2 Samuel 5, this is God's holy word. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, Indeed, we are your bone and your flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in. And the Lord said to you, you shall shepherd my people Israel and be ruler over Israel.' Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron and king David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord and they anointed David king over Israel. David was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 40 years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah 7 years and 6 months. In Jerusalem he reigned 33 years over all Israel and Judah. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, You shall not come in here, but the blind and the lame will repel you, thinking, David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. Now David said on that day, whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites, the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Therefore they say, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. Then David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from Milo and inward. So David went on and became great. And the Lord God of hosts was with him. Then Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons. And they built David a house. So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel. and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he had come from Hebron. Also more sons and daughters were born to David." Now these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem. Shammuah, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishema, Eliada, and Eliphelit. Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it, went down to the stronghold. The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the valley of Raphaim. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand. So David went to Bel-perazim, And David defeated them there. And he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breakthrough of water. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim. And they left their images there. And David and his men carried them away. And the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the valley of Raphaim. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, and he said, You shall not go up, circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines. And David did so. as the Lord commanded him, and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer." As far as the reading of God's word. Amen. Tonight I want to speak to you on the idea, the theme of church growth, the expansion of the kingdom of Christ. and some of the principles that we can derive from this passage on that idea. And it's important that we know something of the principles of expanding the kingdom of Christ, or if you will, growing a church. Many of you know that in my backyard, half of my yard has grass and the other half doesn't. And the reason for that is because I know nothing about planting grass. And a few weeks ago when I thought about doing that, I didn't take the time. to call Simon or someone else or YouTube a video on it. I just was tired and at the end of my workday on Saturday I went to Orchard Supply and I just bought some fescue and I just threw it on the ground. Didn't put any straw down or any fertilizer and I just was kind of more or less ignorant of how to plant grass and it didn't go really well. And I needed to know something about the principles of growing grass. It's no different with really anything to include church growth. Let's take a look at this chapter. Now this chapter is the beginning of a new section in this book. Really in the life of David it's a big transition. He's now going from a state of humiliation to being exalted, to being strong. His kingdom and this chapter becomes firmly established and all the way to chapter 11 and 2 Samuel we see his growth of the kingdom so let's take a look at this chapter what we learn is this lesson when God's people are repentant and unite together under strong servant hearted leadership God empowers them to fight for the growth of the kingdom. That's our lesson. Notice first, there's three points. Verses 1-5 we see a repentant and united people. Verses 1-2 How can we summarize verses 1-2? All the tribes of Israel, which we notice later in verse 3, is their representatives. Often times in the Old Testament. Often times, in fact most times when God's people gather, it's really just their leaders. And verse 3 reminds us, it tells us that it's the elders. They gather to David at Hebron. And they say, you know what? We've been wrong this whole time. We repent. We know that you are honorable. You are the one that was leading us out. You are worthy. You are qualified to be a king because you are one of us. They say you are our bone and our flesh which was a requirement in Deuteronomy. But they also acknowledge, listen, the Lord has anointed you and separated you. You were told by the Lord that you will shepherd my people Israel and be ruler over Israel. And this is really a big deal. They are changing their policy. No longer following the house of Saul. This is repentance. They know, they've known for a while that they were to do this. But repentance doesn't happen until there's a turning. Until there's an action. And this repentance brings union. It brings unity. That's what we see in verses 3 through 5. All the elders of Israel come. They make a covenant. King David makes a covenant with them. We're told in 1 Chronicles 12, 39 that this was a three-day event. feasting, eating and drinking for their brethren had prepared for them." And we know from the way a covenant is in the scriptures, though it may not have been exactly according to Deuteronomy 17, We know that there was a giving and a taking. There were stipulations made and promises made. David would have said, listen, I will serve you as your shepherd. And the elders would have said, we will respect your authority. We will submit to you as our king. There's a covenant. There's unity. And