David's Army

[0:00] David's army I'm going to talk about David's army.

[0:16] Let's stand shall we? 1 Samuel 22, just the first two verses. It says, David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave Adolin. And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him.

[0:40] And he became a captain over them and there were with him about 400 men. Please be seated. 400 men. 400 men. David's army. They rallied to this shepherd king, David. A pitiful bunch of people. A pitiful bunch of people. Here they were. Broken men. Rejects.

[1:05] They were the outcasts. The forlorn. The torn. In distress. In debt. In discontentment. A hopeless bunch. A rabble. A motley crew. Yet these misfits became mighty men.

[1:22] Amen. These misfits became mighty men. The very best soldiers. Heroes in David's army. Fighting for the honour of their king. What a contrast we see of these misfits we read in 1 Chronicles 12 verses 21 to 23.

[1:45] 1 Chronicles 12 verses 21 to 23. It says, They were all mighty men of valour and were captains in the host. For at that time day by day they came to David to help him until it was a great host like the host of God.

[2:04] So we're talking about David's army. It became like the host or like the army of God. Like the army of God. And verse 23. And these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to the war.

[2:19] And came to David to Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord. Under David these misfits became mighty men.

[2:32] Under David these misfits became men of character. Men of courage. Men honourable and committed. Trustworthy men. David's army would later swell in number to some 1.3 million soldiers has been reckoned at its peak.

[2:50] 1.3 million in David's army. These three that are listed here in 2 Samuel 23. These three men stand on the roll of honour.

[3:01] These three men that we'll read of now. In 2 Samuel 23. From verse 8. These be the names of the mighty men that David had.

[3:11] These be the names of these three mighty men. What does the Bible say about mighty men? What makes a mighty man?

[3:23] A mighty man. Number one. A mighty man will fight against the odds. A mighty man will fight against the odds.

[3:35] It goes on to tell us of a man. The first of the three. Adino. Adino. The Tacmanite that sat in the sea. Chief among the captains.

[3:46] The same was Adino. The same was Adino. The Esnite. He lift up his spear against 800. Whom he slew at one time. Adino was a mighty man.

[3:57] He was willing to fight against the odds. A mighty man. It says of him. He was chief of the captains. He was a respected leader. He was prepared to fight.

[4:08] Against all the odds. He held his own against 800. With his spear. Even when outnumbered. The mighty man will stand their ground.

[4:20] Despite the strong opposition that they face. The mighty man will fight on in the day of battle. We read similarly of 1 Chronicles 12.32.

[4:32] Of mighty men. 1 Chronicles 12.32. We read of the children of Issachar. The children of Issachar. Which were men. Who had understanding of the times.

[4:42] To know what Israel ought to do. Mighty men. The mighty men will be men who will understand the season that we are in. Mighty men will know what matters. Mighty men will know what needs to be done.

[4:56] David didn't need to initiate everything that needed to be done. Because the mighty men stepped in. Where they could meet the need.

[5:07] You know we've had that in this church. There's been some mighty men in this church come and help me of late. Step alongside me and help carry some of the workload.

[5:19] Mighty men. We need people who show a bit of initiative. I didn't ask them to particularly. But they volunteer. We need some mighty men who will volunteer to step in the gap. And do what needs to be done.

[5:30] Who will understand the times. And will know what needs to be done. And David had men like this. Mighty men who he could count on. Mighty men who would fight for him.

[5:41] Against all the odds. These were David's mighty men. Men of action. Men who rallied to the cause. The best of the best. The bravest of the brave.

[5:52] The strongest of the strong. Men who could be depended on in the heat of the battle. Yet just days before. They were the misfits.

[6:04] In debt. Discontented. And in distress. Yet God made them mighty men. Mighty men. Like Adino. Fought against the odds.

[6:14] Perhaps you're feeling outnumbered. Who's ever felt outnumbered? Who's ever felt that they're against the odds? Everything's against them. Things are not looking good. All around. It might seem for you at this time.

