2 Samuel 23, verses 8 to the end of the chapter, verse 39. Again, this is God's holy word. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. Josheb, Bashebeth, the Taqmanite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino, the Esnite, because he had killed 800 men at one time. And after him was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, the Ahahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle. And the men of Israel had retreated. He arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary. And his hands stuck to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. And the people returned after him only to plunder. And after him was Shammah, the son of Agi, the Harite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines. but he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory. Then three of the thirty chief men went down at harvest time and came to David at the cave of Adullam. The troop of Philistines encamped in the valley of Raphaim. David was then in the stronghold and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David said with longing, oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, he would not drink it. poured it out to the Lord. And he said, far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things were done by the three mighty men. Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, was chief of another three, He lifted his spear against 300 men, killed them, and won a name among these three. Was he not the most honored of three? Therefore, he became their captain. However, he did not attain to the first three. Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Qabzil, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab, He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men. He was more honored than the 30, but he did not attain to the first three. And David appointed him over his guard. Asahel, the brother of Jeb, was one of the 30. Elhanan, the son of Dodo of Bethlehem. Shammah, the Herodite. Elika, the Herodite. Helez, the Peltite. Ira, the son of Ikish, the Tekhoite. Ebezer, the Anathathite. Mebunai, the Hushathite. Zalmon, the Ahohite. Meharai, the Netafathite. Helab, the son of Banna, the Netafathite. Itai, the son of Rabai, from Gibeah, the children of Benjamin. Benaiah, a Parathonite. Hedai, from the brooks of Gash. Abbey Elbon, the Arbathite. Asmavath, the Parhumite. Elihaba, the Shalbonite of the Sons of Jason. Jonathan. Shama, the Hororite. Ahiam, the son of Shirar, the Hororite. Eliphelet, the son of Ahazbi, the son of the Makathite. Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilanite, Hazri the Carmelite, Parri the Arbite, Igal the son of Nathan of Zoba, Bani the Gadite, Zeleg the Ammonite, Nahari the Berothite, Armourbearer of Joab the son of Zariah, Ira the Ithrite, Gereb the Ithrite, and Uriah the Hittite, 37 in all. Thus far, God's word, amen. Almost every night of the week, the same thing happens at my house just about after dinner. I'll say to the kids, kids, what time is it? And they know what I'm talking about. It's time to clean up the living room, It's time to clean up the kitchen area and our playroom. And my kids get to work. And of course, Dorsey and I help them. And like you would expect, there's times where the kids, my kids, get sidetracked a little bit and kind of do their own thing for a little bit. They have to be reminded, OK, let's focus here. Let's get the toys back in the box. And let's get our clothes back in our room. But lots of times, I'll actually be going down the hall. I will be putting something up or whatnot, and I'll come back and one of the kids is just scurrying around, just getting a lot done, and half the work's already done, and there's not much left to do, and they're doing a really good job, and I'll say to Seaburn or Sissy or whatnot, good job, you're doing good. You're really serving me, you're serving God well. And that may seem kind of silly, But whether you're a mom or a young child here or a lawyer or a pastor, what we're gonna look at tonight is how we are to serve and how we can serve Christ well. Now my kids know in this particular context what they need to do to do a good job. To focus, to put things where they need to go and not to put them where they shouldn't go and to be diligent and whatnot. There's two or three things there. What do you have in your mind? What is maybe two or three or four things that you would say God wants you to do? Whether you're a school administrator, whether you're a pastor, businessman, pilot, doesn't matter. How can you serve the Lord? What does He want you to do? What does He want you to emulate? We're going to be looking at that in this passage. This passage of scripture is parallel to, if you recall a few weeks ago, when we looked at those who slayed the giants, the servants of David in chapter 21. His slate giants. This is part of a section in 2 Samuel that many commentators call an appendix. Chapters 21 through 24 of 2 Samuel is a theological appendix. It's to show us that David is God's king. He's God's anointed one. And it does that in several ways. And one of the ways it does that is to show the servants of David, to adorn David, if you will, with the men and the women that served him. And so our passage of scripture tonight teaches us that those who serve Christ well are set apart by their loyalty, humility, devotion, and might. Those who serve Christ well are set apart by their loyalty, humility, devotion, and might. And I want to speak to you from this passage on four points tonight. What does Christ, what would he have you to do in your service to him? Would he have you be loyal to him? He wants you to serve his son. God wants you to serve his son with loyalty. And we see this throughout the text. In fact, my first two points are more comments that we find throughout the passage. And this is something that we need to get straight. Loyalty. not just generally speaking, but loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. Who are these men serving? They're serving the Anointed One, the King. Verse 8, these are the names of the mighty men whom David had. Think about loyalty for a moment. You know, gang members have a loyalty, don't they? Think about the Muslims, the Muslim extremists who flew the Planes into the Twin Towers. Loyalty. Do they not have loyalty to their God and to their religion? We need to have loyalty directed toward the right person. We need to be following the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to a certain scribe who came to him and said to him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. This is in Matthew chapter 8. Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. You wanna serve me? You wanna follow me? You wanna be my disciple? Well, yes, have faith, but be loyal to me through thick and through thin, through the difficulties that you're gonna face, follow me. Now this passage of scripture, this list, if you will, is an early list. These men have been with David since the beginning. Think about all the trials that David went through. We know that partly because of some of the names that are mentioned here, but also 1 Chronicles 11 tells us that. Think about all the trials that David went through. It wasn't always clear that David was going to be It wasn't always going to be politically useful to be associated with David. I mean, David was attacked by Saul for years. He was persecuted by Saul. It wasn't clear that he was going to come out on top. And even as a king of Israel, he was attacked by God's enemies. And these men stuck with him. We have loyalty in a couple of different ways here. Notice there's two Gentiles listed. Verse 37, Zeleg the Ammonite, and of course 39, some of you should have been, oh, I recognize verse 39, Uriah. Who's Uriah? He's a Hittite. Uriah was incredibly loyal to David, even when David was not worthy to be served. And we all know what David did to Uriah. Benaiah, verse 20. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, not something that is directly mentioned here, but I think it's appropriate to mention as we look at First Kings. Banias is not just a mighty man, he was loyal. He was loyal to David, especially when there was a transition. When David was dying and did die. David's son Adonijah rose up, started a revolt. Banias stayed with Solomon. He was loyal to the king. But one of my main points here, I want you to think about, comes from the fact that we need to realize something. There is a man not in this list. Very important man. He's mentioned twice, but not in relation to him being a man of honor and a mighty man. I'm talking about Joab. He's mentioned twice. Verse 18, now Abishai the brother of Joab, then later at the end, Joab's armor bearer is mentioned, but Joab is not listed. Joab was a mighty man. He was the commander of David's army, but he wasn't loyal to David. If you recall chapter 20, what we saw there, and if you just think about Joab's life for a moment as we've gone through this whole book, Joab didn't go after Absalom. He didn't go after Sheba. So in a certain sense he was loyal to David. But we know that he didn't really follow the king and his orders. He did his own thing. If it was convenient for him, he'd follow David. But if it wasn't convenient for him, he wouldn't follow David. He actually wasn't very loyal. And loyalty is something we have to get settled from the very beginning. I did a marriage, performed, administrated a marriage this week. It was an enjoyable thing to do. And I gave their marriage vows. And they, this young couple, did basically traditional marriage vows. What are those? I take you to be my lawful wedded husband, wife, etc. through sickness and health. Rich or poor. I'm going to be devoted to you. I'm gonna have any other loves in my life. Just you, I'm gonna be loyal to you. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about here tonight. And we are not tempted to follow after another king. I don't think we are, at least not like these men would have been. We're not tempted to follow after the president of the United States, how good or bad he may be or whatnot. But we are tempted and we are by the devil in our flesh to go after others and other things and to serve them. They're called idols. And it's a pull upon our heart, our loyalty. We're all tempted. to go after other things. We are to serve Christ with singularity of heart. But certain idols come into our life. I think of comfort, the idol of comfort and ease, the idol of success, money. These things can pull us to the side. You are, many of you have been Christians for a very long time. And comfort and ease in the Christian life can be an idol. You know, God most likely is not calling you to do things now that he or he's most likely to not call upon you to do things 20 years ago or five years ago that he may be calling you to do now. You have more information, you have more knowledge, you have more faith or love. You're more mature in Christ and your love of comfort, your love of ease. may be pulling you from the call of Christ to serve Him. Maybe that you love success. Now success in the world is not sinful, but when it starts to compete with what Christ would have you to do, you see suddenly your loyalty strings are being pulled. Are you willing to say no in one area of maybe that affects your bank account or affects your occupation or your job? If it's pulling you away from Christ, are you willing to go with Christ? Loyalty is a basic thing. Doesn't matter if you're a mom, doesn't matter if you're a lawyer, doesn't matter if you're a pastor. Christ wants you to be loyal to him. What else do we see here? in this passage of Scripture. What else would Christ have you to do? What else would God have you to do in your service to Christ? He'd have you to be humble. He'd have you to serve Christ with humility. When we