talking about his sons is because I believe the sons represent believers Okay in the New Testament because people who believe on Jesus Christ. They become the sons of God, right and When you look at the New Testament the book of Acts you see the churches are started right? Believers are the more increased believers multiply and so Christianity begins to assert its dominance in this world because so many sons are born You understand is one thing if it's like Christianity just had a couple converts They have much it wouldn't be a threat to Judaism But you know what the biggest threat to Judaism was Christianity because of the fact that they were just multiplying so much Everywhere they went they spoke of that way. They would call it that way or this way referring to Christianity Everywhere they went they ran into believers people who believed on Jesus Christ and placed their faith in him and you know were joined into the church and Began to multiply and disciples began to grow and the churches increase the number greatly And so we see here that the house of David Waxed stronger and stronger because he has all these sons born unto him one like man in the New Testament The house of Jesus Christ so to speak the spiritual house Grow stronger and stronger by the day as we win more people to Christ as we get more people saved Okay, that's why who cares if you know you have Ishma Sheth who cares if you have Abner? Who cares if you have this turquoise guy with a shirt coming to serve me on my pulpit? Who gives a rip right because at the end of the day it doesn't hinder the fact that we're still gonna get more Converts as the weeks go by as the months and years go by and our responsibility is just to preach the Word of God Get people saved. It's my responsibility to preach the Word of God period right? What if they sue you well too late, you know? Well are you ever gonna preach like that again, yes, I am and you know Serving me papers those papers have nothing on these papers amen and so you know you can send me a stack of papers Threatening to remove all my resources and shut me down It's like what if they shut down this church, then this is what we'll do. We'll change the church name Like are they really just gonna come here and just tell everyone they can't come to this church It's like we're gonna shut down that church That would mean you would have to get everyone in here to no longer come to this church But you know how easy it is for me to just be like well I'll just switch the church name first works is a cool name, but I can come up with a cooler name First works is a really cool name But I can choose a way cooler name than that if I had to because I'm not married to anything in this world other than my wife amen I'm not married to any idea. You know you can't stop me from being a Baptist You can't stop me from being an independent fundamental Baptist. You can't stop me from being new IP You can't stop me from preaching God's Word. You can't you can threaten me folks you bomb my church This is chicken scratch compared to that okay, and at the end of the day You know it doesn't matter what you do the house of David will continue to grow stronger and stronger and stronger And stronger and we know that based upon the sons of God that are being produced from this church amen And even aside from the sons of God that are being produced you have people Who essentially have been one already by Christ or one, but to Christ by someone else? But are being turned to righteousness by our church By the preaching and you know you can shut down the channel But my contents gonna get out there no matter what I'm not even gonna tell you what other Avenue I'm using right now because I don't want it I don't want no one to to spoil it, but there's that I have another Avenue right now, and it's doing really well Okay, and it's gonna get a ton of more people saved and it's it's doing the work where it's getting people to know the Word of God and You know so you can attack you can try to bring Abner you could try to bring ish pacheth You can try to bring all these people to try to just you know you know save the house of Saul Save the house of wickedness, but it's just not gonna happen. It's not going to happen my friends We're gonna continue to go forward no matter what and so by the way don't let anything like that Cause any fear in your life don't think to yourself. Oh, man. What's gonna happen nothing You know this guy's gonna go home, and that's like the greatest thing that's ever happened in his life That's that's like the greatest thing that ever happened in his life honestly You know you shouldn't give him all that attention. Well. I mean he he he waltzed in here You know, but you you know But he this guy treasured up wrath against the day of wrath though himself because he's strengthening the hand of the wicked and he's he's Glorifying himself in it. He's happy. He's proud that he did it I'm fine with that because God's gonna take care of that guy okay, and so I'm not threatened by that. I'm threatened by a shirt You know I'm like whoa dude, you know when I just saw like like turquoise coming at me I Look cuz I just I just saw a big turquoise thing coming at me. You know just like what is this? But Look folks you know you're like. Oh, man. There's