[6:28] Perhaps an unwinnable war. That you're fighting against the odds. It looks like it's just too hard. Too hard. We still need mighty men today.

[6:40] We still need mighty men and women. In this hour. Mighty men. Mighty people. Who will rise up. And against the odds. Fight for the truth.

[6:50] Fight for righteousness. Fight against the odds. Secondly. We see. Number two. The second. Of the three mighty men.

[7:01] Eliezer. 1 Samuel 23. Verse 9. It says of Eliezer. After him was Eliezer. The son of Dodo. The Ahahite. One of the three mighty men.

[7:13] With David. When they defied the Philistines. That were gathered there together to battle. And the men of Israel were gone away. He. Eliezer.

[7:24] Arose. Eliezer. Arose. And smoked the Philistines. Until his hand was weary. And his hand claimed unto the sword.

[7:36] And the Lord wrought a great victory that day. And the people returned after him. Only to spoil. Here he was on the battlefield.

[7:46] Eliezer. And the men of Israel. Where were they? Verse 9. They were gone away. They were gone away. Verse 10. They came back at the end of the fight.

[7:59] They returned for some spoil. The mighty man will not follow the crowd. The mighty man will fight with the sword. The mighty man will not follow the crowd. The men of Israel went AWOL.

[8:10] The men of Israel. They just scarpered when the heat of the battle got turned up a bit. But the mighty man arose. The mighty man arose. The mighty man was armed and dangerous.

[8:23] He was armed with the sword. He fought with the sword in his hand. Hand to hand combat. It says that the men of Israel were gone away. But Eliezer rose up.

[8:34] He was determined. What if you not seem like you're standing alone on that battlefield? Everyone's just left you alone. But God is with you.

[8:45] God is with you. And his sword is in your hand. Eliezer was loyal. He did not run away like the others. He fought the enemy single-handedly.

[8:56] The mighty man rose up. He was bold. Eliezer stood up in the face of the enemy. He challenged the enemy. It says he defied the Philistines. He found strength and victory in the Lord.

[9:08] And he held fast his sword. It was welded to his hand. He would not let go. The sword was in his hand. And he couldn't get loose of the grip of that sword that was in his hand.

[9:23] He would not let it go. Eliezer went through with just one weapon in his hand. His trusty sword. And it was that weapon that he could count on. That weapon that he could have confidence in.

[9:35] That weapon that he kept swinging and swinging and swinging. That sword until the last enemy fell. He knew his sword would not fail him in the heat of the battle.

[9:49] Eliezer's sword was sufficient for the battle. Of course the battle for you. It's not a battle against flesh and blood. It's not a weaponry of man's making that we need.

[10:03] But a weapon that is mighty through God. His very word. His very word. Eliezer's clinging to his sword. Pictures for us. How we mighty men of today.

[10:15] Need to cling to the word of God. We need to cling to God's word. The Bible. God has armed us in this day of conflict.

[10:27] With the sword of the spirit. Which is the word of God. Ephesians 6.17 Ephesians 6.17 And God's word is sufficient.

[10:38] For every battle that you will face. The answer is here in your hand. It is the word of God. It is to the word that we can go.

[10:50] The word is sufficient for the day of battle. For every battle that you will face. The word is sufficient. Be people of the word.

[11:02] And cling to it. And do not let it go. Be like Eliezer who had a stubborn grip. He would not let go. He would not let go of his sword.

[11:14] Even though weary. Even though it seemed helpless. He seemed helpless. It seemed hopeless. The situation. We too may face such situations in life.

[11:27] Such situations where there's nothing left to do. But to cling to God's word. To cling to and hold fast God's promises unto you.

[11:38] To get a hold of the word of God. Such that then it will. The word. Will get a hold of you. If we will be a mighty man.

[11:52] We will fight with the sword of the spirit. The word of God. We will get a hold of it. And it will get a hold of us. So what makes a mighty man?

