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
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
The Bible
Then wonderful singing the artist