2 Samuel 10 verses 1 all the way through the end of the chapter. Verse 19. Again, this is God's holy word. Take heed how you hear it. It happened after this that the king of the people of Ammon died, and Hanan his son reigned in his place. Then David said, I will show kindness to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me. So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the people of Ammon. And the princes of the people of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, do you think that David really honors your father because he has sent comforters to you? Has David not rather sent his servants to you to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it? Therefore Hanun took David's servants, shaved off half of their beards, cut off their garments in the middle at their buttocks, and they sent them away. And they told David he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Wait at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then return. The people of Ammon saw that they had made themselves repulsive to David. The people of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers. From the king of Mecca, 1,000 men, and from Ishtab, 12,000 men. Now when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the mighty men. Then the people of Ammon came out and put themselves in battle array at the entrance of the gate. The Syrians of Zobah, Beth Rehob, Ishtab, and Mecca were by themselves in the field. When Joab saw that the battle line was against him before and behind, he chose some of Israel's best and put them in battle array against the Syrians. The rest of the people he put under the command of Abishai, his brother. He might set them in battle array against the people of Ammon. Then he said, if the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the people of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. So Joab and the people who were with him drew near for the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. And the people of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fleeing. They also fled before Abishai and entered the city. So Jehoiab returned from the people of Ammon and went to Jerusalem. And the Syrians saw they had been defeated by Israel. They gathered together. Then Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the river. And they came to Helam. And Shobak, the commander of Hadadezer's army, went before them. When it was told David, he gathered all Israel, crossed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in battle array against David and fought with him. Then the Syrians fled before Israel. And David killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 horsemen of the Syrians, and struck Shobak, the commander of their army, who died there. when all the kings who were servants to Hadadazer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Syrians were afraid to help the people of Ammon anymore." That's part of the reading of God's Holy Word. Amen. Two years ago, right when we, about two years ago, right when we landed here in Fresno, so two summers ago now, I remember one day I wasn't able to go for a run that morning and I was caught up with some of the things in life and I just told myself I would run later in the day. It was July and I was not in South Carolina anymore. And I was drinking water here or there throughout the day as I was reading, but not as much as I should have. And I remember before lunch, it was a late lunch, right in the middle of the day, 12 o'clock, 12.30, I told myself I was going to go on a quick jog, go ahead and knock out my workout. And it's not a big deal. I mean, I did this in South Carolina and I should be fine. So I started jogging as soon as I left the front door. I was jogging around the neighborhood and I was probably going about three miles. And the first time in my life, I mean, I remember this, it was very strange. I was a mile into my run and I stopped running and I started walking. And the reason for that was because the heat was so suffocating. I couldn't take it. It's close to 110 degrees and I overestimated, I underestimated the effect that the heat would have me. I had no clue. I didn't really have proper expectations for how bad it was going to be. Because of that, I was unprepared. I didn't hydrate like I should have and I just made a bad decision to run in Fresno in the middle of July. did not have the proper expectations. Expectations are very important because they lead to preparation and you need to be prepared for various things. Now you don't face a three-mile run in 110 degrees every day, but you do face problems that you need to be prepared for, that you need to have proper expectations for. You don't face an ethnic group like the Ammonites, the Syrians, like Israel does in this chapter. But you do face an enemy, the world, the devil, and your flesh. You do have an enemy and you need to have proper expectations concerning them and your situation in this world and your interaction with this world as the people of God. Very important. Expectations. This chapter is the last chapter in a section of this book. Gordon Keddie. Many of you will recognize that name. This is the last chapter in a section that started in chapter 1 that he calls Revival. Think about it. Saul's out. David's in. What happens to the people of God? What happens to the church? Revival. A strengthening of the nation. A gathering of the nation. A reformation of worship. a strengthening of the military, an expansion of the nation in a sense. There's revival. The church is strong. And this is really the last chapter of that. You'll notice in chapter 11 we have Bathsheba and 2 Samuel, the Bathsheba account. In 2 Samuel, the book of 2 Samuel takes a turn. But this chapter, not only is it the end of a revival section, if you will, it has its own message. I thought about having us sing Psalm 2. Psalm 2, you'll recall, is a psalm about how the nations are at war against the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's a battle going on. This is a mini psalm too. There's a battle between Christ and his church in the world, and