In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study of the Bible, specifically focusing on 2 Samuel chapter 23. He highlights the awe-inspiring grace of God that left even the articulate Psalmist David speechless. Pastor Chuck emphasizes the power and loyalty of David's mighty men, who went to great lengths to fulfill David's desire for a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem. However, David, overwhelmed by their sacrifice, poured out the water as an offering to the Lord.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible. And on today's edition of The Word for Today, we'll continue with more of David's Song of Deliverance as we pick up in 2 Samuel 23, verse 1. And now, with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith. Now these are the last words of David, and as we pointed out, the last words of a man are often cherished. Because a person, when he stands at the door of death, he now becomes more conscious of the eternal things. And the mundane things have been sublimated and they're sort of cast aside as he begins to reflect on the real issues of life and upon eternity. And as David has come to this place, ready to leave this realm of the material and enter into the eternal, David, the son of Jesse, the man who was raised up on high by God, taken from the sheep coat and made king over Israel, the one who was anointed by God to be king when Samuel came to the house and poured that oil over him, the sweet psalmist of Israel. David left a legacy, not only for Israel, but for every saint and child of God through the ages in the Psalms. Comfort, hope, encouragement, strength. Oh, the Psalms are so rich as they minister to the people of God through all ages. What a blessing the Psalms. Think of the loss that we would have if we didn't have the Psalms. David acknowledges that these came to him from the Spirit of the Lord. The New Testament acknowledges that David was a prophet. Peter said, and David, being a prophet, spake not of himself, but was speaking of Jesus Christ who was to come. But Peter also acknowledges that David spoke by the mouth of the Holy Ghost. Jesus acknowledges this in Mark 12, and David by the Holy Spirit spake, saying and acknowledging that the Spirit of God had spoken to David. He was open, his heart was attuned to the Spirit of God. But not only did the Spirit of Jehovah speak by him, and his word was in his tongue, but the God of Israel said. And so God himself spoke to David. And then even further, the rock of Israel spake to me. The rock of Israel, of course, is none other than Jesus Christ. Paul declares that in Corinthians chapter 10. Concerning that rock that was with them in the wilderness, he said, and that rock was Christ. He is the smiting rock of Daniel. As Nebuchadnezzar saw this great image in his dream, the image that represented the nations that would have world-dominating power, he watched this great image of man until there came a rock not cut with hands that hit the image in its feet, and the whole image crumbled, and the rock grew into a mountain that covered the entire earth. And as he interpreted that dream for Pharaoh, he told him that in the days of the ten kings shall the Lord of glory come and establish a kingdom that shall exist forever, the glorious, righteous, eternal reign of Jesus Christ. That rock was Christ. And so Moses spoke of the rock that was with them there in the wilderness. Here David said it was the rock that spoke to him. So the Trinity, the Spirit of Jehovah, spoke by me. God spoke to me. The rock of Israel spoke to me. And this is what was said. David's last words, He that ruleth must be just, ruling in the fear of God. No man can rule over man unless he himself is consciously ruled by God. Otherwise you have tyranny and you have slavery. Men are enslaved by tyrannic rulers who have no consciousness of their responsibility to God, who have no fear of God. Jesus, you remember, in the parable spoke of that unjust judge who feared neither God nor man. A ruler, a true ruler, must regard men and think of justice towards men, but he also must rule in the fear of God. And a man who rules like this shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds. The time of his reign will be blessed, like the sunrise, and like the tender grass that is springing out of the earth by the clear shining after a rain, the fields after the rains in Israel. And he's using this as a picture of speech to describe the beauty, the glory, the blossoming forth of people who are ruled over by a righteous ruler. Now, David is speaking here prophetically of Jesus Christ and of his kingdom and of his reign and the glory that will fill the earth during the reign of Christ. God said, and the earth shall be filled with my glory. And like the green grass and the glorious flowers blossoming forth on a clear day after the rains, so the glory and the beauty of those who will be able to live and reign with Christ during the time of his glorious reign here upon the earth. David acknowledged, hey, it's not been so with me. You know, he's already gone through and he's realized that, hey, I haven't been all that I should be as a ruler. There were times when I did not have the fear of the Lord, although it hasn't been so with my house. Yet, though I have failed, God made with me an everlasting covenant, conscious now of God's grace. I haven't been all I should be, but yet God, in his grace, made an everlasting covenant with