II Samuel chapter 19 we have the aftermath of this battle between the forces of David and the forces Absalom. Of course, Absalom's been killed, David has won the victory. The whole nation of Israel had followed after Absalom and they've now been defeated, but in the aftermath here, there's some strife and confusion over whether or not David is going to be reinstalled as king or what. If you remember, the men of Israel had burned their bridges with David a little bit. They'd done some really bad things and they'd gone along with Absalom's wicked treachery. Also for David, the victory is a little bit bittersweet because even though he's won the battle and defeated the enemy, his own son Absalom has been killed. Even though his son was wicked and rebellious, he still obviously had feelings for his son and still loved him.
Obviously, that's a hard thing for people, when they have a wicked son because on one hand it's their son, but then on the other hand, they're looking at the wickedness and the rebellion, so there's a struggle that goes on there with people. David is weeping because even though his son was a wicked person at this point, he still, just on a human level, is just sad to see him killed. He would have rather seen him restored and so forth. It says in verse number 1, "And it was told Joab, Behold, the king weepeth and mourneth for Absalom. And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people: for the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son. And the people gat them by stealth that day into the city and people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle."
This is talking about the winning side, and it's saying that even though they won, they're not going home triumphant and cheering and woo! They're actually going home as the loser would've gone home, it's saying. They're going away in stealth as those who've been defeated with their heads hanging. Even though they've won, they are acting as if they haven't won because of the fact that David is putting a damper on it by being so upset about losing his son. It says in verse number 3, "The people gat them by stealth that day into the city as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. But the king covered his face and the kind cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
"And Joab came into the house to the king and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life and the lives of thy sons and thy daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines; in that thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends. For thou has declared this day, that thou regardest neither princes nor servants: for this day I perceive, that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well. Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy servants: for I swear by the LORD, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night: and that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now."
Basically what Joab is telling him is that he needs to pull it together because of that fact that just because Absalom is dead, that doesn't mean that he's just automatically king again. If he doesn't pull it together and rally the people that are on his side, he's going to end up just being killed by someone else. Someone else is going to step in and fill that void and do the same thing that Absalom did. He needs to stop just being in a pity party for himself about losing his son and realize that he had all these other people that banded together and helped him. Think about it. What about all of the soldiers that are fighting in his army that just finished risking their lives for him. They could've just gone over to the other side, but no, they were loyal to David, they stayed true unto him, they follow him into the wilderness, they put their lives on the line to win the battle.
They want to enjoy a victory. They don't want to cry about how the enemy was defeated because of the fact that they did the best for their leader and so forth. David is getting this advice from Joab that he better go out to the people and say something nice or else he's going to lose everything because of the fact that those people did a lot for him and he needs to show them some kindness and gratitude instead of just being so focused on himself. Honestly, I think Joab's right here because of the fact that David is just feeling sorry for himself. This is God's will. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword, and yet it's human obviously for David to be sad and weeping for his son, but he also needs to show some gratitude and kindness for the people around him.
It's important that when bad things happen in our life and that when we do go through sorrow, and when we go through hard things and trials and afflictions, that we don't lost sight of the people around us. The Bible says, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." It's easy for us sometimes when we're going through a bad time to just ... that's all we can see. We forget about everyone and everything around us and we don't realize, "Hey wait a minute, other people have needs, too." Other people were killed in that battle, too. Other people are suffering, too. We need to not just be focused on ourselves, but we need to care about other people and especially as a leader, we need to care about our followers and not just think that they're just there to serve us and things don't go our way, we're just going to wallow in self pity.
I think Joab is right here with the advice that he gives to David. David goes out to the people in verse number 8. "The king arose, and sat in the gate. And they told unto all the people, saying, Behold, the king doth sit in the gate. And all the people came before the king: for Israel had fled every man to his tent. And all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king saved us out of the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he is fled out of the land for Absalom. And Absalom, whom we anointed over us, he's dead in battle. Now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back? And king David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak unto the elders of Judah, saying, Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house? Seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king, even to his house.
"Ye are my brethren, ye are my bones and my flesh: wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the king?" David is saying to people, "Hey, we need to reinstitute the kingdom." He's saying to the men of Judah, "You guys should be the first ones to install me. You're my bone, my flesh, my near of kin." Go to the end of the chapter. Let's jump to the end to verse number 41 just so that we can cover this subject and look what happens. We'll start in verse 40, actually, it says, "Then the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him: and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel." Notice, all the men of Judah and half the people of Israel, and it says, "And, behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said unto the king, Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away, and have brought the king, and his household, and all David's men with him, over Jordan?