to really heighten this establishment, this unity, we have the next couple of verses where we're told the years and such. But notice, the emphasis there is the narrator is bringing this union to the surface. The last phrase there says that he reigned in Jerusalem 33 years over all Israel and Judah. over all Israel and Judah. I want to take just these few verses and speak to you on how this applies to us. We see unity first, or I want to speak to you on unity. Unity, we're going to grow as a congregation. We need to be united. Unity needs to be prized. You know, how sweet, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together. God's people, they've been divided up until now. Their forces have been weak. That's what happens when a congregation fights. That's what happens in a marriage, for that matter. A house divided Christ says, Mark 3, 25, if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Unity is a prerequisite, really. I've been watching football. Many of you have probably been watching some football lately. And it's amazing how there's all different types of ways of calling a play. But if the quarterback thinks it's a pass play, and the running back thinks it's a run play, and the linemen are on the same page, it's a mess. The play's shot. Got to be together. Got to be working together. on the same page, unity, and also repentance. Now the union comes about because of repentance. The Bible is very clear on this principle, that where there's a need for repentance in a congregation, in a Presbytery as well, in our Synod, that needs to take place. Repentance, that's what had to take place. for David's kingdom to be strong. And where repentance needs to take place, that's something that needs to be attended to. 2 Chronicles 7.14 is one of those verses in the Bible that's commonly misquoted and applied to America, but it is properly applied to the church. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." You see the connection with praying and calling God and turning. What happens? There is forgiveness and there is healing of the land which we can associate and apply to us as growth, strength. There's a special application here for... for pastors and for elders. A church... a church where there is unbiblical principles that aren't being dealt with, those need to be dealt with or the Spirit in some way will be quenched. If elders don't deal with sin in the congregation, To the degree that there's being sin committed and the elders aren't doing anything about it. The Spirit can be quenched. And there's not unity. There's not unity and a going forward. The Holy Spirit is not working as powerfully as He could be. A repentant and a united people. That's the first lesson we see here in verses 1-5. What's another lesson we can learn? What's another principle that we can gather from this chapter on the expansion of the kingdom? Verses 6 all the way through 16. What we see in verses 6 through 16, mostly, most of my time will be spent on the fact that David is strong. He's a strong king. He's firmly established. And the principle is a strong leadership. We'll also see servant-hearted leadership, strong servant-hearted leadership is real important for the growth of the church. We see this by the way David chooses and takes Jerusalem. Verses 6 through 8. I say chooses, because we need to stop. Verse 6 says, "...and the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites." We're not told in this text, as far as I'm aware, anywhere in the Bible, where David was told by God to go to Jerusalem. It's a well-known fact. Zion, the city of David, Jerusalem, which is a type of the church in another context, and we're all familiar with that. Notice that one of the ways that David is strong is that he is wise. Think about it. Jerusalem is in the middle of the promised land. It is basically in the middle. It is not way south where the northern tribes would be far away from it. It is not way north. It's in the middle of the land. It was currently, at that time, occupied by Jebusites, Gentiles, which in a sense kind of divided his kingdom. So it was wise to take that over. It was also wise because even though it belonged to the Benjamites, they had not inhabited that city for a long time. There was no memories there. They were not, as it were, attached to that city. It was a neutral place. A neutral place. So he's wise. And in verses 6-8 he takes this city. That's clearly stated in 6-7. Verse 8 is one of those verses that because of the obscurity of the Hebrew language, and if you have the NIV or the ESV, there's different ways of translating it. It gets at the same idea. I happen to believe that New King James translates it well. The idea, it says, whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites. The discussion is either there was some kind of tunnel that they were able to penetrate into the city and to defeat them, or maybe they closed off the water supply. We know how important that would be for a city. Either way, that was the way in which David did it. And there's this phrase here that applies to the Jebusites, the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul. Is it appropriate for David to hate the Jebusites, or in this case, the lame and the blind. What does that mean? Are we supposed to hate the lame and the blind? In some cultures, the lame and the blind are put out. No. What's being said here is that David hates the Jebusites. He's calling them the lame and the blind probably because of the language in the previous sentence. Keep in mind that the Jebusites were cursed of God. They were cursed. They were one of the seven nations. Deuteronomy 7 verses 1-2. You can read that if you'd like. They were one of the seven nations that were wicked. That God was done with. Not going to be patient with them. He was going to give them what they deserved. And Israel was going to come in and they were going to conquer those nations. And Israel had not done that until now. So there's this proverb. Again, part of the difficulty, verse 8, it says, "...therefore they say the