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

In 2 Samuel chapter number 2, we continue the story of David. Saul had died at the end of 1 Samuel. And in 2 Samuel chapter 1, of course, we had the guy who came and told David that he had killed Saul. Of course, he was lying, but he still ended up being executed for his crime. All the children of Israel lamented and mourned for King Saul. And if you remember, at the end of 1 Samuel, the children of Israel had all been scattered before the Philistines. The Philistines had come in and occupied some of the cities of Judah. And they have no leader. They have no clear king. At the beginning of chapter 2, the Bible reads, and it came to pass after this, that David inquired of the Lord saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said unto Hebron. Because remember, at this time, David had been living in the land of the Philistines in Ziklag because he had fled from before the face of Saul. Well, now Saul is gone. So he's saying to the Lord, you know, should I go up into Judah? And he says, Which city should I go to? And God reveals to him that he should go to Hebron. It says in verse 2, So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezrelitess, and Abigail, Nabal's wife, the Carmelite. And his men that were with him did David bring up every man with his household, and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying that the men of Jabesh Gilead were they that buried Saul. And on and on, we'll come back to that. But first of all, I want to point out the fact that David had two wives. Now, initially, David had had the one wife, Michal, which was one of the daughters of Saul. But if you remember, he'd become estranged from his wife, because when he fled before Saul, she stayed behind. And then, even worse, she was given unto another man to be his wife. So out in the field, he takes one wife, and then he takes another. So he has technically really three wives, because he still had that original wife, and now he's married these other two women. And it's interesting, because when you read the story in 1 Samuel, it's a real small step to go from two to three. And God only ever intended for man to have one wife. All the way back to Genesis, at the beginning, he made them male and female, and said that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, what therefore God joined together, let our man put asunder. And so it's always been one man and one woman that constitutes biblical marriage. Now, there were a lot of people in Old Testament times that practiced polygamy, or had two, three, four, even more wives. But just because people did something in the Bible doesn't make it right. People lied in the Bible. They stole in the Bible. They murdered in the Bible. That does not justify. And when you talk to people who try to justify polygamy, they'll say, Well, Abraham did it. David did it. You know, they'll just start rattling off names of people who did it. That doesn't make it right, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And just because someone in the Bible did something, that doesn't mean that that's what the Lord commands. And so we need to base what we believe on statements, not stories. There are two things in the Bible. There are statements, and there are stories. We base what we believe on the statements, and then we use the statement to interpret the story. We come to a story, and we interpret it using the statements. Well, we have all kinds of statements where God says that marriage is between one man and one woman, and where he's telling especially kings not to multiply wives. Then we come to a story where a king has multiple wives, and we use the statement to interpret it, and say, Okay, here's a guy who did wrong. He committed sin in his life by having more than one wife. It's that simple. And so just because David had two wives, and later he's going to add even more wives, as he becomes king and gets more power than any human being should ever be allowed to have, he's going to abuse that power. Like every person in authority, eventually, when they have authority as a king, which is never an authority that God intended for any mortal man to have, then they abuse it, and then they start taking liberties, and multiplying wives, and doing all kinds of other things. But that does not make it right. Now, you say, Well, you know, back then, wow, they were doing polygamy. But there are people who practice polygamy in the world today, still. The Islamic world is a huge part of the world. Over a billion Muslims live in the world today, and they believe that polygamy is acceptable up to four wives. And so that's a big part of the world in the Middle East, and also in Africa, that practices polygamy today. There are people in Arizona who practice polygamy in northern Arizona, the fundamentalist Latter-day Saints, or the spin-off of the Mormons. I call them the real Mormons, because they actually follow the teachings of their founders, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and they practice polygamy to this day up in northern Arizona. But it's always been around. There's nothing new under the sun. It always will be around, but it's always been wrong. And that's why God, when he's laying out the qualifications for the bishop and deacon, says they must be the husband of one wife. Now, if it were perfectly okay to have more than one, God would not put that qualification. And it's not that the pastor lives by different rules than the people. There's one set of commandments, there's one set of rules that Christ commanded us, and what's good for the goose is good for the gander. And if God doesn't want the pastor to have more than one wife, or the deacon to have more than one wife, clearly the person in the pew should not have more than one wife. And if they do, they're in a wrong situation, and that's why they can never be a pastor or a deacon. Now, it's not that they should get rid of one of their wives, but it's that they can never be a pastor or a deacon, because they've made that wrong choice of marrying two wives. Some people have asked me, you know, well, what would you do if you were confronted with someone who was already married to two wives? Now, this is not something that we have to worry about in the United States, because polygamy is illegal. So the second wife that they marry, they're not even really legally married to that person. And these fundamentalist Mormons and other sects that practice polygamy in the USA, they don't really practice polygamy because they're not legally married. It's just they say, okay, this is my second wife or whatever. But it's not legally binding. It's not recognized by the United States or any of the state governments or city governments or anything like that. But in other countries, it is, you know, places like Africa and the Middle East. But, you know, once a person has married more than one wife, they have to stay with the wives that they've married, is what the Bible teaches. God does make allowance for that. It's something that he does give guidelines regarding. But it doesn't mean that he condones of it, because it is sin and it's never God's will and it's wrong. So I just wanted to mention that about David. So