"And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us: wherefore then be ye angry for this matter? Have we eaten at all of the king's cost or hath he given us any gift? And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king," talking about the 10 Tribes there, "We have 10 parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel." Of course there's going to be that rift in the next verse in chapter 20 verse 1, "And there happened to be there a man of Belial," and there usually is, "Whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.
"So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri." Now there's another war, another battle, another split now because of this man of Belial who rises up. Now, what is going on here? When you read this, doesn't it seem a little bit childish and juvenile the way that they're arguing about who gets to be the one to bring the kind back into Jerusalem as king? Isn't that a little bit silly? Does it really matter? They're saying, "Well, we're of Judah, he's near of kin to us. We're going to bring him back. We're going to stand next to him when he walks into Jerusalem." Then these Israelites, "No, no, we have 10 parts in him because there's 10 of us and 1 of you. We're going to bring him back!" It's ridiculous, isn't it? It's silly.
Now, what I think God's teaching us here, because there's a New Testament passage that actually goes along with this in I Corinthians chapters 1 and 3. Flip over to I Corinthians chapter number 3 and I'll show you what I'm talking about. You see, the spiritual meaning here is that in life and in the world which we live, there's a battle going on between right and wrong. A battle between good and evil. It's really not about the personalities of individuals in the scheme of things, it's really about what's right and what's wrong. The Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons. The Bible teaches that men of God, leaders that are lifted up by God and anointed of God, whether they be the kings of Israel in the Old Testament, prophets throughout the years, pastors, preachers, whoever they are, their personality is not really the important thing.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the important thing. The Word of God is the important thing. The truth is the important thing, but we as human beings tend to put too much emphasis on the person and on the personality. You see, the reason that David was king over Israel was not just so that David himself could be exalted and worshiped as a person and everyone could just look to David as being such a wonderful ... I mean, what was the purpose of having a king in the first place? The purpose of having a king was to go an fight the battles for the people. The whole reason that they wanted a king was to go before their armies and to lead them and the govern them and to judge righteously. In reality, the king was to serve the people. He's a minister unto them.
That's why Jesus even said, "Whosoever will be the greatest among you, let him be your servant." That's why those who pastor churches are often called ministers because they're not there just to be served and exalted. They're there to serve. Those who lead politically, that's what they're supposed to be doing. They're supposed to be looking out for the people, not just serving themselves. You think of the royal family in England. I was at the store and they had a whole magazine about the royal family of England just showing, "Look at the new dress that so and so the royal was wearing."
She was wearing this dress that was just so bland. It look awful. I'm sorry, but she's wearing like tan or, I'm kind of a little bit colorblind, but she's wearing like this tan or peach, like skin-colored dress that just. She was wearing this weird hat, it looked like she had an ice pack on her head, like somebody had hit her on the head and she had an ice pack to fix it. It's just like, "Oh, let's look at every possible picture of the royal family," and, "Oh, here's her in this dress and then this ... Oh, here's him over here." It's stupid. It's idolatry. Just worshiping any of these rock stars or actors or royal family. Just the people magazine where you're just looking at these celebrities and just want to idolize them. You know what? They're nothing.
We ought to worship and glory in the Lord and not put too much emphasis on people and basically have a cult of personality around the person where just want to look at all these pictures of them wearing all these different outfits and the giant poster above the bed that glows in the dark or whatever. That's not what a king is supposed. It's supposed to be someone who's there to lead and to guide and to govern righteously and to serve. Not to be just idolized and worship and have a fan club, but you can see how II Samuel 19 these people who are just trying to get real close to the king and they want to be the ones who bring him in. It's sort of like people who would want to be in the entourage, the [cordiers 00:13:27], or the groupies around some royalty or some rock star or something. That's not really what the position is even supposed to be about biblically, anyway.
That's what we see happening with David there. They are carnal. What does it mean to be carnal? Let's look at the Scripture here in I Corinthians chapter 3 because it uses this word "carnal" to describe people who have this mentality. It say in verse number 3, "For ye are yet," we're in chapter 3 verse 3, "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife," and if you remember, it said that all Israel was at strife about this issue of who's going to bring the king back? Judah or the rest of the tribes or both or what? He says, "There is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."
