[0:00] 1 Timothy 7. Let me introduce what I want to read first. C. D. L. Peter, hasn't been here in many years, he used to preach on this mighty man of David.
[0:20] Any of you remember that? Well, I got in my day of our reading the ministry story of David again. It always saddened me when I finished the story of David.
[0:33] And I weep when he dies. And I thought, well, I'll just study a little more. I've got to study about his mighty men.
[0:46] And I am so intrigued about David's mighty men. I don't believe there's ever been an army like that. One thing, their origin.
[0:58] You got them all out of jail. They were all across the tracks. All of them had problems. And there's just... They never lost a battle. They hardly ever lost a man. It's the truth. I mean, you see stories in here about one guy taking on 300 and killing all. I read about one fellow that killed 800 in one time.
[1:09] And they all made it through thé „ ago that killed 800 at one time. They always seem to come out of here. There were 400 of them first that came today. 200 more eventually showed up. And his mighty men numbered 600.
[1:52] Now that's not counting the army of Judah. These were just the elite. Sometimes they had the army of Judah fight. Sometimes they didn't. They didn't need to abuse you. I read a couple of things while I was studying all this where it says the regular soldiers fled before the he had done scenes. And three or four mighty men took over and whipped the whole felt knee on the floor. It's an amazing thing that happened with these mighty men. And some little information is given about a few of them. That's what Brother Spear used to build sermons on this guy. Now what I'm talking about tonight is called Benaiah.
[2:40] And I don't know. I don't remember Brother Spear. Do you remember Brother Spear preaching about Benaiah? Okay. I don't remember his sermon. I don't remember what he said. I just got to study. And there's more in this Bible about Benaiah than any other.
[2:59] of the mighty men. A whole lot more. Benaiah is mentioned 25 times in the Bible. No other mighty men. Anything close to that. Two or three maybe. Their names are given.
[3:11] I tried to correlate the two accounts in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. And it's almost impossible. They named the 30 commanders in both places. And to try to match names and come out with the same people is about impossible. I'll tell you why. They had more than one name. Nearly everybody did. And the reason for that is, they had more than one name.
[3:33] I'll tell you why. They had more than one name. Nearly everybody did. And the reason for that is, names always had meanings back in those days. And mom or dad would name a little baby something that they hoped he would become. Later on when he got grown, he might have been known for something else. And so somebody else named him something else because of what he wanted.
[3:51] And then later on, later on, he might have had some other success. And then later on, he might have had some other success. They give him another name. You'll find a lot of people in here, three or four names. And it's hard to match them up when you find accounts in two different places.
[4:09] However, some people lived up to their names. However, some people lived up to their name and some people never got to put their name. And Benaiah is one of those. And his name means built by Jehovah. Isn't that something? Built by Jehovah.
[4:37] Built by Jehovah. So I got thinking about that. I don't know what Brother Spears said. But I've come up with something. And something occurred to me when I was reading this story here about him.
[4:51] And I think I know why this is in here. I believe it's a spiritual lesson that's arranged about Benaiah, just for all of us. Built by Jehovah.
[5:03] If a person is built by Jehovah, he ought to be pretty successful. I want to show you something with that in mind. Now, 1 Chronicles 11.22.
[5:17] 1 Chronicles 11.22. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the son of Abani, a man of Capsiel, who had done many acts, he slew two lion-like men of Moab.
[5:29] Also, he went down and slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high. That's seven and a half feet.
[5:42] That's about a foot shorter than Goliath was. But it's a whole lot taller than anybody else was in his day. Seven and a half feet.
[5:52] In the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam. That's exactly what they said about Goliath. A weaver's beam was a great big hunk of wood.
[6:05] And when they wanted to say that the spear was big, that's what they said. And so Benaiah went down to him with a staff. You know what a staff is?
[6:16] A shepherd's staff. A little stick with a crooked tongue. It's not a fighting infant. That's all he had in his hand. So he put the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear.
[6:30] These things did Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and had the name among the three mighties. Behold, he was honorable among the thirty.