there's a victory. Of course, it's King David and King Jesus. What I want you to see from this chapter, is this lesson. The church ought to expect from her enemies, flippant mistreatment, united aggression, fearful flight, and stubborn resistance. Four things more or less difficult and hard to deal with. Four things that the church ought to expect from her enemies. I want you to see first flippant mistreatment versus one through five. Flippant mistreatment verses 1 through 5. Now, we can't really, we don't culturally, in a natural reading, being Americans living in 2018, we don't really appreciate how bad this was. There's massive mistreatment here. We don't know exactly the relationship David had with Nahash. Nahash fought against Saul in 1 Samuel 11. And so there was, we can assume naturally that David was aligned with Nahash in some way and Nahash had treated him well and David had treated him well. And so Nahash dies and David wants to show kindness. That's exactly what David says at the beginning of chapter 9. Can I show kindness for Jonathan's sake, to anyone? We kind of expect a good thing to happen, but we don't see that. It's a negative thing. Some folks, some commentators say, well David and his men got what they deserved because they shouldn't have been nice to the Ammonites. That's not necessarily the case. Deuteronomy 2 verse 19 says, And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them. For I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to their descendants of Lot as a possession." They were not to needlessly go to war with them. They were in some sense a protected people. Something wrong with showing kindness to this nation. What happens to the servants of David? They're mistreated. Half of their beards are shaved off. We should understand that in the sense of one side of the face. A beard was a sign of manhood. They had their manhood taken from them. This is kind of a big deal. New King James rightly translates verse 4 regarding what happens to their garments and the exposure that takes place. This is basically an act of war. It's a mistreatment. And it's flippant. We see that flippancy in verse 6 really, commenting on the actions of verses 1-5. It's almost like they're surprised that David's repulsed. Verse 6, "...when the people of Ammon saw that they had made themselves repulsive to David..." Well, don't you know this is going to be repulsive? Don't you know what you're doing? They did it flippantly. It wasn't a big deal to reject the servants of David. Servants of Christ. Those who have the message of life upon their lips. This is what the world does often. What the world does to God's people. Those who are trying to help them and trying to be kind to them. John 15 verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. We should expect mistreatment, persecution. 1 Peter 4.14, If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. Have you been mistreated by the world? Perhaps you are simply obeying God. You are in your situation in life, maybe your workplace, or whatever the situation is in your life, at school, and you're not doing certain things that the worldlings do. Maybe the way you speak, or maybe some of your hobbies, or making fun of people, just different things. And because you're obeying your God, and you're following Him, and you're being faithful to the law, you're put to the side, you're an outsider, you're mistreated, just because you're obeying God, just because you're a servant of God. You should expect this. You should expect this. Perhaps you've actually spoken words of kindness, words of life, the very gospel that the Spirit uses to save and to impart a saving grace to people, and how are you treated? Have you ever been mistreated just serving people and being an ambassador, as it were, of the king? I want you to think about this because if this hasn't happened to you yet, it will happen. And I want you to know you're not wrong. You're not wrong if you're mistreated. Maybe you're at school and you're not going along with the crowd and you're lonely. It doesn't mean you're wrong. You're probably right. Because you can expect the world to mistreat you. You might share the gospel with someone and they might reject you and be offended by you. And you think, well, maybe I shouldn't have been so bold. Well, there's a discussion to be had about boldness and being too rash and things like that. But you should expect, this is what you should expect from the world, flippant mistreatment. And I don't want you to think that just because these things are happening to you that you're wrong, that you did something wrong, that you should stop. This is what happens. By and large, this is what happens when God's people come in contact with the world. Flippant mistreatment. What else do we learn from this passage? What should we expect from our enemies? Verses six through eight. United aggression. So secondly, look with me at united aggression. Notice how the world is united against the people of God. What does Ammon do? Oh man, David's pretty strong and we kind of made him mad. The beginning of verse 6 is literally, they stank to David. They were repulsive to him. What do they do? They unite with other worldlings. The people of Syria, Beth Rehob, Zobah, Maka, Ishtab, they unite with them. And they are the ones that are aggressive. They're the ones that are hostile. I want you to see that. Verse 7 says, Now when David heard of it, what did he hear? They're gathering together. They're gathering together against the people of God. And David heard it. He sent Job. Job and all the army of the mighty men. Verse 8. They're the ones that are in battle array at the entrance of the gate. There's aggression. I want you to I think we'll be for a moment here about Genesis 3.15. Genesis 3.15 is the first gospel. It says this, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seat and her seat. She shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. That's the first gospel, but it also is a narrative. It's also setting a narrative throughout the Bible. There's two seeds. There's two teams, if you will. There's two