Every hour. Temptations lose their power when He is nigh, when He's close. That's a great comfort because temptation will take us where we don't want to go. Oh, we may think we want to go there, but when God's judgment or the destruction that we bring lands, it's not too pleasant. And so we're seeing that in the life of David, even in this chapter, 2 Samuel 3, that was already read. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Gracious God, our Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for so great a salvation. Lord, we thank you for redeeming your people, delivering us from darkness and working light in our lives, allowing us to abide in Christ. And Lord, help us to do that more and more as we see the day drawing near. And Lord, we pray for your blessing. Now, as we look into your word, help me to preach, help us all to listen by the Holy Spirit, apply it to our lives and feed us, we pray for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. So we're looking at chapter three here of 2 Samuel, and I'm reminded of Moses and his weakness. Moses did not want to be the deliverer of Israel from Egypt. God had to talk him into it, right? So in talking to him and him listening to God, he became a great deliverer by the grace of God. of Egypt, I mean of Israel out of Egypt. Well, we too may feel overwhelmed by what goes on in our lives, in our situation in life. Things can get pretty rough and can be overwhelming and we are weak. We are weak people because of the fall. Because Adam, our representative in the garden, we fell in him, we fell with him, and it damaged us. We are damaged people. And weakness is huge. However, let us always remember what Paul said. He said that he rejoiced in his weakness, what Danny read a few minutes ago. Because in his weakness, looking to Christ, he becomes strong. And this is what we want to be. We want to be strong in the Lord. So we need to surrender our fears to the Lord. We need to talk to him about our insecurities. And we need to look for him for strength. Now think about this. The strongest man that ever lived, Samson, lost his strength in the lap of Delilah, and basically set his life on a course to physical destruction here in this world, because he gave into his weakness with Delilah. That was Samson. Solomon, not only the strongest man, Samson, but the wisest man, Solomon, lost his strength by marrying so many women. How many wives did he have? Unbelievable number of 700 and 300 concubines. Insanity. But let's think about Peter for a minute. The apostle Peter was a leader among the disciples and the followers of Jesus. And remember when they came to arrest Jesus, what did Peter do? He drew his sword and he cut somebody's ear off. Pretty courageous act, defending the Lord. But then a little slave girl, a little while later says, aren't you one of them? Oh, I don't even know him. You see, he may be able to take a, you know, we've got our guard up when it comes to something big sometimes and something little can come along and throw us completely off and we collapse into weakness. We need to count the cost of weakness in sin and kill it by the grace of God. You say, Jim, are you coming up with some wild language today about killing it? No, this is biblical language. We're told several places to mortify, to kill the sin in our lives. Not that we can become perfect until we get to heaven, but we can see a lot of victory. In this chapter, we see symptoms of weakness, that we need to avoid. Weakness, I'm gonna tell you three, and then I'm going to talk about the cure. So three symptoms of weakness in three different people, David Abner and Joe Abner. And then I'm gonna talk about the medicine for this, the cure for this, how are we to handle this weakness lest we too prematurely lose our lives even. Look at Ashael who chased Abner and would not listen to Abner's warnings. We talked about him last week and Abner, he tries to talk him out of it and Ashael just keeps going and he rams him with the butt end of his spear and kills him. He tried to warn him, tried to stop him. Ashael wouldn't have it. Now, David, in this passage, we see he's got all these wives now. He's gone from three. And he's multiplying these wives like the Bible says kings are not to do, and I'm bringing it up again because it's right here in this chapter again. We talked about it earlier. We talked about polygamy. Polygamy is not the will of God. Deuteronomy 17, 17 to 19 says. Speaking of kings, neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. Nor shall he greatly increase silver or gold for himself. This is Deuteronomy 17, 17 to 19, verse 18 says, now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priest, and it shall be with him. And he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God. by carefully observing the words in this law and these statutes. You see, David's weakness here is that he's lusting for more wives and he's taking more wives. You know, I think when he had two wives with him, And he began to see how difficult that was. And he thought, well, I'll just add one more and then one more and then one more. And he kept doing the same thing and increasing his