Again and Again
Notes
Transcript
There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.” After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants. And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down. These four were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
Continuing in our series on 2 Samuel - only four sermons left in the series including today
And in today’s passage, we have, what is in the books of Samuel, a familiar sight. There is war between the Philistines and Israel.
But we have not actually seen the Philistines in a while. We have to go back to chapter 8 to see the last battle between Israel and the Philistines. If you’ll remember back to that incident, we saw that David was able to do what Saul was never able to do.
As the true king, he was able to defeat the Philistines - the great enemy of God’s people - once and for all.
Chapter 8 details David’s victories against all the nations within and around Israel, and it begins with this:
After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines.
And at the time, I said that at this point, the Philistines cease to be the thorn in Israel’s side that they were for so long. They are never again the power they once were. And for much of David’s reign, we never hear them mentioned.
But, here, the same old troubles come back again. The Philistines were defeated and were not the problem they used to be - but they are still a problem when they come back.
And here we are, now near the very end of David’s reign, and the Philistines pop back up. And there is not a prolonged war, but four isolated battles that center on four specific Philistines and four specific Israelites.
So this isn’t the same grand army of the Philistines with the military might that has in the past even defeated Israel - this is a remnant of Philistines.
The remaining Philistines that still dwelt in the land of Judah.
So we have an enemy that has actually been defeated, and yet this enemy still exists within the land - among God’s people. And because they are there, they still cause trouble for God’s people. Not in an all out war, but in these occasional skirmishes that arise from time to time.
And while it may seem a little odd to call an enemy defeated but then talk about the battles still being fought, I actually think we understand that from our own experience.
This is a lot more relevant to us than we may think at first glance. But this describes exactly the position we are in right now.
We have enemies that have been defeated. We just spoke about them the last two weeks. Through all that Christ has done, our enemies have been defeated.
Sin has been defeated. And it has been defeated once and for all. Christ took on our sin and carried His cross and died so that the wage of sin could be paid and we could be set free from the power of sin.
But He didn’t stop there. He rose again, He ascended to heaven, and He sent His Spirit through Whom we work out - in real time - the power of God in us to live dead to sin and alive unto Him.
And yet, though defeated once and for all, and though disarmed of its power over us, sin still pops up from time to time. It still battles us even though it has been defeated. And we will have to battle against it when it pops up.
Because, like the Philistines still dwelling in Israel: sin - though defeated by Christ - still dwells within us. This is the reality of living in this corrupted creation even though we have been made new. There is still indwelling sin. And so we still have battles to fight.
When Christ went to the cross, He defeated Satan and all the powers of darkness. Sure - they thought they had won - I mean, when the Philistines thought they had defeated Israel and they took the Ark - they soon found out that God was still the victor - so, too, the powers of darkness have learned that the cross - what they briefly thought was their greatest victory - was their great defeat.
Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. And He has given us authority over them. And He Who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
And yet, though defeated once and for all, and though disarmed of their power over us, the powers of darkness still battle us. They have been defeated, but they will still pop up from time to time fighting a Guerrilla War against us and against the church. And we have to battle against them when that happens.
And this is a reality of living in the world that we are not of. Because Satan has domain over those of the world, and when the kingdom of God encroaches on what he thinks is his territory, Satan and the powers of spiritual wickedness will fight.
We still have battles to fight against a defeated enemy.
But how do we fight? What is our weapon against the enemies of sin and the powers of darkness?
Let’s find out.
Let’s look at battle number one in our passage today:
There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”
We actually have two subplots meeting up here.
First, we have the battle itself. We are told that “there was war again between the Philistines and Israel.”
There was war “again.” You can almost hear the inflection in the narrators voice, can’t you? There was war “again.” Because how many times have we seen this? How many times has there been war between Israel and the Philistines?
Twenty. To this point, we have read of 18 separate engagements between the armies of Israel and the Philistines in 1 Samuel, and then 2 more in 2 Samuel so far, culminating with their defeat in chapter 8 that we just read about.
And that isn’t even considering the book of Judges where this war was already raging.
In 1 Samuel, more ink was used writing of the wars between Israel and the Philistines than was used to describe the conflict between David and Saul. So the existence of this enemy is a reality that is focused on by the writer up until 2 Samuel 8.