see humility throughout this passage, I want you to notice that there's a structure here. There's various levels of honor being attributed to these mighty men. And we see that in several places. And Josheb, he was the chief. He was the chief of the first three, waiting for someone to name their son. By the way, Josheb, he's the man, 800 men at one time. He was the chief of the first three. We see some rank here. If you go down to verse 19 about Abishai, what's said there, was he not the most honored of three? Therefore he became their captain. Here's another three. And yet it says, however, he did not attain to the first three. We have various lists here, verse 23, about Benaiah. He was more honored than the 30, but he did not attain to the first three. What's going on here? I'm going to come full circle with this, but we need to notice that there's a rank structure here. There's levels of honor that God is attributing to the servants of David. Take the whole list of names here. I'm not going to get into the details. There's really not much to say about this list here. There's 37 in all. If you do the count, as I've counted and some commentators have noticed, it's actually not 37. I want to mention that briefly. This is a list. This is an honorable mention list. That's what it is. They're less honored than the others. It's like an All-American. In college football, they have the All-American team and they have honorable mentions. These are just honorable mentions. They made the list, but it's just their name, not their deeds. 37 in all. There's actually 34 in my count. Some would imply that Dave is a part of this list. Some would say that Jeb's a part of this list. I don't think so. The way we negotiate this is that there's a lot of discussion about how to translate these names. Okay, so if you know anything about Hebrew, and I know a little bit, sometimes Hebrew names can be not transliterated like Take, for example, zeleg. It could be that that actually means something. You could translate it into like a sentence or a phrase. There's discussion in verse 34 in regards to the sons of Jason, and I believe it was verse 36, where it could be that there's more people actually listed. And I say that by way of defending Scripture. Text says 37 in all, and in some way there's 37 here. But I guess my bigger point is just to simply notice different levels of honor. Here's my point. If God honors people in different ways, and He does do that. Perhaps I should reinforce this. In heaven, we don't get to heaven because of our good deeds. That doesn't mean that our good deeds will not be recognized in heaven. Matthew 5.12, Rejoice, be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecute the prophets who are before you. Those who are persecuted will have a great reward in heaven. I'm not sure what that means other than that they will be rewarded. Verse 27 of Matthew 16, For the Son of Man will come, the glory of his Father with his holy angels, that he will reward each according to his works. He will reward each according to his works. Coming full circle here, this passage of scripture implies that these men are content and humble in their position, because God has given a rank structure of honor. And they should either accept that and be willing that they're not josh-heb, vash-hebeth, and they're content with that, they're not going to receive as much honor as that man or the first three. Whether they did so or not isn't really the point. At least they should. This is something that we need to think about. It's interesting to me that last week's sermons also kind of went with the morning sermon. This point goes well with this morning's sermon. We don't want to be like the disciples in Mark chapter 9 who were arguing among themselves who would be the greatest. We want to be humble. We want to recognize that it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ and we are what we are only by His grace. One of the ways the devil attacks the church is he takes the servants in the church and they start quarreling. These men, they don't seem to be doing that. There is a associate pastor I know who I find to be He's attractive. I like being around him because he's so humble. To the degree that a senior pastor is in the front, to the degree that he gives a vision and leadership that the associate pastor doesn't, to that degree, he's fine with that. And I know you don't know who this man is, but I find it to be very attractive. I mean, he's a support player. The church needs supports players. And if you're a support player, then praise the Lord for it. He's using you. We all are what we are only by God's grace. And this is something that we need to keep in mind. Be humble. Are you content with where you are with your gifts and your graces? There's a certain sense we shouldn't be. We want God to grow us. And yet we are where we are. We're in that place because of God's will. Humility. Now these next two points are going to deal with more of the text and its emphasis. Devotion and might. I want you all to think about these things as well. No matter who you are or what lot you have in life, this is what Christ would have you, this is what God would have you to be like in your service to Christ. I want you to see devotion. Thirdly, devotion. That's also in a sense found throughout this passage, but especially verses 13 through 17. Devotion. enthusiasm, zeal. These three unnamed men who go get David something to drink. What do we make of this story? It's kind of interesting really. It's about devotion. These men hear David give a passing wish, not even a command. it probably was unlawful and certainly unwise for David to give this command, but he didn't give the command. It was a wish. They heard him say, oh, that someone would give me a drink of water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem. They are so devoted to him. They go from the stronghold to Bethlehem. Commentators