One other note is that Tuesday, I think you know what Tuesday is. Tuesday is the, maybe you don't, is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the beginning of the Reformation. So October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the chapel door in Wittenberg. The chapel door was where you put all public announcements, so it wasn't like he was a vandal. or something like that. But it was a daring move because what he was putting up on that door was very controversial. There were 95 points for debate. Wittenberg was a college town, if you would. Points for debate within the university there. And we're challenging the system of indulgences. The system of indulgences taught that the saints and Mary had done a lot more good works than bad and so therefore had done enough to get to heaven and needed those extra good works were then banked in heaven. They were called works of supererogation in Catholic theology and the theology of the medieval time, it actually still continues today, was that the Pope had access to these and could credit some of those good works to you. so that you could then, you know, have God's favor because these good works were given to you. You could purchase them at that time by spending money, and they were selling indulgences in order to build St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. I've been to St. Peter's. It's a beautiful place, but the fact that it was built on really bad theology is a bit grieving, that people believed they were buying their way out of purgatory or their parents' way out of purgatory through that. That's what Martin Luther was was standing against. You can go easily online. If you Google Martin Luther 95 Theses, you can find a copy translated into English pretty easily. It's worth your time to read through it this week, and I would suggest you do that and maybe spend some time looking at it. What you will find is that he's very kind to the Catholic Church in the 95 Theses. Not so much later, once they threaten to kill him and everything else, he's not quite as congenial toward them, but he's very kind to the Roman Catholic Church at that point, and is assuming that the Pope doesn't know how it's being abused. That if the Pope knew how it was being abused, he wouldn't go along with it, but Luther was wrong. He finds that out eventually. But the Protestant Reformation began November, or excuse me, October 31st, 1517, so we're almost 500 years later. Let me make a note as well. As Baptists, we are not Lutherans, we're not Presbyterians, we're not part of that group that is directly from the various Reformers, but our heritage does come out of that. The first group in the English-speaking world to bear the name Baptist was this church pastored by John Smith in 1611 or so, 1610 or 11 in London, and John Smith had come out of that English separatist movement. The English separatists were those who believed that the Church of England, even though it had broken from their own Catholic Church, had not gone far enough. So the history of the Baptists has generally been that we've been the reformers of the reformers. In other words, we've said the Lutherans, yeah, they got a lot of things right. The Church of England, yes, they got a lot of things right. The reformed churches of the Netherlands or Scotland got a lot of things right. They didn't get enough right. They didn't get baptism right. They didn't get what a church is right. They didn't get several other things right. And so we've said, no, you need to go further than that. And so the Baptists have sort of been the reformers of the reformers and have gone a little bit further than they did. And so we do have links and a dependency there. In other words, we benefited from what Martin Luther did, his boldness and his publishing things. made it opened up for freedom of religion in many places around the world, or at least for people to be bold with their consciences and say, we're not just going to go along with this anymore. So there's much to thank God for in regard to the Protestant Reformation and it's a Milestone to mark because the the church had had gone a long way the Roman Catholic Church had gone a long way from from what what was originally taught by the Apostles in the first century and so Didn't wanted to make note of that. There's lots of things. There's tons of celebrations and things going on to note about the Reformation and it's 500th anniversary but That's something we can thank God for. For Martin Luther, and obviously the most important thing is Martin Luther's then discovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The biggest place where he was parting with the church and the cornerstone of the entire Protestant Reformation was this, that is, keeping church sacraments and doing good things will not earn me a standing before God. that Jesus died on the cross and his death alone, in other words, saves me. