Good morning. Take your Bible and turn to 2 Samuel chapter 8. Our text this morning comes from 2 Samuel chapter 8. The last time we were together we looked at David's prayer of thanksgiving that he lifted up to the Lord after God spoke his promise. It was really a very much a word-based prayer, promise-based petition. There's a wonderful lesson there in how to pray in a simplest form, to take God's Word and repeat it back to Him, praying that His will be done. Well, as David does that in chapter 7, now we turn to chapter 8, and we see the Lord beginning to attend to His Word. We see God working to bring it to fulfillment, and already there's a powerful picture of the kingdom of God going forth in might and power and victory as the anointed King leads them. Follow with me as I read 2 Samuel 8. After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Methagama out of the hand of the Philistines. And he defeated Moab, and he measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death, and one full line to be spared. And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute. David also defeated Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to restore his power at the river Euphrates. And David took from him 1,700 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for 100 chariots. And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 men of the Syrians. Then David put garrisons of Aram and Damascus. And the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold that were carried by the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. And from Betha and from Barathi, cities of Hadadezer, King David took very much bronze. When Toy, King of Hamath, heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer, Toy sent his son Joram to King David to ask about his health and to bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him. For Hadadezer had often been at war with Toy. And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. These also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah. And David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Then he put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. So David reigned over all Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people. Joab, the son of Zariah, was over the army, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahalud, was recorder, and Zadok, the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests, and Zariah was secretary, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherithites and the Pelethites, and David's sons were priests. Now, I know what you're thinking. What are we doing in a chapter like this? What are we going to make of a passage like this this morning? Battles and bloodshed, victors and vassal states, tributes and subjugation. What have we gotten ourselves into here? I confess that at times that's something I wonder myself. We turn the page from a chapter in God's Word like 2 Samuel 7, which almost preaches itself. Sometimes I feel like passages like that don't even need to be exposited. They just preach themselves. They're so rich with faith-inspiring language. And then we come to something like this that's a little bit more challenging, to say the least. We've got several things working against us. when we read a passage like this in God's Word. First, there's some of the obvious obstacles. There is the temporal distance between our day and David's. We're talking about more than 3,000 years of time that have elapsed between our time and the events that are recorded here. That brings with it a certain amount of distance already. There's also a tremendous cultural distance. a distance that's probably magnified somewhat in our eyes when we read a chapter like this that is concerned almost entirely with military campaigns and the like. And so we've got to work a little bit harder to get beneath the surface and discern the teaching of the text. There are three large-heading truths that I think can guide us. The first we see as we look at the way in which the kingdom comes, that the kingdom of God comes through conflict. The kingdom of God comes through conflict. It can be helpful when you're studying the scriptures to look for the words and the themes that are repeated. We repeat what we want to emphasize, and that is certainly the case here. If you survey this chapter, you get a sense of the theme in fairly short order. Six times the phrase strike down is used. The verb take. is used three times. David took from these nations, become subject three times, subdue, capture, do battle, defeat. All of these kinds of, this kind of language is used throughout the text. Why is this important? Well, it shows us that even while God had promised strength to the house of David, he spoke of a day when they would be disturbed no more, when violent men would afflict them no more, when he would give his people rest from all of their surrounding enemies. When David ascended the throne, these enemies didn't simply lie down and roll over. There was a battle to be fought. Most of them did not come voluntarily to bow the knee before King David in glad surrender. Instead, what do we see? We see the nations raging. We see a clear picture of what the psalmist says in Psalm 2, that the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. Israel had real foes with real swords posing real threats that had to be subdued. It's easy for us to get lost in all of these strange names and unfamiliar places. But if I were to tell you that the Philistines were as close to Jerusalem as Highway 6 is to this church building, That gives you a bit of an idea of what the people here are facing. If you imagine Pearland as Jerusalem, you'd have the Edomites down in Freeport, the Moabites in Galveston, the Ammonites out in Baytown. Sorry, Tysons, nothing against you guys. The kingdom of Zobah would be up in Lufkin. You get the picture. These nations are breathing down Israel's neck. This is a real threat. They are on their doorstep. And for Yahweh's kingdom to be established, it was going to mean conflict. And our text chronicles that conflict. It chronicles the clashing of kingdoms. In verse 1, David defeats the Philistines. He takes Methagama out to the west. Methagama is almost certainly another name for Gath. That's the city, one of the five major Philistine city-states where