The writer wants to make no mistake - he wants there to be no misunderstanding - this enemy that dwells within their own borders is indeed a great threat to God’s people.
Until, that is, God anoints a king to be victorious over them. To win victory over them once and for all, even though the enemy was still there, and would still try to cause trouble.
And this is exactly what happened to us. This is what Christ did for us through His finished work:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We were dead in sin and walking in sin. We were losing the war. And we were going to be defeated by sin.
We were following the powers of darkness and were under God’s wrath. And we were stuck there. We had already lost that war.
But God…
God anointed a King Who won victory over both sin and the powers of darkness. And when He was raised, we were raised with Him over the powers of darkness and over the enticements of this world and the power of sin.
The Bible is pretty clear from Genesis 3 on: there is an enemy. There is an enemy in this world that wants to devour us like a lion devours its prey. There is an enemy that knows he has lost and will strike wherever, whenever, and however he can in order to take down as many as he can before the end comes.
There is an enemy within. There is an enemy that had us under its power - we were servants of sin. We were headed for wrath because we served sin and we liked it.
There is more ink used to talk about the reality of sin and judgment for sin in the Bible than there is about God’s love. Much more.
This is the enemy that the Holy Spirit wants to make sure from Genesis through Revelation is front and center. The enemy that is the greatest danger to man because it is an enemy that is part of who we are. It literally dwells within us. Not in physical the borders of a land, but in our hearts and minds.
But thank God He did what we couldn’t do. Thank God He sent a King to the front line Who took down our enemies through His own suffering and death.
Thank God that He raised Him on the third day that we might know the enemy has been defeated.
Thank God that He raised Him into the heavenly places over all rule and authority and has raised us with Him.
Thank God that He sent His Spirit - that He placed within us One greater than Satan and One more powerful than even the sin that dwells within us.
This is why David points us forward to Christ. He was the anointed king that God sent to defeat the physical enemy. And the last time we read about David and the enemy, that’s what we saw. David defeated them.
But here we are, and the battle isn’t over. That’s the first subplot here.
Second, we have this narrative about David. That young shepherd warrior who once stepped up to fight the battle God’s people could not is now near the end of his life.
2 Samuel 21:15–17 (ESV)
There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary… Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”
While the books of Samuel continually point to Christ through David, they also continually remind us that David is but a pointer to Christ. He is a weak man who falls to sin over and over, and who here is too old and weak to continue fighting. This was David’s final battle.
And while there is no parallel between David and Christ when it comes to the sin, there is an important fact that we see here.
After the king defeats the enemy, it is for his people to continue fighting the battle.
David defeated the Philistines. They are defeated. But there are still battles to be fought, and it won’t be the king who fights them. He did what he needed to do for God’s people.
It was their turn now to fight the battle.
And they could, because of what the king had done. They could have victory because the king already won victory.
Near the end of the book of 2 Samuel, there are 31 verses dedicated to naming the mighty men of David. We aren’t going to cover that portion, don’t worry. But there is a reason that list is there. The writer wants to show that the king had people in his kingdom that were able to defeat the enemy. That were able to do great things because of their faith, and their loyalty to their king.
Because, brothers and sisters, that is what we’re called to do. We are supposed to have faith, be loyal to our King, and fight the battles that need to be fought until the King returns victorious.
And because of what our King has done, we can defeat the enemy when it comes against us in battle. We can have victory because Christ - our King - has already won.
He did all that needed doing to free us from the power of sin. He took us, who were dead in sin, and made us alive - and we were reborn not dead in sin but dead to sin. And now, we can fight the enemy when it attacks, and we can win.
Because it is an already defeated enemy.
He did all that needed doing to defeat the powers of darkness. He took those who followed the prince of the power of the air, made us alive, and raised us over him. And now, we can resist any attack of the enemy, because it is an already defeated enemy.
David was no longer going to fight the enemy himself. He was going to use those of his kingdom to do the work.
And now, Christ, Who has already won, uses us to do the work.
I think that in modern American Christianity, we have all to a point succumbed to the individual, consumer mindset. Because that is our culture and has been for a hundred years.