[12:02] A mighty man. He will fight against the odds. He will fight with the sword. And thirdly. He will fight for principle.

[12:13] We read of Shammah. In verse 11. A mighty man will fight for principle. Shammah was such a man. Verse 11. And after him was Shammah. The son of Agi.

[12:24] The Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop. There was a piece of ground full of lentils. And the people fled from the Philistines. Where were the people again?

[12:35] They fled. From the Philistines. But he. Shammah. Stood. In the midst of the ground. And defended it. And slew the Philistines. And the Lord wrought.

[12:46] A great victory. The enemy attacked. It was harvest time. It was a time of joy. And jubilation. It was a time of harvesting of the crops. Putting them in the barns.

[12:59] Sometimes the enemy can attack us. When everything seems like it's all going well. When everything seems like it's all hunky dory. It's all easy breezy.

[13:09] It's all going really fine and dandy. At harvest time. The enemy can sometimes attack us. In times of great blessing and victory.

[13:22] It says that the people fled. The people fled. But. A mighty man. Did not flee. Shammah. Shammah was a mighty man. He purposed. He stood firm.

[13:33] He stood his ground. He fought on. Though alone. He was valiant. And he risked his life. For what? For what? A field of beans.

[13:45] He was standing in a field of beans. There was no cover there. There was nowhere to hide. Some people might ask. Why bother? Why bother? Why bother Shammah?

[13:57] It's just a hill of beans. It's just a field. Today it could be a hill of beans. Tomorrow it could be your home. It could be your family.

[14:09] It could be your wife and children. Shammah was a mighty man. He knew he was fighting for much more.

[14:21] He was fighting for principle. There are some things worth fighting for. Even if you must fight alone. Even if you must fight alone.

[14:31] Shammah said, I'm not going to surrender this territory to the enemy. Here is the line. I'm not backing off. He was fighting for principle. The land was the Lord's.

[14:42] God had given Israel the land for his glory. There are some things worth fighting for today.

[14:54] There are some things not worth fighting about. But there are some things worth fighting for. The church. The faith. The preaching of the unadulterated word of God.

[15:05] Let's have courage to hold our ground like Shammah did. You know, sometimes you give an inch and they take a mile, isn't it? That saying. You know, open the door ajar and before you know it, anything goes.

[15:17] We need to hold our ground as a church, as a people of God. If we don't fight, we risk everything that matters. People might just say, oh, it's just a field of beans.

[15:28] They might say, that of some doctrine. But if we give an inch, we can lose our ground. We don't want to compromise the glory of God and lose ground.

[15:40] So don't give ground in your Christian life. Don't excuse your sin. Don't excuse those things that are doubtful. Hold your ground.

[15:51] Stand and fight with conviction. We need some Shammahs today. We need some Shammahs who will fight. Who will fight not for matters of debate or opinion, but for matters of principle.

[16:03] That's what Shammah did. The Lord is looking for Shammahs today who will defend the faith and battle for the Bible. As in Jude 3, those who will contend earnestly for the faith once delivered.

[16:15] Are we faithful in battle? If so, the Lord will bring a great victory. Friends, we are engaged in a great conflict today.

[16:26] A great conflict. It might not be on the 6 o'clock news in Technicolor, but there is a great conflict going on here in this land, in this city.

[16:37] And it's a conflict that is raging, fierce and strong. 1 Chronicles 28.20 it says, Be strong and of good courage, and do it.

[16:50] Fear not, nor be dismayed. For the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

[17:04] We're in a battle, but he is there. Fighting the battle. We're engaged in a battle. And God is looking for mighty men to rise up in this time, in this season.

[17:18] Mighty men who will rise up and will lockstep together in this mission. Who will rise up and fight the battle that matters.

[17:28] Of these mighty men we read, in 1 Chronicles 12.38, it says, another glimpse of what makes a mighty man.