David comes in and the children of Judah anoint him king in Hebron. So there's a division here. There's a fracturing of the tribes. They've all been scattered when the Philistines came in. And so the whole nation of Israel has not anointed David. Only the one tribe of Judah has anointed him in Hebron. Now let's keep reading and see what happens with the rest of the tribes. It says in verse number four at the end there that the men of, they told David saying that the men of Jabesh Gilead were they that buried Saul. And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh Gilead and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have showed this kindness unto your Lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him. And now the Lord show kindness and truth unto you. And I also will requite you this kindness because you have done this thing. So here David again shows consistently that he has always been one that was loyal and faithful to King Saul, even though Saul had turned on him. And now to those that did something good for Saul. He blesses them in the name of the Lord and says, I'm going to requite you that kindness and God's going to requite you and so on and so forth because we do reap what we sow. And the Bible says in verse seven that he continues, Therefore now let your hands be strengthened and be ye valiant for your master Saul is dead and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them. So he's basically insinuating to them that they should anoint him king as well over them. So notice David is not one who's forcing his way in, is he? Is he saying, hey, I'm taking over now. I'm the king of Judah and I want to be your king as well. And if you refuse to have me as king, I'm going to come and invade with my troops and take it by force. Is that the attitude here? No, it's the exact opposite. It's humble. He did not go out seeking this, but rather he was anointed by Saul or by King Samuel. He was anointed by Samuel when he was just a young man. Remember Samuel the prophet came and anointed him king. So it was always God's plan that he would eventually be king, but he was never trying to rush that or force that or take that into his own hands. But he was always waiting for God to promote him and for God to put him in that position. And with the children of Judah, he didn't demand that position either. He entered Judah with his men and they anointed him as king over Judah. And he holds out his hand to the rest of Israel and says, for example, to the men of Jabesh Gilead, Judah has anointed me king. Be valiant. And he's basically insinuating that they could also do the same thing, but he's not forcing the issue. But look what it says in verse 8. But Abner, the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, took Ishbasheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim and made him king over Gilead and over the Asherites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over all Israel. Ishbasheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old, but he began to reign over Israel and reign two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. So here we have a split of the kingdom. And we often think of the divided kingdom as being something that comes after King Solomon. Because the kingdom is united under Saul, David, and Solomon. And then after Solomon, of course, Rehoboam, his son, ends up losing 10 tribes. And those 10 northern tribes form a separate kingdom of Israel, which would eventually have Samaria as the capital. And then the southern kingdom becomes known as Judah with Jerusalem as the capital. And it's never united again. It's split after King Solomon into those two separate kingdoms. Sometimes they would be allies. Sometimes they would be at war with one another. But they were always separate nations going forward. This is a foreshadowing of that. That split had already taken place at an earlier date in the days of David here. We see that his first seven and a half years of reigning, I mean, that's quite a long time. For seven and a half years, he reigns over Judah only. And the northern kingdom is its own separate nation under Ish-bosheth, who is the son of Saul. Now, Ish-bosheth only reigns over it for a couple of years. But that split continues on for another five years, even beyond Ish-bosheth being the one who rules. Because it says a little bit later, look at chapter 3, verse 1. Now, there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. Stronger and stronger. And the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. So even beyond Ish-bosheth, this rivalry is going on for seven and a half years, where most of the nation doesn't want to accept David as king. And so they're still following after the house of Saul. And David is just reigning down in Judah. Now, let me just say a few more things about the divided kingdom, okay? And of course, this is way in the future, but I just want to make sure we understand because it's such an important biblical doctrine, and so many people fail to understand this, that in the New Testament, Jesus is living in a province called Judea. And that province Judea of the New Testament is Judah of the Old Testament, that southern kingdom of Judah. Those two are one and the same. You can even see that when the quotation is made about Jesus' birthplace, where it says, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah. For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. But when they talk about it in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 2, when Herod asked where Jesus will be born, they say, In Bethlehem in the land of Judea, for so it is written, Bethlehem in the land of Judah. So Judah and Judea are the same place. Now the word Jew in the Bible is never found until 2 Kings 16. So often you'll hear people talk about, oh, the Jews were down captive in Egypt, and the Jews followed Moses, and the Jews wandered in the wilderness, and the Jews, no, that's all actually incorrect because there was no such thing as a Jew in the days of, you know, Egypt, Moses, and the wilderness, and the days of King Saul. No, the first time the Bible ever talks about Jews is after they split, after Saul, Solomon, and that United Kingdom, when it splits into the two kingdoms. Then we talk about Israel and Judah, and we call the people of the southern kingdom Jews, only from 2 Kings 16 and forward. So the Jews are not only of the tribe of Judah, and I want you to mention that, but they're of the southern kingdom of Judah, and the southern kingdom of Judah is mainly the tribe of Judah, but it also included Benjamin, a lot of Levites, and stragglers from the other tribes, a few stragglers, because people move back and forth, don't they? And people get married, and they move around, and change nations, and so forth. Just like there's going to be some people who switch from the U.S. to Canada, or Canada to the U.S., things like that, because it's two similar nations that are close together. But the bottom line is though, that it's not accurate to say that the 12 tribes of Israel are the Jews. No, the Jews is a term that was always referring to that southern kingdom of Judah. So here we have kind of a foreshadowing of that that's going to come in the