debate how far that was. It wasn't next door. It was 10 to 20 miles. They go there. They break through the camp. We should understand it to be a violent action. They break through the Philistines. They take the water and bring it back to David. What an example of devotion to their king. Zeal to serve him. Willingness to sacrifice for him. What do we make of David's response? They come back to give it to David. Nevertheless, he would not drink it. They poured it out to the Lord. And he said, listen, far be it from me, this is the blood of these men. What do we make of that? It's actually, David's actually adorning their action and honoring them more. He's noticing that they are giving him service. It's really only the Lord is worthy of such service. What are they doing? They are dying. They are willing to die for Him. This is their blood. He worships the Lord. He pours it out as a drink offering, which is part of the ceremonial system. He offers it up to the Lord. It wasn't an ungrateful thing. He is actually adorning what they are doing with much honor. Devotion. Zeal. What do we make of this? In some sense, I don't want you to emulate these men. Because it needs to be said that they do have a zeal that's not according to knowledge. David didn't command them to do this. This was an unwise thing. And I want to be frank with you about this. That's the truth. It wasn't wise. David didn't even command them to do it. They could have died. But the devotion, the zeal, that's why they're here. You don't want to lose that. We don't want to have a zeal that's ignorant. We don't want to have a zeal that's not according to knowledge, like the Jews, Paul says in Romans 10. We want to have the devotion. I want to share a story with you. Derek Thomas. He gave this illustration about his own life. I don't remember every detail, but he describes something very important to him. What happened to him when he was little? His grandfather gave him a family heirloom. I can't remember exactly what it was. I can identify with this. My grandfather, Granddaddy Seaburn, gave me his 1911 .45 caliber pistol that he had in the military, in the army. He was in World War II in Korea. And I have that, it's very precious to me. And it was like that, I can't remember exactly what it was, but his grandfather, Derek Thomas' grandfather, gave him a family heirloom. Very precious to him. He said, listen Derek, when I die, you're gonna get this. And he loved this family heirloom. And when he was 18 years old, when Derek Thomas was 18 years old, he was converted to Christ. He was radically converted to Christ. It changed his life. He was passionate about Jesus. He was telling people about Jesus. He was living for Jesus. He was changing his life for Jesus. He was growing in the Lord. And someone told him at that time, early on in his Christian life, very early, if you really love Jesus, you'll get rid of that family heirloom. And I think for different reasons that was, it's unnecessary. Zill was up, not according to knowledge. What did Eric Thomas do? Well, he gave it up. He gave away this thing that he loved, that was so precious to him, that his grandfather gave him. A week or two passes, and he regrets it. I can identify with that. I don't want to part with my granddaddy Stephen's pistol. He couldn't buy it from me for a million dollars. Very precious to him. There's nothing wrong with that. Derek Thomas tells a story, and he's probably 50, 60 years old, and he still regrets it to this day. But he doesn't regret the zeal. You see what I mean? He doesn't regret the devotion, the love for Christ. I don't want to ignore the need that we have to have a proper understanding of our faith. We need to have a proper understanding. We need to have zeal that's according to knowledge. But I wonder, especially as Reformed folks, if sometimes we are so focused on knowledge and we lose the zeal, when's the last time you've ever been accused of being a little too zealous for Jesus? Wait a second. You know what? That's a little extra. Let's not share the gospel quite that much. Let's not be too zealous here for the scriptures. You're reading the Bible too much. You're focusing too much on the scriptures. You're too worried about obeying Christ. Just chill out a little bit. When's the last time you've been accused of being a little too zealous? Zeal. Devotion. Doesn't matter if you're a mom. Does it matter if you're a lawyer or a pastor? God wants you to be devoted to Him. He wants you to be devoted to His Son. Paul says, for me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. I'm willing to sacrifice my life. I'm so devoted and so zealous for Christ, I'll sacrifice my life. Do you have that? For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. Devotion. This passage of scripture actually brings the most attention to one other attribute. And I want you to see that fourthly. And I'm going to call it might. After all these are mighty men, verse 8. It's one Hebrew word that may be translated differently in your Bibles, but it is masculine and it is getting at the idea of men that exert their will upon another. In this case, we're talking about combat here. This morning we looked at the fallacy of the primacy of Peter. I want you to notice something about this scripture. Our culture, Before we get into the might thing, it's helpful to notice this. Our culture is very confused about gender. Very confused about gender and the gender roles. Our Senate passed a resolution in 1998 about women in combat. It said this, that while recognizing the right and duty that women have to self-defense, which may involve physical violence, is our conviction that the biblical teaching does not give a nation warrant to employ women for military combat. The resolution went on and said that we direct all presbyteries and sessions to instruct their congregation in this regard. That we urge any of our female members who are