I was telling somebody, I think, earlier this week that we were going to be looking at 2 Samuel, chapter 21. They said, oh yeah, we haven't finished that book yet, have we? We've been on a long journey through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, actually, over the past year, a year and a half or so, I think, with a few series in between. And over the last few weeks, we've taken a break and spent some time thinking about the incarnation of Christ during Advent, Thanksgiving and what it means to give thanks and why we should during that period. And then had a charge for the new year last week. And so that brings us back to finish up our series on 1st and 2nd Samuel. These two books in our Bible that really are one book in probably written as one book originally. And yet, it's sort of interesting, it's kind of appropriate that we ended where we did, because where we are today, and I'm gonna invite you to turn to 2 Samuel chapter 21 on page 274 of your Pew Bibles. This is the end of the book, and many scholars look at these chapters, chapter 21 to 24 of 2 Samuel, and they say, this seems like it was tacked on. This was probably not originally there, and maybe shouldn't be there, actually. Others, and I would count myself among them, say, no, these are very important chapters. They're highly stylized, highly structured. If you look at how they lay out, they lay out in this beautiful, what we call a sandwich or chiastic structure, where there are these pairs of passages that kind of join together and lead to sort of a central passage, which is chapter 22 and the beginning of chapter 23, which are these songs of David. But what I think that these chapters are doing is they're recapitulating, they're basically reminding us of the lessons we've learned through these books. And the first lesson, these books are asking the question, who will be the Lord's king? And the first part of that answer is, not one like Saul. And so in chapter 21, verses one to 14 that we looked at last time we were looking at this book, we see another picture of the failure of Saul as king. And how David had to then come and be the better king. And that's what the rest of 1 and 2 Samuel is about. But here then, in 2 Samuel 21 verses 15 to 22, this sort of mirrors that time in 1 Samuel 17 and 18 where David comes forth as the great giant slayer. The one who can defeat Goliath and then lead Israel into victory. And we see that's kind of the theme that we find in this passage. And so in some sense, it's a few short verses. In some sense, they're very repetitive. In some sense, you sort of, they're full of a bunch of names that most of us have a hard time pronouncing. You'll say, what does this mean for me? And yet, actually, it reminds us, it takes us back to a very important point. Lessons that we learn, especially in 1 Samuel 17 and 18. About who the king after the Lord's own heart is like, what he is like, who he will be. So with that, let's go to 2 Samuel 21 verses 15 to 22. Give attention now to the reading of God's holy word. There was war again between the Philistines and Israel. And David went down together with his servants and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi-Binab, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed 300 shekels of bronze, and who is armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, you shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. After this, there was war again. with the Philistines at Gab, then Sibachai, the Hushethite, struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants. And there was again war with the Philistines at Gab, and Elhanan, the son of Jere Oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was again war at Gath where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, 24 in number. And he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down. These four were descended from the giants in Gath and they fell by the hand of David. and by the hand of his servants. Here ends the reading of God's word. We'd love for him to bless our time as we think on it further and meditate on it, and so for that we need his help. We need the spirit to be at work, so let's pray and ask for that now. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that it is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, that it does wage war against the sin that even clings so closely to us, the sinful flesh. which we still bear, that it awakens us to new life through faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask you by your spirit to use your word this morning to do that work, do that work in us. Each of us here, do that work in us as we go out into the world. May you shape and conform us today to your image, to the image of your son, Jesus Christ, that we may bring glory to your name. In his name, amen. I have a quick survey. Unofficial. It's not Rasmussen up here or Gallup. But how many of you made a New Year's resolution for 2024? Thank you, Linnea, Rachel. All right. We're people that are very comfortable with where we are. That's good. That's good. I will add my hand now. Those of you who raised your hands, and this is why some of you didn't, you say, where is he going with this? How many of you have already broken one of those New Year's resolutions? Not too many. Good. Those of you who made resolutions are sticking. The rest of us