During our evening service, when we come to these verses, 2 Samuel 21, 15 through 22. This is God's holy word. 2 Samuel 21 verse 15, When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines, and David grew faint. Then Ishbi Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear, a bronze spear, was 300 shekels, was wearing, bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. But Abishai the son of Zariah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushethite killed Zaph, who was one of the sons of the giant. Again, there was war at Gob, the Philistines, where El Hanun, the son of Jer Aragon, the Bethlehemite, killed the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft whose spear was like a weaver's beam. Yet again, there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number. And he also was born to the giant. So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him. These four were born to the giant in Gath and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. That's for God's holy word. Amen. There is tension in the Christian life There's tension in our faith. On one hand, we believe that God is absolutely sovereign. He's almighty. But on the other hand, we see time and time again that man truly is responsible for what he does. Think about it. Paul, the Apostle, is on a mission trip. He's in Corinth. He's preaching. He's facing some opposition. Christ speaks to him in the night. He says to him, keep preaching. Keep evangelizing. I'm paraphrasing, of course. Then he says, but for I have, for I have many people in this city. You see the tension. Christ has chosen these Corinthians. He knows who they are. I have many people in this city. and you're gonna go fish for him. There's tension. There's tension in many ways. God requires all of you, all mankind, to repent, to turn to Christ, to believe in him, and if you don't, you'll go to hell. And it won't be because you were not elect. It was because you did not repent. And you did not turn to Christ for salvation. And as Christians, we who are saved, and we who cannot lose our salvation, and we have the Holy Spirit, and we who are growing in our faith, and our love, and our knowledge, God calls us to do this, to not do this, and to do this, and to not do this. And we're responsible for that. And there's tension. There's tension. God is infinite. We're finite. These two things are true and they're not illogical or irrational. They're just beyond our reason. We're creatures. And there's tension in this passage of scripture. And I want you to think about this tension because you can make the mistake Well, on one hand, you can assume that it's all up to you. My salvation is up to me. My sanctification is up to me. And the gospel and evangelism is up to me. And that's a really depressing thing to think about. Really is depressing. But on the other hand, you can also say, well, it's all up to God. Let go and let God. That's also wrong, too. And it's probably the way Reformed folks, folks who believe in the sovereignty of God, tend to err. Well, consciously or subconsciously, well, I'm just going to sit back. In this passage of scripture we have a focus on human responsibility and the fact that God uses human instruments to accomplish his will to fulfill his promises. It's actually an emphasis contextually. This section in 2 Samuel, as I mentioned last week, We've had many chapters of rebellion and revolt from the sin of Bathsheba. David's adultery and murder. But in this section, 21-24 of 2 Samuel, there is a theological message here. The author of 2 Samuel is telling us that God is with David. He is with his kingdom. In this section we see his servants fighting for him. If you were a Hebrew scholar you would see a parallel between this section... And chapter 23, where there's another list of servants. It's kind of like a Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame, if you will. This section begins with tragedy. It ends with tragedy. There's a psalm in the middle. On both sides of the psalm, there's servants serving the king. That's the focus here, and I want you to see this. The lesson for us this evening is God is faithful to fulfill His redemptive promise. And to that end, He uses the affection, courage, and persistence of His servants. That's our lesson tonight from this passage. God is faithful to fulfill His redemptive promises. And to that end, He uses the affection, courage, and persistence of His servants. Four points this evening. First, I want you to see the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of our God to us and all that He says. This is the foundation for us to do anything. Faithfulness of God. Now there's a promise. We sang about it in God's providence. We sang about the Davidic Covenant. Now in 2 Samuel 7, God had made a promise to David. Verses 12-16 and I'll just summarize it. He's basically saying, He says this to David. Listen David, I'm not going to reject you like I rejected Saul. I will stay with you. You will reign on the throne of Israel, and you will have a son who reigns on the throne of Israel forever. I promise you this, David. I promise you this. But we have a serious problem in this passage of Scripture, because here's David fighting against the Philistines, and he's in faint. He's tired. And whether he's old at this point or not, it doesn't really matter. This is not chronological. Sometimes the historical narratives don't come to us chronologically. We don't know a lot about the chronology of this passage. But David's faint, he's in the battle, he's fighting this Ishbi Binob, and it's not going well. This was a movie, the music would be turned up, the camera would be zoomed in. I mean, David's thinking to himself, why am I tired? What's this new weapon this guy has? He's not falling, what's the deal? God, I'm tired, are you gonna save me, help me? And here comes Abishai. Here comes Abishai. God's faithful. And we need to see this. It's not just that we know God is in control and that God's really our Savior. This is something that David specifically points out. Yes, Abishai comes to his aid. And I'm going to talk about Abishai in a moment. But look at the next chapter. 