Goliath was from. Verse two, we're already looking at another kingdom. We're already now looking at the kingdom of Moab. You might remember Moab from our study in 1 Samuel. The Moabites were the people that David entrusted his parents to. When he was fleeing from King Saul, he had a kinship with them via his great-grandmother, Ruth. We don't know why David waged this offensive. There is a Jewish tradition that suggests that the Moabites had treated David's parents badly and eventually put them to death. We don't know exactly. What we do know is that they are in the territory that God has assigned to his people, Israel, and they must be subdued. The main campaign that's featured in chapter 8 is that of David against Hadadezer, the king of Zobah. You see that in your Bibles in verses 3 to 8. Zobah was up to the north by the river Euphrates. While David was there fighting against Zobah, the Syrians actually came in. They tried to bring reinforcements to Hadadezer, only to have 22,000 of their own men put to the sword. And this pattern continues and continues throughout the text with the Ammonites and the Amalekites and the Edomites. And so you see this theme that the in-breaking of the kingdom was not one of ease. It did not come without its upsets and its dangers and its sacrifice. It was hard. When I was a young child, I was pretty serious about the piano. And there'd be times when I would spend months and months, you know, blood, sweat, and tears, giving my all to a particular piece, working on something. You spend hundreds of hours getting acquainted with a piece. You, for a while, have a sort of a love-hate relationship with it. And you work out all the kinks, you iron out all the technical areas and along the way you discover things that you didn't recognize at first, interesting motifs and themes and the like. And then after you give all of that investment of time and energy, you go to perform it and someone comes up to you afterwards and says, that was really nice. you know, something like that. And you want to take them aside and give them a master class in Chopin's creative genius. You want to make sure that they heard the way this, you know, turn at the end actually expanded on what began at the beginning and help them get inside the composer's mind. This text is like that in a way. All we have here in front of us is the conquest. It's all victory. And in the immediate context, that's important because it shows that the kingdom of God goes forth in power. When Yahweh comes to his people's aid, God's people are victorious because the Lord attends his promised word. But what we don't see represented here in this passage is the hidden story The long years, we're talking about years that this passage represents where the Israelites are engaged in wearisome struggles, fighting and striving as the kingdom breaks in and at times is pushed back and gains a foothold in the land of the promise. kingdom comes through conflict. You get an idea of that sense of struggle in Psalm chapter 60. The heading of that Psalm paints in some of the shadows of the particular events that we see in 2 Samuel chapter 8. For one, it tells us that while David was up against the Syrians, Joab was the one who was actually sent with a detachment to go down and fight against the Edomites. I'll read the first couple of verses of that psalm. The heading reads, To the choir master, according to Shushan Edith, a mictum of David for instruction, when he strove with Aram Naharim and with Aram Zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down 12,000 of Edom, in the Valley of Salt. Oh, God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses. You have become angry. Oh, restore us. You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open. Repair its breaches, for it totters. The kingdom totters. Israel here is threatened by her adversaries. In fact, she is accosted on multiple fronts. And now the psalmist says she she totters. The kingdom appears to be in peril. And that is just one window into one epic of Israel's history. So the kingdom comes through conflict. Brothers and sisters that sheds new light on what it means to pray your kingdom come. your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As you think about the kingdom of God today, a kingdom which finds its primary expression in the world through the church, the church of Jesus Christ, when we pray those words, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that prayer anticipates that rival kingdoms must fall. There is ground to be taken for Christ, and it shouldn't surprise us then to encounter resistance along the way. If you dare say to someone, to your neighbor, Christ alone is king, Christ alone deserves to be worshipped, don't be surprised when you encounter pushback in opposition to that exclusive message. This is the gospel that Paul and Barnabas declared when they went to Lystra. Paul told the people there, we also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. We bring you good news that you should turn from all of your idols and worship the living God. Well, Paul's listeners didn't like what they were told. They didn't walk the aisle. They didn't pray the sinner's prayer. In fact, they rejected what he said. They stoned Paul. They left him for dead. But when he rose up, he said something important, very important and something very instructive to the saints. He turned and he encouraged the disciples to continue in the faith, saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. And we see a pattern and a prototype of that experience here in 2 Samuel chapter 8. You will encounter opposition when you identify yourself with the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This may already be apparent to you. But sometimes I think we can adopt a view that says if our if our relationship is right with Jesus, if we're walking with the Lord, then we can expect to have peace in this world. But that is not what Christ promised. That is not the picture that is portrayed. Jesus says in this world, if you identify with me, you will have trials. You will have you will be hated by all for my name's sake. If you choose to identify with me. 2 Corinthians 2. Thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to one a fragrance from death to death. and to other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? And