knew we couldn't, so we didn't even bother making resolutions. Here's another question. If you have kept your resolution this year so far, for how many of you was that resolution the same as one you did years ago? Yeah, all right, so that's so often the case, isn't it? That every year we look ahead and we recognize that we still have work to do, that we're not there yet. Often we can look back at past years, maybe a resolution we kept for a whole year, but over the years then we've failed to continue in that. That's our experience in this life, isn't it? Constant conflict, constant work, trying to grow, trying to improve, trying to change for the better. And yet, as we all know, and what true addicts who are aware of their addiction know better than the rest of us often, every day is a new battle, a new battle to resist temptation, to resist temptation, to fall into the same patterns, the same sins, the same addictions, whether it's social media addiction, pornography, alcohol abuse, shopping, screen time, whatever it is for you. And it's so important to fight and to work at it because these sinful addictions, what the Bible calls idolatries, are enemies, they're enemies of our souls that will destroy us if we let them. These battles with sin, often reflected in our New Year's resolutions are mortifying the flesh we talk about. Trying to put to death that sinful flesh in us. Feeding or building up the new man in us. That's the work of God's spirit creating new life in us, trying to feed that. This work of mortifying and feeding, mortifying the sinful flesh and feeding the new man is what the Bible and what theologians talk about as sanctification. being and becoming more and more holy, learning self-control, learning to resist temptation, growing spiritually as we walk with Christ and we engage with his word and his sacraments. And sanctification, according to our Westminster Confession of Faith, full of great theology, it says sanctification should be thought of as a war. A war. Westminster Confession of Faith 13.2 says, I've tweaked it to take the archaic language out, hopefully to make it more understandable. Sanctification is throughout, it's in the whole man. It's in all of us, it's body and soul, right? Though it is imperfect in this life, since some remnants of corruption still abide in every part of us, because of this imperfection there arises a continual and irreconcilable war the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And it's because of this war that exists. And it's a war that exists in ourselves, in our very being, flesh and spirit at war within us. And that war is simply a reflection of the broader warring reality between God and the great powers of darkness at work in this world. It's because this war exists that we as God's people need a mighty king to lead us into true and ultimate victory. Israel recognized this and they recognized it because they had a very real and literal experience of that in the Philistines. The Philistines that are this great evil people, mighty warring people who are continual blight to Israel, especially in this time, in the time of Saul and David. They were to Israel's west, and they would often encroach into Israel and wreak havoc. And in many ways, that's why 1 and 2 Samuel, the events recorded, happened, and then were recorded for us to show God's people, Israel in that age, and us today, to show us the king we need. Not a king like Saul, as we talked about a moment ago, but it's a king like David, a man after the Lord's own heart. And as I mentioned, 2 Samuel 21 is kind of rewalking us through this story of 1 and 2 Samuel that answers the question, who will be God's king? Saul, he's a failure. He's a king like the nations. He looks pretty big and tall. He looks like the kind of guy that could lead in victory, but he fails, and he fails because he fails to have the Lord's glory and the Lord's will in his heart. David, on the other hand, a man after the Lord's own heart, leads Israel in victory over enemies, as we see in 1 Samuel chapter 17, and as we see in this passage here. And so what is this passage doing? It's reiterating that point that we saw earlier in the book. that the Lord's King, and here's what I think this passage shows us, the Lord's King, the King we need, is a mighty warrior continually leading in victory over his and our fearsome foes. The King, the Lord's King that we need is a mighty warrior who continually leads in victory over his and our fearsome foes. And as we unpack this idea from this text, I want us to see first of all the experience of God's kingdom. sort of why we need a king, the enemies of God's kingdom, what they look like, and third, the expectation of God's kingdom, what we can expect of God's kingdom. So the experience, the enemies, and the expectation of God's kingdom are the three points we'll pursue this morning. First of all, the experience of God's kingdom. And in short, God's kingdom exists in this world in a state of constant conflict. It's really reflected in our continual battle with trying to grow, trying to improve. There's this constant conflict and this is brought on by ongoing continual opposition from God's enemies and we see this here in the repeated refrain throughout. I don't know if you noticed it. Starts off right there in the very first verse. There was war again. with the Philistines, between