future, where that split has already kind of taken place at one point. So that's where we're at. Now watch what Abner does, because David isn't being heavy-handed here. David just says, well, you know what, God, do you want me to come into Judah? God says yes, he comes into Judah. The people anoint him. He kind of puts out a feeler to the other tribes and says, hey, I've been anointed, king of Judah. He's not pushing it. But look what Abner does. Abner is the guy who has the power in the northern kingdom. Now that Saul's gone, the captain of the host Abner, basically the main general under King Saul, is the one with all the power. Because Saul's sons that are left are weak men. Saul's strong son was named what? Who was the strong leader amongst Saul's sons? Jonathan. And he's dead. A couple of Saul's other sons are dead. So now we just have just weak men left in the house of Saul. So Abner is the one with the real power. He'll kind of prop one up and prop somebody else up. But it's Abner that's the boss. It says in verse number 12, and Abner, the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbashet, the son of Saul, went out from Manam to Gibeon. So he's coming aggressively toward the armies of Judah. So then the armies of Judah go out to meet him. It says in verse 13, and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out and met together by the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, let the young men now rise and play before us. And Joab said, let them arise. Then there arose and went over by number 12 of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishbashet, the son of Saul, and 12 of the servants of David. And they caught everyone his fellow by the head and thrust his sword in his fellow's side. So they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Hellkath Hazoram, which is in Gibeon. Now there are a few things about this story that should jump out at you right away. Okay, number one, kind of a strange choice of words in verse 14, when Abner said to Joab, yet the young men now arise and play before us. Now this is a game where you get killed. And in fact, in this particular game where they're playing, in fact, everybody gets killed. It's 12 men versus 12, and they all kill each other and die. You know, I don't think that anything in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. And I believe that God is trying to show us something here. There's something to be learned from this story about warfare, I believe. Because what this shows me right away is that a lot of times the architects of warfare, to them it's just a game. They're not the one that's out there dying and being slaughtered and spilling their blood. And so to them it's playing. It's a game. It's like a video game to them. You know, where you move troops around. Or maybe like a game of Risk, where you play and you take over and invade and you laugh and you roll the dice and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And you know what, all kinds of little pieces of plastic are being removed from the board and thrown away. And then, you know, you just pull another card and get the reinforcements in there. Just bring in some troops, you know, move them around, just get some more. And then when you run out of troops of one color, when you're playing Risk, what do you do? Does anybody here play Risk? Am I the only person who plays Risk? Put up your hand if you play Risk. What do you do when you run out of a color? You get another color, right? And you're like, oh, we're out of red? And I'm red? And then let's grab green, let's grab blue and start using that. You know, mercenaries, you bring in the mercenaries, you know, you bring in another color and start using them. But you know what, they're just plastic, it's just a game. But you know what, real life warfare is not a game, it's not playing. Real human beings, souls, people for whom Christ died are the ones who are bleeding and dying on the battlefield. And the Bible here is showing us a scenario that is a bad scenario because of the fact that first of all, somebody's not in the will of God in this story. Who did God say was going to be the king after Saul? I mean, God made it clear, didn't He? He said through Samuel the prophet over and over again, hey, there's a man that's going to be anointed king, he's better than thou, and even Saul knew it, that's why Saul even wanted to kill David in the first place, because he knew that David was the one that would be king. He knew what the will of God is here, that David would be king. Abner wants to resist God's will, and he's just getting all these troops slaughtered in his fight against what God wants, and eventually himself, he's going to be killed also. But we see that somebody is doing wrong here for this warfare to exist. You see, in a perfect world, there wouldn't be any warfare, okay? Warfare is not a good, wonderful, joyous thing that we should seek after. Now go to James chapter 4, verse 1, and a lot of people criticize me for turning to James 4, and they'll try to say, Pastor Anderson, James 4 is irrelevant to a discussion about warfare. But I'm sorry, you're wrong. You see, James 4, yes, it is covering warfare that takes place within our body and an internal struggle that we all face, and yes, it is also talking about the quote-unquote warfare between us and other people, even in a church or on the job where people fight and war with one another. But to say that this scripture is not applicable to warfare out on a battlefield is just silly, because obviously the principle found in James 4 on a micro level within our own body, or on the interpersonal level with other people that we run into or meet, also applies on a macro level where we're talking about nations at war. The same battle that's going on inside of my body is the same battle that's going on between you and me, and it's the same battle that goes on out on a battlefield between nations. People are people, and this scripture is not just talking about interpersonal relationships. It is also talking about warfare, which is why it even uses the word kill. You don't usually kill people that you're having problems with at church, for example. You get in a fight with somebody at church, and it's like, all right, meet me out in the parking lot. You choose the weapons, and we're going to kill each other. Now that could happen. I'm sure that's happened before, but I think that it's silly to just want to throw out this scripture and say, oh, this doesn't apply. Okay, then take me to some New Testament scripture and teach me about God's teaching on warfare. This is a great place to start when we want to talk about the rationale behind warfare because it even talks about fighting and war and killing. Let's read it together. It says in verse 1, from whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war on your members? Ye lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lust. And I think it would be very foolish indeed to not apply this scripture to warfare. And if you want to know the motivation behind the warfare that is constantly going on in our world today, every single day, this is the answer right here. There's a war going on. You say, well, are we at war right now? First of all, I can never really even figure out whether the United States is at war anymore because technically the last time the United States was at war, we were at war with Germany and Japan. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, you're insane. There's been all these wars since then. No, the last time the United States declared war on anybody, it was Germany and Japan. Does anybody want to contradict that? Can anybody tell me what nation we have declared war on since 1945? Out of all the people here, yeah, we've declared war on Americans. But anyway, the bottom line is that in our Constitution, it is stated that Congress has the power to declare war. So it has to be a vote by our duly elected representatives in Congress that get changed out every two years in the one house and every six years in the other house. That is where a declaration of war has to come from. But since our government wants to just go to war without the people's consent whenever they want, they just fight against enemies, but they just don't declare war. So it's this weird loophole where basically they go fight wars, but they just don't declare war so they don't have to ask Congress. So they can invade Iraq. They can invade whatever countries they want. They can invade Afghanistan. They can invade whatever, Libya, whatever's going on. Because it's just, well, the president just sent troops in. When did the president get that power? You say, well, the president's the commander in chief of the armed forces. Right. That means that when we're at war, he commands the troops. It doesn't mean that he should have the power to send troops into a war. No, Congress has the power to declare war. Yeah, but we just didn't declare war. I mean, that's so stupid, isn't it? It'd be like if I said, hey, kids, you cannot eat dinner until you've done your chores first. Then you can eat dinner. And then they just sit down and do a great meal of chicken and mashed potatoes and corn. And they say, dad, this isn't dinner. This is supper. Or this is a really late lunch. Or this is a really early breakfast. You know, it doesn't make any sense, does it? But that's the kind of hypocrisy that we have going on today with these undeclared wars. Well, you know, we just didn't declare war. Look, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, when you're sending troops in and blowing things up, that's a war. Oh, kinetic military actions. Thank you. So, you know, or a police action, and you know who is sending us to war often now? The United Nations. So instead of Congress having the power to declare war, our duly elected representatives, a bunch of people from a bunch of foreign countries in this satanic embryonic world government known as the United Nations, they get together and pass resolutions. And their resolution is what we're going and enforcing. We go and fight in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, wherever we're fighting. Where are we fighting this week? I don't even know. But the bottom line is, you know, and somebody will listen to this sermon years from now, and it'll be just as applicable years from now as it is right now. Because we'll be fighting somewhere and invading somewhere and talking about invading. And all of it is illegal. These wars are illegal, my friend. They are in violation of our founding document, the Constitution, because they are not being declared by Congress. Instead, they have this weird thing where the president just sends in troops just unilaterally or whatever. And then they're like, well, he has a month to get Congress to vote and say like, what you did a month ago, we're okay with it. We just want you to know that, just so that you know that we still have some power. This is what it would be like. It'd be like if I told my wife, honey, don't make any purchases above X amount of dollars without asking me first, honey, okay? You have to ask me if it's going to be above X amount of dollars, okay? And then basically, it would be like if she just started doing this thing where she buys really expensive stuff, and then I have 30 days after to authorize what she bought. Now if I don't authorize it, she's just going to be like, well, tough, because I already bought it, and I already opened it and used it and can't do it. So I have to pretend, but so I'm like, wait a minute. She bought something I didn't want her to buy. I'm just trying to break this down to you folks. I'm speaking in parables tonight, because I want you to understand what's going on. It'd be like if I said to myself, well, now that my wife's already bought it, if I say no, then it's going to seem like I don't have any authority, because then it's going to seem like she went out and bought something that I didn't want her to buy, and then it's going to seem like I don't have any real authority in this house. So basically, I need to always say yes to stuff she always bought, like I can tell myself I'm still the boss. So basically, she goes out and makes some expensive purchase that I don't approve. Oh, yeah, I would have let you do that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, I would have authorized. Let me just retroactively. See, I'm still the boss. I authorized that purchase. That big thing she bought, yeah, I allowed her to do that, when really she's just doing whatever she wants, and I'm just pretending to have authority. And by the way, that's the way a lot of marriages are really run. Some people, this is hitting a little close to home. But what I'm saying is, it's like Congress is just like ceremonial now. It's like just a ceremonial, you know, it's like they're like, I guess, the Queen of England or something, where they're like this figurehead of like, yup, we decide when you go to war. Even though you already did it a month ago and stuff, but you know. So this is where we're at today in our country. So you know, we're fighting all kinds of, you know, quasi pseudo wars that are undeclared, and so on and so forth. See, when you declare war, then the people's voted and representatives have a say about whether we're going to do it or not. And then also, there's a clear enemy. And there's an objective. And then it ends, not just this, well, this war on terror, it might last 100 years. And it's on, it's against this boogeyman that could be in every country, every continent, you know, it's not a clear objective, you know, so it's just fighting war. But you say, Pastor, how did we get here? What does the Bible say? Where do these wars come from? And he says wars and fightings, you know, because they're not wars, they're fightings. Because the last war was World War II, all right? Because these are just fightings, undeclared, okay. Where do these wars and fightings come from? They come from lust. That's what the Bible says. He says, you lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war, you have not because you ask not, you ask and receive not, because you ask and miss that you may consume it upon your lust. So look at the word that keeps coming up over and over again in verse 1, lust. Verse 2, lust, desire. And then in verse 3, we have again, lust. So four times, we have either the word lust or desire. What is it? It's covetousness. And