[17:40] It says of these mighty men, All these men of war that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David a king over all Israel.

[17:50] And all the rest also of Israel, were of one heart, to make David king. These mighty men, they could keep rank. Lockstep.

[18:01] Left. Left. Left. Lockstep. They could keep rank. They could keep tight. They could stay in formation. Even in the heat of battle, the united devotion that they had for their king kept them as a single unit.

[18:20] And we see that in times of warfare, in times of training, that the armies need to be of one heart and keep in step.

[18:34] And we too need, as soldiers of Christ, to keep in step with our king as we aim to crown him, as these ones did. These mighty men were men of undivided loyalty.

[18:45] They were single-hearted. They were not double-minded. They were completely committed to their king, to their cause. We read such exploits of the mighty men. For example, in 2 Samuel 23.

[18:57] 2 Samuel 23, from verse 13. We see an example of what the mighty men did. It wasn't particularly these three that we've spoken of.

[19:07] There were other lists of mighty men, of different lists, different groups. These three were challenged to do something extraordinary. And to set the scene here, in 2 Samuel 23, verse 13, David had been anointed king in times back, but he was not yet in that office.

[19:29] Here he was, David. He'd been wandering around in the wilderness for around seven years. And then King Saul and 3,000 men were hunting him, chasing him down, seeking to kill him.

[19:45] And David and his men were holed up in this cave, the cave of Adela. That was their kind of HQ at the time. And the Philistines, meantime, were beating Israel.

[19:57] They just captured David's hometown of Bethlehem. And David, hearing 2 Samuel 23, verse 15, he says, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem.

[20:13] David, King David, thought of the water of his hometown. And three captains overheard David as he was talking out loud, thinking out loud, and they decided they would grant his wish.

[20:27] Despite great risk to their lives, they travelled some 25 miles from where they were, across enemy lines, across breaking through, and coming back with the water.

[20:41] What a feat! What an amazing exploit from these mighty men. They went beyond the call of duty to do this, to answer the longing of their king's heart.

[20:55] And what a picture for you and me, as a picture of the loyalty and zeal that we ought to have for our king, our great shepherd king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[21:11] This was one of the most extravagant acts of devotion towards the king. And when David received the water, he poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord.

[21:21] As an act of worship, he saw that this was such a glorious thing, that he wanted to give the glory unto God. And David saw these mighty men had such courage.

[21:35] How come? Why? Why did these mighty men, these mighty men who had come to him in the wilderness, come in their discontentment, come in their distress, come in their debt, loaded down, burdened down, David became their captain and they loved him.

[21:53] They loved their king in absolute devotion to him. They wanted to bring to the king what he wanted. They wanted to give the king what he desired. What if we, are we mighty men who want to give the king, our king, what he desires, what he deserves?

[22:11] Do we have that love, that zeal, that devotion, that passion? David's men broke through the Philistine front line, through to the very Philistine camp.

[22:25] David had trained them. He'd made them into an army. Those who had been discouraged, he'd encouraged. They knew who David was. They knew his godliness. They knew the favour of God was upon him and they became men willing to lay their lives on the line because of their love for their king.

[22:45] Their love for the king made them courageous. Mighty men. Mighty men. Mighty women.

[22:57] God's looking still for such as these. Mighty men. These mighty men have one thing in common. They loved their king. They loved him.

[23:09] They loved him more than their own lives. willing to make a sacrifice. This motley crew, this assortment of defeated people, God developed them into mighty men and used them for his glory to realise great victory.

[23:29] The king still welcomes those who are distressed. The king welcomes those still who are discontented. The king welcomes those still who are burdened down with debt.

[23:42] Most of all, the debt of our sin. The debt that we cannot pay. And meanwhile, our committed enemy is bent on our destruction. Where are the mighty men?

[23:56] Where are the mighty men? Isn't it time we took a stand against the odds?