misery. God did not create us for more than one. And so, you know, he keeps doing the same thing over and over and over again. Right now he's in Hebron. When he goes to Jerusalem, he gets even more wives. But God keeps building David's kingdom stronger. Why? Why isn't God just jerking the carpet out from underneath him right now? Well, it's because of his grace. It's because of his purpose. Psalm 115, three, but our God is in the heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Psalm 8411 for our God is a son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing was he withhold from those who walk uprightly. No good thing will he withhold. I love this promise. No good thing. Yeah, we think so. Oh, this would be so good for me if God says no. We need to accept that. No, that's not what's good for you. Multiple wives is definitely not good for you, David. But yet David. In his weakness. And you know what? He's missing God's best. Listen to what Jeremiah 525 says. Your iniquities have turned these things away and your sins have withheld good from you. Your sins. Have withheld good for me. You see, David could have had. A nice family life. Instead, if you look at the names of the children right here, oh, it's awful. Two of them involved in murder. Two of them involved in incest. Two of them involved in serious rebellion. One of them even tries to overthrow his own father. Absalom tries to overthrow the king. He doesn't care if David lives or dies. So it was not a happy family. Our best shot at a happy family is to do it God's way. Proverbs says he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord, a wife, not wives. When God created Adam, he provided a wife for him to be a helpmate, not wives. You know, God could have easily given him three or four wives, easily. Now God gives him one wife. You say David's life. He missed the good of family life. By multiplying wives and now think of the dynamic here, he's got all these children by different wives. And this one group. And what do you expect? They don't get along with each other. They've got different mothers. They've got different interests to a certain extent. Now there's no perfect family, don't get me wrong, and we all have trouble, but this multiplies the trouble big time. Big time. And so. Amnon rapes his sister. And. Absalom murders him for that couple of years later. After David is talked into sending. Everyone for this get together. By the way, David was talked into sending one of his daughters to the son under the pretext that he was sick and needed help and his whole intention is to rape her. It's just terrible. Once David is passing away and he has set up Solomon to be the next king, one of his sons tries to overthrow that and gets killed. Mayhem. We need to do things God's way. We need to handle marriage and family life God's way. Another symptom of weakness here is Abner, his deadly desire, his deadly ambition. You know, there's nothing wrong with ambition as long as we don't make an idol. out of what we're after. And this is what Abner was doing. You see, Abner knew very well that God had chosen a man after his own heart to be the king. What does Abner do? He continues to work with Saul to pursue David, to have him killed. God protects him the whole time. Then once Saul gets killed, Abner sets up Ish-bosheth as king in defiance of God. Why? Well, apparently he wants the power. He's the number one man in the army and he doesn't want to lose his position. And so he sets up Saul's pretty weak son, Why? For his own interest, it looks like. And then it looks like he's going to try to take the throne because when a king dies, his harem goes to his successor. And see, this was the standard back then for kings to have a harem. And so Abner goes into one of his concubines and Ish-bosheth calls him out on it. So this was a sign that Abner was going to take the throne. And it says Abner was getting stronger and stronger. And Abner was securing more and more for himself. He was a very ambitious man, but wrongly ambitious. Going against Ish-bosheth is wrong. Going against God is even a greater wrong. And so now he's gonna betray Ish-bosheth because of this wicked ambition. He's going to betray Ishmael and he sends word to David. Basically, David, I'm going to help you become king. I'm going to help you get what God has said you should have. See, he admits it. And he, by admitting it, we know straight from his mouth that he knew that God had given it to David anyway. And so Abner's making a power play and interfering with the will of God, knowingly interfering with the will of God. I mean, he's he's very stubborn, very proud, very ambitious in a bad way. There's there's nothing wrong with wanting to have a certain career. Wanting to make certain achievements, providing for your family. These things are all good. But. When we go contrary to the will of God, we're asking for trouble. 