the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Now no one can tell me that war is not an evil in this world because evil means to harm someone else. Is war harmful? No matter how you look at it, somebody's getting harmed, somebody's being killed, somebody's being blown apart, somebody's losing a limb. There are casualties in war, okay. The love of money is the root of all evil and this struggle that we see today between nations and between different factions where there's all this bloodshed going on, it's between greedy people who are doing it for the love of money and there is a military industrial complex that profits from warfare. They make the bombs, they make the tanks, they make the bullets, they make the machines, they make the equipment and they make a fortune off it and they don't care which side wins. There are also bankers who make a huge profit on warfare by funding both sides because countries go into debt to fight wars. It's been this way for hundreds of years. I mean this is where the French Revolution came from. The French government went into massive debt fighting their own wars with England also by helping finance the American Revolution. They helped us out and it was a great victory for them, right, but it cost them a lot of money and they were going bankrupt back home and that's how the French Revolution even took place. They didn't have any money and so the people rose up and took over and so forth and a lot of them ended up dead because sin is finished bringing forth death. We see that the Bible is teaching us that lust and covetousness, the desire for money and gain and wealth and for taking land. That's where the wars and fightings come from, greed, lust and covetousness, either on one side or on both sides. Now I want to make it clear where I stand on this and where I think the Bible teaches that we should stand on this. I am anti-war in the sense that I believe that war is bad and it should be avoided and it's hurting innocent people and it should be something that we should not desire or promote. Okay, I mean that should be obvious and clear to everyone as a Christian that we should not think war is great, we love war, we want to fight more wars. That's not a Christian attitude, okay, but I am not for world peace, okay, because being for world peace is actually satanic because of the fact that world peace will only ever be brought about by a one world government. That's the only way to have, unless you're going to remove the heart from every man that covets and replace it with a heart that loves the Lord, which is not going to happen, then you're always going to have wars, aren't you? Why? Because war comes from the lust that war on your members. So as long as there are lusts in the heart of man, there will always be war, won't there? But there are people out there who say, we're for world peace, but they're actually godless atheistic people who don't want Jesus, they don't want God, they don't want to deal with the lust in their own heart, but what they want to do is force world peace by creating a one world government and saying, well, you know, how can two nations fight each other if there's only one nation? Problem solved. That's how they want to bring about world peace. And this world peace buzzword and the peace symbol and the people who promote world peace, the bonos of this world and so forth, are wicked ungodly people who are going to love the antichrist because what's the antichrist going to do? He says by peace, he'll destroy many. So the world's going to be at peace, right, unless you're the one of the people that's being executed. There's not going to be any war, it's just going to be beheadings. That's all. So we need to stay away from this world peace movement, this type of talk about world peace and global village and all this stuff. We need to stay away from that. See the real answer is that Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, will one day set up a kingdom on this earth and there will be peace on earth for a thousand years. But it's going to be one government, but it's going to be Jesus. And you say, well, how am I going to know if it's the fake Jesus or the real Jesus, the antichrist? If you have to ask, it's not the real one. Is this it? It's not. And plus, if you actually know anything about Bible prophecy, you'll know that the antichrist comes first. And he sets up his kingdom first. That's the imposter, that's the fraud. And then, of course, after that tribulation of those days where the antichrist is murdering and executing and there's all these natural disasters and global warfare, then comes the rapture when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds. Then God pours out his wrath on this earth. Then after that, he sets up his kingdom upon this earth where Jesus Christ will physically literally reign on this earth for one thousand years. Okay, the Bible says there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. And when the world is filled with wicked people, there will never be peace. Why? Because war is a judgment or a punishment on sinful man. See, if God were blessing us, we would have peace. Peace is a blessing. I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? Throughout the Bible, read the Bible. When there's peace and quietness, you'll notice that when people do right in the sight of the Lord, he sends peace and judges. A leader comes that loves God. People do right in the sight of the Lord. Peace is the result. A godly king is on the throne. Peace. Okay, you see wicked kings, ungodly people, people who are doing wrong, there's warfare. Now sometimes godly people face a foreign invader that's wicked, that wants to come in and fight them. And then what does God do? He gives them the victory. He sends them out to fight. So I would not consider myself a pacifist, because a pacifist is one who says, you know what, if you come into my house in the middle of the night with a gun, you know, I'm just going to beg you to not hurt me, but I will not fight back, I will not harm anyone. That's what a pacifist is. And a pacifist thinks it's always wrong to fight, and that no war is justified. Now I'm not a pacifist, because the Bible teaches self-defense, and the Bible definitely teaches over and over again, people can defend themselves from a foreign invader. And the children of Israel are constantly, with the Lord's help, defending against an invader. We don't just have to roll over and die. But I would say I'm anti-war, because virtually every single war that our country gets involved in is wrong. And you know, different people have different opinions about these things, and people get really emotional and worked up and fired up about it, but unfortunately, you know, everything that our country does is not just automatically right, because we did it, and we're America, and God bless the red, white, and blue, and we never, you know, kill the wrong, you know, we never do anything wrong. It's stupid. Yes we do. And it's funny how people will hate everything else about our government. I mean, especially, and look, especially the Republican side, the conservative side. Like if you talk to the, and look, I was born and raised, I mean, I'm definitely not a Democrat. I mean, to be