Isn't he saying here that they are putting too much emphasis upon the person Paul and the person Apollos and getting too wrapped up in the personality of, "Well I'm of Paul, and I'm of Apollos." The personality cult there where they're getting too wrapped up in the man instead of the doctrine, instead of the Gospel, instead of the teachings of the Word of God. Go back just two pages there to chapter 1. Look at I Corinthians chapter 1. In verse number 10 is says, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
"Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I am of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." What's he saying here? Look, you're saying, "I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. I'm of ..." He said, "You're carnal. Why are there divisions? It wasn't Paul that was crucified for you. You weren't baptized in the name of Paul. It doesn't matter who baptized you whether it were Paul or Apollos or Cephas, it doesn't matter because you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
It's Jesus that you believe in and that is the rock of your salvation. It's not about the person. It's not about the name of the man that won you to Christ or the church that you go to. It's about Jesus, okay? These people are putting too much emphasis upon the man. Now, this is carnal. The word "carnal" means "fleshly." If you speak Spanish, you know the word "carne," right? Even if you don't speak Spanish, you've order carne asada, right? Come one. What was it? It wasn't a vegetarian dish. Carne, it's flesh, it's meat. When the Bible says you're carnal, he's saying that you're mind is on the things of this world. Your mind is on that which is physical and physically seen as opposed to that which is spiritual. The opposite of carnal is spiritual.
If we were spiritually-minded, the Bible says the things that are not seen are eternal, but the things that are seen are temporal. Everything that we see is temporary. Our bodies, this building, the chair, everything in this world's going to be burned up someday and our bodies are going to go to the grave and they're going to decompose and be eaten of worms. That which is unseen, the soul, continues. The spirit goes on. Those who are carnal are too focused on things of this natural world, the material world here. Why is this carnal for them to make a big deal about Paul and Apollos? They're not seeing the spiritual battle. They're not seeing the spiritual picture that what matters is whether we're in Christ.
Now, it's easy to see a Paul or an Apollos or a Cephas and that's why sometimes people get really wrapped up in the man, because he can be seen, because he can be looked at. People want to look to something that they can see. God does teach throughout the Bible that it's great to have leaders and role models and even Paul himself said, "Be ye followers of me." He said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." He said, "Follow us and mark them which walk, so as you have us for ensamples." He's saying, "Look, I want to be your example. I want you to follow me. I want to lead you, but you need to be careful to understand that at the end of the day, your loyalty is to Christ, not to that man."
You need leaders. God gave us pastors and teachers and evangelists. He gave them to us for the perfecting of the saints, for the edification of the body of Christ. These men are here to help us, but at the end of the day, we're not loyal to that person, we're loyal to Jesus Christ. The only reason we're following that person is because he's preaching to us the words of Jesus Christ. As soon as that person begins to preach lies or begins to lead astray, then it's time to part ways and find a leader that's going to lead you in a right path. Not to just, "Well, if that's what he says, I'm just going to go with it." I've seen it where there's a Bible-believing church and you have a pastor who's preaching things that are true, then he'll start backsliding and going astray and turning to false doctrine being ...
You'll see that there'll be a division that'll come in where a lot of people will say, "Wait a minute, he's not preaching right. This isn't what the Bible says." Then other people are just so loyal to that man where no matter what he does, they will continue following. No matter he does, no matter what he says, there are people who are just going to follow him. There's the thing, if I got up, and this is just a fact of life, if I got up and started preaching false doctrine, there are some people who would just [woo, woo, woo 00:20:16]! You shouldn't, though. Though we are an angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you, let him be accursed. Paul's saying, "Look, it's not about me. If I come to you preaching lies, then curse me if I'm preaching a false Gosple, if I'm preaching false salvation."
It's not about the person. It's about good and evil. It's about the truth versus lies. We don't want to, obviously, go the other direction. Some people take this too far the other direction where they just ... Everything that come out of the pastor's mouth, they're just looking for error. Look, if you're looking for error, you're going to find it because I'm a human being. Any pastor, any preacher that you have, if you're looking for error and you're just ready to condemn and you go into it with that mentality, then you're going to find error because there's always going to be error there. You don't want to be one that's just trying to pick it apart in any church that's not perfect. It's like, "Oh, that's it. I'm leaving. He said something wrong, I'm done. He did something I don't believe in, I'm out of here."