the Philistines and Israel. Now, we're not exactly sure when in the reign of David these events occurred. It doesn't really tell us. It doesn't give us specifics. I think because that's not really the point. You know, we've read up to this point, we've read through 1 and 2 Samuel, we've read chapter 17 of Samuel, and it seems like David's victory over Goliath is pretty final. Like, that kind of marks a watershed moment, and after that, it seems like David is just winning, winning, winning, and it's sort of smooth sailing after that, and I think it's described that way because there's a point to that, that there's a truth in that. But here we get a little different side of the picture. It seemed like 1 Samuel 17 might have been the final victory, that it would have ended the Philistine threat, but here we see that the Philistines They're regrouping and they're reattacking and it doesn't just happen once, it happens over and over. The experience of the kingdom of Israel is one of continual conflict, constant opposition from the enemies of God. Verse 18, after this there was war again with the Philistines at Gab. Verse 19, and there was war again with the Philistines at Gab. Verse 20, and there was again war at Gath over and over and over again. Again, we're not sure exactly when in David's reign this occurs, but it seems like it happened later, sometime after 1 Samuel 17. Maybe even during the time after Saul when David is reigning as king. That's kind of implied maybe in verse 15, that it seems like David has lost some of his youthful vigor, that it says that he grew weary. So I think the point is, that the experience of God's kingdom, this is a reminder here that the reality that God's people and his kingdom that we will face is a continual constant conflict and opposition from God's enemies. For Israel, it was constant opposition from the Philistines, real life manifestations of this conflict. That's not true for us. For us, it looks a little different, but it's still true. For us, this constant conflict looks like The battle of the Christian life, not between nations, not with people that we don't like or that don't like us, but with spiritual forces, spiritual realities, things like temptation, sin, Satan, evil itself. And this is often experienced in ways that bring great suffering. to us along the way. 1 Peter calls us to this sort of ongoing or shows us this sort of ongoing conflict that it exists, that this is the experience of God's people. In 1 Peter chapter 5, he's writing to the early church and he says, be sober-minded in verse 8. Be watchful. Your adversary, enemy, The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever, amen. Peter says here, we engage in this ongoing conflict, this experience of the kingdom of God in this age, in this life, in this world. We engage by being firm in our faith. In this sense, I think Peter's just giving sort of shorthand for what Paul expands on in Ephesians chapter six. How do we deal with a spiritual battle? Well, it's by taking up a spiritual armor of God, as it says in Ephesians six. Things like truth. which is called our belt. Things like the gospel of peace, which is called our shoes. Things like faith, which is called our shield. Things like salvation, which is called our helmet. Things like the word of God, which is called the sword of the spirit. This is the experience of God's kingdom in this age. The experience that we see on display in this passage. an experience of constant conflict and opposition from the Lord's enemies. How dare we forget? How dare we forget that we're in a war? We need to be reminded that we are. We need to be reminded that our goal is not to grow comfortable in this world, not to have a peaceful coexistence with sin and evil around us. but to wage war spiritually, taking up the spiritual weapons and armor of God. We also need to know who our enemy is. We need a good sense of who the enemy is so that we are aware of what we're facing so that we don't get lulled into complacency. If you think of a football team, how is it that they prepare for battle, for the next game, while they go and they study their opponent? the other team that they're going to be facing. They watch hours of video and they say, all right, what are their strengths? How are we going to handle that? What are their weakness? And that brings us to our second point, the enemies of God's kingdom, because this passage gives us a little glimpse at what the enemies of God's people look like. And simply put, if we had to summarize it from this passage, the enemies of God's kingdom are fearsome foes, fearsome foes. They seem to have all the odds stacked in their favor. And we see that in these four characters who are described here in summary form in verse 22, what does it say? These four were descended from the giants in Gath. Literally, these are giant men. And that's supposed to be representative of the fearsome foes we face. Giants in the land. The NIV, if you have that translation, translates it not giant, but Rafa, which is just the Hebrew term. And we're not exactly sure what it means, but Deuteronomy 2 says that these Rafa were like the Anakim. They were tall, very tall. They were probably giants, and that's really how Goliath, who's one of these, is described. The point seems to be that they seemed invincible. They seemed huge. They seemed to have