sides. There's going to be a war. There's going to be aggression between these two sides. Not just mistreatment, but war. John 15, 19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Do you know that the world hates you? Do you know that the enemies of the church are aggressive toward God's people? Do you know that? I want you to think about the persecuted church for a moment. We're not persecuted, at least in a major sense in this country, but many of God's people are. We are abnormal. What we experience is very abnormal in history, even in the current situation across the globe. Do you not realize this is what's going on? We need to remember to pray. We need to remember to pray for the church. China, Pakistan? This is going on. I want you to think about this in light of, in a different angle. I mean, we are at war. How does the devil and all the worldlings, how are they aggressive towards you? Are they going to pick up a metal pole and beat you for being a Christian? No. But listen to me. Listen to me. The devil and the world, they're out to get you. They're out to deceive you. They're out to tempt you, to ruin your marriage, to get you to do something scandalous, to publicly bring this honor to Christ. The devil can't take your salvation, but he can cause you to sin or tempt you to sin, I should say. He wants you to do that. He's aggressive towards you. I want you also to think about this. There's two seeds, right? There's two teams. The world hates us. If we feel lonely in this world, it's probably a good thing. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. I mean, if you feel like your only friends are church people and Christians, that's probably a good thing. I'm not saying you can't have friends that aren't Christians, okay? But there's one of the ways that Satan attacks the church. He wants them to be worldly. He wants them to be like the world. He doesn't want them to enter into the fight. Are you lonely? It makes sense. You're a bit lonely. And your wife, or your husband, or your family members, or those close in the church, are your only really close friends. Who else are we going to be close to? The world's against us. or our friends who are unbelievers, if they're influencing us, they're gonna steer us in the right direction. They're unbelievers. United aggression. I want you to think about that. I want you to think about how the world is united against us. But look with me, thirdly, verses nine through 14. You see here some encouraging material. Fearful flight. What should we expect from our enemies? We should expect them to run to be afraid. Fearful flight. That's what happens here. You see that in verses 13 and 14? I want to point out though, verses 9 through 12, there's a condition to this. Now, Joab is an interesting character. Preachers don't know what to do with him. But just because Joab is fundamentally a hypocrite and unfaithful, you recall he leaves David, he's done a lot of bad things already. But just because he is fundamentally off base doesn't mean we can't hear truth from his mouth. Here he's an example. He's a mighty warrior. He's wise and courageous. That's what verses 9 through 12 tell us. He sees the battle. He sees how it's shaping up. He sees that they're going to surround him, so he divides his forces. It's a wise move in this case. He's courageous. He's united with his brother. Listen, he has a plan. Verse 12, he's seeking the good of the people of God and of God as well. Joab was a mighty warrior. He was smart and he was strong. We need to see that. Now, I'm going to come back to that in a moment. What happens? They run. There is a fight, a little fight with the Syrians Verse 15 tells us that they had been defeated, which literally they had been struck down. There had been some kind of engagement. The Ammonites just run away. God's people, or the enemies of God, they run. They flee when God's people fight them by God's power. I want you to see that. Think about this for a moment. Think about our enemies. The world, the devil, and our flesh. James 4.7, Therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you." We prayed for protection from temptation. What's going to happen if you resist the devil? Is the Holy Spirit who is in you, is He not greater than He who is in the world? You may have to put up a fight like Joab. You may need to be strong in the Lord. What's going to happen? What should you expect from your enemies? To run. Look at it from The perspective of evangelism. We share the gospel with people. We don't always see success. That doesn't mean that we don't have victory. To some, the gospel is an aroma of life. To others, it's an aroma of death. Either way, God's will is being done. 2 Corinthians 2, 14-16. Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved, among those who are perishing. To the one who we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? I don't want you to think when you are wrestling with your sin, I don't want you to think that your sin is more powerful than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this does tell us something about our use of means. I mean, Joab is a mighty warrior. You know, should we go about evangelism and preaching the gospel and doing apologetics and not study? And not make sure our spiritual swords are sharp? We should. We should. That's a means God's given us. I want you to see that. We shouldn't just rush into temptation. Temptation is not a big deal. We should pray that God delivers it from us. That we don't face it. That we don't just go to a place where we know we're going to be tempted. But also, I don't want you to be afraid. I don't want you to be fearful. You might be wrestling with sin right now and wondering if you're going to be able to really conquer it. Is it really going to run away? Are you going to defeat it? Well in Christ we have the victory. We should expect our enemies to run from us. I'm not talking about physical ammonites. I'm talking about our spiritual enemies. Fearful flight. Look at me fourthly verses 15 through 19. Stubborn resistance. Stubborn resistance. What should we expect from our enemies, whether it