[6:45] Now, the other Bible says more honorable than the thirty. And this idea here, he was the most honorable of the thirty. He was one of the thirty commanders.
[6:57] And they had three generals. He was under those three. And according to them, he was the most, the best soldier among the thirty commanders of the mighty men.
[7:11] But he attained not the first three. Now, that's the first three generals. I mean, they were, I get, if they were better than Benaiah, they would have spent some kind of fight.
[7:23] Each of those was named that was killing hundreds of people by itself. One of them, uh, set up in a lintel field. Field of lintels.
[7:34] That's like peas. Peas, a pea patch. And the Philistines attacked him. And he killed every one of them that came, hundreds of them. And it said he, his hand was welded and sold.
[7:49] They couldn't even get it. He had a finger going, turned loose and spoke for it after he got a penis. He was one of those three. Named Eliezer. Now, I don't know about those three.
[8:01] They were one man army by themselves. But Benaiah proved himself to be right up there with them. One place it said something about being alongside the three or among the three, which means about as good as they were.
[8:18] So we're talking about one of the greatest fighting men and soldiers in history. Most honorable among the commanders of the mighty men.
[8:30] And they said, lastly, David set him over his guard. Now, turn the page. You've got to talk about that. Turn the page. Verse 26 says, also the valiant men of the armies.
[8:46] Now, that's the 30. That's the 30 commanders. You've got 600 invincible soldiers.
[8:58] All right. What if you have 600 creases? I'm not going to be some kind of armed forces. Well, I think he would.
[9:08] I've heard you're a mean demon. 600 of creases? Well, I don't preach against any of creases sin. You think about the best soldier you can think of.
[9:22] That's he probably the type of. And then you've got 600 like that. And then you've got 30 command men. Commanders. They are so much.
[9:34] They're the best of the best. I mean, the kind of soldier he had. In order for them to respect the leader. He's got some somebody. And these.
[9:45] I want to show you this little thing here. And these are named here. The 30. And look at verse 41. Is that sad or what?
[9:58] That makes me want to weep. Bathsheba's husband was Uriah's dictating. And David, God helped him.
[10:08] God said one time, David followed me up all in his heart except for the matter of Uriah did that. David wanted a man's wife.
[10:19] He told the general of the army to go to the battle. Put him in the highest part of the battle. It wouldn't cost money. So he'd kill. He's one of the best of the 30s.
[10:32] He was one of the 30s. I don't know. I don't know how many can go. I don't know how many can go from what David was to sing that low. Just over one moment.
[10:43] He had that old man. He needed it. Why would he do that? But when I see that name, that list. You talk about betraying.
[11:00] A faithful and loyal and great man. He betrayed you. One of the worst betrayals in history. I'm going to tell you what.
[11:11] If man had written this book, man wouldn't put that in there about it. But God just didn't go off over you. He just told us everything. The bad was the good.
[11:22] I just want to talk to you a little bit about the denial. Bill provided Jehovah. I didn't read it all.
[11:33] I'm going to tell you some of the things about him. He was the chief of the Cherithites and Pelopites. Now I've studied all that through. And I believe that the Cherithites and the Pelopites were the palace guards.
[11:49] They were the bodyguards of the king and his family. And so David chose elite soldiers that he could really trust to be the bodyguard at the palace.
[12:04] And Benaiah, among other things, lost his head of that bodyguard. David set him over his own family. Now they had 24,000 men every month that rotated out that protected the royal area where the ark was and all that area of Jerusalem.
[12:31] He put 24,000 men every month. And he put Benaiah over one of those months, too.
[12:44] He was chief of the bodyguards. And then for one month out of the 12, he was head of 24,000. Well, very important leader among David's people was Benaiah.
[12:58] I think you all remember that David's son, Adonijah, tried to take the kingdom away from David.
[13:11] And you remember that Absalom also did that. You know that Joab, the general of the army, was David's first cousin, joined in the rebellion of Adonijah.
[13:28] And killed Absalom. Although David said not to me, Joab was showing disloyalty for a long time before he finally left.
[13:42] And I think such thing that making him quickly right in a part of the battle that he couldn't get out of and then withdrawing from him, I think that did it for Joab.