me. David decided that it wasn't fair that he should be living in a palace and the Ark of the Covenant was still in a tent. And so he said to his friend Nathan the prophet, hey, I've been thinking, Nathan, here I am in this gorgeous palace. God's still dwelling over there in that tent. That's not right. I want to build a glorious house for God, for the Ark of the Covenant. Nathan said, oh, David, that's a splendid idea. Do all that is in your heart. Go for it. And then that night the Lord spoke to Nathan and said, Nathan, you spoke out of turn. You've got to go back now and correct it. You have to tell David that I can't let him build me a house. His hands are bloody with war. But I will raise up unto David a seed who will sit upon the throne and he shall reign on the throne of David forever. So Nathan came the next morning to David and said, David, I've got some bad news. God won't let you build him a house. Your hands are too bloody, but I've got some good news. God said that he took you from humble beginnings, from the sheep coat, following after the sheep. He made you the king over his people. And God said he's going to build you a house, David, and from your seed there shall never cease to be one who is reigning over the people. David went in before the Lord and he knelt before God and he said, oh, God, who am I? That you should do this for me. Humble now by the grace of God. He said, and if that weren't enough, he said, you took me from just that humble beginning. You've made me your king. You've blessed me. You've subdued my enemies. And if that were enough, now you speak, Lord, of the time to come, that from me the Messiah will be born. Oh, Lord, what can I say? And this articulate psalmist of Israel, sweet psalmist of Israel, for once was speechless when he realized the glorious grace of God. What can you say? God is so good. And though David was more articulate in his expressions of praise and thanksgiving unto God than any person who has ever lived. Yet when he saw, when he saw the greatness of God's grace, he was speechless. What more can I say? Lord, how can I respond? And that beautiful time of just silence before God as you commune spirit to spirit and let God read the innermost feelings of your spirit, those feelings of love and praise and thanksgiving for which words have not yet been invented. And so David speaks here that God has made, though it wasn't so in my house, God did make with me the everlasting covenant and he ordered in all things and are sure the word of God is sure it will come to pass for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. God is my hope. He's my salvation. He's all that I desire. Now, in contrast, the sons of Belial, the wicked men shall be all of them as thorns that are cast away because they cannot be taken with the hands. Those that cast them away must touch them. They must be fenced with iron. Those that touch them. You've got to wear iron gloves and the staff of the spear. You take this thorns with your spear and you lift them and throw them into the fire and they are utterly burned. Those sons of Belial, those evil men. Now we get here a list of David's mighty men. This is a group I would have liked to have been in. There were the first three. The Taqmanite that sat in the seat chief among the captains. Sounded like an Italian. Adenal. The Esnite. In one of the battles he lifted up his spear against 800 who he slew in the battle. I mean, a tough cookie. And after him was Eliezer, the son of Dudu, which is a name for David. It's a nickname for David, actually. Now, when they were in battle, this fellow, Eliezer, when they were in battle against the Philistines, the other Israelites all retreated, but he stood his ground. And he arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and the hand claved to the sword. And the Lord wrought a great victory that day. So the people returned after him and all they found was the spoil of the Philistines. This guy stood in the field. He stood ground against the Philistines and he was whacking them so long with his sword that he couldn't, the sword, his hand locked around the sword. And he couldn't release it. And it was just like it became a part of his body, almost an extension, and he couldn't release his hand. And this is a common occurrence in the times when they use swords for battle is after a period of time your hand locks on the sword and there are accounts in history where they have to soak it in hot water to relax it enough to release the sword. And so was this fellow Eliezer in the battle against the Philistines. The third man was Shammah and the Philistines were gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils or barley and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it and he slew the Philistines and the Lord wrought a great victory. So David had some powerful men and these were the three who were the captains over the others and they were the three mighty men of David. And the three of the thirty chief went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Abdullam. And the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephihim. And David was then in the hold, the fortress, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David longed and said, oh, that I could have a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, which is there by the gate. The Philistines have been invading and they've taken Bethlehem. And David thinks, oh, man, I'm thirsty. If I could just have a drink of water from that well. Probably, you know, as a kid, he'd drunk water out a lot and just, you know, you'd think, oh, man, that's such good water. Just have a drink. And so these three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate. And they took it and brought it to David. I mean, these guys, here's David, he's expressing this desire, you know, they're out there battling. Oh, if I could just have a drink of water. And these guys take off and they wipe out the Philistines and they get water out of this well and they bring it to David. However, David would not drink of it, but he poured it out unto the Lord. He says, hey, I can't drink of this. Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this, because this costs the blood of men and men who went in jeopardy of their own lives. Therefore, David will not drink it. And these things did the three mighty men. And then in the next, there was another group of three. Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, who was the chief among the next three. He lifted up his spear against 300 men and slew them. And he had a name among them. Actually, you remember, Abishai saved David's life when David had weakened in battle and a giant was going to kill him. And Abishai came and killed the giant. But he killed 300 men with his spear. And he was the most honorable of the next three. He was their captain, albeit he didn't attain to the stature of the first three. Now, these are the guys that gathered to David when he was in the wilderness fleeing from Saul. God brought to David these guys that were in trouble, these guys that were in debt. And they were powerful guys and they made a powerful army. God used a very unlikely crew to do a powerful work. God oftentimes uses very unlikely vessels to contain his love and very unlikely instruments to do his work. And so Abishai and then the second group of three, there was Benaiah. Benaiah was the head over David's bodyguard. And Benaiah became the captain over the host under Solomon. He replaced Joab and began to rule over the army or was chief general after the death of David and during the reign of Solomon. He was a valiant man. He had done many valiant acts. He slew two lion-like men of Moab. And then there was a lion that was troubling the inhabitants of a city and he went down. The lion was in a pit during the time of snow and he jumped into the pit and he killed the lion with the spear that was in his hand. Then he fought against this powerful Egyptian and the Egyptian had a spear and all he had was a stick. And with his stick he knocked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and then killed him with his own spear. And so he was more honorable than the 30 but he did not attain to the first three. And David set him over the bodyguards. Now it gives the names then of the 30 men. Now the second three, it doesn't give us the name of the third man. He's obliterated from the record which indicates that the third man probably was Ahithophel who later rebelled against David with Absalom and thus his name was taken out of the mighty men. Or it could possibly have been Amasa who also defected from David and became the general over Absalom's army. So either Amasa or Ahithophel was probably the third of this second three but his name was taken out of the record when they rebelled against David. Now when you get to Chronicles and it lists the mighty men of David it lists an extra 16. Came along later these are the ones that were with David when David was fleeing from Saul those that had gathered to him and they belonged to the first company of David. As time went on there were other valiant men who did great exploits during the time of David's reign and they were added to the list in Chronicles. Thank you for watching. And while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies commentaries CDs DVDs and so much more. Once again that's the word for today online at the word for today dot org. And for those of you who still prefer to write you can use our mailing address which is the word for today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa California 92628 and be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence. And now on behalf of the word for today we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support and be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse by verse study through the book of Second Samuel. That's right here on the next edition of the word for today. Now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith. How blessed are the people who are ruled over by a righteous ruler. You have the opportunity of being ruled over by a righteous ruler. You have the opportunity of submitting your life to the reign of Jesus Christ. You know so many times as we try to run our own lives we can make a royal mess out of things. You know it's so glorious to take the whole fouled up mess and turn it over the Lord and say Lord take over. Surrender your life to God. You can find the beauty the glory of living under the righteous reign of our Lord. Not only now but we shall live and reign with him forever. What a blessing what a privilege. Sons of Belial are to be gathered like thorns and put in the fire and burn destroyed. But the righteous shall shine as the stars forever and ever. God bless you. Give you a glorious week. May the hand of the Lord be upon you to anoint you for service unto him. In Jesus name.