a Democrat, you pretty much have to like be for murdering babies, homosexuality, and every form of perversion and filth, and you're, basically it's communism, it's socialism, it's the red party, you know, the worker's red Soviet party or whatever. Okay, so, you know, but it's like, oh, you're not a Republican, you must be a Democrat. No I'm not a Democrat, and I'm not a Republican either. I'm not a Republican or a Demican, because the bottom line is that, you know, when you look at the conservative side, the Republican side, they'll hate on the government, and they'll be like, the government's way too big, it's out of control, they're doing all this unconstitutional stuff, the taxes are way too high, it's going to socialism, and you're like, yeah, totally, you're so right, and you're right there with them, right? But then, when it comes to the illegal, undeclared wars, they just want to just go to war and no declaration of war, just give the president the power to just go in and do, and oh, you know, Obama's not killing enough, and he's not fighting enough and invading enough, and the conservatives are real pro-war usually. It's true folks, you can say, oh, Republican, Republican, rah rah, but they're pro-war, and they want to be proactive about war, and fight wars against people who have not invaded us or attacked us in any way, shape, or form. Now sometimes the way around this is to have fake attacks on the United States, to get all the Christians to get on board, because look, most people in America identify themselves as a Christian. Just go out soul-winning. I go out soul-winning and ask people, are you a Christian? More than 50% of people will say yes. It doesn't mean they're saved. When you ask them about the gospel, they don't know they're going to heaven, but more than 50% of people at the door will say I'm a Christian, even if you go soul-winning, and if you look at statistics, that's how it is. So to get the Christians on board with the war, they have these fake, oh, we were attacked, we have no choice, types of things, but often they'll provoke the attack, number one, or number two, they'll fake the attack. That's pretty much how it works, because you have to ask yourself, who is going to attack us in the United States of America, Canada or Mexico? Who's the greatest threat to our national security? Is it Canada or is it Mexico? We have a Canadian spy in our service right now, and we have Canadian spies here every week at our church. We have visitors from Canada, and they're spies from a hostile foreign power. No, the truth of the matter is, we're not really threatened by, well, but you don't understand, Pastor Anderson, because there's all these terrorists and intercontinental ballistic missiles and blah, but here's the thing, though. When have we ever been attacked by a foreign country in this nation, unprovoked? When has that ever happened? Oh, 9-11. Yeah, fake, inside job, there, I said it. Look at the video of Building 7 and tell me it's legit, okay? Number one. Number two, that was not a foreign government, that was not a nation attacking us, even according to the bizarre official story that as someone who flew every week for seven years, I can tell you, is a completely bizarre and ridiculous, unbelievable story, but even if you believe the official version on 9-11, it still wasn't a foreign nation attacking us. It was just a group of individuals, even according to the official version, you know, these 19 Saudi Arabian hijackers, or if you believe that bizarre, nonsensical story that, you know, with little one-inch blades, they took over four planes and succeeded, you know, I mean, you know, that's a whole other discussion. It's not really a sermon, you know. It's just something to talk about, but it's not really a Bible preaching, but I'm bringing this up just to, I'm trying to apply, you say, preach the Bible. I'm applying the Bible to our lives today and where we're at, because I'm looking at the principles of the Bible and I'm showing you how they apply, okay. What is a justified war? When have we ever been attacked? You say, whoa, in World War II, we were attacked, right, and where were we attacked in World War II? Pearl Harbor, right, and that's part of the United States how? Well, it's Hawaii. Okay, first of all, that was before Hawaii was even a state. Anybody know what year Hawaii became a state? 1950, and when did the attack on Pearl Harbor happen? December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the Empire of Japan. But hold on, how is that the United States? Now look, it's an island way far away from the United States. I mean, look, I think most people don't realize how far away Hawaii is because of those maps where they move it real close to fit it on the map, because you get a map of the United States and Alaska and Hawaii get real close all of a sudden, Hawaii is really far away. I mean, it's not west of us right now. It's actually southwest. It's not just due west from where we are. It's actually in line with Mexico. It's south of where we are. You'd have to go way south and way west. It's extremely far away. So basically, we put a military base on a distant island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that's not a state, it's just some territory that we invaded and took over and put our base there so that we could have a staging area for East Asia. That's what that is for at Pearl Harbor. Then we had an embargo on Japan, which is considered an act of war when you embargo a country. So we have a trade embargo with Japan. So we're already hostile toward Japan in the first place. We have nothing to do with what's going on over in Europe, but then we have this pretext and of course there's all the evidence that Franklin Roosevelt had foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attacks and allowed it to go forward as a pretext for us to go to war so that we could make money and be the victors and win and get a piece of the pie. You know what? We go back to World War I and it's even more corrupt. World War I was even more corrupt as far as the United States involvement than World War II. And we go in and people are making money and politicians are making money and we're gaining power for our world empire. I mean the United States has a world empire right now. It's the one lone superpower. And you know what? The world government is based in New York, the United Nations, in the United States of America. So this is just reality for you, my friend. And you say, oh, but we had to stop Hitler. You know, Hitler was going to take over the whole world if we didn't stop him. Well, you know what? Why don't we just let Hitler and Stalin kill each other or fight each other or battle each other? Because, you know what, Stalin was worse than Hitler. And we teamed up with Stalin. And you can go to museums and see literal posters of a Soviet soldier in the red uniform, the red Soviet army, and it's a United States government poster that says, this man is your friend. He fights for freedom. I've seen it. Post edition posters, propaganda posters from World War II. And we teamed up with the Soviet Union, one of the most evil, wicked, corrupt governments of all time, Joseph Stalin, one of the greatest mass