considering or presently engaged in military service to take counsel of their sessions as to the teaching of God's Word in the matter. If you'd like you can, one place in scripture is Deuteronomy 20 Deuteronomy 20, only the men are conscripted to military service. I don't have any suspicion that there's someone wrestling with this so much, but gender roles in our nation are very up for grabs, aren't they? This is something we see here. These are all men that are fighting. Now women fight spiritually. I'm going to apply this spiritually. There are mighty women now and certainly in the past. I want you to notice that. Might. I'm going to quickly just go through this. All of these men, especially the ones that are described in doing things, they win. They're victorious. They're mighty. They're powerful. Let's just face it. I mean, Josheb B'Shebeth, 800 men. Okay, Eliezer and Shammah. I like these guys. Everyone's retreating. They're holding their crown. I love it. I just love that. They win a great victory. Their victory is noticed, and I will say this, verse 12. Twice this is mentioned actually. So the Lord brought about a great victory. I'm going to come back to this. Our might is in the Lord. It's in the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to come back to that. But notice the might here. These three unnamed men that go to the well. The Hebrew word in verse 16. So the three mighty men broke through the camp. They're engaged in combat. This isn't a stealth mission at night. They're killing people. And they win. Abishan. Another example. Benaiah. Here's a champion. Y'all know that I have a son named Benaiah. I pray for Benaiah that he would be a mighty man and that he would be loyal. He's also mighty. I mean, he killed a lion at Pit. I don't know why he did, but he did it. He killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He took a spear from an Egyptian and then killed him with his own spear. I mean, this man was a warrior. All these men had might. Now, we don't fight a physical war, do we? But we are at war. How does this apply to us? How can you exercise might? Let's say you are a student in school, or you're a businessman or whatnot, or you're a father or a mother or whatnot. How can you exercise might? What does that look like now in our spiritual warfare? The Bible describes our fight as Christians as a fight of faith. You want to be a mighty man, a mighty woman for the Lord? Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Not just for your forgiveness, but in every area of your life. You're putting faith. Whenever you exercise faith, you are winning. You're winning. Faith. Think about it. Paul says to Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. He says to Timothy, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. What is it that they are doing in Hebrews 11? You are familiar with Hebrews 11. It is the hall of faith. What are they doing in chapter 11? Well, they are doing all types of things. But there is another sense in which I can tell you that they are all doing one thing. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. By faith, he forsook Egypt. By faith, they passed through the Red Sea. By faith, the walls of Jericho fall down. By faith, Rahab the harlot. We exercise might when we put our faith in Christ. This is the victory, John says. This is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Our faith. I want you to think about your life for a moment. We're all tempted to walk by fear, to walk by ignorance. How are we to walk? How are we to live? by faith. What are you struggling with tonight? What decisions are you faced with tonight? What issues are you faced with? Are you walking by faith? Are you seeking to know what it is that you are to do? I don't want you to be zealous without knowledge. I want you to be zealous with knowledge and that includes faith. Are you in a fight tonight? Are you struggling Are you at ease as a Christian? Are you wrestling with the devil, as it were, in the world? I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you for a moment. J.C. Ryle, he's a Reformed Episcopalian who lived in the 1800s. I've quoted him many times. I enjoy reading him. He wrote a chapter on faith, and he said this. I'll read it to you. The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. for the great spiritual warfare, its watchings, its strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests, of all this they appear to know nothing at all." When I read this passage of scripture to you, you hear all these war stories. How do we compute that? How do we wage war? How do we win? That's really what this chapter is about. Winning. How do we do that? Faith. I don't know what you're facing with tonight, I don't know what questions you have, I don't know what struggles you're facing, but Christ wants you to put your trust in Him. Faith. Those who serve Christ well, those who serve Christ well are set apart by their loyalty, humility, devotion, and might. I'm not telling you tonight, I'm not telling you tonight how to do these things. Be comforted in knowing that as a child of God you have the Holy Spirit and He empowers you. And the victory comes from the Lord because it is His grace in your life. I just want you to know what it is that Christ wants you to do. My children, they know how to serve me quote-unquote serving me well at night when we clean up. They know what they're supposed to do. Do you know how you can serve Christ well? Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight as your people, forgiven and washed in the blood of the Lamb. We come to you thankful for all your many blessings upon us. We come to you, we come to the throne of grace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, asking that we might glorify you more and more as we serve you, that you would enable us to do these things. For your son is worthy of all of our service. We pray in his name, amen.