all the advantage. In hand-to-hand combat, being super tall, super big, and being able to carry super heavy weapons, huge advantage. The odds are stacked in their favor. And we see this especially in Ish-bai-bin-ab, the first one who's mentioned, in verse 16. He's loaded with world-class weaponry. First of all, he's got this spear that weighed 300 shekels of bronze, that's about seven and a half pounds, probably the spear head, just the head. And then it says that he's armed with a new sword. Actually, there's no word for sword there. It just says, and he was girded with a new thing. So commentators have to guess. Well, it's probably a new sword, because that's what you usually gird on. I think the point is not what it was, it's the latest and greatest war tech. He had all the best stuff. And then there's Saph in verse 18. After this, there's war again with the Philistines at Gab. Then Sibachai, the Hushethite, struck down Saph. And then we're not really told much about him, right? Who is one of the descendants of the giants? He's just another giant. Maybe we can unpack a little bit of what the implication here is and how he's shown to have the advantage by his name. So Sibachai, the one who defeats him, his name means something like soft branches or lattice or maybe an instrument, sort of a stringed instrument. Those are pretty delicate things, right? Not necessarily the name of a strong, mighty warrior. Saf, that means that big threshold stone, the entrance to a temple or a palace or a large place. That's the guy you want on your team in a battle, the stone guy, not the tiny branch guy. Again, Sapph has all the advantage. The enemies of God's kingdom seem to have all the odds on their side. And then there's this other giant from Gath in verse 19, and there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. And Elhanan, the son of Jerior, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And you say, well, we've met this guy before. Yeah, we did. We met him back in chapter 17. And it wasn't Elhanan who killed him. It was David. What's going on here? Well, guess what? It takes a lot of commentators, a lot of pages to talk about this at length, and I won't go into it at length. Probably what has happened is actually that there seems to have been some scribal errors that entered into here, and the correct reading is probably 1 Chronicles 20, the passage that echoes this passage, and there it says that actually Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath, and it's very easy for that word to have dropped out. But it is trying to remind us of Goliath, because it's like, yeah, his brother was probably a lot like him, and he was this huge giant whose spear was like a weaver's beam. Goliath seemed to have all the advantage against David, and so also his brother probably had all the advantage against Elhanan. I mean, he was also a giant or a Rapha. And then fourth and finally, we get a guy without a name, the six-fingered man. Not like the guy in The Princess Bride, he had one hand with six fingers. This guy has all four hands. And in case you don't get the point, the author gives us the math, right? Verse 20, and there was again war at Gath where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. That's 24 in number, 24 fingers and toes. And he also was descended from the giants. And we sort of look at that and say, well, that's a deformity. I'm glad I don't have six fingers. I couldn't wear a glove that I would buy at the store. But in that day, it probably represented unique power. I mean, if five fingers is good for wielding and holding a weapon, then six is better. And if you have six, you could lose one and you still have five and you're still equal with your opponent. What's the point? God's enemies are formidable foes, overgrown giants with superpowers and the best weapons at their disposal. Who is that for us in our day? Maybe it's the billionaires. the elites in the world who seem to have all the power and amass all the power. Maybe it's our political opponents who we think have the upper hand. Seems like they're above the law, they're too big for it, and they're often a source of great suffering and oppression of God's people. But friends, our true enemies as the church, as the people of God, as his kingdom, are not Philistines, are not billionaires, are not terrorists or bullies at school. Our true enemies are described for us in Ephesians 6. This is that passage I mentioned a moment ago from Paul, where he says, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Thank you, Paul. Some of these flesh and blood powers are just too great for me. I am so glad that you told me that I don't have to wrestle against flesh and blood. But he goes on and says, no, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And you say, whoa, those are fearsome foes. Do we recognize not only that we're in a battle, but that our foes are formidable. Our foes are mighty. They are foes of spiritual forces, of darkness that often appear new and beautiful and mighty. Satan is the head of our foes in some capacity, in some way, and he can disguise himself as an angel of light, Paul says. Our foes are not flesh and blood. Our foes are not a political battle. Those actually are easy compared to things like temptation, to our habitual sin. Addictions that can appeal, that don't just come at us from the