[13:54] He said, well, you know, I can't do this. He was David in general for many years. When David pulled that stuff, I think Joab said, I'm going to find a way out here.
[14:07] And so when Adonijah rebelled, Joab going to rebel. Telling you all this a little bit of background. While Absalom was taking over, there was a man named Shimei that went along beside David and throwing dirt on him and cussing him and mocking him.
[14:28] Because he was leaving the throne. Perhaps you remember that. So keep that in mind, too. Now, when David died, Solomon took over.
[14:43] Solomon made Benaiah head of the army. Benaiah made him head of the army. I mean, Joab's head of the army, right?
[15:01] Benaiah eliminated Joab. And he didn't have any problems with it. And when they took over Jerusalem, back when David made it into the capital city, he said, the man that goes up by himself and destroys their defense will be the general of my army.
[15:28] And Joab did that. Joab earned his position as the general of David's army. As being the greatest fighter that he had. And Benaiah took care of his right there.
[15:42] And then Solomon made Benaiah. Then he Joab put it in the head of the army. Now, I've been trying to think, I've been trying to figure how old he might have been back then.
[15:56] He probably was close to 60 or 60 years old. And still, he didn't want that. At this time.
[16:09] I wrote down here that many families are supposed to do. His grandfather was called a valiant man of Capsile. City of Judah. His father was Joab.
[16:21] Mentioned many, many times in the Bible. And he was such a great example for Benaiah. That he named one of his sons, Joab, after his daddy.
[16:33] And then another one of his sons was in the palace guard under his father. So the whole family, it just kept going down to generations. When kids become what their fathers are, it's because they tremendously respect their fathers.
[16:51] I always notice that. When a boy says, I want to do what Dad does. Dad does something right. So Benaiah got it naturally and honest.
[17:04] All right. Now, there were three top generals. And all of them might even. And then there were 30 commanders. The top three all agreed that the best soldier we've got among our commanders is Benaiah.
[17:20] He's a man of unsurpassed courage, character, consistency, unquestioned loyalty. Not to mention his unbelievable physical skills. I wish I could have met the man.
[17:32] I'd like to see somebody like that, wouldn't you? I don't know how. I don't know how to describe him. I wish I could have met him. Mentioned 25 times in the Bible.
[17:47] Served both David and Solomon. And was always tremendously bold. When Solomon took over.
[18:00] David on his deathbed. Solomon's going to get Shimei out there. You know what he did? When he came back and apologized, I let go. But you watch him.
[18:12] Just watch him. So Solomon called Shimei out there and said, Alright, buddy. You live in Jerusalem, don't you? You got a place, right? So I'm going to leave you alone.
[18:23] If you ever leave Jerusalem. If you ever go outside of this wall. How about your life today? Two years back. Something happened that he had to go and take care of the business.
[18:37] In another town. Solomon heard about it. He called in for a night. Now, Shimei, I just.
[18:49] He's just a jerk is all he wants. How would you like to go to the door with somebody knocking on? And there's nothing for a night. You know, oops.
[19:05] How would you like that to happen? It happened again. I don't know how Bani did it. I don't know what he did with the bare hands. What he broke his neck. Cut their head.
[19:15] I don't know what he did. But it says he took care of him real quickly. Whatever the king said to do, but I didn't. He was a very loyal king.
[19:29] Now, what is going to concentrate on this little story here. The things that. Why does the Bible tell us that? This man did so many things that we don't know about.
[19:40] But he named these three. And he's given us the name. Built by Jack and Joe. I'm built by Joe. So are you. So are you.
[19:52] Brother, we were nothing. And the Lord got over us. And anything good about us. God did it. But look. He did what he did to you.
[20:04] So you can be loyal. And useful. And faithful. And consistent. For him. He didn't put you together. You don't do it.
[20:15] He didn't give you the skills you have. Or the knowledge you have. Or the experiences you have. For you. He put you together for him. He wants you to serve him.
[20:28] Honor him. Be loyal and faithful to him. Now watch this. The three things that are mentioned here. Number one. I'm going to take a little bit out for it.