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, that I receive the free gift of eternal life. And that is the key thing, obviously the most important thing. The soul of scriptura, obviously, is very important as well. What is our authority? The Bible. I can come to the Bible with individual soul liberty and read my Bible and have a basic understanding of it. I may have to study certain passages that are more difficult than others, but I don't need a group of Italian cardinals in Rome to interpret the Bible for me. I can come to my Bible on my own and read it and God speaks. It is his word. inherently whether or not I have an intermediary other than Jesus Christ. I don't need another intermediary. As Timothy says, or as Paul says to Timothy, there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, right? And so we don't need another intermediary. Those are all heritage of the Protestant Reformation, so we thank God for it. Second Samuel chapter four. Second Samuel chapter four. You know, we live in a day and an age in which, and I think this is true in every culture, in which some cases human life is not well regarded. Human life is not always well regarded. That what happens is, in our culture, generally the place that human life is not well regarded is at the beginning and end of life. So, abortion on demand and these kinds of things, in order to have freedom, people are willing to kill their unborn children. Or at the other end of life, we discuss whether or not elderly people should be killed because of whatever reason, to end their suffering or these kinds of things. And so life is often not regarded well at the margins of life in our culture. But you go around the world and there are other places in the world where life may not always be regarded highly. That whether it's Whether it's throwing people into wars, or whether it's sawing off the heads of people to make a political point like ISIS would do, or whether it's destroying your political enemies like what happened in North Korea. Many places and many times around the world, life is not highly regarded. And we see here that that was true in David's day as well. It was true in David's day as well that life and the sanctity of life made in God's image was not something that was regarded well, that people would trade the life of another person in order to get power or prestige. I was just today looking at a list of the cities that have the highest murder rates. I think the highest murder rate as of this year so far is St. Louis. has a murder rate of 29 per 100,000 people. That's very high. Comparatively, Orlando's is something like 5. And Orlando does have some significant crime, but Orlando's is 5 per 100,000, and St. Louis's is 29 per 100,000. Well, what happens is there are certain parts of our society that life isn't considered sacred. In other words, if I have to kill you to get the $20 in your wallet, I need 20 bucks to get something. And I'll do that, okay? And the sanctity of human life is not respected. And again, we see that here in 2 Samuel chapter four, verse one. And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble and all the Israelites were troubled. So what happens is Ish-bosheth hears that Abner has been killed. Remember, Abner was going to make a deal with David and deliver the kingdom over him, but Joab wanted to get revenge for his brother's death. And so when Ish-bosheth hears that Abner's dead, it says his hands were feeble. Literally in the Hebrew, it says his hands became weak. That's a metaphor. I think we would put it something like this. He lost his grip. All right? Did you ever hear that? Somebody says, get a grip. What does that mean? In other words, you have to be able to cope with life. You get a hold of things, right? Get a hold of yourself. That's the expression here. He lost his strength of his hands. He had no confidence. He had become cowardly. He had no confidence in what he was doing. And without Abner to back him up, The nation of Israel becomes troubled because here's their king, Ish-bosheth, but yet the real power behind the throne is dead and Ish-bosheth has no real leadership ability on his own. Verse 2, and Saul's sons had two men that were captains of bands. The name of one was Banna and the name of the other was Rechab. The son of Ramon, a Barathite, of the children of Benjamin, for Barath was also reckoned a Benjamin. And the Barathites fled to Getaim and were sojourners there until this day." So we find out that there are these two men and they're in the tribe of Benjamin, which is the same tribe as Saul and his family. And these two men were captains. In other words, they were officers in the army. And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. Now if you remember the story, Saul and Jonathan went out to battle against the Philistines and they went out to battle in the valley of Jezreel and eventually the battle goes against them and both Saul and Jonathan get killed in that battle. In fact, Saul commits suicide to keep from being abused and tortured by the Philistines. And what we find here is that Saul's son, Jonathan, has had a son, but yet when the word comes that Jonathan and Saul have been killed, the woman taking care of him, his nurse, took him up and fled. That is, she figures the whole country is collapsing. In other words, panic sets in. And it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame, and his name was Mephibosheth. All right, so evidently she dropped him or something of that nature as they were running, or he fell somehow, and there was evidently some kind of wound that he had sustained, whether it's a broken bone or whether it's a torn up joint, you know, an ankle or a knee or something. And what happens is he's now lame. We know his name is Mephibosheth here. All right. Interesting because we have this word bosheth as well. Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth. Again, we think the word Baal was probably there originally and it was switched out in order to not honor, incidentally honor, the false god Baal that we run into so many times in the Old Testament. Now, this sounds strange to us, because today, if you fell with a small child, what would you do? You'd take your child to the doctor. They'd set the bone, right? Something like that. They might do a surgery. But remember, they didn't have access to this kind of medical care. I was talking to Jay Cross when we were in Peru, and he said he's been up the river a couple times, or down the river, whichever way it is, into some of the tribal peoples. And he said you get surprised when you're introduced to somebody and you find out their age. So the average man only lives to about 45 or 50 out in the Amazon. So you die at about 50 years old because of the diseases and no access to medical care and everything else of that nature. He said also he'd meet these men and you meet a 50 year old man and he's thinking the man's 75. But because life is hard in the jungle and the diseases you fight off and everything else, he's 50 and he looks like he's 75. because they age more quickly. And they marry young. They marry in their teenage years and have children. The generations are shorter. We've elongated our generations. Now the average person doesn't get married until 28 in America, which I think is unfortunate, let me say that. I would encourage our young people to get married younger than 28 if possible. I realize you have to find the right person. Don't hurry into a marriage and get married for the wrong reason. But I think it's unfortunate that I think a lot of times that reason is being, that choice is being made because people are interested in money. In other words, they want a certain amount of stability and other things. I remember my father-in-law when I got engaged and my wife showed me a little cartoon that he had and it had a man and he was at the altar and he had a walker. And the woman was at the altar in her bridal gown and she was in a wheelchair, and at the bottom it said, the couple who waited until they could afford it. All right? The fact is, you know, it'll never really work out on paper. Sometimes you just have to get married. Now, on the other hand, it doesn't mean be foolish. Now, and I'm not trying to put any guilt on anybody. If you're still single and, you know, the Lord hasn't led you to anybody, that's not to make you feel guilty. The Lord hasn't led anybody into your life. Don't feel any guilt about that. Let the Lord lead you in that regard and bring the right person to you. But what happens is you, here's what the normal, here's what I'm going after in our culture is that a couple meets each other in college and they begin dating at 21 or 22 years old and then they move in together and they live in fornication for five years because they want to get financially secure and then they don't get married to 28. Well, that's not right, okay. Just get married at that point, okay. Or whatever, guys decide they want to be playboys for their 20s and decide they're going to goof around. instead of taking on responsibility. All right, young men in here, if you plan, if you think the Lord would have you marry someday, you should look to marry, not to play around and have fun and, you know, soup up your car and spend your money on everything else other than responsibility. Don't do that, get married. All right, obviously, that's dependent on you finding the right person. Don't marry an unbeliever, don't marry a person of bad character because you're in a hurry to get married or because pastor said, I should get married before 28 and I'm 29, I gotta marry anybody. No, no, that's not what I'm saying. Don't misunderstand me, okay? But they got married earlier in that culture and in that in that culture, but Jay was telling me that in the jungle In the Amazon if you get an injury, it's often permanent for life You know you're hunting a monkey in a tree and you fall out of the tree and break your leg you have a limp for the rest Of your life. There's no one to set that bone. You just let it heal however it heals And so they're just not, the access to the kind of medical care that we've been used to for hundreds of years in the West isn't always there. And so that's exactly the way it was in the ancient world. This boy fell, his leg breaks. But what's the point? Why tell us about this young man? Why is the author of Samuel here telling us about this young man? Because, remember the question that's trying to be answered. What kind of person should be the king of Israel? Who should the king of Israel, what should he be like? And second, is there anybody who matches up to this? All right? Now, the irony is, what made everybody notice Saul as king? He was taller than everybody else, right? His physical abilities. In other words, here's the tallest, biggest man that they