If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to 1 Samuel Chapter 19. 1 Samuel Chapter 19. We are in the 19th chapter of
the book of 1 Samuel, and we are contemplating David's involvement
with his father-in-law. We've already described the household
of Saul as the ancient Dallas family. It's hard to deny that
parallelism. If you look carefully at the
text, they are a diabolical family, much like our own families are
diabolical. But you're going to see in this
text David begin to run away from this place to which he is
called. And so the title of our message
today is David Flees, The Life of David. David takes flight.
And the subtitle is, God is my hiding place and my refuge. Is
he not? I told you last week that in
the troubles that David went through, frequently they were
contexts in which he would write the Psalms. And one of the Psalms
that corresponds to this particular text that David is in is Psalm
143, verse 9. I want us to use that as a sort
of pointer passage or overarching thought as we work through now
a very important period in the history of David's anointing
in preparation for his appointment. Here's what the King says, and
this is a Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give
ear to my supplication, and in your faithfulness answer me,
and in your righteousness. And enter not into judgment with
your servant, for in your sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy has persecuted
my soul. He has smitten my life down to
the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Do you ever feel like that
sometimes? Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed
within me and my heart within me is desolate. I remember the
days of old. I meditate on all your works.
I muse on the work of your hands. I stretch forth my hand unto
thee at this present. Oh God, my soul thirsteth after
you. as a thirsty land. Then he says
in verse 7, Hear me speedily, O Lord. My spirit is failing. Hide not your face from me, lest
I be like to them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear
your lovingkindness in the morning. For in thee do I put my trust.
Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up
my soul unto you. Now, what I want you to mark,
Saints, as we work through the narrative, is that when you and
I are going through suffering and persecution, it does affect
our soul. We do go through bouts of doubt
and depression. We are inclined to be fearful
and wonder whether or not God is with us. And we find ourselves,
if we are children of God, calling on God to help us, admitting
that the trial that I am going through is making me act as if
I don't know you at all. This is what he's experiencing. That's why he's calling on God.
See, you don't call on God until you get so close to your old
ways that you need his help to pull
you back from the brink. That's what David is doing. See,
I just I want you to understand as we make a clear juxtaposition
between David and Saul, that's what the narrator wants, that
you don't think that David is so impenetrable that he's not
affected by it. He's highly affected by it. Here's
what David says. Deliver me, oh Lord, from my
enemies. Watch this. Watch this. Here
it is. Here's the secret to safety. I flee unto you. To hide me Do you see it? I fully entreat you to hide me
now take your bibles and go back to first samuel 18 Uh, and we
will trust and believe god for this place cooling down a little
bit over the portion of this exhortation Why is david in the
presence of the king? Why is david in the house of
saul? How is it that David ends up
in the family of Saul? And why did it happen the way
that it did? These are germane questions that
are critical to our understanding the foundation that God is laying
for David's rule. Why do we have two kings under
the same roof? Don't we know that that is a
bad mixture? Like two queens under the same
roof don't work, two kings don't work either, right? Why do we
have two here? Because we are in what is called
a transition period. We have what we call replacement
theology, and you've already heard me teach this before. When
one leader starts to corrupt and fall apart, God always has
a replacement for him, right? Often that replacement is already
in God's purpose being prepared before that replacement is even
brought to the forefront. David was being prepared while
Saul was ruling. You're going to see this in a
little while with Samuel. Was not Samuel being prepared
while Eli was ruling? so forth and so on. This is replacement
theology because God's will and purpose, particularly with his
leaders, are going to be fulfilled whether we obey or not. God is
able to make the stones rise up and give him glory. In this
context of a replacement process, what God is doing is letting
you and me know that David is not some rogue maverick seeking
to overthrow the king in a coup or some kind of treasonous overthrow. That David hasn't been brought
into Saul's presence in a diabolical way with male motives, with ill
motives towards the king. David was called by God. David
was brought into the presence of the king by the king's own
request. David was publicly known by everybody
in the kingdom. Everyone knew David's going and
David's coming. His portfolio was present before
all, was it not? In other words, when the king
ultimately meets his demise, he won't be able to blame it
on David diabolically seeking to take the throne. He will have
to admit that his sovereign God moved him out and put another
man in. And this was the pattern of our
Lord Jesus Christ, as you and I know that we are not properly
hearing the Word of God if it doesn't point to Christ. Our
Lord Jesus Christ did not do anything in secret. He didn't
hide when he came. He didn't do ministry in the
corner. He didn't do Bible studies in the basement or in the garage.
He didn't say, come over here and I'll share some secret things
with you. As he told the rulers when they came to take him that
awful Thursday night, he says, I was always with you. I was
doing ministry in the public. I was in your synagogues. I was
in your temple. I was in the street. I was publicly
doing my ministry. Now you come to me as a thief.
What I'm getting at is as we work through this this very important
transition into the monarchical rule of God through Israel, David
is God's chosen one, he's God's anointed one, and he's being
set up in a very righteous way by allowing Saul to be exposed
and humiliated for his rebellion while demonstrating the virtues
of David's humility and submission to God as he's put on the throne.