so God's people are thrown again into heartfelt intercession, just as the worshipers do in Psalm 60, casting ourselves on His mercy, at times even finding the need to pray for His deliverance, to pray that God would vanquish His foes and deliver His people. that brings us to our second observation, that the kingdom is extended through God's anointed king. The kingdom of God is extended, it makes its advance as the anointed king goes forth. And I'd like for you to reflect for a moment or contrast in your mind what we see already here of King David and what we know of Saul. what you remember of his ministry, if you will, as king. In all of Saul's days, he had been unable to secure a lasting peace, to secure real security for Israel from his enemies. In fact, while Saul was spending all of his resources and time and energy off fighting, looking for David, it was David all along who was fighting Israel's battles. Well, now we see him in his official role as king and that pattern, that legacy continues, a legacy of faithfulness and victory. How do you explain the success? Look at your Bible in verse six, if you will. God says the word says the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. That phrase is repeated twice in this chapter. How does Yahweh extend His rule and His dominion? It's through the King that He has chosen for Himself and that He has anointed for His purposes. The Lord gave victory to David. And this is significant, church. The emphasis here is not on Israel. in her national identity. And in fact, if you look carefully, you'll see that Israel itself is never mentioned even once by name in this chapter. You contrast that, however, with David, whose name is mentioned 21 times. God gave the victory to David who, acting as Israel's federal head, shares the victory and the spoils of war with the people of God. The kingdom is extended as the king himself goes forth in might and in power. It's that principle that finds its fulfillment in Jesus and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to the earth to fight our battles, to stand in our place. 1 John 3 says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Christ came into the world to destroy the works of Satan. He came to triumph over the adversary, not by waging a war of flesh and blood, but by giving up his life, by surrendering himself on the cross, by offering up his body and his blood as an atoning sacrifice for sinners, and in doing so vanquishing the devil and his power. Colossians 2.13 says, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. Jesus Christ has defeated the powers of sin and death and hell and the grave, and now He shares His victory with all those who will come to Him through faith. Everyone who will trust in Him, Jesus shares His victory. His victory becomes our victory. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want to share in the victory that has been won through Jesus Christ? How is that victory shared with his people? How does God give us the victory? This is an all important question. When Christ was on the earth, he said, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will it be said, nor will they say, look, here it is or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Ordinarily, kingdoms are advanced. exactly as we see here in the book of Samuel. They come through bloodshed. They come through violence. They come through military campaigns. They come through forced subjugation. When Christ came, he said, If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting, but my kingdom is not of this world. We don't take up the sword in Jesus' name. We don't wage holy war on Christ's behalf. Christ's kingdom doesn't come in ways that can be observed. Instead, the kingdom of God comes by faith, as the gospel of Jesus Christ goes forth, as it is proclaimed. Wherever the good news of salvation is proclaimed and sinners embrace that message, there the kingdom of God is established. Wherever a citizen of this world says, yes, I believe what Jesus Christ has come to do. I believe the truth of what he spoke there. A citizen of heaven is born. First, John five, verse four and five says everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Is that true of you today? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Answer that in your own heart before the Lord, I beseech you. The Kingdom of God is established as the anointed King goes forth, the man of God's own choosing. This morning we sang Christ Jesus. It is he, Lord Sabaoth, his name from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. What hope this is for saints today. What encouragement we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing that he has won the victory for us and it is secure in him. He has ascended on high where he reigns. Well, we cannot stop there, though. The only application that we take away from this text is the hope that it bears for Yahweh's people. We're going to be leaving at least half of what is here on the table. For what does this text say to those who are outside the kingdom of God, but that all of Yahweh's enemies will indeed perish? It is a difficult truth. But it is one that can't be ignored. If you read Second Samuel, chapter eight, and you are a Philistine or a Moabite, the implications are clear. When Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, descends on behalf of his people, your defeat is sure. I want you to hear from Psalm two where the Bible speaks about this. Again, it says, why do the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain? The kingdoms of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. The words that I would especially like to call your attention to are there at the end of verse one, those two little words, the words in vain, the nation's rage, the people's plot in vain. It is vanity to oppose the Lord Jesus Christ. It is folly to resist him. Jesus Christ does not come into the world holding an olive branch to those who will receive him into their heart. Banish that thought, that thought of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, from your minds. He is a conquering king, the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. By him all things were created. Whether in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. In church He will have no rivals. He will have