You don't want to go to that extreme because you need to understand that obviously people are human beings, you just need to follow a zealous man of God who's teaching you the Bible. He's not going to be perfect, but you go, you learn, you grow, and you follow the leader, you follow an example. Then on the other side of that coin, you don't want to just become a blind follower where it's just you're more loyal to the person whether that's Paul, Apollos, Cephas, doesn't matter, where just they can do no wrong. I don't care what the Bible says because I'm following this guy. Those are the 2 wrong extremes. What you ought to do is make the Bible your final authority, the Word of God as final authority, and that's all you're loyal to.
You'll turn on anybody if it's biblical. You'll stick with the Bible no matter what anybody else says or does around you. When it comes to how your attitude is toward leadership, it should be what the attitude of the Borean church was, where it says that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. There you have the perfect balance because you have them ready of mind to receive the Word. See, a lot of people focus on the fact they search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so, but you got to get the other half to that equation, too. They receive the Word with readiness of mind.
Meaning that they came to church not with an attitude of "I'm going to pick it apart and find something wrong with it," but rather they came ready to learn something. Here's the thing. If you can't come to Faithful Word Baptist Church with an attitude that says, "I respect Pastor Anderson and I respect his knowledge and I'm ready to learn something from him." Then honestly, you should go to a church where you can feel that way about the pastor. You should go to a different church. If you think that my preaching is filled with error and that I don't know what I'm talking about, then what in the world are you doing here? That makes you a fool for coming here. If you believe that I am a man of God that's preaching the truth, then come to church with a mind that's ready to receive God's Word and receive the Word with all readiness of mind, but, now get the other side, search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so because you can't just trust me to tell you the truth because I am fallible. I'm a human being. I can make mistakes.
Here's the thing, even if I'm serving God today, loving God today, right with God today, who's to say that I'm not going to be backsliding 5 years from now and start allowing all kinds of compromise and sin to come in? Do you think that I am above that? Do you think anyone's above that? Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall, and God forbid, remember I had to make that time capsule a few weeks ago just in case, but God forbid that I should ever back down or that I should ever compromise the Word of God. Honestly, I can't ever see that happening. If I did, I'd just stop pastoring and just go get a different job. What's the point if you're not going to have integrity? I don't understand what the point is. There's other ways to make a living, my friend.
What I'm saying is that you need to search the Scriptures daily whether these things are so and not just get so wrapped up in the person. If you're just looking to me or anyone else and just look into that man, what about when that man lets you down? Where does that leave you? Christ will never let you down. What if that man just dies? Even if he doesn't let you down, even if he is faithful unto Jesus to the grave, but what when he dies? It's like, "No, what do we do now?" That same thing you were doing. You know what? I honestly believe that if I were to fall over dead right now, this church would continue and thrive and grow and succeed and many other men would follow in my footsteps and continue to do that which I have done and that which I have taught them to do.
It's not like it's all about me as a person. I could die ... Guess what? The work of Christ was happening before I was ever even born. The work of Christ will continue to happen after I die because it's not about me. Here's what's funny, too. When I get up and preach the truth, people will try to make it about me sometimes and try to insult me as if that negates the truth of what I'm saying. This is called an ad hominem attack, where they attack the person instead of attacking the content. For example, put out the movie Marching to Zion and it can't be refuted. It's bulletproof. It is! You can't refute it. It's facts, wall to wall, it's Scripture and we don't just say, "Hey, here's what they believe." It's all coming out of their own mouths. Nothing is left for you to trust us, oh no, it's all right here.
It's funny. All the attacks I've seen, none of them have no one, I haven't seen one person who went through and refuted the points made in the film. None. I've seen all kinds of videos and people out there who are saying, "Well, look. I just want you to know what kind of person Steven Anderson is, though. Just so you know he hates homose-." Of course I hate homosexuals. What, you don't? You're one of these modernistic brainwashed fools. Did you know that every ... Listen to me very carefully. Did you know that every single independent Baptist pastor when I was a kid believed the way that I believe about that subject in America? Did you know that in the 1990's that if you asked any Baptist pastor, they all would've said the same thing? I was even thinking about ... You know what I would love to do? Because I have a whole bunch of old preaching tapes, I thought about just going through all my old preaching tapes and just put together a montage of what preaching used to be like in the 1980s and 90s before this modern wave of brainwashing.
Now everybody acts like I'm nuts. No, I just haven't changed. I'm just preaching the same preaching that I heard in independent Baptist churches my whole life. Look, I was born and raised an independent Baptist and look, when I was a kid, the preaching was red hot in a lot of these churches. Now, it's lukewarm. It's funny how they want to attack the person, and it's funny people have attacked preachers for being young, or they'll attack like Pastor [Himanez 00:28:13] because he's young. See? They're making it about the person. "Why are we listening to this guy? Look how young he is!" Well, he's not as young as he looks, folks, he just looks real young, okay?