You know what this is called in the Proverbs. I think it's
Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9 This is called verse 12 rather Proverbs
16 12. This is called establishing the
throne upon righteousness It's called establishing the throne
upon righteousness. It is an abomination for the
Kings to commit what? for the throne is established
by what a What you are seeing worked out in our context is
the righteous establishment of the king based upon God's keeping
him and demonstrating that Saul is unqualified because of his
wickedness while David is being made qualified because of his
humility. No coup, no overthrow, no treason,
no sort of manipulation on a political level, no coercive deeds, All
this is done in the open in the presence of Saul and everyone
else. Everyone gets to see Saul diminished
and David exalted. Which brings us to our first
point as we work it through. Point number one, the desperate
damning indictment of Saul. the desperate, damning indictment
of King Saul. You and I note in chapter 18
as it closes, verse 29, and Saul was yet the more afraid of David,
and Saul became David's enemy, what? Continually. Then the persons
of the philistines went forth and it came to pass that after
they went forth that david Behaved himself more wisely than all
the servants of saul so that his name was much set by there's
your juxtaposition again David's wisdom is giving him fame and
yet saul is growing more and more insane Finally we read in
verse 1 of chapter 19. We're going to kill david This
is an open public indictment to kill David. And Saul spoke
to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants that they should
kill David. Wouldn't that cause you to cry
after God too? Wouldn't you call on God to hide
you when the king and all of his servants have an indictment
out to kill you? And this is where we are. But
I want you to mark three things as we deal with Saul's demise. Three things. Saul is devoid
of the Spirit of God. There's no way that a man can
possess the Spirit of God and act as murderous and heinous
as Saul. Is that true? Secondly, Saul
is destitute of a sound mind. And thirdly, Saul is devastating
his own family by this maniacal behavior. So under point number
one, the desperate damning indictment of Saul, what do I mean by him
being devoid of the spirit? In chapter 18, verse 12, we are
told by the author once again, and Saul was afraid of David
because the Lord was with David and was departed from Saul. Now,
the author the narration says this several times in order for
you and I to understand that the removal and departing of
the Spirit of God from Saul was merely the removal and departing
of the Spirit of God from Saul in terms of the office of King. I'll make this clear with our
last point today. Saul was not saved. He was not born again. True believers
never lose the spirit in that sense. When once you are born
again, you will never ever have to be born again. And the man
or the woman that has the spirit of God in regeneration always
has the spirit of God. But the work of the spirit that
you are observing now is the work of the spirit qualifying
or disqualifying a person from the office of King. This is why
you will hear David in his own time reigning on the throne for
40 years in his low ebb, he will cry out to God, take not thy
Holy Spirit from me. Do not remove your spirit like
you did with Saul because I will be just like Saul if you do,
I'll end up. Destroying the kingdom. Is that
true? so now I want you to make a distinction in your theology
between the spirits presence and Regeneration and the spirits
work in confirming your office or your calling Your office or
your calling can be rejected based upon your disobedience
to God but your status as a child of God remains the same if you're
born again and In other words, in the office of pastor or elder
or deacon, those who are in leadership in the church, I can lose my
office by rebellion against God, immorality, disobedience, a form
of behavior that disqualifies me from leading, but I'll never
lose my salvation if I'm truly saved. We'll learn more about
that when I teach us in the new year about the importance of
good works and why God rewards those who are diligently seeking
after him. But in our context, because the
throne, the kingship, is a messianic office, what God is going to
teach us is that not all men qualify to occupy that position. Yet David is being called up
in that regard nevertheless These are principles by which you and
I can examine ourselves because John said in first John chapter
3 and we know that no murderer hath eternal life He was talking
about Cain Wanting to murder his brother Abel and he made
it plain to you and me that if you read your Bible and go back
to Genesis don't ever even hit at the thought that Cain was
saved a Murderer does not have eternal life abiding in him.
He made that very plain and He identified Cain as one of Satan's
children. So he was devoid of the spirit,
and this drove him to this kind of behavior. Jude chapter one,
verse 18 and 19. I want you to mark Jude one,
18 and 19 with me, where the apostle Paul is talking about
corrupt leadership in the church, not the apostle Paul, but Jude,
corrupt leadership in the church, and he describes their behavior
based upon this same absence of the presence of God. He says,
because they do not have the Spirit, they behave very divisively
and very destructively. Verse 18 says, how that they
told you, beware of what the apostles said, how that they
told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk
after their own ungodly, what? Right. And one of the things
we underscore consistently as we tell men and women that you
better have a biblical understanding as to the qualifications of leadership,
to the characteristics of leadership and to the manifestation of leadership,
because ungodly leadership always walk after their own lust. They're
in it for themselves. It's not Saul in this for himself.