could notice. He was big and tall and strong. Obviously, you want a king who's big and tall and strong. I mean, we just are sort of programmed that way. The majority of time in U.S. elections, the taller man wins the election. It's unusual when that doesn't happen. I think the last time it didn't happen was George W. Bush beat John Kerry, and John Kerry was taller than him. But most of the time, the man who's taller wins the election, regardless of party or anything else. Why? Because there's this psychological idea that a taller man would be stronger and more of a leader. And so that's just sort of programmed into us, and that's people looked on the exterior, and they said, hey, look, Saul would make a great king. And so what are they automatically going to think about Mephibosheth then? He's not. He's disqualified. You can't lead people into battle if you've got a limp. Right? That's not going to work. And so we find that what the author is doing is he's letting us know, look, the house of Saul has one person, and that's Ish-bosheth. And Mephibosheth is sort of disqualified in the eyes of the people because he's not capable to be the leader of the nation. And so it's answering the question, who can be the king? Saul's dead, Jonathan's dead. Jonathan would be the natural choice after Saul, but he died in the same battle as Saul. So Ish-bosheth is made king, but he's propped up because he's not really a good leader, but he's propped up by Abner. Now Abner's dead, well what about any brothers of Ish-bosheth then? Here's answering that question. He doesn't have any brothers, but he has a nephew, Mephibosheth. But Mephibosheth is disqualified because of his physical impairments. And so we find now that it comes back to the story, and the sons of Rimon, the Barathite, Rechab and Banah, went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon. Again, this is another custom. In hot parts of the world, midday, oftentimes people take a rest, they take a break. We understand this a little bit in Florida, right? If you want to go work in your yard and mow your lawn, do you choose to do it at noon? Now, you may have a business that you have to work outside at noon, but the fact is, if you can make the choice, wouldn't you rather get up at 7 and mow the lawn than mow the lawn at noon? Or at six and mow the lawn before it gets hot? Or wouldn't you rather do it in the evening before, you know, as the sun is setting and it's cooling down a little? Yes. All right? So in a hot culture, we understand this. And many of their cultures, many cultures around the world still to this day, and many Mediterranean cultures, they take a siesta or something in the middle of the day that is a rest because it's hot. And you don't get much done in that heat. All right? And so Ishbosheth is laying there relaxing in the heat. And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat. And they smote him under the fifth rib, and Rachab and Benai, his brother, escaped." What we find is these two men go in and they assassinate Ish-bosheth, and there's nobody to back him up. They would have been afraid to do this when Abner was in charge, because he would have had them drawn and quartered, if you would. You would have had them killed. But now they figure, look, we can get rid of this guy and maybe we'll get some kind of power. We're from the tribe of Benjamin, maybe there's some kind of plot going on, but they figure we can kill this guy and we'll get some kind of political advantage from it. To smite him under the fifth rib has the idea of stabbing him in the abdomen. For when they came on the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber and they smote him and slew him and beheaded him and took his head and gapped him away through the plane all night. So what they do is they cut off his head as proof of the fact that they've killed him. This is gruesome, okay? And I realize in war kind of situations things are gruesome, but this is not war. This is an assassination. And so these men are carrying this head. Why? Because they want proof that this man has been killed. And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David at Hebron. Here's what they figured. If we go down to David, he'll reward us for killing Ish-bosheth, his rival, because now the way's been opened. If Ish-bosheth is dead and Mephibosheth's not of Iowa option, David's the next choice. This will give him the kingdom. If we hand him Ish-bosheth's head, this will give him the kingdom. And guess what? Every other ancient Near Eastern king would have rewarded these men. In the ancient world, most every king would have rewarded these men for doing what they did. You killed my rival and gave me the kingdom. You're going to get rewards. We're going to pay you lots of money. This is great. Okay? The problem is that when you reinforce that kind of thing, when you reinforce a hatred for human life, a despising of human life, then why should people regard your life? I don't know if we've ever thought about that. In other words, if we disregard the lives of other people, then our life, we're all made in the image of God. It means our life is, if we don't consider their life worth anything, we've disregarded our own. You know, that works that way with