too much controversy at this church. Yeah, cuz it's a local New Testament Church It's a New Testament Church where you know the New Testament actually takes place in real time Okay, and you're gonna have things like that happen and look folks We're only five years in if you can if you can't hack it with the footman you're not gonna Enjoy the horses five years afterwards Okay, so stick it out. Enjoy the ride. I'll make it fun. Okay And so just enjoy it He said what if they you know you know what can't they do my friends? And you know what whatever they're able to do just always keep in mind. God let them do it So if God already let him do it that there's no reason to fear Because God is on our side. He said well, then why is God letting it happen. I don't know, but I don't really care Because he's my boss. He's my lord. I don't run the company he does I don't run the organization He does I'm just kind of doing what he tells me to do and you know If there's times when I feel like I just don't agree with the decisions that are being made It doesn't matter because he's the CEO and he knows best for the company. He knows best for the organization I just need to do my job Okay And you're like well, you know you're gonna Don't you think you should just tone it down a little bit. No because then the boss is gonna fire me You Understand and so I can't tone it down God doesn't want me to tone it down He's commanding me to do this job as is and apparently I'm doing a pretty decent job when you have people just waltzing in Here like that just like you got served. You know I thought I was gonna be like you know start Although oh that kind of serve okay, you know I was gonna start breakdancing I Was gonna start crumping, but I don't even know if that's even in anymore because I'm like old now So anyways You know strength is demonstrated by the amount of sons that are being produced Understand and so you know we want to turn people to righteousness. You know. It's a blessing. You know I got a message today on Social media, and they just kind of said hey pastor Just wanna let you know your content has been such a blessing and it's taught me a lot I agree with a lot of stuff that you said and I just want to say thank you And I was like oh great. You know and I said thank you for tuning in I was like how'd you hear about this, but it ends up being some missionary from like the old church I used to go to I'm like oh, that's cool So I'm like if this guy's listening that means a bunch of other people are probably listening, too So you know the job is still getting done. We're still getting people saved. We're still gonna go to Barstow We're still gonna go to Belize you know we got Judea on Sunday Sony is not gonna stop. You know always to kick you out of your building, so we'll go to another building Okay, don't allow these little minuscule things these little bumps in the road to ever discourage you from continuing to serve God and look let me just remind you. We're pilgrims. We're strangers and pilgrims on this earth Okay, everything in here is borrowed everything in here is rented so to speak so we can do the work of God Okay, that's how we got a few things and and you know if something like this scares you Then you should it should move you to think well. You know what I don't own anything anyways I need to loosely hold the things of this world because they could be taken from me in any moment And yeah, that's right. It can be okay But that's a good thing because they're we're only using them to create more sons you understand to get more people saved and create more sons of God via the gospel via preaching the gospel and Strengthen the house of David, okay And so that's what we see there What verse are we on here look at verse number six so again? That's the summary of David's sons I think that's why it's being mentioned from a literal interpretation It's essentially showing us that David is asserting his dominance as king by showing everyone like these are my sons Okay, these are my wives. You know look at everything that I got and it's kind of Cementing him as the ruler there, but from a spiritual perspective We can make that application that the kingdom is strengthened when we produce more sons of God Via getting people saved via the gospel look at verse number six It says in verse number six and it came to pass while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David That Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul So notice the wording there Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul He's not strengthening ish pacheth. He's not trying to Elevate ish pacheth. He's strengthening himself for the house of Saul It's essentially showing us that you know he has this self-interest in mind that he's trying to elevate himself you understand He see it says here in verse number seven and Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah the daughter of Aya and Ish-pacheth said to Abner wherefore hast thou gone in unto my father's concubine now It's kind of random. He's like why are you going to he's basically accusing Abner of you know getting with Saul's concubine which is obviously a very wicked sin And he says in verse number eight then was Abner very wroth for the words of ish pacheth and said am I a dog's