no rivals. Paul declares Christ must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. Christ must reign until all enemies are put under his feet and the last enemy is death. The psalmist goes on to say of this king, you shall break them with the rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, surely we say to ourselves, this has nothing to do with the kingdom of God today. Jesus Christ came to bring peace, we think to ourselves. Brothers and sisters, this is where we have to be so careful and nuanced in our theology and avoid speaking in overly generalized terms. Psalm 2 verse 9 may be metaphorical language, but it is not theoretical. It's not theoretical. It's true that when Jesus Christ came to the earth, his purpose at that time was not to wage a war on the level of what the people around him were expecting him to bring. He came to take away sin. That was his purpose, to give up his life on the cross. But the scriptures do speak of a day when it will be said that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. All of his enemies will be put asunder. Revelation 19 says, Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it, called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is our God. This is our Christ. And so your position relative to this conquering King determines everything about what His victory means for you. Jesus says that those that don't know Him are destined for a lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. What is your relationship to Him? What is your position relative to this conquering King? To return again to Psalm 2, there is an invitation, isn't there, in God's word to the kings and the citizens of this earth to come voluntarily before him and to prostrate themselves in open submission. Verses 10 through 12. Now, therefore, O kings, Be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way. For His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Amen and amen. Invitation is really too weak of a word, isn't it? It is an urgent appeal. It's an appeal to lay down arms, to cease and desist from a life of self-rule, to come and to bow the knee before the Lord, the Lord of glory, which brings us back to the message of Christ, to the message that Jesus spoke when He was on this earth. He said, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Will you receive it? Jesus began his public ministry. He said the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent. And believe the gospel. The scriptures say that now is the favorable time that today is the day of salvation before Christ comes and he brings judgment to the earth. The kingdom is advanced through God's anointed king. If I can impress your patience just a more I want you to look briefly at the characteristics of kingdom life. The characteristics of kingdom life throughout the chapter we find records of the treasure that David amassed whether that was by conquest or by tribute. As nation after nation was defeated, David began to accumulate staggering amounts of wealth. There's a record in 1 Chronicles that really just boggles the mind. It is simply an overwhelming sum. In today's numbers, you would be talking about seven and a half million pounds of gold. 75 million pounds of silver, a toy King of Hamath he brought, articles of gold, silver, and bronze. What does David do with this vast accumulation of wealth? What does he choose to do with the spoils of war? You look at verse 11. The Bible says, These also King David dedicated to the Lord together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued. David took the incredible riches that were brought to him and he consecrated them to the Lord. He dedicated them to God. He didn't use them to enrich himself. He stored them up to provide for the house that God had said David's offspring would eventually build. Already we see fulfillment of passages like Isaiah 60 that describes the wealth of nations being brought to the anointed King and being laid before His feet, the only one to whom it is due." The wealth of nations here comes into Jerusalem on God's holy mount and is brought before the Lord. And David simply turns that over to the Lord and says, Let let your name be worship. Let this serve to to enrich your kingdom so you have the priority of kingdom worship. That is first and foremost in David's mind that Yahweh receive glory in his house. The last verses of this chapter may not be especially exhilarating to us. They record the top brass in the Israelite kingdom. It's a list of administrative officials. That's not exactly the kind of page turner that keeps you up late at night. But if you're a citizen of that kingdom, it's something that you appreciate. It's something that you appreciate or you certainly grow to long for when it's not a part of the governance in the place that you live. You may have gotten the feeling in First Samuel that Saul's reign was something like the Wild West. No order, no stability. He's always off, you know, following the latest tangent and there's skirmishes and warfare going on all around him. When Yahweh's anointed comes in, though, David's reign brings stability. It brings a sense of order, not chaos. but order and good stewardship of the people are in view here. Verse 15 says, David reigned over all Israel and David administered justice and equity to all his people. The David's kingship brought equity, not just to some, not just to a particular demographic within the kingdom, but to all people without discrimination, without partiality, The poor were not trampled, the weak were not abused, the rich were not given preferential treatment. It was a place where the king was concerned with the welfare of all of his people, everyone within the bounds of his territory. In other words, it's a kingdom modeled after the character of God. This is a plea that we find in several of the royal songs that the king would execute his reign in a way that reflects the the character of God himself. The righteous character of God, Psalm 72, the psalmist says, give the king your your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. Let the mountains spare prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people. Give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. And this is the hope that we have given in our Lord, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.