authority, too. I have often told people, look, if one authority tells you to disobey another authority, so for example, if a teacher tells a child to disobey a parent, that teacher has given away their own authority. So on what basis do they have authority? It's delegated to them by God. Or if a parent tells a child to disregard the authority of a police officer, that parent is not teaching the child, hey, this is cool, we'll do this. What they're teaching them is you don't have to obey authority. Guess who that includes? Parents, teachers, police officers, whoever's in authority. Now obviously there are times and ways to deal with authorities when they tell us to disobey God. That's not what we're talking about. But when we teach people to disobey authority or to disregard human life, we devalue all of it. And that's exactly what these men are doing. So here's the question. Is David a man after God's own heart who's suitable to be king of Israel? Or is he going to reign like the pagan kings around him who rule by sheer power? I mean, David does have an army. Now he's the strongest military might in the area. You know, it looks like he just rules by being a powerful warlord, but that's not how he's ruling. He's ruling because God has put him on the throne, and he's trusting God and trying to abide by God's principles. And so these men come, and they think they're going to get something. They bring the head of Ish-bosheth unto David at Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, thine enemy, which sought thy life, and the Lord hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed. In other words, You know, God did what he said he was going to do to them. Yes, he did. That doesn't mean you have to be the one to carry it out. Okay? So let me compare it this way. If an abortionist is walking down the street, is he a murderer? He's committed tons of abortions. Is he a murderer? Sure. Should murderers face capital punishment? Yes. Does that mean you have the right to go kill him? No. God didn't delegate that right to you. He delegated it to government, and our government doesn't choose to enforce that. So we can work for political ends to try to see abortion outlawed, but the fact is that we don't have the right to just go kill the man, all right? And there have been some zealous anti-abortion people who've thought, I'll walk into the abortion clinic and shoot the place up because these are a bunch of murderers. No, you don't have the right to do that. God didn't delegate you as his executioner. And these men, they're saying this, but really what they want is the political advantage. And David answered Rehob and Benah his brother, the sons of Rimon the Barathite, and said unto them, As the Lord liveth who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity. He takes a vow here. As surely as God is alive, is there any question about whether the Lord is alive? Is he the one true and living God? Certainly he is. as the Lord lives, who saved me from all adversity. In other words, think of how many things David's come through, whether it's with the Philistines, or whether it's fleeing from Saul, or all of these things, battles that David has survived. He's survived all of this, and he says, as the Lord lives, who brought me out of all adversity. When one told me, saying, behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given a reward for his tidings. So when this guy comes and says, I killed Saul, May you be the king, David said. What did I do to him? I held him accountable for murder. He didn't have the right to kill the king of Israel. And I held him accountable for murder and he was executed. And David had the right to do this because he is the government of this region. In other words, he's the judge. He has the right to call for capital punishment here. Let's note this. This isn't just an Old Testament thing. The New Testament recognizes the right of capital punishment. Romans chapter 13 says that the government does not bear the sword in vain. Okay, the government has the right of capital punishment biblically. Genesis 9.6, whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. So for the government to carry out capital punishment is biblical. God has delegated that authority to government. I think they should be cautious in how they carry it out. It has to do, that ability has to do with exercising justice on murder. In other words, you don't exercise capital punishment for every crime. That would be unjust. Now, it might keep people in submission, but it's not just. You know, so there's certain places in the world that it's capital punishment for doing certain things. When I was in China, they told me, they said, if you violently rob a tourist in China, it's the death penalty. So if a Chinese person violently robs a tourist, the government executes them because they don't want tourists to stop coming out of fear. So guess what? If you do that, you die. Now, guess what? It cuts down on robbing of tourists. Now, if you swindle a tourist, that's okay. If you get them to pay four times more for an item just because you're clever at that, fine. Get as much of their money as you can. But if you assault them, if you rob them, then you're going to die. Not kill them, you