lebland and the lime shall not come into the house." This is most likely a reference to the fact that no one with a defect could go into the temple. The priests were not allowed to have a defect like that. It was part of the ceremonial law. The house is a reference to the tabernacle or the temple. There's usage for that in the Old Testament. And so he shows his strength by choosing and taking Jerusalem, and by building Jerusalem up and building his house. These are all... put your mind back in this context. A king needed a strong city. He built it up. Verse 9, he built the city from Milo and inward. The word Milo is again difficult to discern, probably military fortifications. could be civil buildings, but either way his administration is growing. He's building his city. Verse 10, so David went on and became great. That's the theme in this chapter. He builds Jerusalem and he builds his house. Verse 11 and verse 12, we see the king of Tyre, Hiram. We've got to keep in mind that God's people were farmers and they were shepherds. They didn't have skills in lumber and things like that. So he hired a Gentile to do it. And that was not wrong. Unlike the Jebusites, those entire were not one of the cursed nations. It was not wrong for him to do that. And so he's becoming strong. The text says, so David knew the Lord had established him as king. over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom. Now the next few verses we've talked about polygamy. This is clearly a sin. This is clearly a stain on David's record. Yet from another perspective it's another sign of strength, because he has many sons. Which was apart from the polygamy aspect would be a good thing. Many sons. Now one commentator writes this about verses 13 through 16. I'm going to quote him. He says, it is a plus and minus section. On the one hand, the number of David's sons indicates his strength. On the other hand, the number of his concubines and wives reveals his folly. But overall, these verses, in the main, David is faithful and he's strong. He's well established. He's also servant hearted. And I'll just mention this briefly. We know this from the Psalms. But in verse two, he is described as a shepherd. Shepherd. The king was a shepherd. He protected. He provided. He guided. Notice verse 12. It says, So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, that he had exalted his kingdom. Why? Why was David's kingdom exalted? Was it for David's glory? No, it was for the sake of his people Israel. David was going to serve, serve God's people. And what we see here is the growth of the kingdom because practically speaking we have a strong, servant-hearted leader. A strong, servant-hearted leader. And we need in the church strong, servant-hearted leadership. This congregation, just like any congregation, is in need. All of you need a pastor who is competent, elders who are competent. You need that as part of God's system. It's also true that we need not just elders, but deacons. Now we believe that, I want to speak to you for a moment about deacons. I've mentioned about pastors and elders, especially from the Colossian letter. It's important that we esteem them. 1 Thessalonians 5.12 We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." I've mentioned this to you. But deacons also are important. I want you to think about that. Now we believe that we have in our blue book here, the deacons, they're not a teaching or ruling office. But that does not mean they're not important. And that does not mean that they do not lead. In fact, our blue book here says many things about this. They are to lead the congregation in discerning and ministering to needs, such as local needs of individuals. They're described as train the congregation in the use of the members' gifts, overseeing the work of the treasurer, teaching principles of giving, overseeing the maintenance of property, Developing these ministries by personal visitation. Deacons are important. All office bearers are important. We need these people to help us and to lead us. And I want you to think about this because, first, because I want you to think about whether you esteem even the deacons. And whether you take your position as a deacon Seriously, whether the deacons take themselves seriously, we need strong leadership. I want you all to think about that. I also want you to think about the nature of leadership. You church leaders that are here, especially, again, I wanna speak to you. Are you just attending meetings to make decisions? Or are you attending to God's people? Spending your time with them? Dedicating your life to them? Are you a servant-hearted leader? This is important. This is what we have here in this passage. When God's people are led by these type of leaders, the kingdom grows. Strong, servant-hearted leadership. One thing that will quickly zap a church is selfish pastors, selfish elders and deacons. not serving the people." Laban is not perfect. Christ is that perfect servant, leader. He said, Mark 10.45, in fact I'll read that. Mark 10.42. He says, Jesus called them, His disciples, He said to them, that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve to give his life a ransom for many. Strong, servant-hearted leadership. It's the second principle we have here. Now we have another principle I want us to consider. That's found in verses 17 through 25. And that is simply that we also have a fighting and God-empowered people. of fighting a God-empowered people. Verses 17-25 has an interesting aspect to it. There is a healthy balance between human faithfulness and God's sovereignty. Matthew Henry writes, God's grace must quicken our endeavors. God works in us both to will and to do. It does not follow that we must sit still as though those who have nothing to do. But we must therefore work out our own salvation with all possible care and diligence." So first notice the fighting aspect. David fighting. The first way he fights is he prays. Verses 19, he calls upon the Lord. He inquires again in verse 22. verse 23. He prays. He fights physically as the leader of the people and other, of course, other members of his army. And they pursue. Verse 25, and David did so as the Lord commanded him. And he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer. He's fighting. He burns their idols. If you look at verse 21, The narrator of 2 Samuel is having us remember the time. We didn't cover this because I didn't preach from 1 Samuel. But God's people brought the Ark of the Covenant into battle. And the Philistines, they left it there in the battle. They retreated and the Philistines took it. The Philistines leave their images, their idols, and David takes them away. We learn from 1 Chronicles 14.12, according to God's command, as part of this fight to rid the land of idolatry, He burns them. He burns their idols. 