It's like, "Well, look how young he is." You know what? My grandfather was basically won to the Lord through the witness of a 5-year-old boy. It's because of my grandfather and my father getting saved that I'm saved, obviously that's because of the fact that that family got saved. Here's the thing, a 5-year-old boy walked up to my grandfather and preached the Gospel unto him. He didn't get saved right then and there, but within a week, he said, "I'm going to that kid's church," because he was so impressed that this 5-year-old boy came and preached unto him the Gospel and quoted the Romans Road to him, told him how to be saved, that he went and visited the church and then the pastor came over to his house and won him to Christ. He was saved as the result of a 5-year-old boy.
You know the Bible says out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. God's Word is true whether it's coming out of the mouth of a 5-year-old or a 50-year-old, it doesn't matter. I remember when I used to go soul winning as a teenager, people would despise your youth. The Bible says let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Listen, when I was a teenager, people would always say to me ... You'd show them the Gospel, you'd show them how to be saved with the Bible. That's what they'll say, "How old are you?" Whenever they say that to you, you know where they're going with it. "How old are you?" They're trying to talk down to you because of who you are. You know what I always said? I always said the same thing, I always said, "Well, this Book's older than both of us." Look what it says. It's not about me.
It's not about me. When we go soul winning and people reject the Gospel, don't get all mad. I've been soul winning people where they get mad. You know what? They never last at soul winning. You got to be able to stay cool at soul winning because honestly if you go out soul winning and every single door that somebody's rude to you you get real worked up, eventually you'll probably quit soul winning. You got to be able to roll with the punches and realize that when you go to somebody's door and show them straight from the Bible how to be saved and they get angry and yell at you, they're not really yelling at you, they're actually upset at the Word of God because that's all you're showing them. You're just the messenger. It's the Word of God.
That's what Moses kept saying because the Jews would grumble, and they grumble against Moses and against Aaron. He would always say, "Look, you're not grumbling against us. Who are we?" He's saying, "You're grumbling at the Lord." Who are we? We didn't choose this. We didn't tell you to do this. We're just messengers of the Lord here and your beef is not with us, it's with the Lord. It's God that you have a problem with. We need to understand that in this world it's not about the person, it's about God's Word, it's about Jesus, it's about good versus evil. If someone comes to us and tells us the truth, it doesn't matter whether it's a 5-year-old boy or a 5-year-old girl who tells us the truth, the truth's the truth!
It shouldn't matter how old someone is or how many degrees they have behind their name, it's what are they saying. Is it biblical? That's what matters because God's not a respecter of persons. It's not about the person, it's about the truth, it's about the doctrine. If you want to tell me why a doctrine is right or wrong, don't just tell me, "Well, here's what I don't like this person." It's like, "What about the doctrine? What does the Bible say?" That's what it comes down to, so we need to not get so wrapped up in the person.
When see the story with David, go back if you would now with that in mind, to II Samuel and let's look at that story again in II Samuel chapter 19. Look at chapter 20 verse 1, there's a key statement here in the Scripture. II Samuel chapter 20 verse 1 says this, "And there happened to be there a man of Belial." Now what does that mean, "a man of Belial?" Belial there, with a capital B is Satan. This is also known as Bael, Beelzebub, [Baeleol 00:32:43], [Bell 00:32:44], all of these spellings are found in the Bible. B-E-L-I-A-L. B-A-A-L. This is all the devil. When the Bible talks about sons of Belial, he's talking about sons of the devil.
Even in the New Testament, Jesus said, "You're of your father the devil," unto the Pharisees, right? He said they were children of the devil. He said, "He that sow the good seed is the son of man, but the tears," or the weeds, "are the children of the wicked one." The Bible talks about men who are the sons of the devil. When he says here that there happened to be there a man of Belial, this man is Satanic. Does everybody understand that? He's Satanic! He's of the devil. He's a wicked, evil person. They don't know that, but he is because the Bible's telling us that he is.
When these people are whining about, "Oh, well who's going to get to go with the king?" "Well, but he's of Judah." "Yeah, but he's an Israelite, too!" They're getting so wrapped up in the person and in the physical aspect that they're not seeing the spiritual battle here between their nation being lead by a man after God's own heart versus a man of Belial. Those are the choices. The real choice is would you like to be lead by a man after God's own heart or would you like to be lead by someone who is of the devil? Those are the choices. It's not about whether it's David or,"You know, David did you that battle against the Philestines." No, that's not the point. David worships the Lord.