just attack them, you're going to die. That's the way their government exercises that authority. Now, that's going beyond, I think, the authority God has given. You don't get to kill people. The government doesn't get to kill people just because they want to make something hard to do. But when it's life and death issues, yes. Attempted murder, murder, these kinds of things. than plotting the murder of fellow countrymen, things like treason, which that's what that is, basically. Those are the things that the government has the right to carry out capital punishment for. But they don't just do it willy-nilly or just because it sounds like a good idea. Death to everybody. Speeding, death. You went five miles and over the speed limit, you could hurt somebody. You're dead. Think about that. We'd say that's really extreme. Or whatever it might be. You took the tags off your mattress. It's a death penalty. Obviously not. Those mattress tags that say don't remove by penalty of law or whatever on them, that's obviously for the people selling it. But I've always left them on just in case. But what's the point? The point is, yes, this was something that God had given. Now, I know in our culture it's not considered acceptable that somehow, there's even those in the Right to Life movement, some of the Right to Life movement opposes capital punishment. They oppose abortion and capital punishment. But some people want to make this a moral equivalency. In other words, if you're against abortion, you have to be against capital punishment. No, you don't. In other words, killing an innocent child in the womb is not the same as killing a serial killer, executing a serial killer. And they'll say, well, there's studies show that capital punishment doesn't decrease crime. Well, here's what it does decrease, repeat offenders. Okay? You can do a study on it. Everybody who's been executed never commits another crime after that. Okay? So it does cut down on that. You don't have any repeat offenders. But God called for it. He said, this is justice. You've actually attacked God. That's the theological point. When you kill another human being, when you murder another human being, you're attacking God. And in attacking God, you're attacking his image. That's the point. Just like burning somebody an effigy. You know, people burning the American flag, what are they doing? That's the best they can do to attack America. That's why they do it. You know, why is ISIS or Iran or some of these places in the streets burning the American flag? Trust me, if they had the ability to attack us and think they could win a battle militarily, they would do it. But they can't. So instead they make threats and burn the American flag in the street. And don't doubt it. People who commit murder would kill God if they could. Can't be done, obviously, but they hate God. And so here's the point. You've attacked this person who's made in God's image, and therefore, you have attacked God. And so therefore, capital punishment is something that the Bible has set forth as the power of government. And so David says, you didn't respect the life of this man. How much more? He says, if I didn't let this guy live when he said he killed Saul in mercy, because that's what he was claiming. Saul was struggling, and I put him out of his misery. If I didn't let him live, how much more when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? In other words, yes, Isbosheth was my rival, but you don't kill an innocent man in his bedroom. If he's going to die, let him die courageously in battle, not being stabbed to death in bed. You leave this in the hands of God. You don't go and do this. Shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth?" In other words, won't I execute you then? In other words, if I executed the guy in Ziklag who lied about killing Saul, don't you think I'm going to execute you? Who did you think I was? In other words, he's a man after God's own heart. What does that mean? He wants to govern Israel according to God's principles. He recognizes God is the true king and he's God's representative. It's a very important thing. It's not the same because they were a theocracy, but I wish more of our government officials would recognize this, that their authority is not just because they're in charge, it's there because God has placed them there. For promotion comes neither from the East nor the West nor the South, but God is the judge. He puts up one and sets down another, right? Sets up one and puts down another. Nobody's in office but that God allows it. Donald Trump is the President of the United States because God allowed him to become the President of the United States. Barack Obama was the President of the United States because God allowed him to become the President of the United States, and God was working his plan in that. Doesn't mean everything they did pleased God, don't misunderstand that. But what it means is that they were only there because God put them there, allowed them to be there. And so many times our leaders forget that or don't even think of that. They think they're great men and that's why they're there. And that's not why. It's because God allowed them to be there. And there should be some humility in line of that