1 Chronicles 14.12, when they left their gods there, David gave a commandment and they were burned with fire. They took them away and then they burned them. This is the fighting that's going on. David is engaged with the enemy and he is physically, in this case, physically expanding the kingdom. But it is important for us to also notice how God is the power. He is the power behind David. He is driving him forward. He gives David guidance. Okay, he tells him first to go up. Listen, I'm going to deliver you. Go up. Fight him in the Valley of Raphaim. He tells him a second time, listen, don't go up, but go around. Some type of ambush or some type of maneuver. He gives him guidance. He gives him power. The place, the first battle is called Baal-perazim. Literally, master of breakthroughs. The picture is water gushing forward and just moving everything in its path. As if David's army just crashed against their lines and just annihilated. All because of God's power. Verse 24, we have this discussion about mulberry trees. Obviously some kind of supernatural thing is going on. David's army probably wasn't all that great, and it wasn't small necessarily, but it wasn't all that great, but God was with him. And there was going to be the sound of marching, of the army going forward into battle. And again, God goes before, verse 24 says, for then the Lord will go out before you. Go out before you to strike the camp. You know, when Joel and I and Tim, when we go out to evangelize, one of the things we pray is, Lord, go before us. Go before us. Give us an opportunity. Give us a physical place where we can preach and share. Go before us. Open up hearts. Do the work that we can't do. I want you to think about this. You, no doubt, many of you have been sharing the gospel with friends and family. You haven't really seen a lot of success. But keep doing it. Keep fighting. Some of you have been praying for loved ones for years. You haven't seen anything. But keep fighting. Keep fighting. Stay in the fight. Just keep witnessing. Be sober minded. Keep praying. Look to the Lord. Listen, your testimony may be simple. You may not be real conversant with the scriptures and just rolling, defending the faith, doing apologetics, but the power to bring people to the gospel is not in me. It's not in the preacher. It's not in your skill. It's in the Lord Jesus and His Spirit. and you've got to go there. And likewise, expanding the kingdom. The kingdom is not physical like it was then. It's not just evangelism. It's also dealing with sin. Listen, some of you, just like me, in fact all of you, just like me, we're all in some degree struggling with sin. And I'm here to tell you something. First, two things. First, don't give up on fighting against your sin. putting it to death. Keep fighting. Listen, have hope. Draw strength from the fact that the Holy Spirit is in you. He is in you. You may have fallen several times and you may have dishonored God's name with your sin. In that sense the kingdom as it were is decreasing. Hypocrisy is a big plague in the church. Confess your sin, turn to the Lord Jesus, trust in the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, and trust in His Spirit to overcome your sin and fight, fight. That's what we see here. We see fighting, spiritual warfare. Some of you may need to simply stand firm. I was talking to someone this week, struggling with some things, and that was, at the end of the day, I told this person, just listen, sometimes as Christians we have to stand firm. Stand firm with the shield of faith. Just hold up that faith and just stick your ground. You may not feel like you're growing spiritually. That's okay. You may be under a lot of spiritual attack. Keep praying. Just hold fast against the wiles of the devil. When God's people are repentant and unite together under strong servant and hearted leadership, God will empower them to fight for the growth of the kingdom. I spoke to you tonight on several principles of church growth. What principles do you need to revisit that I spoke on tonight? Now, I hope to revisit my backyard. I know better, and I'm going to revisit it. I'm going to re-tackle it. Get that grass growing. All of you, I know you want to see the RPCNA grow. You want to see our Presbytery grow and you want to see this congregation grow. What principles tonight do you need to apply? Go ahead and apply those. Apply those principles and see what the Lord will do. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful We look to our weaknesses, we look to our sin, we look to our stubbornness, we see so many difficulties and problems and yet we are so thankful that in the midst of this you are gracious to us, you love us, you care for us, you are patient with us. Father we come to you tonight with a sincere desire to apply these principles, to grow our congregation, that your son may be glorified in our life and in our church. We ask that you would bless us. Father, do raise up in our congregation strong, servant-hearted leadership. Father, if there's a need in our congregation for repentance, for greater unity, we ask that you would bring that about. Father, we pray You would fill us up with Your Spirit and enable us to fight for the growth of the kingdom. We pray all this in Jesus' name, Amen.