2 Samuel 22, verse 1. Then David spoke to the LORD the words of the psalm on the day when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, from the hand of Saul. And he said, The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my strength and whom I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior. You save me from violence." God delivered David. God's faithful. He's faithful. It may not seem like He is. David may have been wondering, but He's faithful. And He's made promises He's made a lot of promises, hasn't He? He's made promises to you. What promises has He made to you? He's promised to save you. You, who've turned to Him. He promises, He makes this, this is the gospel. All of you, all mankind, to turn. If you turn to Jesus Christ and you trust in Him, it doesn't matter if you're an adulterer, a homosexual, A swindler. He'll forgive you. He'll forgive you. He'll wipe away all of your sin. He'll reconcile you. That's a promise. And He will do it. And He will do it. And you, those who know, who've tasted and seen that the Lord is a good you, God's people, what promise has He made you? He's promised to be with you. You may not think He's with you. You think he's absent? He's not almighty? You think of your problems you have in your life? Yea, though I walk through the valley, the shadow of death. Where's God? You're with me. You're with me. He promises to be with you. He hasn't left you. Think about your sin. Think about temptation. What promises do you have, dear Christian? In your moment of temptation. Or you really want to get mad at your spouse. Or you want to look at pornography. Or you want to be bitter. Complain. And you feel like the giant of sin is going to overtake you. What promise do you have? No temptation. No temptation has overtaken you. Except that which is common to man, that God is faithful. With the temptation He will make the way of escape. You may be able to bear it. Think about the trials that you're facing. Temptation, sin, or not. We just face trials. We have back pain. You know, we get bosses that are just hard to deal with. Trials. It's hard to be faithful. It's hard to do what you need to do. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Right? That's not a promise for the Olympics. It's a promise for the Christian life. My grace, Jesus said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. So this is the gospel. This is good news. This is the foundation for our action. This is not true. Then just, you know, hang up the towels, quit. But this is true. God is faithful to us. And you need to think about what he's promised you. Because he's faithful. He's gonna keep his promises to you. Faithfulness of God. Now this is where the tension kind of comes in. Everything I've said is true. Absolutely true. It's totally true. And because of that, we act, don't we? Faith works through love. At our conversion, for our justification, faith rests in Christ. We don't do a thing. Part of salvation is sanctification. Part of salvation is a fight. And He gives us His Spirit and He calls us to action. And I want you to see, secondly, The use of affection. A servant that loves the king. That's what I want you to see. Love. God uses affectionate servants. And we see this in verse 17 and 18. I'm sorry, verse 17 really. Two different kind of ways of looking at it. Think about Abishai for a moment. Now Abishai is not perfect. I mean, he's not even close to being perfect. You have been listening to me preach to the Second Samuel. I mean, he's basically in league with Joab and a few murders and a bunch of other things. But God's people aren't perfect. You're not perfect. Abishai loves David. Now, what motivated Abishai to leave his line in the battle, see David, and he's fighting a giant. He loves David. He loves David. He doesn't want David to die. That's what's going on here. Abishai loves David. He's going to sacrifice his life. He's going to sacrifice his life to save David. Think about the men. Verse 17 later on it says, Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. Lest you quench the lamp. David is the lamp of Israel. You can look at Jeremiah 25.10 and Job 21.17 for that imagery and the meaning of it. It means life, it means prosperity. David's the king. Listen, you're too valuable to us. We don't want anything to happen to you. We're gonna put you in a safe place. Love. The things you value, you love. I love my laptop. I bought it when I came out here. And I don't leave it in my car, in the back seat, especially in this part of town. It's not safe. It's not worth the risk, is it? And I make a habit, no matter where I go in Fresno, I always put it in the back of my trunk. And that's what's going on here. David's precious to these men. They love him. They love him. And God's people love their King. They love the Lord Jesus Christ. It's really a great theme throughout the Bible. It's the great commandment, isn't it? You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and all of your strength. Love for