because they have to answer to God. They have more responsibility than us. They have huge decisions to make and God's going to hold them accountable for what they do in regard to those decisions. It's a very serious thing. And David commanded his young men and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet and hang them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulcher of Abner in Hebron. So they give a burial, a proper burial as best they can, to the remains of Ishbosheth that they have. But these men, this was common in the ancient Near East. You hung these bodies out as a sign of, guess what? You commit murder, you will be executed. And here's the sign of it. If you question whether you'll be executed, just look as you walk by. Why the pool? This is where everybody came to draw water. You couldn't miss this. Every day you had to go draw water. So you would have seen this every day. It's kind of gruesome, I know. But yet, this is David carrying out justice. But what I think we notice here is that David isn't ruling like an ancient Near Eastern despot who just rules with an iron fist. He's ruling according to God's principles, recognizing that God is the ultimate king. And he's ruling as the king under God, if you would. And recognizing the value of human life. And again, I wish that more governments and more leaders would do this. So, for example, in regard to war, we do have to recognize that war occurs in our fallen world and that sometimes it's necessary in order to defend ourselves and our nation. But the fact is that war is not part of God's plan. When Jesus returns and rules on this earth, will there be any more war? Not until the very end of that millennial kingdom. And when he sets up a new heaven and a new earth, will there be any more war? No. See, war wasn't part of God's plan. God didn't make us to kill each other. Now, in a fallen world, there may be people who are trying to kill me, and I have to try to stop them from killing me. And in the process, I kill them. But we don't rejoice in that. Okay, now, don't misunderstand me. I have great respect for those who fought, who served to defend our country. But I think we need to be careful about the fact that we recognize that when we do go to war with another country, there are real lives that are being snuffed out when there's a war, whether they're American lives or whether they're lives in another nation. And our leaders ought to go into those wars very cautiously. And so many times, these decisions are made politically. So for example, if we were to go back 50 years or more to the Vietnam era, when Eisenhower and JFK were starting to send advisors into Vietnam, they were trying to keep communism from spreading. And there was already a war going on. The North Vietnamese were trying to conquer the South. But as the war went on and it became, I mean, these things are not even questioned. These are in writing by the leadership. Both LBJ and Nixon knew they didn't really have a path to winning the Vietnam War, but they kept the war going on just so they could save political face and get out in a certain way. Now, to me, that's kind of despicable when you're sending thousands of American young men to go die for your political gain. That's wrong. All right? That's just not right. Now, there may be a place to fight communism and all of that. Communism was one of the worst things, over 100 million people dead because of communism in the 20th century. It's terrible. So it's worth being opposed. Young people, by the way, communism's cool these days. There's nothing cool about communism. All right? Communism will persecute Christians always. Communism will kill innocent people always. Happens everywhere there's been communism. All right? Happening today. Happens in Cuba today, happens in Venezuela today, happens in China today, happens in North Korea today. If you're a political enemy and you have a difference of opinion, you can die. That's the way it works. All right? So there's nothing cool about it. I'm not saying, hey, we should have been soft on communism. But what I am saying is, if you're the leader of a nation, if you're Lyndon Baines Johnson or you're Richard Nixon, and you know that your country, you know, they said these things on tape. They said, you know, I don't see how we can win this thing. We've got to figure a way to get out. But we can't do it yet because there's an election coming up. That's foolishness. Pull the poor young men out of there. Because you're just sending them to go die for your re-election. That's wrong. You don't send people to die so you can get re-elected. OK? You need to have more regard for human life than that. That's just wrong, okay? And so, again, a godly leader would have a regard for human life. There are times that things have to be opposed and that men and women are going to die serving their country, and those are terrible, grievous losses. And we have to recognize those as that. But there are times when war or capital punishment or these things are wielded by a leader in a way to keep power, and that's wrong. You see, that's exactly what David wasn't doing here. He wasn't wielding his authority. I mean, if he was doing that, he would have rewarded these men for