head Which against Judah do show kindness to stay into 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 charges me today with the fall concerning this woman now We don't really know if it's true or not if he did this But if you were to ask my opinion, I would say he probably did it I Say why because he's not answering or denying it completely You know if someone accuses you of something, and you didn't do it be like why didn't do it? It's like that's a false accusation. I never did that But he's just like am I a dog's head I've shown kindness unto this day to your father's house. I've done so much for you I've done all these things for you, and I haven't even delivered you up to David He's upset at ish pacheth for even you know bringing this up because he probably expects It's pacheth to just go along with it you understand That's what I think obviously we don't know 100% sure, but I think that's what's taking place here He probably did he said why would he go into Saul's concubine? Well to assert dominance Understand because if he can get Saul's concubine, and it kind of shows all this guy's the guy who's in charge Because he's getting with Saul's concubine, and he's obviously trying to spread his influence Via you know he's also trying to flex himself, okay? He says in verse number nine so do God to Abner and more also accept as the Lord hath sworn to David Even so I do to him Listen to this to translate the kingdom from the house of Saul to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan even to Beersheba and He could not answer Abner a word again because he feared him now. What is this talking about? Well, this is kind of shows you that Abner is just a really bad guy Why because as soon as ish pacheth brings this accusation. He's like well. You know what I'm gonna go join David then I'm just gonna join David. He's the king anyways and You know it says here in verse 10 I'm gonna translate the kingdom from the house of Saul to set it up from the throne of David over Israel over Judah over Dan he just literally flips on a dime Just switch his sides just like that okay Now what can we learn from this so he defects from ish pacheth, and he joins David without David even knowing as of yet Well first of all you know this obviously shows that he could care less about ish pacheth He doesn't care about the house of Saul. There's no real deep conviction within the heart of Abner for the house of Saul, it's not like he really believes it He's just kind of going where he can benefit so if he's losing influence Or if he's no longer benefiting as the captain and as the consultant Have you of ish pacheth? He's like well. I'm gonna take my business elsewhere, okay, so that's what he's doing He defects from ish pacheth, and he joins David okay now here's the principle that we need to learn from this okay. We need to be careful with people Who just flip on a dime like that? Who just defect right away like that okay? People like that are super wicked When one minute they're just gung-ho about the things of God or gung-ho about our church Gung-ho to be your friend gung-ho to be you know your your greatest ally or whatever and they're just kind of Proclaiming their own goodness type of a thing But then you do something that makes them mad or you take something from them Or you accuse them of something and all of a sudden. They're just they just flip on a dime like that They're just like well. You know what you're wicked, or I'm joining another church. You know More often than not people like that are really bad You said why is that well because of the fact that they're given to change They have joined themselves to an organization in order to get something from the organization And when it's not given to them they throw a fit You understand you know they join a church And and you have people like this throughout the years who you know maybe people join a church because they want to become a pastor for example okay, and They don't get that so then they just completely defect from the church They turn against the pastor they turn against the church they bring up all these railing accusations That's what we're talking about here, okay, and you know obviously this happens in a church But it can happen in your personal life as well Where you have people that you you know talk to whether it's your friends? family or whatever and they seem just a little too nice to you sometimes you know and This is this is a red flag that all of us need to watch out for is flattery When they're just overly you they just have this flattery this flattery like oh, man They would just do anything for you folks the people who do anything for you Don't remind you of how they would do everything for you like every day You just kind of know that they're in it for the long haul Okay They're not these time type of people who do this you know where it's just like oh, you're just great It's we I mean we've had people come to this church Who have told me like you're like the best pastor Your sermons are my favorite and all and they just constantly tell me that and then I'm thinking myself Is this really sincere? You know And you know then they're not here anymore I've had people like that come to our church. Where it's just like I'm like the best out of the new IFB