2 Samuel 3, 9, Abner says, may God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not do for David as the Lord has sworn to him. You see, Abner knows. Abner knows that God has promised David the kingdom. God has decreed it. Abner knows this. Abner has the foolishness to oppose God and Ish-bosheth. So Abner sends out word to the Israelites and listen to what he says, 2 Samuel 3, 18. Look there at verse 18. Now then, he's talking to the elders of Israel, do it. For the Lord has spoken of David saying, by the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies. You see, again, he repeats it. And this is the way people who are blinded by sinful ambition do. They run their mouths and often admit their guilt. Why? Why do we have this conflict between David and Moses? and Abner until Abner's ready to come on board. Why do we have this conflict between David and Ish-bosheth? Well, James chapter four tells us, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members, in your body? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You see, what Abner could have done and should have done was pray. Lord, I've got these sinful desires to overrule you. Lord, help me. What can I do? The Lord would have helped him. It says yet you do not have because you do not ask. We don't need to be number one. If it's God's will, great, fantastic. But if it's not God's will, we don't have to be sinning to be number one. And that's exactly. What he's doing, and then it goes on in James, you ask and do not receive. Because you ask a miss. that you may spend it on your pleasures. And then he calls them, he calls it out, just like the Old Testament, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? You see, if we make an idol, like Abner did, being number one or whatever it is, if we make an idol out of that, we are at enmity with God, we're going against God. And he calls that adultery. Friendship with the world. If we want everybody in the world to like us. That's sinful. Because people are not going to like us Christians. Praise God for the people that do praise God for our brothers and sisters. Fathers and brother. But not everybody is going to like us. If we're gonna spend our lives trying to have them like us and be our friend, we are mistaken. We are really guilty of idolatry. Not everybody is going to like us. And here's what the next verse says. Whoever therefore who wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You can't have it both ways. Friend with the world, enemy of God. Can you put both ways? And listen, it goes on. Or do you? Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? Our God is a jealous guy in a good way. You know, there's there's a jealousy is kind of crazy. Guy wouldn't let his wife go out and hang the clothes in the backyard, afraid somebody would see her. That's crazy jealousy. But I'll tell you what, if somebody starts hitting on my sweet wife, I'm gonna confront them and stop it. That's a good jealousy. She's mine. God has brought us together. And I'm the best for her as long as I'm behaving myself. Whether she realizes it or not, whether I realize it or not, See, that's a good jealousy. And God is jealous in a good way. God loves us. He goes on to say, but he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God is resisting the proud. So here comes proud Abner, you know, oh, I'm going to be the big man in Israel. Oh, he got so big that he took one of the concubines. And that's too much. He crossed the line. He was basically laying his hands on the crown. And Ish-bosheth was like, ooh, I better ask him about this. But Ish-bosheth is a very weak man. And he can't stand up to Abner. And Abner gets very upset and tells him off. But the scripture tells us when we're struggling with this, this sinful ambition, lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. You know, aren't you glad it says he will lift you up? Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. You know, admit the sin, admit the sinful desires. Tell God he already knows. Tell him it will only help us to be honest with God. We're not fooling God. And you know, when we humble ourselves before God, Lord, help me. You know what he's going to do? He's going to forgive us. and lift us up. He will exalt us to where he wants us to be. It may not be where we want it to be. You know, I noticed later in scripture, even though Abner gets killed by Joab, that David promotes Abner's son. You see, if Abner had been doing things right, I believe he very well could have been very high up in David's army, if not the leader. Which brings us to the weak symptom number three, Joab's ruinous revenge. You see, I mentioned to you earlier that Abner basically had to kill Ashiel Joab's brother, who was fast-footed, who was chasing him, who was going to be the hero and would not take counsel. You know, I'm not getting into boxing ring with Mike Tyson. Not only did he bite somebody's ear, but I'm pretty sure he could level me in one or two seconds. And Ashley L should not have gone up against Abner. Abner tried to get out. Abner didn't want to kill him. But Joab acts like, oh, Abner, he's terrible. He wanted to kill him. I mean, it was basically self-defense on Abner's part. Either Abner was going to die or Ashiel was going to die. Abner defended himself. And so it may have been a pretense that Joab is seeking to kill Abner now. So Joab had been out on a raid, and he came back, him and