outside, but they can appeal to the remnants of our sinful flesh within us. And it can amass the spirit of the age, which we often simply reflect as we sit in its soup. It's a question for you and for me to reflect. What are the most dangerous foes I truly face? What idols most tempt me to trust in them rather than the Lord? Might be a way to ask that. What do you fear most? Or what do you fear losing most? It's important not to forget that we're engaged in a spiritual battle. It's important not to forget that we face formidable foes and ones that are mostly unseen. So that's the experience of God's kingdom is constant conflict. The enemies of God's kingdom, formidable foes armed with greater earthly power than we have. Armed with powers that we can only imagine. Is there any hope? And that brings us to the third and final point. the expectation of God's kingdom. See, as we read this passage, the ultimate point of this passage is that even with such formidable foes, they are no match for the Lord's anointed king and his servants. Why? Because, of course, the Lord's on their side. The Lord's the one, as we've learned throughout 1 and 2 Samuel, who goes with his people in battle, who goes with his anointed king, David, in battle, and who assures the ultimate victory. And that's the repeated point. War keeps arising, and it's always another giant, another formidable foe, another seemingly invincible, insurmountable obstacle, this massive giant who gets felled like a dead tree. over and over again, and the felling is almost an afterthought. Because of course, if you stand against the Lord's anointed king and his servants, you will fall, ultimately. Ish-bai-bin-ab says he thought to kill David. He wanted, he wanted to get the honor of being the king's slayer. But, but, verse 17, but Abishai, The son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Simple, easy. Doesn't take much, it doesn't give us many details. Why? Because that's not the point. The point is the expectation of God's kingdom is that victory is ultimately assured. Tzibbikai the Hushatite does the same to Seth in verse 18. Elhanan fells Goliath's brother in verse 19, if we take the correction from 1 Chronicles. And Jonathan strikes down Mr. Six-Digit in verses, verse 21. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down. And the summary statement captures this point so well. The expectation of God's kingdom is ultimate victory, verse 22. These four were descended from the giants of Gath, and they fell by the hand of David, by the hand of his servants. Case closed. Story's over. I mean, kids, this is stuff. The stuff of movies. This is the stuff of fairy tales, but it's real. And it's meant to show us that we are engaged in even grander and more glorious stuff than this. And ultimately, we know there's a happy ending. The point is God gives ultimate Victory. He grants ultimate victory to his king, his servants, that God wins. And that's good news. If. That's good news if we're his. If we're his servants. If we're being led into battle by his king. But it's a warning if we're not. Every mocker of God, as we see in this giant, taunting Israel, much like Goliath taunted them back in chapter 17. Every mocker of God, every hater of God's people here, no matter how big and strong, meets the same quick defeat, ending in judgment and death. And that's a picture, friends, of what ultimately happens to all who oppose God. And so, if you are not yet a follower of Jesus Christ, and we often have some among us who aren't, Take this warning, hear from this passage the expectation you can have being outside of the kingdom of God. Don't presume that because things in your life are maybe going well for the moment that God will not ultimately judge and condemn your sin. But there's a solution, repent. Be reconciled to God, be called into his kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ and follow his king, the Lord Jesus. Maybe we should reflect on this for a moment. How do you know if you're an enemy of God? Well, the Bible says that we all are by default in our sin. We are all born sinful, and because of that sin, we are at enmity with God. And what does this look like? Sometimes it looks like deep contempt for him, hatred, anger. You don't like the pictures of God you get in the scripture and you react against them. But sometimes it also looks like just utter disregard, just not caring. If you're here this morning because somebody invited you, didn't have anything better to do this morning, well, that's what enmity with God looks like. Unless we become part of God's kingdom people, we are doomed to be felled like these giants. So how do we become those protected? How do we become those who have the expectation that is built here for the ultimate expectation for the kingdom of God, a victory, ultimate victory over all evil, over all God's enemies? Well, friends, we must become the subjects and the servants of God's king. And you say, well, who is that? Here, it's David. Is that who I need to become the subject of? And the answer, of course, is no. David's dead. You can't follow David in this life. In fact, that point seems to be implicit in the details of this passage. The question 1 and 2 Samuel asks is, who is God's chosen king for his people? And the answer is one like David, but also one greater. David here is shown to not be the ultimate king. Why? Because, verse 15, David grew weary. And what do his men say in verse 17? Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and attacked the Philistine, killed him. Then David's men swore to him, you shall no longer go out with us in battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. David is described here as the lamp of Israel, as the Lord's chosen king. In some sense, he is the lamp of Israel as a nation. If he dies, the light of their existence dies. And he did. He died. And the nation died, not exactly with him, but not long after. And so first and second Samuel calls to look for a king better than David. One who will not grow weary and faint. One who can be a lasting lamp of his kingdom, of Israel. So that he can defeat our enemies and his enemies for good. That they can never arise against him anymore. And that's exactly who Jesus Christ our king is. Not the lamp of Israel, but the light of the world. John chapter eight. The king who does not faint or grow weary as Isaiah 40 verse 28 says, because he is the Lord, the God everlasting. Now he did faint and grow weary in his life on earth, but he rose in glory to never again faint or grow weary. He does not get taken out of the battle to be spared by his servants like David does here. but instead he was abandoned by his servants so that he could take the death we deserved by humbly, obediently submitting to death, even death on a cross. And then he rose in victory on the third day to assure us that though Satan bit his heel, Jesus has crushed his head once for all. that our giant spiritual enemies, Satan, sin, death, the cosmic powers of evil and darkness in this present evil age have been defeated once for all, that victory is assured for us if we are His by repentance and faith and following Jesus all the days of our lives. One commentator puts it this way, having risen from the dead, never to die again, Jesus is the king who never faints nor grows weary, but who lives forever to reign over and on behalf of his kingdom of blessedness, having defeated all the monstrous Philistine giant-like threats that we may ever face in this world or the next. He did this by his redemption, by his suffering, by His sacrifice, by His stretching out His hands to be nailed to a cross. I love how that hymn that we sang a moment ago puts it, lead on, oh, no, no, no, it's the crowning with many crowns, that He has rich wounds yet visible above where He is, seated at the right hand of the Father. Rich wounds visible above in beauty glorified. Jesus is the king who first subdues us to himself, right? Because we, by nature, are enemies of God, so he must do something with us in our enmity, and what he does is first he subdues us, he conquers us in our hearts. That's what our Shorter Catechism says, that Jesus exercises his office as king by first subduing us to himself, then ruling and defending us, and then restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. And you know how he does that? And this is another side point that is worth noting here. David's only mentioned in verse one, and he's mentioned not as the enemy slayer. It's his servants who are doing it all here. What a profound picture of how our king leads us. That he actually, by his spirit, enables and empowers us to engage in the battle and have unnatural, supernatural victories over sin, Satan, and death as we're led by Jesus. through his spirit. So the message of this passage ought to be great comfort to us who are his. No matter how formidable our foe looks, even death itself, which is called the greatest enemy, and it sure looks like it, doesn't it? It looks like the end. It looks like the greatest defeat ever. But even death has been defeated by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has loved us with an everlasting love and who calls us to follow him into victory, into the victory of his kingdom come. And so I'll close with this. Ralph Davis in his commentary tells of Alexander White. He was a 19th century Scottish minister in the Free Church of Scotland. At 82 years old, he's nearing the end of his life. He died at 84. He's writing a letter to a friend who is one of the parishioners that he used to minister to. And he says, you know, here at 82, The gospel of saving grace, he says, the word I preached so long to you is now the one stay and strength of my life. Davis goes on and says the theology is the same as in this text. God's early promises prove firm even to the end. And some of us need that assurance as we knowingly approach that end. Lead on, O King eternal. The battle has been won, will be won. We have great expectation of ultimate victory because the Lord is on our side if we are his. Let's close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this reminder of the reality that we face in this world. The experience that we know too well of being in constant conflict, waging war with spiritual forces, sin, Satan, death, Lord, we know our enemy is too great for us, and yet how we thank you that in Jesus Christ, our enemy is defeated. We can move forward in victory because of Christ's work in his life, his death, and his resurrection, and it is intercession at your right hand now as our king. May we follow you well by faith. May we engage in the battle well, and may you use us to bring about a great victory for the glory of your name. In Jesus' name, our king.