I'm like the best pastor on the best preacher I'm the best whatever and then it's just like they're gone You know I mean, and they don't really they hate our church or whatever that happens, okay? Now if you think I'm the best I appreciate it because there might be someone in here who thinks I'm the best I don't know don't tell me if you don't think that You're gonna hurt my feelings. Okay. Like you Oh pastor. You know you're not the best I Like other pastors. I'm only here because this is the closest church to that guy I'm only here because faithful words not here. Amen. You know I'm only here because Verity's not here or something You know, but you know, and by the way, I could care less about those things because at the end of the day You know, I'm not looking to be your favorite pastor I'm just looking to be the pastor of this church and to preach God's Word to rule Well, and I'm trying to please God and be a blessing to people or whatever But I'm just saying that you know people can can can be this way where they kind of butter you up Right, and I'm not saying look I'm not saying don't give me compliments or anything like that like oh, man I don't want to say anything about his sermon cuz then he's gonna think I'm like one of those people I'm not saying that you can't come up to him and say hey, that was a great sermon But you know, I will give you that I love What do you mean by that, you know? Okay, Abner, no, I'm just kidding, you know But I'm just saying you know Sometimes people do this and then when they're corrected when something is taken from them when things don't go their way They have a tendency to defect. Okay Now I'm not saying that all of the people people who do this are not saved because some people who do this are sick They're just you know, they they they are people who have just the wrong intentions You know, they want glory. They want a position they want leadership. They want something out of the organization Now sometimes that say people but more often than not it's unsafe people who do this Okay, and there's you know, there's there's examples of people who defect from a church defect from you know first works or whatever Because they didn't get something they wanted But then you have others who just defect Christianity Right, like they come and they claim to believe the right things But then later on it turns out they don't believe Those things at all and we've had that we've had people come to our church and you know They claim to believe on Jesus Christ. They even got baptized They came to church. They sat right front and center. They loved the preaching right? They were all for it and then all of a sudden they're like, hey, I need a letter cuz I'm gonna be a Catholic So I need a letter of transfer Because the Catholic Church won't allow me to go back to the Catholic Church Unless I get a letter from this church saying that I'm no longer a member of this church You know and I'm just like you're not saved, you know Because if you're a Baptist if you're a fundamental Baptist and all of a sudden you're like, you know what I Miss the Catholic whore. I miss that old whore I Miss the the long-robed, you know priest and the Latin it's just you know, I Crave those things, you know and the doctrine is just like, you know The wafers and they actually let you drink wine in church. Like I miss all those things if you miss that You know and then you go back to that you basically believed in vain Because no safe person Will just willingly go to a Catholic Church because they love the Catholic Church. I'm not saying that, you know, sometimes there's situations where for example you have a Married couple and you know, one of the couples made a mistake of marrying someone who was an unbeliever Okay, and you know Maybe it's the husband for example, and he just wants to go to a Catholic Church and he just drags his saved wife with him You know She's kicking and screaming inside because she hates the Catholic Church But she's doing it because her husband's dragging her to do so Obviously that person is not apostate that person is not they didn't believe in vain They're just kind of forced into that situation because they married into that situation and vice versa I mean I there's people who've come to our church who married Mormons and they would go to a Mormon service and They hate Mormonism but they would go because of their spouse Even though they hated it and I'm not saying that person wasn't the same because he told me he hated the Mormon Church He ate all that stuff. He would just go for his wife and first kids. It's not right to do But when I'm saying like, you know, you know what? I think Mormonism is better than this You know, I want my own planet or you know what I want to get baptized for the dead, you know Then at that point you believed in vain okay, you don't lose your salvation because that's what people will teach They're like, well if you're a Christian before and you became an atheist you lost your salvation But that's not true because you can't lose your salvation Eternal life is just that it's a life that is eternal never it never stops. So if he gives you eternal life today It's essentially from that point on you just never die And obviously it's referring to your soul because your physical body