And we view Christianity as, like some would say, “a relationship not a religion.” And we make our faith about our “personal relationship with Christ.” Like this is between me and Christ and that’s it.
All completely unBiblical ideas. But they’ve influenced the church over the last century and many have bought it.
So, we go to church because it helps me grow closer to God and we take part in those activities that appeal to us - that we get something out of. And we do our personal devotions and we strive for personal holiness.
And none of this is bad. All of this is actually necessary. But these are means to an end.
Because we are part of a kingdom at war. We need to be in the battle.
What we do as Christians for the most part is kind of like signing up to become a Navy Seal and getting through our training and striving to be one of the best soldiers in the world and then when it’s time to deploy we decline because for us the point was just becoming a good Navy Seal.
Imagine if that is why our military was trained. To make soldiers as an end, and not a means of defending our people, and a means of victory.
So we look at means and make them ends, and the end result is… well, what Christianity is in the western world today for the most part.
But, brothers and sisters, we are in a battle. Christ has already won the war for us. But there is still much territory to reclaim for our King. There are people to be brought into the kingdom. There is an enemy that is already defeated yet still battling.
And we - especially a church like MCC - we need to fight the battle.
Like the battle being fought here:
2 Samuel 21:16–17 (ESV)
And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him.
So a descendant of the giants whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze and who has a new sword is coming for David. Why are these details given?
This imagery brings back to mind the battle of David and Goliath. And it’s meant to. We already know what the true king did in that case. He stepped up to do what none of God’s people could do or wanted to do. And he defeated the enemy.
And here, we have these descriptions, like the fact that his spear weighed three hundred shekels. That is actually only half of what Goliath’s spear weighed. You see, the enemy was defeated by the true king, and now the power of the enemy isn’t what it once was.
We are told that he had a new sword. Do we remember anything about Goliath’s sword? I’ll remind you. We are specifically told in 1 Samuel 17 that David had no sword, and when he faces off against Goliath, David hits him with the stone from his sling, and Goliath falls down. But he isn’t dead.
And then we read this:
1 Samuel 17:50–51 (ESV)
There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it.
And this, of course, is a picture of what Christ did at the cross. Paul tells us that it was the powers of darkness that put Christ on the cross, but that it was Christ on the cross that proved to be the defeat of those powers. Through the cross, He crushed the head of the serpent.
The enemy took the gentle and meek Jesus, Who spoke no words of defense and Who went like a lamb to the slaughter - and what they thought was their greatest weapon wound up being used against them to cut off their head. What they thought was going to bring them victory, was used for their defeat.
Like David did with the sword of Goliath. And here, we have a less powerful enemy, who has a new sword.
And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David.
You know, Goliath came against David with his sword and that sword wound up cutting off his own head - so here comes a giant with a new sword looking for David.
Like, this time I’ll get it right. I’m armed with a new sword. Not the sword that wound up being Goliath’s undoing. This time it’s different.
And, as we know, the powers of darkness are shrewd. And they are always coming up with new ways to try to destroy the souls of men by leading them astray.
But the fact of the matter is that a sword is a sword.
Because the reality is that the powers of darkness don’t have any new tactics. They have one weapon: lies. There may be new lies. There may be lies that can get into your head that are different than the ones that can get into my head.
But a sword is a sword.
And when those powers come against us, and they speak deceit into the world to those around us or to us, what do we do?
We do what our King did.
Like Abishai did:
2 Samuel 21:17 (ESV)
But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him.
Abishai pulled a David. He stepped up, attacked the giant, and killed him. He fought the battle, and the enemy was defeated.
Satan came against our Lord the first time, and he tried to use deceit to disqualify Jesus from His calling. Just like he tries to do to us. We read about those temptations at the outset of Christ’s ministry. And what did Jesus do?
He believed God’s Word over Satan’s words. That’s all He had to do to win that battle. Satan tried to deceive Jesus three times, and Jesus stood firm on the Word of God.
So if we want to win battles, we know what we have to do. Know and believe God’s Word.
Then Satan can’t fool us.
Satan came against our Lord for a last time, and he used deceit to turn those around Jesus against Him. And what did Jesus do?