Christ is a big deal. Matthew 10, 37. He who loves father or mother more than me, Jesus says. is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Paul makes a very strong statement at the end of his first letter to the Corinthians. Anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Christians, Christians trust in Christ, yes. And they love Him. They love Him. And this love fuels them to action. Do you love Christ? Are you willing to sacrifice for Christ in your life where you are? Do you sacrifice your time for Christ? Do you give Him your time on the Lord's day? Do you give Him your time each and every day to some degree? to read His word? Do you love to be with Christ and to hear His words? Are you willing to sacrifice? Listen, you're busy. Even you kids, you're busy. And all you adults, you're busy. You're just like me. Do you have time for Christ to pray with Him? Pray to Him? To commune with Him? Do you love Christ with your money? Do you sacrifice your money to give to the church? Did it work? What about your energy? What about your energy? Are you willing to sacrifice your energy? It takes a lot of energy for a church to function. Prayer meetings have to be hosted. Fellowship meals have to be cooked. These evangelism events that I don't think we've officially announced them all to you yet, but this summer we're going to be doing all these events. Some events of evangelism. It's just going to take energy to go out there and to get the kids ready and whatever else. It takes sacrifice. You may not be asked to take up a sword and fight a giant. Sacrifice your life. If you love Christ, then you'll make sacrifices for Him. Do you love Christ? What are you sacrificing for Him? Do you see the tension? God is faithful. He will build His church. He will save His people. And he's calling them to action. He wants his servants to be affectionate for him. He wants his servants to be courageous. Third, I want you to see courage. There's courage here. And it basically is found in the fact that we just need to stop and pause and realize that this is not the junior varsity. This is not the second string army. Okay? These are giants. They're all giants. Verse 22 is a summation of the text. These four were born to the giant in Gathol. Four of them were born. And fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. They're all giants. Ishbi-Benob is a giant with a large weapon, a bronze spear. It was 300 shekels, about seven pounds. And the idea is the spearhead. It's a big weapon. Big weapon, big man. He also has a new weapon. It's probably a sword. We see that in verse 16. That would make it a little bit more scary because you don't want to bat against a left-handed pitcher and you don't want to box the southpaw. It's just kind of off. It's weird. It's new. It's intimidating. These are all giants. You have another giant, verse 19, who has another large spear. The shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. I'm not exactly sure what that means. but it sends a message, doesn't it? Big weapon, big man, giant. Verse 20, I got a freak, something kind of different. Okay, a man of great stature, six fingers. Okay, and the idea here is that this is like not, you know, a small man. This is not, you know, a weak man. I immediately think about the princess bride. You know that movie? You know the villain? Okay, I'm sorry but I have to mention it. The villain. One of the villains. He's a great swordsman. He's got six fingers. Formidable opponent. Okay? This takes courage. This takes courage. This is not an easy fight. They're facing giants. And they need courage. And you face giants. Don't you? You face giants. We face formidable opponents. We face the hostility of our culture toward our faith and toward our Savior. We face the hardness of unbelief of all the people we've been praying for and sharing the gospel to. Our sin can be a giant to us, especially that one sin that you have that you really hate that you can't shake. It's a giant. We face giants. And God calls us to courage and He doesn't just call us to courage. He tells us that I haven't given you a spirit... of fear. I've given you a spirit of courage. The Holy Spirit. Do you know the Holy Spirit? Do you sense His presence? We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We don't have swords. We don't fight ethnic battles. We have giants. 2 Timothy 1.7. This is a... A word of Paul to Timothy, a pastor, if you will, an elder. But it's a word for all of us. Because it's the same Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 1.7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. It takes courage to share the gospel. It takes courage to say, hey pastor, I've got a problem. I need help. It takes courage to rebuke. A wandering brother or sister in Christ. And God gives us what we need to do it. It's not an issue of whether you're afraid or not. If you're afraid, that's going to happen. We're all afraid. John Wayne, Sands of Iwo Jima. There's a scene in that movie that I really resonate with. If you haven't seen the movie, it's okay. Here's the scene. John Wayne plays a senior gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps. They're fighting the Japanese in World War II on this island. And he's calling his men to move forward. They have bayonets. They have their rifles. And I can't remember if some young private says something to him. And John Wayne looks down at him and he says, I'm always afraid. I'm always afraid. It doesn't matter. Let's keep going. It's not an issue of what do you fear? What do you fear? The question isn't so much whether