is gonna physically die one day Right if the Lord tarries, you know, your physical body is going to die It's gonna go into the grave, but your soul is gonna live forever understand so you don't lose your salvation But it's just an indicator that you were never saved to begin with and the Bible specifically says in first John chapter 2 It tells us in first John chapter 2, you know, they went out from us referring to Antichrist Okay, it says they went out from us For they were not of us for if they had been of us They would have no doubt continued with us now that verse has been used by Calvinists and reformers To try to teach that if someone gets out of church Oh that person is just never saved to begin with because they backslid They're going somewhere else. They're going to the bars or whatever. We don't believe that if Someone gets out of church and they just backslide they go into sin they get involved in wickedness or whatever You know fornication drunkenness or whatever may be you know, that's not that's not an indicator that person's not saved It's an indicator that the person is just sinful. So they're being a carnal Christian But if that person begins to deny the doctrines of Christ They begin to deny the salvation is by grace through faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God They say they don't believe the Bible they say they question whether God really even exists at that point You know that person was just never saved to begin with they went out from us that they may be maybe made Manifests that they were not of us. So that means that when they came among us They were already not of us They were already not saved but it was made manifest When they decided to depart from the doctrines of Christ, okay, and so, you know Abner never really had You know, he didn't really love the house of Saul. He loves himself He loves what he's doing there. But once that opportunity is taken from him at that point, he's just like, okay Here's my chance. I need to go, you know get under David because I'm trying to maintain power That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to maintain power as a captain, you know, or whatever. Okay, and so we need to be We need to be leery of people like this that when they come to our church You know that they're not just trying to you know gain power gain influence Whatever, you know, they're here for the right reasons Okay, and be here for the right reasons. Amen Be here because you love preaching you love church you love God's people you want to serve God and And be here for the right reasons. Don't be here for the wrong reasons. And so we see that in verse number 10 and 11 look what he says and he could not answer Abner a word again because he feared him Verse 12 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 shall not see my face except thou first bring Michal Saul's daughter When thou comest to see my face now, here's one of the reasons why I believe The reason he's multiplying wives is to kind of flex his authority because he's even willing to bring Michal Okay, and if you remember Michal from times past she's a cantankerous woman, okay It's not a woman that most people want to be around David gets annoyed with her and she's kind of annoying or whatever and obviously she's It looks like she might be a loudmouth But he just wants because he married her obviously wants her to come back because of that but also to kind of show I have All these wives. Okay, so he tells Abner. Okay, you can campaign For my kingdom, but you need to bring back Michal. Okay. Now this is a really sad story right here Okay, look at verse 14 and David sent messengers to Ishmael Saul's son saying deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines and Ishmael sent and took her from her husband even from Phaltiel the son of Laish. So if you remember Saul was trying to get even with David And so he basically took Michal and married her off to this guy Wrong to do now. We don't know all the details We don't know if this means that like they forced a divorce on David or she's just married to both We don't really know. It's just a really screwed up situation obviously Okay But look who says in verse 16 and her husband went with her along weeping behind her to procure him Then said Abner unto him go return and he returned so basically Michal's like being taken and he's like No, I mean he's probably wearing like a turquoise robe or something like that We don't know the text doesn't say But it's a pretty sad situation, right And I'm not saying it's right I'm not saying it's wrong because we don't know exactly all the details the Bible's just given this narrative of what's taking place here. Okay? But one thing that's it's it's wrong is just you see all these people of power Just kind of flexing their power and just kind of oppressing people who don't have power I understand and taking advantage of people and it's wrong. Okay? So then in verse 17 Abner begins to campaign for David It says an Abner had communication with the elders of Israel saying you sought for David in time 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 and out of the hand of all the enemies and Abner also spake in the years of Benjamin and Abner went also to speak in the years of David and Hebron and all that