killing Ish-bosheth and delivering him the kingdom. Instead, he's saying, no, what you did was evil. You're murderers, and murderers need to be punished. No matter what favor you thought you were doing me, murderers need to be punished. And again, we need to have the kind of view of our adversaries that David has here. What does he call Ishbosheth? You killed an innocent man. There are people who oppose us, who don't like us, who maybe hate us, maybe would kill us if they could. I don't know if you've had some enemies that severe, hopefully not that would try to kill you, but maybe you have in life. And you have people like that. How do you view them? Are you hoping somebody kills them in their sleep? I know that sounds terrible, but that could come up in our fallen human hearts, can't it? I wish that person would just die. Or if they do, what happens when you hear that they do get diagnosed with some disease? They have a heart attack or stroke. The person's been your enemy. Do you rejoice in that or do you pray for them? What's the right way to respond? Here we find David responding in a way saying, look, this is wrong. You murdered an innocent man. And we should respond the same way. We should say, look, even when people oppose me, even when they're our enemies, what does Jesus say? Pray for those who persecute you. It's very hard to hate somebody you pray for. If you're praying for somebody regularly and praying for them to repent and praying that God would help them, it's very hard to hate them. We're to pray for those who persecute us. As Christians, if we get persecuted, it's tempting to want to hate them. I have a friend that lived in Iraq, and he was a communist. He was a member of the Communist Party in Iraq, which was the key enemy to the Ba'athist Party in Iraq, which was Saddam Hussein's party. And so he was arrested by Saddam Hussein. This was way back, I think, in the 60s. He was arrested by Saddam Hussein, and they put him in a train car that had barrels of oil in it, and they left the lids off the barrel of oil so they were sloshing all over the prisoners inside the car. And the fumes were, he said, several of the other people inside the train car died from the fumes. He survived it. He was able to escape Iraq and come to Canada. God was able to find a safe haven in Canada and then eventually made his way to the United States, got his immigration into the United States, opened a business in the United States. While he was in the United States, he heard the gospel and trusted Christ. And he said for much of his life, he plotted how he could go back and kill Saddam Hussein, that if he ever saw Saddam Hussein face to face, he planned to kill him. He said after he got saved, he started praying that Saddam Hussein would get saved. See the difference between a believer and an unbeliever in this regard. An unbeliever says, my enemies need to die. A believer says, my enemies need to trust Christ. There's a big difference. There's a regard for human life there, recognizing a soul made in God's image, and a regard for justice. And so David is a wonderful example here. In other words, the question's been very clearly answered. What kind of king should rule Israel? Not one who rules like the pagan kings around him, but who recognizes God as the true king. And who is that person? We've only found one, and that's David. And ultimately, we know that David does this imperfectly. As we go further in 2 Samuel, we're going to find many of David's imperfections. We've already seen a few of them. He wasn't supposed to multiply wives. He did. And we see some of his imperfections. They come along here in a few chapters. But nonetheless, this points to the ultimate son of David, doesn't it? That yes, David was imperfect, but there is one who will rule as the perfect king. He's David's son. His name is Jesus. Now, interestingly, he can be God and man ruling. So, at the same time, he can be the king and recognize God as the king. But think of how Jesus behaved. How did he behave toward his enemies? Here are men nailing him to a cross. What does he say? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I don't think he was praying that about the Pharisees. They knew what they were doing. But he knew that the Roman soldiers who were tasked with his execution didn't really know what they were doing. They didn't know who Jesus was. They just knew that this man, we've been commanded by the governor to execute him. And so he says, Lord, don't hold this against him. That he prays for his enemies and his opponents, even at the very point of his death. He gives them time, even the Pharisees and others, he gives them time to repent. Members of the Sanhedrin and others, he gives them time to repent. He doesn't judge them immediately. He could have called thousands of angels and he doesn't. He goes to the cross instead. You see, Jesus is even a better example than David here. And that is, he dies for his enemies. He prays for his enemies. And so this points forward to, as we ask this question, what kind of person is ultimately right to be the King of Israel? Yes, David here, he was the best choice in that day, but there's one who's a perfect choice, and that's Jesus Christ, the God-man. Let's bow our heads.