murderers of all time, probably second only to Mao Tse Tung, the other communist, evil dictator of that era. And we teamed up with the Soviet Union against the Nazis. But you know what we should have done? Stayed out of it. Let them fight. Let them die. Let them kill each other. But you know what? We've got to get in on it. And that's the war that everybody looks at as the good war. The righteous war. Well, you know, Vietnam, and well, you know, Korea, and well, Iraq, Afghanistan. But you know, back in World War II, that was the one when we were fully justified and righteous and so forth. You know, I'm not trying to offend people who are veterans of World War II. Both of my grandpas, one of them fought Japan, one of them fought Germany. But you know what? And 50 to 70 million people, depending on what statistics you look at, died in World War II. It was a horrible bloodbath. And it was not something that we should have been sending our troops to go die and get involved in someone else's fight. And the Bible says, he that meddleth with strife not belonging to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. And we should stay out of these things. Oh, but we don't want to give up our place of leadership in the world. That's what your conservative talk radio will tell you. But you know what? They are bought and paid for by evil, satanic members of the synagogue of Satan. And they get all worked up in this thing of, oh, the ISIS and oh, the Muslim extreme. Look, that's just the boogeyman of the month to get you all worked up in a war fever and dehumanize the enemy so that you'll be fine with dropping bombs and murdering man, woman, boy, girl, and torturing people and say, well, you know, we ought to torture them. They're evil. They're the terrorists. Look what they've done. It's fake. It's staged. It's a fraud. And the Bible says the simple believeth every word. You know, prudeth man looketh to his goings. And I'm telling you, this stuff is fake. It's a fraud. And don't you allow yourself, you say, well, how do I avoid getting brainwashed by it? Here's an idea. Kill your television. Read the Bible. Read the word of God. And you know what? If you want to learn about history, buy a book and buy an old book, you know, and be discerning of what books you read and be careful that they're not written by a guy whose name is like Goldberg or Cohen or, you know, Bronstein or something like that. It has nothing to do with race. Jews are white people, OK? Hello. They're East Europeans. They're of Ashkenaz, one of the sons of Japheth, if I remember correctly. But I'm telling you something. You know, you need to be careful not to get brainwashed into this pro-war attitude that Christians have had for decades and we need to stop this deception. And we as Christians need to stop being pro-war and be tools of the military industrial complex. You know what? If we actually had to see the blood and the gore and the body parts and everything like if it were happening here, we'd probably look at it differently. Because I'll tell you what, I don't want to see it. I don't know about you. Maybe Hollywood has desensitized you and the video game industry has desensitized you. But when someone sends me a video of some killing or beheading or violence, I can't watch it. It makes me sick. I mean, who feels the same way? I can't watch it. I won't watch it. I don't want to see it. Movies that show all this gory fighting and gory battle scenes and bloody battles. I mean, aren't the movies, name some movies. Name for me some gory battle movies that show all, what's that? Never heard that one. What else? Braveheart. What else? Saving Private Ryan. These are movies that are known for being gory and bloody and showing. What else? 300. Yeah. Look, something's wrong with you if you enjoy watching people's body parts being hacked off and things like that. You know, if I were to want to watch a war movie, which I don't, I wouldn't want to see any of that. I wouldn't want to see a single person killed or slaughtered or chopped up. And you know what? Something's wrong with you if you delight in that and pleasure in that. I mean, it's sick. But we're just used to it because we just watch it on TV, watch it on the movies, watch it on the video games, and it desensitizes us and then we're just okay with it. We just think, oh yeah, you know, we bombed those people over there and bomb them into the Stone Age and you know what, nuke Iran and bomb them and kill them all. But you know what? There's probably a lot of nice people in Iran. There's probably a lot of Christians there. And there are a lot of heathens here. I mean, everywhere in the world there are good people and bad people. And in the Bible, guess what? Warfare takes place on a battlefield between men, not slaughtering women, children, infant, and suckling. The only time God told them to slaughter everyone was the wicked, sexually perverted Canaanites of the land of the Promised Land, probably because they were all filled with disease. And that's why God gave a specific order saying, wipe out everything that breeds, even kill the animals. You know, they were all infected with AIDS or something, you know, because of all the disease. He lists all these perverted things of sodomy and bestiality and then he says, all these abominations have the people of the land committed, all of them. And you're like, no way. Because first you're reading it and you're like, God, why are you telling us this? No one would do that. What are you talking about? Where did he come up with? And then he's like, all the people of the land did that. I remember as a kid, the first time I ever laid eyes on a homo, I was 15 years old. In real life, seeing a homo. Back then they were in the closet, even when I was a kid, I was born in 1981. But I remember reading this in the Bible about these weird, and I was thinking like, who would do that? You know, the man with man and all the other weird stuff, who would do that? And then it's like, all these things. And I remember just reading that thing like, they did all that? No wonder God killed them all. No wonder God said wipe them all out, because they're all filled with disease. They're all disgusting and so forth. But look, you can't just take that as, oh, that's how God wants people to fight wars. Just kill everybody. Kill man one boy. No, that's not true. The Bible clearly teaches not to kill the women and children. And that's a whole other sermon in and of itself. And so let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 2. I know I got off on a rabbit trail, but you know what, though? It needs to be said. It needs to be taught. We need to stop loving violence. The Bible says, the Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Strong words about people who love violence. Oh, I love these violent movies and you want to see people killed and murdered and raped and chopped up and you know what, it's sick. And we as Christians should have nothing to do with it. And I mean, our natural reaction if we were normal would be if something like that came on a screen or something would be to just not want to see it. That's what a normal person would react. But people who have TV in their living room and are sitting there and