seemed Good to Israel and that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin So this is more proof that Abner is not a good guy Because out of his own mouth he's saying you know that God has said this of David So that means he was strengthening the house of Saul under the leadership of Ishmael Knowing full well what God's will was, you know initially, okay He knew that God wanted to raise up David that David was the next next in line But he did nothing about it because he wanted to maintain power It's only when it you know turns to in his favor. Then he's like, oh, yeah, we got to raise up David You know because God has called David. He's the king So he's campaigning around Israel to do this to win the people over. Okay It says in verse number 20 so Abner came to David to Hebron and 20 men with him and David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast So what's going on here? Well, he's obviously doing a good job because he has influence He gets everyone to essentially follow David and David rewards him by giving him a feast seems to be going all well Everything is hunky-dory Abner is vouching for David's kingship. People are following Etc. Okay But there's a one particular person who's not happy about all this and that is Joab. Okay Look at verse 22 and behold the servants of David and job came from pursuing a troop and brought in a great spoil 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 Nair came to the king and he had sent him away and he has gone in peace By the way, what a little punk whoever that was Because obviously this guy is trying to stir up things Because what is that to you if this is the call that the king made? Who why are you stirring up Joab and by the way this person obviously knows the character of Joab What is he doing? He's going up to job. He's like, you know, like Abner was here and then David just let him go You know because he's trying to stir up Joab and get him angry Because Joab obviously wants vengeance for the murder of his brother. Okay verse 23 When Joab and all the hosts that was with him were come they told Joab saying Abner the son of Nair Oh, excuse me verse 24 then Joab came to the king and said what is thou done? The old Abner came unto thee and why is it that thou has sent him away and he is quite gone now This is one thing I hate about Joab He's such a disrespectful little prick That he's just like multiple times in during David's rule. He's like rebuking David for his decisions that he's made He has like no problem just calling out David and saying what have you done? I can't believe you did this You should have done things. He's like this Monday morning quarterback type of a thing Okay, and this is not the first time that he's done or it's not the only time he's gonna do He's gonna do it multiple times throughout being under David's leadership. So he claims to be for David. He claims to be Under his leadership, but then when things don't go Joab's way Joab throws a fit and decides to rebuke the king Which is wicked understand And you know, obviously things that we can learn from this is that we should never rebuke our authority Regardless of who it is, you know children have no right to rebuke their parents Even if you disagree with their decisions you disagree with what they've done or whatever They have no right to just you know, rebuke their parents. Whatever you do. I can't believe you did this You know, it's just like that's your god-given authority Hold your tongue and you know what if you don't agree with some decision that your parents made You hold it in and then you raise your kids differently when you grow up. Okay Why have more wisdom than my parents? Well, apparently you don't if you think that That very that statement alone shows you the lack of wisdom that you have, right? You know, you have no right to rebuke your parents. You have no right to rebuke your boss You Know and and obviously like if if your boss allows you to rebuke him, you know, he's got his own issues He cuz he should just fire you, you know, you just fire you for being an insubordinate employee You know cuz you have no right to do that. Why don't agree with his decision? Okay, then go get paid by someone else a different job where you do agree Etc, you know and by the way in the New Testament The Bible says rebuke not an elder elders referring to a pastor now, this doesn't happen here But you know lest it should happen in the future You know, no church member has the right to just come and rebuke me and tell me how to do my job Now obviously the Bible says and treat him as a father Okay, in other words as respectfully as you would come to your mom or your dad To appeal something that maybe you don't agree with and like man if that's the same spear you should come to the pastor in You're like well, you know and this is not here, but it's just like well my pastors pre-trib and they're Zionists and You know, they don't believe in the reprobate doctrine. So he needs to be rebuked. No, he doesn't You know you're at his church And I went to a church where the pastor had all those things and never once that I ever rebuked In fact, I let him rebuke me for believing what I believe. I Let him just go off on me You know, even though I didn't agree with it I let him just yell at me and