[20:40] It seems. And I've studied this. It seems to say. That all these people attacked. But not. They shouldn't have. But two lion-like men.
[20:53] Of Moab. Came after him. Two lion-like men. Of Moab. They caught him.
[21:04] Without any. Weapon in his hands. What is a lion-like man? That sounds pretty bad.
[21:15] You see a couple of guys. You say. Good night. They look like lions. I wasn't going to face that. And these lion-like men.
[21:27] No doubt. Have weapons. But when the smoke cleared. Guess who was standing. But now I was standing. And two lion-like men were dead.
[21:39] They were Moab. Next it says. That an Egyptian. Almost big as Goliath. Seven and a half feet tall. His bear was like a weaver.
[21:52] He was the next one to attack. This man. But not. Everybody knew. He was the leader. We can get the leader. We can get the rest of him. So the weapon after him. You know. All right.
[22:06] He caught him. Without a weapon. And I don't know what he's doing. The shepherd's staff. The man with everything. What a shepherd. But that's all he had in his hand. Was his shepherd's staff.
[22:17] Somebody probably said. Take this somebody. And he had it in his hand. That's all he had. And here comes Goliath. With his big spear. Caught him in a week and a month.
[22:30] No doubt. He thought. So Benaiah just walks up to it. Takes his spear away from him. He probably said. He'd give you that. He told me. He swapped with him.
[22:43] Maybe. Killed him with his own spear. No problem. Very easily. And then the third. Was the most impressive to me of all.
[22:57] They threw him in a pit. With a lion. They dug the hole in the ground. Or had to be a propagatist. Probably got him in the middle. He put him in the pit with a lion.
[23:09] Without weapon. On a snowy day. When it's snowy. Now think about that. Here's a 600 pound lion.
[23:20] You're in a pit. The best animal is going to weath. Right? You're not going to get away. It's close quarters.
[23:31] There's no back door. It's fire to get eaten. There's no escape. But then it's on a snowy day.
[23:44] It's damp and slippery down in there. And there's snow in your eyes. Now they got him this time. We've been trying to get him all these years.
[23:56] We finally got him. We throw him in his pit. The lion is hungry. It's a bad day. He can't see anything.
[24:06] He's gone this time. What happened? With his bare hands.
[24:17] He didn't have any. He killed him with snowballs. That's right.
[24:32] Never get serious. I'd like to see you walk up against the lion. Why are you facing the snowballs? I'm sorry. We're like the snowballs.
[24:44] All right. Let's get the last two minutes. With his bare hands. He tackles his mind. He kills him.
[24:55] He crawls out. The winner. You can't defeat. Hey. You can't defeat the man. Build flesh. Old man. Right.
[25:08] Now here's what I want to show you. What are the three enemies of the Christian? World. Flesh.
[25:19] Devil. Devil. Right. Moab. Is a. Is a symbol. Of the flesh. Always that.
[25:29] Naomi. Naomi and her husband got in the flesh. And went down to Moab. And lost their family. And you go on and on.
[25:41] On and on and on. About Moab. Being. Being of the flesh. Let's see what else I might have written down here. If anything. Might be.
[25:54] Ah yes. Balaam. Balaam. Was from. You know. It was Moab. You know how bad. They were. In the Bible. Who got in the flesh. And get a rock. One time.
[26:04] And lost his ticket. What was the problem? Where did he go to die? Moab. Moab had always been a symbol of the flesh. So the first enemy that he killed. Was a lion.
[26:15] Lion. And from Moab. What about Egypt? The Goliath fellows from Egypt. The world. Always had medicine. We'll do it. Come on. Egypt's a war on Job.
[26:26] And the king. He is. He's the devil. The leader of the world. Egypt's always been. How many of you knew that? Egypt's a war. It's a war.
[26:37] What was that? All right. He killed that one. And then the lion himself. What is it that sneaks around trying to get. The lion. The lion.
[26:48] The devil is a roger of the lion. I'm seeking to be made by. There's your three enemies right there. That the man built like the old one. Should be able to conquer. Without any problem.