He took up His cross, denied Himself, and fulfilled His calling even though it meant suffering.
And He says to us all:
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
So if we want to win the battles against sin and the powers of darkness, we know what we have to do. We need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Daily. Again and again.
Because there will be battles to fight, again and again.
After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants.
There was war again. One of the descendants of the giants - again - is defeated by one of David’s men - again.
You see, in this life, the battles aren’t going to end. They will happen again and again. So we will need to choose to believe God over the lies of the enemy over and over again. And we will have to choose to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily to follow Christ, again and again and again.
Because the enemy will keep coming:
And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
And this on its own seems like a mistake. Goliath is already dead. Well, in the parallel account in 1 Chronicles, we read:
And there was again war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair struck down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
So it was Goliath’s brother this man fought.
But again, history repeats itself. The battle is won, but the enemy doesn’t give up. The enemy has ben defeated, and can be defeated over and over again - but our enemies are not going to give up.
And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down.
Man, it almost seems redundant at this point. Why is the writer saying almost the same exact thing over and over and over again? Why do we need to read about these battles with the same enemy over and over and over again?
Well, why are we tempted with the same sins, over and over and over again? Why do we have the same vulnerabilities to the enemy over and over and over again.
Like I said, the devil has no new tricks. But if we’re honest, he doesn’t need any.
Our hearts do most of the work for him.
If you struggle with anger, the powers of darkness don’t tempt you with lust - they try to deceive you into being angry.
If your weak spot is gossip, the powers of darkness don’t try to make you angry. They’ll deceive other people into telling you some gossip.
Our own propensity towards certain sins does most of the work. The powers of darkness just give a little nudge. They pop-up and fight the only way they know how - a sword is a sword is a sword.
So how will we fight back?
Before we can answer that, I want us to notice a few more things about this passage. First, we get a summary of the events here with this last verse.
These four were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
There are two very important things to notice here.
First, we had that refrain with each of these very similar battles. “There was war again.” But there was another refrain in each battle. Every one of these Philistines was descended from the giants. Descended from rapha - or in the plural - the rephaim.
And while it would take too long to go through every verse to show this, the Rephaim are giants, and they are descendants of the Nephilim. And if you look at the very first battle recorded in the Bible in Genesis 14, it involves Rephaim.
If you look at the kings that Israel battled before entering the promised land, like Og king of Bashan, they are Rephaim.
If you remember the failures of Saul that lost him the kingdom, they were in the context of battles with the Anakim, who are called Rephaim and descendants of the Nephilim.
Goliath of Gath, if you’ll remember, was a Rephaim.
And here, these “giants” are Rephaim.
Why does this matter?
Because as descendants of the Rephaim, are Nephilim. Who are the Nephilim? They are the hybrid offspring of human women and heavenly beings that rebelled against God.
If you have any interest in any of this, come starting next week to the Genesis Bible study.
But the Nephilim or Rephaim are the result of spiritual rebellion by spiritual beings.
And the reason God had Israel war against them - and commanded them to wipe out Amalek and certain other societies - is because it was judgment for this rebellion.
All that to say - battles against these giants, is not just physical warfare. It’s spiritual warfare.
These battles with the giants that the king’s people had to fight over and over and over again are spiritual battles.
And that’s what our battle is.
You know, in popular Christian culture we like to talk about slaying our giants. And we talk about overcoming opposition, even when the odds are against us. We talk about overcoming personal problems in our life or specific challenges. Sometimes, these “giants” are even character flaws that we feel we need to overcome.
Oddly enough, we also refer to some of these types of things as “our cross to bear.”
That’s not how the Bible views these things.
These giants represent, as Richard Phillips says in his commentary, “the grotesque reign of satanic evil…our spiritual enem[y].”
And we see that it took people of faith to defeat this enemy. It took people loyal to their king who already defeated this enemy.
It took people who were willing to take up their cross daily, even if it literally meant death.
But I want us to notice something else. It says that these four giants - spiritual enemies - they fell by the hand of…who? Of these men doing it in their own power? Of these men who were rogue people of God going it alone?
No. These spiritual enemies fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. By the king and his people.