[24:08] Isn't it time we take a hold of the sword of the spirit, the word of God and don't let it go? Isn't it time we hold fast and fight for the right?

[24:22] To fight for principle, for what matters, for what counts and be one of those mighty men. Men who will not be moved. Men of courage.

[24:32] Men trained to fight. Men ready for battle. Let us be mighty men. Mighty men. I'm going to close with a quick quote.

[24:46] To think of this, of mighty men today, of the soldiers of the Lord, of the army of God, I am a soldier.

[24:59] I am a soldier in the army of my God. The Lord Jesus Christ is my commanding officer. The Holy Bible is my code of conduct.

[25:11] Faith, prayer and the word are my weapons of warfare. I have been trained by the Holy Spirit, trained by experience, tried by adversity and tested by fire.

[25:24] I am a volunteer in this army and I am enlisted for eternity. I will either retire in this army at the end of time or die in it, but I will not get out, sell out, be talked out or pushed out.

[25:41] I am faithful, reliable, capable and dependable. If my God needs me, I will be there. If he needs me to teach a class, to reach my neighbour, to help someone in need, or just to sit and learn, he can use me because I am there.

[26:03] I am a soldier, I am not a baby. I do not need to be pampered, petted, primed up, pumped up, picked up or pepped up. I am a soldier.

[26:16] No one has to call me, remind me, write me, visit me, entice me, or lure me. I am not a wimp. I am in place saluting my king, obeying his orders, praising his name and building his kingdom.

[26:33] No one has to send me flowers, gifts, food, candy, cards or give me handouts. I do not need to be cuddled, cradled, cared for or catered to.

[26:46] I am committed. I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around. I cannot be discouraged enough to turn aside. I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit.

[27:00] When Jesus called me into this army, I had nothing materially. If I end up with nothing, I will still come out ahead. I will win spiritually.

[27:13] My God has supplied my needs and will continue to supply all my needs. I am more than a conqueror. I will always triumph.

[27:24] I can do all things through Christ. Devils cannot defeat me. People cannot delusion me. Weather cannot weary me. Sickness cannot stop me.

[27:35] Battles cannot beat me. Money cannot buy me. Governments cannot silence me. And hell cannot handle me. because I am safe in my saviour. I am a soldier.

[27:49] Even death cannot destroy me. For when my commander calls me from this battlefield, he will promote me and then allow me to rule with him.

[28:00] I am a soldier in the army and I'm marching claiming victory. I will not give up. I will not turn around. I am a soldier and I am heaven bound.

[28:14] And here I stand. Will you stand with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ? I am a soldier in the army of my God.

[28:25] Are you a mighty man, a mighty woman? Will you be one of those whilst you may come to him in death, discouraged, discontent, distressed, yet come to King David.

[28:37] Come to the Lord Jesus as he is for us that shepherd King, the one that calls us to the cause that matters above any other. Let us pray.

[28:49] Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you that we can come not deserving this call up to this army.

[29:01] We can come and enlist and be part of this amazing host, this amazing army. And whilst we seem at times to feel somewhat like those ones who came first up feeling quite loaded down and feeling a bit distressed and discontent, yet Lord you can train us by your word and spirit.

[29:30] you can save us and enlist us, put us in that uniform that is Christ Jesus our Lord and make us that army that will stand and face whatever trials and tests are thrown across our path.

[29:44] Lord, we pray it's not any pride or doing of our own, yet it is all to your glory Lord Jesus, it is all to your glory and all to your praise that you have chosen us to be a soldier in this wonderful conquest for the souls of men.

[30:02] We pray Lord for any here present that have yet to become a part of this army that have yet to trust you Lord Jesus for the first time that yet to have that near birth that we heard about today.

[30:13] Help Lord each one that they might come in faith to the cross to come and turn to you. Lord we pray as each one here today we might be challenged today to be those mighty men and women to be those who will rise up against the odds who will hold fast your word who will fight for principle for what matters help us Lord we pray in Jesus name Amen Amen