When the House of David started ruling over those 10 Tribes, you know who they were ruled by? A bunch of men of Belial. God ordained that House of David to be their leader. When they went after the House of Jeroboam, and they went after all these other wicked kings, that's the choice that they were making. It wasn't just about, "Well, what tribe are you? We're of Benjamin, so that's the House of Joseph, we're of that tribe because Joseph and Benjamin, they had the same mother, you know. We're a little more blood-related over here with the Benjamites and the House of Joseph. The House of Judah, well, that's a different tribe."
Who cares? Does it really matter what tribe you're of? Does it really matter whether you're red, yellow, black, and white in this world? I don't think it matters at all. These are the things that are carnal. The way that we look is carnal. What color we are, whether we're good looking or ugly or somewhere in between, that's all just temporal, that's all just carnal. Is that really what matters? Is that really what life's about? That's what these people are hung up on is this "what tribe are you? What tribe is he? Which tribe is the best tribe?" People have so much pride in their tribe and they glory in being a part of [larasa 00:35:51] or being a part of "we're the Nordic Aryan race."
It's stupid. It's stupid when people are white supremacist and say like, "Oh, we're the supreme race!" You know what? I'm not seeing it, friend. You know what? I've had people tell me, "Well every great achievement and every great discovery was made by white people." You know, it just isn't true, it's just a lie, it's stupid because I could show you all the technology and all the things that have been invented in other parts of the world. It's funny because sometimes we're even taught things that aren't true like everything's invented by Europeans, according to us. Seriously. When I was in school, I remember thinking like, "Why are we the only people who invent stuff?" Everything's invented in America, and before that it was Europe.
You know it's really not true because actually even the movable type printing press was not invented in Europe? I learned my whole life it was Gutenberg. It was invented in Germany. No, actually it was invented in China and it came to Europe because the Mongolian Empire created all those trade routes between China and Europe and brought a lot of that technology from China into Europe that allowed them to print Bibles in Europe. God used that plan. God works in mysterious ways and He allow that technology through the Mongolians to come from China into Europe, get in the hands of a guy like Gutenberg and these different people who start printing Bibles and printing Scriptures and they start translating the Scripture in all these different languages and using the technology to get it out to all the people. It wasn't just all invented by white people. It's stupid.
Then there are other people you run into who have just as much pride about being black. "We're the true Israelites!" The black Hebrew Israelites. "We're the true Israel! You guys are Edomites! You guys are of Cain!" You know what? You'll run into people of all different nationalities who think that their nationality's the best and we're better. You know what? It's stupid, it's carnal, and it's not biblical and I don't care what anybody says. You're not going to find that in this Bible. The Bible says, "Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord." Why would we glory in our nationality? We're all human beings, it doesn't even matter. I don't believe in uniting all the nations. I don't believe that we should all be part of the same nation, speaking the same language, I believe that we in America, this is our nation, we should speak English, we have our culture. People in other countries have their language and their culture. That's great. They're just different. They have different pros and cons.
To sit there and get so wrapped up, you're falling into trap of the devil when you get so wrapped up in, being so proud of anything other than Jesus. Where you're just so proud of America! Nuts to America. Jesus! Jesus! That's all I'm proud of. You know what I mean? I'm not going to sit here ... Here's the thing, is it of my own virtue and goodness that I was born in America? No. I can't decide what color I'm born, or where I'm born, or how ugly I am. That's not a choice that I made. Why would I glory in that? I'm going to glory in the Lord. That's the only thing worth glorying in. People are getting involved in this carnal fighting instead of saying, "Hey, it's about the truth. It's about Satan versus a man of God here." When they follow the House of David, they're choosing Biblical religion. When they reject the house of David, they're following Belial. That's what's really going on here.
Absalom was of the devil. This guy was of the devil. That's what the Bible's trying to show us here is that what it's really about is Spiritual fight. Think about that when you're choosing a church. Think about that when you're deciding on any- Are you on the Lord's side or on the devil's side? Don't get so wrapped up in personalities, how you feel about the person, or what color they are, or what they look like, or whatever. That stuff is all vain and carnal and doesn't even matter. It's meaningless, it's worthless. Let me just point out a couple other things about this chapter. David says in verse 12, "You're my brethren, you're my bones and my flesh: wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the king? And say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my bone, and of my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if thou be not captain of the host before me continually in the room of Joab."