just rebuke me and just tell me that I was wrong and I just didn't defend myself Because what for? You know, all I said was, you know, I respect what you're saying if you ever want me to like show you You know if you ever want to talk and he's just he just was not happy with that I was just like, okay, you know and I just kind of yielded to that Because I know what the Bible says that you just don't rebuke an elder. Okay, and Two, you know, you don't really know it's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. Let me just say that It's easy for everyone to tell me how to do my job When you're not the pastor Because you only see one segment of the job You know what? I mean where I have to look at all the factors how everything is affected. And so, you know Appeal to me but don't rebuke me. So what happens if I rebuke you then I'll rebuke you back I Rebuke me and I'll rebuke you back and I have no problem making a public spectacle of someone if they want to just Disrespect me or rebuke me and it's not something that has taken place here. Maybe it has once or twice or something like that I don't remember But don't be a Joab in this church Okay Don't be the type of person Where you just want to tell people tell the leadership how it's done and tell people what they should have done or what? You know leave that to the leadership leave that to the qualified person Okay, you know leave that to the person who actually has is doing the job, right? You know and so Joab obviously doesn't understand that principle and here's the thing he says here Look at verse number 25 thou knowest Abner the son of Nair that he came to deceive thee and to know thy going out my coming in to Know all that thou all that thou doest now there might be some truth to that, but it might not be true Abner might just be a guy who just wants to have he just wants job security right But let me tell you this let's say if it was true. This is not the reason why job is rebuking David Job is just like you should have kept him because I want to kill him That's really what he's saying He's like man. Why are you doing we could have we could have gotten him? Because Joab is just interested in executing vengeance upon Abner for killing his brother, okay? Now look what he says in verse number 26 and when Joab was come out from David he sent messengers after Abner So aside from rebuking David, then he makes this executive decision To go fetch Abner to put him in a situation where he can kill Abner Now let me just show you how conniving job is the guy's smart by the way You'll see this throughout the stories throughout this book. He's a very smart individual. He's very calculated. Okay? Look what it says he sent messengers to Abner which brought him again from the well of Sira But David knew it not and when David 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 as a hell his brother He said what's conniving about that? Well first of all he kills the guy, okay? But secondly think about this Hebron according to Joshua the book of Joshua was designated to be a city of refuge What is the city of refuge well if a person killed someone unawares Took someone out maybe even in self-defense They would be designated to go to a city of refuge so that the revenger of blood Would not be able to execute vengeance upon that person understand so you know Joab's brother as a hell was killed, but here's the thing is that Abner is in Hebron Which is a city of refuge so it's out of Joab's hands even though he would be just Essentially to take him out because he's the revenger of blood You know he can't because he's in Hebron so what he's do he brings him to the gate essentially outside of Hebron So we can kill him there. It shows you that he's a calculated guy This guy's very conniving Cunning subtle, and we don't know what the messenger said like hey Joab wants to congratulate you or something For joining our side and put our differences aside or whatever who knows what he told them It was enough for Abner to trust that it's okay to come back He comes back. He's like hey Let's talk privately they go outside of the gate and you smite someone to the fifth rib because it's outside of the jurisdiction Of the city of refuge of Hebron therefore it's justified essentially for the revenger of blood to take him out wicked and There's people like this my friends Where they make these calculated moves They are subtle and conniving they exist and we need to be weary of we need to be leery of the Joabs of this world Okay Verse 28 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 Nair Let it rest on the head of Joab and all his father's house and let there not fell from his house the house of job one that hath an issue or that as a leper or that leaneth on a staff or that fall on the Sword or that lacketh bread. So job here are David hears about this and he curses Joab And we think that's a good curse, you know, because jobs wicked but that's all he does though He doesn't what he should have done obviously was said. Hey, you're fired. You can't do this job anymore You seem to be very conniving and calculated, you know, you've been replaced Okay, but that's not what he's doing and potentially be you know maybe he's he's related to him or it's because He likes Joab because job kind of does