[27:00] And that's the reason. That story. Right there. You. My friend. Should never be defeated by the flesh. The devil is put in.
[27:10] Hey. The devil is put in you. When he builds you. Enough for you to conquer your flesh. Don't you ever drag yourself off from where you say. I just can't overcome this act.
[27:21] Yeah. This thing is just too big for me. Amen. I mean. I've got this flesh. And I can't be the Christian. All the people. Yes. You can. The devil.
[27:33] That is the Lord. Put you together. So that you can conquer the flesh. Yes. And I've had a little battle of the flesh here and there. And when I depend on the Lord. I always conquer the flesh.
[27:43] Amen. Don't you? Amen. I mean. It's to conquer the flesh. With the help of the Lord. Yeah. Don't ever stop. Conquer the flesh. Amen. You conquer all of it. It doesn't need to be a problem for us.
[27:56] Amen. What about the world? Well. You know. Such a temptation out there. So what? You can build a Lord to conquer the world.
[28:10] It should not be any problem for us. The trouble is. You're not trying to conquer the world. You're trying to enjoy the world. You're trying to take that big giant.
[28:22] Take your hands. So let's go have a drink together. Uh-huh. No. What you do is slay that giant. You just take that world and slay it. Crucify it.
[28:33] Kill it. Rid of it. You don't need it. You can't be the Christian you ought to be if you're hobnobbing with the world. When that world attacks you and it looks like a giant, just cut his head off.
[28:47] Take his own spirit. Jack him with you. You can win. And I'm telling you, God puts you together with enough stuff in you to conquer your flesh and the world. You're just not doing it.
[29:00] You're not a second advantage of what he made you believe. And then the third thing is to know. What about him? He's the easiest one. Did you know he's the easiest one?
[29:12] Did you know that the Lord has put him under your authority? We've been translating out of the kingdom of darkness, that's the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear son.
[29:28] And we have all the authority that that king has over that kingdom. Don't worry about the devil. Just tell him to get through. The reason that the devil conquers you is because you let him.
[29:41] And the only way he can overcome is when you let him. He has no authority whatsoever to be even in your house. He's the easiest of the three. Because when you resist the devil, he must flee from you.
[29:55] Look, if I lift you in the eyes and you tell me the devil sort of comforts you, I know one thing about you. You let him do that. You didn't try it.
[30:06] You didn't tell him to get through. You didn't resist him. All you got to do is the devil resist him. And he's gone. You say, well, I tried that once he came back. What is this doing here?
[30:20] May I tell you a little Greek? Most of the things about prayer are in a certain tense, which means pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. You know what I put in prayer?
[30:32] That word resist is in that same tense. It doesn't mean it's been resisted one time. It means resisting. And he comes back and resisting. He comes back and says, you're going to resist me.
[30:43] People never come to you. You can't resist me, right? In fact, when Jesus resisted him in the amount of temptation, it says he departed from him for a season.
[30:56] You think he never came back? Well, I think he did. In fact, no, he did. Many times in the garden of Gethsemane, he said he walked back to you. He'll leave you and come back later.
[31:08] Resist him again. Don't let him do it. You are a benign. The Lord puts you together with the thought in mind.
[31:20] The flesh is going to attack you. I'm going to fix it so it's going to win the battle of the flesh. The world is going to attack you. I'm going to fix it so it's going to win the battle of the world. And the devil is going to attack you.
[31:31] I'm going to fix it so it's going to win the battle of the dead. How many of you do that? Amen. There's no reason. The devil can use the world and the flesh.
[31:51] Yes, it can. But we already said it. If he does use the flesh, you can fight the flesh.
[32:02] If he does use the world, you can fight the world. There's no reason you'd be overcome of those. The reason you don't overcome those is because you love them. You love something like them. You're allowing them to dominate you when you're supposed to crucify them.
[32:18] Don't give in to them. You say, well, I enjoy it too much. That's your own flesh of the flesh. Crucify your flesh. Any questions? Any comments?
[32:29] Anything? Anything? Any comments? You know, I'm a great teacher. Y'all sleep on.