But wait! A few verses back, we read that David didn’t defeat any of them. In fact, Abishai had to come and defeat this enemy because David was weary.
How did David defeat these enemies? When did David defeat these enemies?
When he did what only the true king could. When he defeated them once and for all when he was crowned king.
That’s what we read from chapter 8.
After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines.
After this. After what?
Does anyone remember what happens in 2 Samuel 7?
That’s the Davidic Covenant. That is when the true King is promised to the king. That is when God told David that He - God - is the One Who defeats the enemies of His people. It is when He promises the Offspring that will be the real King, and Who will reign forever and ever.
And after this - by faith - because David believed in the promise though it hadn’t yet been fulfilled - the enemies of God were defeated.
And we see in our passage today, because the king defeated these enemies once and for all, even when they raise their hands once again against God’s people, they can be defeated.
David and these men did this. Because of what David had done, his people could do what they did.
Because the king won victory, his people could win victory.
And because our King has won victory, we can have victory.
We can have victory over the defeated enemies of sin and over the rulers, and the authorities, and the cosmic powers over this present darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
And it will be Christ Who does it through us.
This is still His battle. And He will win it through us, if we have faith and we are loyal to our King.
And this isn’t some abstract faith. I am talking about exercising very real faith.
And how do we do that?
We do what Christ did when facing the enemy. He believed God’s Word over the lies of the enemy.
We exercise faith by believing the Word of God over the lies of the enemy. When the enemy wants to fool us into straying, remember what God says.
When temptations to sin come, and we want to convince ourselves that sin is not sin, we need to believe what God says.
And we need to take up our cross and deny ourselves. That may mean we have to deny ourselves some things that aren’t sin but that lead to temptations to sin. We may have to deny ourselves a relationship with someone who tempts us to sin.
We may have to deny things we like and we enjoy and that the world says are fine.
What does God’s Word say? Believe it by denying yourself what our enemies want us to have.
And though this is so very simple it is not easy to do. I get that. I’m no different from any of you in this regard. My faith is no greater than yours.
But even faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move mountains. And those mountains Jesus is talking about are the kingdom of the enemy. When we have faith and we know the Word and we believe the Word and we live it out - even in the smallest decisions - the enemy loses ground, and Christ uses that to win the battle.
Every time we choose to obey and turn our backs on sin, we have won a great spiritual battle.
And you don’t need to be some super-spiritual mega-Christian to do this. Because it is the same Christ that works through each of us, which is why it’s not the faith - big or small - that is most important.
It is the object of that faith. He will work through us.
We had here four different Israelites that were victorious because they had faith and were loyal to their king.
Abishai, Sibbecai, Elhanan - listed in the mighty men - those of the kingdom that were exceptional warriors (“oh, I’m no mighty man.” - join the club.)
Jonathan son of Shimei, David’s brother - he is not listed among the mighty men. He’s just one of God’s people with faith. He is just a member of the kingdom loyal to his king. And he strikes the final blow against the Philistines. And we never hear of him again.
So it isn’t just the spiritual giants that are called to fight these battles. It’s us. All of us.
Because the King won the victory for that man, then the King won the victory through him.
And that is what our King will do through us for whom He has won the victory.
So that means, we need Him. If we are going to go into battle, we need Him. And that’s why we need to hear the Gospel over and over again! Because the enemy will come at us over and over again. Sin will tempt us over and over again.
But armed with the sword of Spirit which is the Word of God, and believing the truth of God, we can prevail against temptation to sin and against the flaming darts of the evil one.
So all we can do, brothers and sisters, is seek Christ. Today. Tomorrow. Again and again until the day our faith becomes sight and the enemy is defeated finally and forever and the battle comes to an end.
So we need to consider how we are seeking Christ. We are called to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Christ. Are we doing that? Again and again?
When we consider what Christ did for us - how He denied Himself and took up His cross - how can we not?
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Ephesians 6:10–18 (ESV)
…be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Let us remind ourselves of these things. Let us remind each other of these things. Let’s remember who we are and Whose we are.
And let’s get into the battle. Let’s assail the very gates of hell. Let’s choose - again and again - to believe God that the world may know victory has been won.
And we will see giants fall by the hand of our King and the hand of His servants.