Now, Amasa is the enemy general. This is the general of Absalom's armies. David is reaching out the his enemy and saying, "I want to forgive you. I want to bury the hatchet. I want to forgive you and I want you to be the captain of my host and let's unite the kingdom, the 10 Tribes with Judah, and let's make peace." Look what is says in verse 14, "And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man; so that they sent this word unto the king, Return thou, and all thy servants." By that gesture of reaching out to Amasa with forgiveness, he actually bowed the hearts of all the men of Judah and got them on his side.
Also, a few verses later, Shimei comes and apologizes to him. Remember the guy that cursed him and had thrown dirt and rocks on him a few chapters ago? He comes and apologizes to him and what does it say in verse 22? You know, David's men are saying, "Slay him!" It says in verse 22, "David said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? Therefore the king said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king sware unto him." Again, what's he doing? He's being a peacemaker here. The fighting's over, the battle's over. He's trying to reach out to people and give them a way to come home.
This is a great lesson to us from the Bible and David is a great example of course of loving his enemies and being a peacemaker. What does the Bible say? Blessed are the peacemakers. The Bible says the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. David himself said, "I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war." He's saying, "You know I've done a lot of fighting, but it's because of them. It's not me. I want peace, I want to get along with people." The Bible says that as much as is possible, as much as [lieth win 00:42:43] us, we should strive to live peacefully with all men. We should try to be at peace with people.
Now, there are going to times when we have conflict with people, but when we have conflict with people, you always want to try to help the other person have a way back or have a way for them to save a face as it were. You know what I mean? If you get in an argument with someone, or have contention with someone, you don't want to just burn that bridge. It says in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him as well. Sometimes people who were your enemy in the past can eventually become your friends, but only if you reach out to them.
If people are mean and hateful to you and you actually turn the other cheek and actually overcome evil with good, a lot of times those people will eventually come over to your side and they will actually be at peace with you. Guess what? Amasa came over to his side and joined up with him. Yesterday's enemy can be today's friend, but we have to be humble and want to make peace and not just, "Payback! I got to pay him back for what he did to me." Is that what it's really about? No, it's about getting people on the Lord's side. It's not about past grievances. We need to forgive and give people a way over. There have been people ... I remember this one guy, he made a video. "Steven Anderson is a False Prophet" or something, you know.
This video was on YouTube for years, for years. Eventually this guy took down the video and wrote to me and said, "I'm sorry I made that video. You're not a false prophet." He was calling me a false prophet because of the saying that the rapture is not pre-trib. "Steven Anderson, the False Prophet," made this big video about it, and he wrote to me and said, "I'm sorry. You're not a false prophet. Actually, I realized that the pre-trib rapture's a fraud. I'm an assistant pastor," he said, "and I'm trying to get the senior pastor ... Can you give me some tips on how to straighten him out?" It's like, you made a video of the [inaudible 00:45:09] false prophet! That's pretty extreme. That's not somebody who's on the fence. When you're making videos saying, "He's a false prophet." Then it's just like, "Oh, man. Sorry. You're actually right, I've actually come over to your side."
Guess what? That's the way life is, so you have to not burn bridge with people and try give people a chance to come back and make peace with people and not just burn that bridge. Everybody understand what I'm saying? That's what we see with David. He wants to get along with people. He doesn't want there to be bloodshed and warfare. He wants to get along and we should strive for peace. Now look, we're not saying peace at all costs. We're not saying, "Hey, compromise the Word of God in order to have peace. Compromise what you believe in in order to have peace." No. Here's the thing, as much as we can, we should try to live at peace with all men. Without compromising our morals or our principals and what we believe in. We should stand firm on our beliefs, but we should try to be peaceful with people and get along with people as much as we can.
In all the many years that I worked out in the construction industry and worked around some pretty rough people, I didn't go around just sticking my finger in everybody's eyeball telling them that they were wicked and ungodly. I just went there and played it cool and I did my own thing and I lived for God and I kept myself as clean as I possibly could, but I didn't go around just trying to start stuff with everybody that was ungodly or of this world. I wanted to be at peace with the people I worked with. Didn't mean that I'm going to compromise what I believe in or participate in sin, but you what? We should want to be at peace with other people that are different than us, but not to the point of crossing over into sin.