be our sin, whether it be people we've been sharing the gospel with for a long time, who have not yet turned. And we're praying for them. We've been sharing with them. What should we expect? Well, in many cases we should expect stubborn resistance. Verse 15, what do you expect to read? Verse 15, when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, What do you expect? Do they submit to him? They acknowledge that he's one? That he's more powerful? No, they're stubborn. They don't give up. They hate Christ. They hate the anointed one. They hate David. They gather together. You have more forces coming in. It was told David, verse 17, he gathered all Israel, crossed over the Jordan, and came to heal them. And the Syrians set themselves in battle array against David and fought with him. They're stubborn. They don't give up easily. Now, David wins. David wins. He routs them. And they submit. There's really something I should mention here. What should they have done? They should have repented. They should have repented. They should have submitted. This is what unbelievers must do. If you're here and you're not a Christian, and you haven't turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to live your own life, kids, your faith, the faith that you've been hearing is not your faith. It's the faith of your parents. God wants you. He commands you. You're under obligation to submit to the King. To turn to Him. That's what you should do. What happens to those who resist? Well, they're killed. They're defeated. They eventually submit, and they serve David. David wins the battle here. I'm a history major, an American history major, and I really like World War II. It's an interesting story. Perhaps you've heard of the World War II battle of Iwo Jima. The Japanese were on this island and they're very stubborn. During World War II the Japanese were very stubborn. Well, we surrounded that island and through difficult combat we defeated the Japanese on the island of Iwo Jima. Two lieutenants of the Japanese army, their names I will not try to pronounce, continued to hide out and not surrender. for four years. They finally surrendered on January the 6th, 1949. The war ended in 1945. Stubborn, not giving way. That might be how you feel in regards to people that you love dearly, that you're praying for. I want you to think about this for a second. The Bible says, I want you to think about this verse, Mark 9, 29. The disciples are trying to cast out some demons and Jesus says to them, this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. These demons are stubborn. They're holding on. John G. Payton wrestled spiritually on the island of Tanna for three years. Didn't gain a lot of fruit. He wrestled. We should expect that. It doesn't mean that we're doing the wrong thing. It doesn't mean that we should give up either. Keep praying. Keep praying, keep witnessing to those people that you've been witnessing to, that you've been praying to. It doesn't mean that God is not almighty. It doesn't mean that they won't turn and repent. Listen, your sin that you hate, that you've had in your life, maybe you just can't help to gossip, or you can't help to indulge in some sinful pleasure, or you struggle with anger, you hate that you do these things. Keep fighting. Keep fighting. Listen, Romans 7, 21-23, I find in a law, this is Paul speaking about the common experience of Christians, all Christians, I find in a law that evil is present with me. The one who wills to do good, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind. and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." I want you to remember that though it may be a long fight, though your enemies be stubborn, the Lord Jesus gives us the victory. He gives us the victory. His will be done even if they don't repent. God wins Our faithfulness is what's important. Our struggle, our perseverance. Do not grow weary in doing good. For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Do not lose heart. Expect stubborn resistance. Don't let it be an excuse to not witness. Don't let it be an excuse not to strive for holiness. But don't give up either. Don't give up. Keep fighting. should expect stubborn resistance. The church ought to expect from our enemies flippant mistreatment, united aggression, fearful flight, and stubborn resistance. What do you expect in this world? What are your expectations from your enemies? September 30th 1938 Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, returned from a diplomatic political flight mission to Germany, where he met with Adolf Hitler, the German leader, one of the greatest villains in Western civilization, responsible for the death of thousands and thousands of people. 1938, September 30th, he returns from this trip. goes to his headquarters and gives a speech to his people. And he says, my good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany, bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. Peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home. and get a nice, quiet sleep. Within a year, Germany had invaded Poland and Britain had declared war on Germany. What do you expect? What do you expect in this life? Do you not know? Do you not know that you're at war? Do you not know that it will be difficult? It will be difficult. My dear congregation, be sober, be diligent, and most of all, look to the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, because He will give you victory, not just in the life to come, but in this life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight in light of this passage of scripture. We ask that you would give us a sober mind, that you would give us the proper expectations of our life, our pilgrimage in this side of heaven. We ask that you would give us encouragement, that you would give us comfort. We know that you have not promised us an easy life. We know that the world hates us. We ask that you would be with us. that you would strengthen us and give us victory more and more over the devil and his temptations over the world and over our sin. For we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.