you have fear. The question is what do you do with your fear? Are you going to act in fear or are you going to act in faith? I don't want to give you a curve ball, but there's a certain sense in which when I talk about courage, I'm really talking about faith. God calls us to open our mouth and tell someone about the gospel who may be reproached for Christ. We act in faith. We act in courage. Do you have courage? Really, are you exercising that? God calls you to do it. For He's given you His Holy Spirit. There's tension. God's faithful. He has saved us and He is going to save us. and He calls us to action. I want you to see, fourthly, persistence, endurance, pressing on. We have need to keep going in the Christian life. The use of persistence. And that comes down to, to just notice a few things here. Four times, okay there's four battles, there's four giants, there's four heroes. But there's also four times the word again. Verse 15, when the Philistines were at war again with Israel. Now David had already killed Goliath, their champion. That wasn't enough. The Philistines were still around. In fact, verse 15, the way the New King James translates it, which I prefer in this case, the indication is the Philistines are advancing. David has to leave Jerusalem. He comes down. He went down and fought against the Philistines. Now the rest of the battles, they're not... doesn't seem to be advancing. They seem to be in the land of the Philistines, but they're still around. Okay, verse 18, "...not happened afterward that there was again a battle..." with the Philistines at Gab. Verse 19, again there was war at Gab with the Philistines. They're not going anywhere. They're persisting. They're still around. Verse 20, yet again there was war at Gath. And what's going on is there's four heroes and they're all, if you were to search their names. They're all in other parts of Scripture. They're all listed as either mighty men, or division commanders, or whatever. Abishai is obviously well-known by this point. And they're the ones that killed the giant. But this is a battle. There's an army against an army. God's people and His warriors are fighting against the enemies, the stated enemies of God. And this is happening again and again. And these enemies aren't going anywhere. There's a need for persistence. There's a need for endurance. There's a need for pressing on. Last time I checked, in my life, when I'm fighting sin, it doesn't just go away overnight. Last time I checked, the abortion is still legal in our country. And there's people who have been fighting for this to be outlawed in our land, and they just need to keep going. Hebrews 12, 1, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Listen to Galatians 6, 9. Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Some of you have people that you've been praying for. That they would be saved. You've been praying for them for years and you're thinking about stopping. You're thinking about not praying for them anymore. And you just need to keep praying for them. Now we can look at the unbelief of certain people. Almost all of you know that we announced an excommunication this morning in our church. And we can be like, nothing's going to change. We've been working on this for over two years. We just need to keep praying. And we haven't seen an adult baptism in this church since I've been here. We just need to keep witnessing. Keep sharing the gospel. Now some of you have young kids, and you're parenting, and you're struggling, and you're kind of, you know, it's difficult. It's hard. You just need to keep going. God's not calling you to just be strong and always just on top of everything. He just calls you to keep going. Don't give up. The enemy is still there. Again. The enemy is still there and again. The enemy is still there and God wants you to keep going. Keep serving this church. Some of you have been doing the same thing in this church whether it be a Sabbath school or fellowship meal and you've been doing it and no one's really thanked you for that much and the pastor hasn't thanked you that much for it and no one seems to notice. You just need to keep going. Christ notices. He uses these types of people. He uses you to do this. There's tension. In the Christian faith, God is faithful to fulfill his redemptive promises. But to that end, he uses the affection and the courage and the persistence of his servants. There's tension. You feel the tension. Where are you on the scale? It's all up to me. I don't have to do anything. You're fighting a winning battle. You're fighting a winning battle. What are you going to do as a result of this message? Some of these verses that I've shared with you. What are you going to do that you aren't doing? And what are you going to keep doing that you thought about not doing anymore? You're fighting a winning battle. The question is not whether we're winning. The question is whether you're fighting. Are you fighting for the Lord? For your Savior? He uses you. Keep fighting. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we lift up our hearts to you and we thank you for your wonderful salvation. We thank you for your faithfulness. You are our rock. You are dependable. Father, we ask that you would enable us through the means that you have given us by your spirit, by your word, to act, to go forth in the fight. We ask that you would use us. We do pray that you would grow our affection. That you would give us faith in the midst of fear. That you would give us endurance. We ask this for your glory. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.