What did Paul say? He said, "I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some." What chapter is that in? Somebody help me out. I should know this. I Corinthians chapter 9? Where is it? Somebody help me out. I usually know stuff like this. Where is it? Chapter 10? Can you be a little bit more specific? It is 9, yeah! I do know what I'm talking about. I Corinthians 9, here we go. Look at chapter number 19. "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law," watch this, "To them that are without law, as without law," but there's a real important phrase right after this, don't miss the next phrase. He says, "Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law.
"To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you." When he says there, "To those that are without law, I became as without law," but he said, "I wasn't without law to Christ." What he's saying is I'm not going to cross the line to where I'm sinning because I still want to be under Christ's rule in my life. A lot of people abuse this and say, "Oh yeah, to those without law be as without law, so I'm going to go drink a beer with you and tell you about Jesus and whatever." They're going to participate in the sin in order to reach people, man.
There was some guy in the news saying he's going to join this wife swapping group because he wants to tell them about Jesus. He's going to participate in it, too, because these people need Jesus, too. That's wicked. Here's the thing, ungodly people, though, we can be like them, but not when it comes to crossing the line of getting into sin, but we should try to reach out to people and reach them where they're at as long as we don't cross the line into that which is sinful. He says, "Look, I didn't go in ..." Basically, I'm not going to go to work and go around and just stick my finger in everybody's eyeball, and I'm better than you and you're all wicked and you're all the devil. Rather to go to work and try to fit in in all regards that are not sinful.
What's he saying? If you're in Mexico, you dress like a Mexican and you speak Spanish. Right? If you're in India, you dress like an Indian and you speak their language. You go to the Navaho Reservation, you eat that Navaho taco. You try to speak their language, and you put on the turquoise and whatever, but you're not going to smoke a peace pipe with them. You know what I mean? You're not going to worship false gods, you're not going to do that which is sinful, but you're going to try to get a long with them, or you're going in there and fly the American flag in some foreign country. I've seen missionaries that go to a foreign country and try to teach the people in Germany or France to celebrate the 4th of July in the church. They have an American flag in their church and they're in Germany. That's stupid. What are you bringing? The Gospel of America or the Gospel of Jesus? You see what I'm saying?
There's nothing wrong with trying to get along with people and trying to find common ground with people on that which is not simple, and to be at peace with people, and to be a peacemaker, or you can just go around sticking your finger in everybody's eye and just trying to pick a fight with everybody. That doesn't accomplish anything. Let's fight the devil, let's fight sin, let's fight the children of Belial, let's fight the reprobates, but let's not just go around and stick our finger in everybody's eye. Let's me a peacemaker and try to get along with people, even people who've done bad things. Try to reach out to them and try to be peaceful and get along with people and try to understand other cultures and other people and reach out to them. That's what we see in the life of David: being a peacemaker, becoming all things to all men that he might by all means save some. This is what we see in the life of David.
What did we learn from this chapter? Basically, we learned that we shouldn't be carnal. We should be wrapped up in what tribe you are, we shouldn't be so idolizing of a person, it should be about the Gospel, it shouldn't be about English versus Spanish language, it shouldn't be about black versus white, it shouldn't be about Jew versus Gentile, it should be about "you're following Steven Anderson, well I'm following this other preacher," or "I'm following this other guy." No, that's not what it's about. It's about what the Bible teaches. Let's not get so wrapped up in the person and make it all about who that person is and look at them with a microscope. You know, you're going to find fault with anyone. It's about the spiritual. It's about things that are not seen.
This country is going to cease to exist some day, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. What are you wrapped up in tonight? Are you wrapped up in something temporary or something that's eternal? If to you it's all about being a white person or being an American, then you're wrapped up in that which is carnal and temporal. If you say it's all about faithful word, and Steven Anderson, or whatever your favorite Bible teacher is or whatever person you're following, why don't you get your eye on Jesus and that which is eternal and on the Word of God? If Steven Anderson is preaching the truth, then follow him. If not, then follow someone else. That should always be the criteria right there.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank You so much for Your Word, Lord. Help us to keep our eyes on that which is eternal. Help us not to be like the people in this story who were so into just being a fan club and idolizing man and being so proud of what their ethnicity was or what tribe they were, who was the closest relative to David. Lord, help us to understand that, wait a minute, it's about not letting the sons of Belial take over, it's about standing on the Word of God. It's not about the person and idolizing him or her or anyone, Lord. Help us to listen to the truth no matter who tells it to us, whether it's a 5-year-old or whoever tells us the truth, Lord, help us to always receive the truth when it's from Your Word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