watching every day, they just water off and ducks back to them because they've just seen it so many times. You know, it's the truth. Even kids now are playing video games where they blow people apart and kill people and shed a bunch of innocent blood. But these guys, they fight this war. Look, what's God telling a story? Everybody wins. Everybody dies. Everybody just suffers. Everybody's killed in this story. And again, not teaching pacifism, but teaching that we should be anti-war. David, the man after God's own heart said this, I am for peace. And we think of him as what, the greatest warrior. I mean, who's the greatest warrior in the Bible? I mean, David would definitely be a name that would come to mind, wouldn't it? But you know what David said? I'm for peace. And even he was too bloody for God. God said, you're not going to build the temple because you've shed much blood. So did God approve of every drop of blood that David even shed? No. Not even all the people that David killed were justified because God said, you've shed much blood. You're not going to build the temple. Your son Solomon will build it. And guess what Solomon means? What do people say in Hebrew when they want to say hello? They say shalom, which means peace. Solomon means peace. Your son who's named peace is going to build the temple, but you've shed too much blood to build the temple. But even the man after God's own heart said in Psalm 120, I'm for peace. But when I speak, they are for war. We should not be the aggressor. That's what the Bible teaches. But let's hurry up and finish here. These guys kill each other. It says in verse 17, there was a very sore battle that day and Abner was beaten and the men of Israel before the servants of David. And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. These are nephews or cousins of David. And it says, these three sons of Zeruiah there, and it says Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe. And the reason God tells that is because he's a very fast runner. So let me just tell you the story of how this ends up. Very sore battle, Israel's losing, Israel's on the retreat, David and his servants defending Judah, they are winning and they have the enemy on the run. Well the enemy's fleeing and Abner's running away. And Asahel was a very fast runner and he thinks to himself, you know what, I'm going to catch up with Abner. And Abner's the head guy. If I can kill him, that would be the greatest glory in this battle and you could end the whole thing. So he goes chasing after Abner and Abner's running from him. And Abner knows that he can kill this guy. Abner's a great warrior. And he knows he's going to win, but he doesn't want to kill Asahel because he knows he related to Joab and related to David. And so he doesn't want to kill Asahel, then Joab and David are going to hate him. Because remember, to him it's just a game anyway. He likes to hang out with Joab and talk about how it's a game. So he tells Asahel, he says, look, stop chasing me. He says, just look at all these dead bodies, you know, just you can find armor and spoil and money, strip the slain, buddy, it's leave me alone. I don't want to have to kill you. I don't want to have to lift up my face to your brother Joab. But Asahel won't stop. And Asahel's a faster runner. Abner's a better fighter. And so Asahel catches up to him and so Joab defends him and kills him, smites him under the fifth rib, stabs him, and he dies, he's laying there in a pool of blood and so on. So it's a sad story. And then guess what's going to happen later on? In the story, Joab is going to take vengeance and he's going to stab Abner in the exact way that Abner has stabbed Asahel, even though it's not really Abner's fault in the sense here because he's just defending himself. But then again, it is Abner's fault because he's the one who started the whole battle. And when you start fights and start war, it might come a little bit closer to you than you wanted. See, Abner's, oh, it's just a game until somebody's chasing you and then you have to kill him. And then guess what, when Joab kills Abner, Abner's fighting skill doesn't help because Joab comes up to him and says, aren't thou in health, my brother? And just, you know, kills him without him even having a chance to fight back or defend himself. And then guess what happens? Joab ends up getting killed by who? Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, many, many decades later as an old man, he is slain by Solomon's captain of the guard, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. So it's just people killed and killed and killed. Now the Bible says that he was very light of feet because, you know, running fast is, you know, you're light on your feet. You know, if you're a big heavy clunking kind of a, you know, you're not going to be able to run fast. So he's like a deer running very quickly. And so we see just a sad story. Everybody's getting killed. Finally Abner has the voice of reason in verse 26. And Abner called to Joab and said, Shall the sword devour forever? Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it be then ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren? Look at the statement. I mean, don't tell me that this chapter is an accident. God's trying to show us something in this chapter. He's not painting a good picture, is he, of these people killing each other and fighting in war. It's a sad story that they're having this civil war, I guess you could call it, between these two factions. And so we should not delight in warfare and so on. Joab, of course, listens to Abner. Abner says he wants it to be over. Joab listens to him. They sound the trumpet. They go home. But then in verse 1 of chapter 3, there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. Why? Saul wants the power, even though God didn't give him the power. That's what it comes down to. It's always a result of sin and ungodliness. You know what we should pray for is peace. We should pray for peace, not for the world, because that would be ridiculous, because the world's never going to be at peace. The world has always been fighting and always will be fighting until Jesus comes. But pray that we as God's people are at peace. That we live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Let's pray our hands and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for an interesting story about David and this struggle over who's going to reign over the children of Israel, Lord, this seven and a half year period where the kingdom is split, Lord, and David is just ruling over Judah and the house of Saul and Abner are ruling the rest of the kingdom, Lord, and there's all this bloodshed. Help us to realize that it's a sad story and help us to not get caught up and brainwashed in this bloodthirsty pro-war foaming at the mouth, hating all Muslims, hating whoever the enemy is this week, Lord. Help us to realize that human beings that need Jesus or that already even believe in Jesus are living in these other countries, Lord, and that we should be for peace when it's possible. The Bible says as much as dwelleth in us we should seek to live peaceably with all men whenever possible. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.