his soldiers, came back with much booty, you know, all kinds of food and good stuff. And he just missed Abner. See, Abner had come. David had fixed them a big meal. Abner and his 20 men, and they have a steak dinner. They have a steak dinner for all these guys and Abner and David, they make an agreement. Abner, I don't know why all Abner got out of this covenant, but I'm sure it was something like safe travel protection. And I'm sure when Joab sent word to bring Abner back, Abner was still thinking about the covenant he had made with David and thinking he was going to have safe passage. But Joab, probably in the name of David, because the scripture says David did not know what Joab was up to. And so Joab sends word for Abner to come back. And then he meets him in the gate and he deceitfully kills him, sticks the knife below the fifth rib. And David is very upset. But Joab says it's all about revenge for his brother being killed. However, we should not take our own revenge. The scripture says in Romans 12, beginning in verse 17, repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. What does that mean? Let's just stop here for a minute. Don't take your own revenge, but leave a place for God, because he says he will repay. You know, we're getting in God's way if we take revenge. As he says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. We're not to take revenge. Give place to wrath. In other words, let God handle it. For it is written, vengeance is mine. Here's the promise. I will repay, God says. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Now get this, verse 21. Do not be overcome by evil. But overcome evil was good. We can be overcome with evil in our weakness. But if we come to God for strength, we're going to actually overcome the evil with good. Putting coals of fire on their head, feeding them when they're hungry, praying for them. Being kind to them. Giving them a drink if they're thirsty, and all these are examples. In so doing, you will heap coals of fire on their head. What are the coals of fire? Get them thinking. Wait, wait, this is so unusual. What? Somebody's showing me this kindness when most people would just be trying to get back at me? Vengeance? Vengeance? Yeah, most people in the world are going to take vengeance, right? Most people in the world are going to try to get back at the person, get back at them, make them pay, make them pay. God says, no, leave place for God. Let God take care of it. You just be kind. That way you overcome evil with good. Otherwise, It says do not be overcome by evil. We can be overcome by evil in our weakness. We can be overcome by. What does it mean to be overcome? We can be down and out. We can be. Knock down. We can be in bad shape. We can be broken. Don't be overcome by evil. But overcome evil with good. This is the will of God. Oh, it's that's not easy. What are we saying about again? That. The nearness of God lessens temptation. If we get with God. We overcome. He gives strength what Paul say. Strength, perfected. He was weak. He said, when I'm weak, I'm strong. Last point, how does this work? Faith fortified. Well, first of all, we are to overcome all these weaknesses by faith. Acts 531, speaking of Jesus Christ, Him God has exalted to His right hand to be the Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We need repentance. And He gives it. So, okay, I want to take revenge. I want to do harm to my enemy, whoever hurt me. I want to do harm. No, he gives repentance. See, we got this attitude. Oh, I wanna hurt him. I wanna hurt him. God gives repentance. Lord, I'm sorry. Help me to bless him. Help me to overcome this evil with good. Now, I'm talking about by faith. You see, we overcome by faith. Listen to this. Now, Romans 11. 19 and 20. But you will say that branches were broken off that I might be gathered in. You know, he's talking about Israel. Israel, the people of God. God said, look, if you're not going to work with me, I'm going to bring in this new people, the Gentiles. Well said, because of unbelief, they were broken off. And you. Stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. Do you know why we are the people of God today? Faith. We're not ethnic Israel. We're the new Jews, the Bible says, not me. We're the new people of God, and a remnant of them will be grafted back in. But how do we stand? How is it that we're the people of God? By faith. How is it we're gonna stay walking with the Lord? By faith. We live by faith. The just shall live by faith, the scripture says. So Paul was sick. Paul had a thorn in his flesh. We don't know what it was. That was figurative or whatever it was, because if it was just a thorn, they could have pulled it out, right? But he had something. He prayed about it three times. Could have been his eyesight. We know that he had bad eyes because he had to have people writing for him. But here's what he said. He's talking about how he prayed about it, and here's what the Lord said to me. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Are you weak today? Yes, you are, and so am I. Are you willing to let his strength be made perfect in our weakness? This is what we need, and it goes on. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. You see, what honesty here. I'm gonna boast in my infirmities. I'm going to I'm going to talk about I'm weak. But I'm not stopping there. I'm a look to the Lord in faith and I'm going to be strong. That the power of Christ may rest upon me is just going to rest there on him because he's honest. I'm weak Lord, I need you. I need you every hour. And he's trusting God and he's repentant and the power of God is just on him. resting there on him. I'll tell you that it's the only way to be strong is we've got to be killing sin in our lives. We've got to be. You see, David wasn't killing his lust. And David gets all these wives and all these children who cause him trouble the rest of his life. And we know by looking at polygamy in the Bible and God's commands that it is a recipe for unhappiness. We see many cases of it in the Bible. We don't see a single case of success, not one, because it's not God's will. It's sin. Keep your mind fixed on faith. on the endless supply of strength and help that is yours in Jesus Christ. Keep your mind on that. Oh, your mind will say, oh no, I want to dwell on this over here. I want to dwell on taking vengeance. I want to dwell on how I've been hurt. No, get your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ, on his promises, on the fact that he can give us exactly what we need. power, rescue, deliverance at any moment. Now, let me say this. This may not lead to total victory yet. It'd be nice. Oh, if I had no more feelings for vengeance, that'd be so nice. But you know what? Sometimes it's a daily battle until we get to heaven. But you know what the Lord does? He keeps us in the fight. He keeps us in the fight. You know, if we get knocked out and they have to bring a stretcher into the ring and carry us out, it's over. But the Lord gives us the grace to stay in the fight. We keep fighting. The fight of faith. You don't panic. You don't run from the battlefield. You don't collapse in total despair. You don't give up in unbelief or start chasing counterfeit solutions and quick fixes that promise relief but ultimately fail you. And I believe this is what all these symptoms of weakness were doing. David was looking for it in women. Abner was looking for it in pride and prestige. And Joab, Revenge and I think he was threatened by Abner thinking Abner might get his position. So there's a little overlap there between Abner and Joab. Don't go for the counterfeit solutions. The counterfeit solutions. More wives. Have an affair. No. No. Try to be number one. Well, you know, if you can be number one without sinning, do it. but don't make an isle out of it. Now you have to put this into practice. We have to trust God. We've got to trust his promises if we're going to win. So expect relief from the Lord. Pray Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk was waiting upon the Lord. And finally, the Lord told him what was gonna happen. And listen to this, verse three of chapter two of Habakkuk. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come and will not tarry. You see, be patient, be patient. Wait upon the Lord. It may seem like a long time when you're under trouble and perplexity. It's not a comfortable place. David was struggling. Abner was struggling. Joab was struggling. We're struggling. But expect the Lord's help. Keep your eyes on him. like Psalm 123 too. Behold, the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters. What are they looking for? Paycheck, instructions. The eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress. The eyes of a maid to the hand of her, maybe the mistress is over there cooking or she needs something. The her servant is looking. What does she need? So our eyes look to the Lord our God until he has mercy on us. Keep looking for that mercy. Psalm 123 too. I want to close with. what Colossians 3 says. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ. Set your sights on the realities of heaven. Where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of the earth. For you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. What an amazing time that will be. People being cast into the lake of fire and the Christians there in glory. Oh, a new body, a glorious new body, not subject to sin or disease or any of the problems that we have now. How should we respond? Verse five says, so put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. A mother, young mother was struggling with the demands of raising her children as a single parent. She saw encouragement from the Lord. Feeling overwhelmed, she turned to Psalm 46.1, which states, God is our refuge and strength in every present help and trouble. She learned to pause and pray in the middle of chaotic moments, finding peace and renewed strength. That's how we can do it too. Let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a very present help in time of trouble. Lord, thank you that your strength is made perfect in our weakness. May we bring it to you and receive your strength with prayer, with faith, with expectation. Help us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. And so to further strengthen