his dirty work Because by the way, Joab is the one who sends Uriah, right? You know or since job excuse me David's the one who sends Joab to your right to be to be placed in the hottest part of the battle Knowing full well that he was gonna die there. So essentially job is a guy who's just like, you know He doesn't really have quarrels with doing the dirty work So it might be the David kind of likes that He's like I need to keep a guy like this around me because he does the dirty work. So I'll curse him But I'm not gonna fire him. I'm not gonna replace him as being the captain because he's useful. Okay verse 30 so job and Abishai his brother slew Abner because he had slain their brother as the hell at Gibeon in the battle and David said to job and to all the people that were with him rend your clothes and gird you with sackcloth and mourn before Abner And King David himself follow the the buyer. So what do we see here towards the end of the chapter? Well, David has a big problem here because this looks really bad he's trying to take the kingdom, but it's under like very suspicious activity like Circumstances here people are being murdered. So now he has to publicly Express his disapproval of what job has done By publicly cursing Joab, but by also publicly mourning for Abner Mourning being he's sad He's lamenting. He's crying the buyers basically the coffin. He's following it He's publicly showing like I didn't approve of this death. I'm not approving of this person what job did in fact I'm very sad about I'm lamenting over it because you know, this is part of the campaign He's trying to take over so he has to look like, you know, he wasn't in on it, which he wasn't He wasn't approving of it at all skip down to verse number See verse 36 and all the people took notice of it and it pleased them and Whatsoever the king did pleased all the people for all the people in all Israel understood that day It was not of the king to slay Abner the son of Nair the king sent to his servants No, you not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel, by the way earlier This Let me just show you one more thing. Look at verse 34. This kind of shows you that David knows That job is a really bad person He says thy hands were not bound nor that feet put in fetters as a man falls before wicked men. So fell astel What is he what is he implying job is a wicked man? Because you fell before a wicked man just like people do that's what happened to you And Then in verse 39 it says and I am weak this day She's been I am this day weak though anointed king and these men the sons of Zaraiah be too hard for me The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. The sons of Zaraiah is referring to Joab and his brother Of course, it's not referring to as hell because he's dead but he's basically saying like these guys are too much for me Like he's got when he says too hard for me he's basically saying like these guys are just too much Okay, but it's just like David if they're too much get rid of them But he's not willing to because obviously they're putting in the work Okay to do his dirty work or whatever But then he says, you know the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness and that's exactly what happens to Joab Because after David dies job is still around and Benaiah is the one who ends up taking out job. We'll get into that later For his wickedness, so what is the main lesson that we can learn from chapter 3? Well, you know first and foremost the spiritual aspect is making the house of David stronger, right by Producing more spiritual sons so to speak, but the biggest thing is we got to watch out for Abner and for Joab Abner being the one who defects and just flips on a dime and Just like forsakes the ways of the Lord or forsakes Church or whatever may be But also be aware of Joab who's just also calculated he's conniving he's subtle of heart He's a person who it's not worth having around. Okay, you got to be careful with people like this And so these are great examples of people that he said well that was in Bible times No, these people still exist even today The spirit of Joab is still around Spirit of Abner is still around. Amen. And so that is it. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word Thank you for this chapter Lord, I pray that you help us to glean wisdom from it and help us Lord to Strengthen your house the house of God Through the Word of God and I pray that you would help us to continue to win more souls to Christ Lord place a hedge of protection about us and When the hedge is removed help us to stand strong and and to do all to stand Lord and to be leery of the Abner's and the Joab's that seek to infiltrate and and essentially pervert judgment I Pray Lord that you would help us to just have wisdom and discernment in this area. We love you We thank you pretty things in Jesus name. Amen We have one last song song for 187 Jesus loves me And we're all together nice and strong Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so Jesus loves me Died Heaven's gate to open wide Wash away my sin let his little child Yes Yes Yes Yes Jesus loves me Close beside me all the way Thou hast bled and died for me. I Will henceforth live for thee Yes Jesus loves me Yes Yes The Bible Then wonderful singing the artist