Is he not consumed totally with himself on a narcissistic level
that everything is about him so much so that he wants to kill
the man that he knows God has anointed to be king? Again, this
here projects us into the future and it typifies national Israel
and its insecurity and its jealousy and rage towards Jesus. Did not
the rulers of the church want to kill Jesus simply because
of jealousy and envy? Right. They became insecure because
Christ was innocent, because Christ was righteous, because
Christ was God's anointed. And they knew that he was there
to take the kingdom from them too. And what did they do? They killed him. And so this
is what we have going on. And false prophets and false
teachers not having the spirit of God are driven by their own
lusts. And when anyone threatens their kingdom, they will seek
to get rid of them. Look at verse 19. Here it is.
Verse 19 of our text. Jude says it like this in verse
19. These be they, these be they who separate themselves. See
that phrase? Separate themselves. That term
is a very powerful term. It has three, two prepositions
and then a verb. It means to mark out, it means
to divide, and then it means to separate. And this is how
false prophets actually exalt themselves. They make themselves
different than the common people. That's what the word Pharisee
literally means, to separate, to separate. They make themselves
different, they make themselves better, and it's designed to
lure ignorant people to them. And I shared this with you last
week. What made David different than
Saul was David went in and out among the people. That the people
knew David because he was like them. And I said a good shepherd
is a good shepherd because he's a sheep just like the sheep are.
and they all smell the same and look the same, even though he
has an under shepherd's role. And why the people enjoy David
was because they could see David. I am sure that Saul was not comfortable
going in and out among the people. And here's the reason why. When
you are a sham and a crook, you must keep enough distance between
you and the people you are hoodwinking lest they see through you for
who you really are. And this is what was disturbing
Saul because David was winning over not only the people of the
land, but his own family, but his own family. Saul was destitute
of the spirit, but Saul also was destitute of a sound mind.
That's our second sub point. This is the thing you come to
discover about corrupt leadership. Corrupt leadership never thinks
godly. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, 7, we
are told that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
what? Of power and of love and what? Now, okay, now when we
get to the point of a sound mind, what we are talking about is
meeting men who are in leadership positions who actually make sense
because they submit to the Word of God. Are you guys following
what I'm getting at? Now here's another thing that
you have to understand. Saul is going to serve for us
as a great model of a false prophet. That's the last part of chapter
19 that we're going to get to. But his behavior becomes for
us, again, an expose of the crazy leader. You'll get this in a
second. A lot of people who are, again,
megalomaniacs and give it over to, as it were, wanting to be
in the front and be in control, are people who are really crazy.
Now, you know there's a thin line between genius and crazy,
right? You can be gifted, but you're
crazy. Now what happens is when you're under false teaching and
false prophets and false prophetesses and others, you listen to what
they're saying and they may have a reasonable amount of biblical
truth, but over time, over time you begin to hear weird and bizarre
things come out of them. And you know there's this little
signal that pops up and say, okay, now that don't make no
sense what he just said. It doesn't make any sense what
she just said. And then over time, they actually say things
that are blatantly contrary to the word of God. And you go,
wait a minute, she didn't say that, did she? He didn't say
that. Yes, they did. And over time, because they are
not stable and not sound, you begin to build enough evidence
to know, man, I've been sitting under a fool. And only God's elect come to
discover that. Because people will sit under
fools and perish. When everyone else recognizes
that they got mental issues, you think that that's the anointing.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? They're nuts. They're nuts. I'm pressing home a point because
I'm going to make a connection between the leader himself and
the way the Spirit of God works. Because in these groups where
false leaders are dominating our churches, they will also
say that their behavior and their conduct and their anointing and
their inspiration comes from the Holy Ghost. They love to
blame it on the Holy Ghost. Stop blaming everything on the
Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost doesn't call you to act this way, as
the Spirit of God is going to demonstrate in our last point.
But what he's clearly doing is making a distinction between
the behavior of Saul and the behavior of David. And as I stated,
because of Saul's instability and because of the separation
of the Spirit of God from his life, he's devoid of the Spirit,
he's destitute of a sound mind, and he's devastating his own
family. Let's go back to our text now
and work through a few things. He's devastating his own family. Now
this is a remark to me because as I have observed again, leaders
in churches who have a bizarre calling that is not orthodox,
and neither is it affirmed by good men, but they call it being
anointed by God. When you are operating in the
office of leadership, and yet you are immoral, and you are
corrupt, and you are ungodly, and you don't have a sound mind,
everything around you suffers from you. You often see in the
family of these leaders devastation in the home, depression with
the children, Rebellion on the part of the kids. Rebellion on
the part of their spouses. Why? Because godly principles
are not operating at home first. And because you and I live in
a culture today where the church folk don't hold their leaders
to a biblical basis of qualification, leaders can just kick their wives
out, kick their husbands out, run the show without a husband,
run the show without the kids, go get another wife out of the
pew or another husband out of the church and start all over
again. And people assume that to be okay because of the anointing. Are you guys hearing me? While
all along the line, they are demonstrating that they are not
subject to the Spirit of God at all. When a person is led
by the Spirit, the kingdom of God is present in their life
and is present in the ministry. And we've been teaching this
under the rubric of dealing with the kingdom lately as well. When
the kingdom of God is present, righteousness is present. Do
you hear me? When the kingdom of God is present,
righteousness is present. And what that means is leadership
is bent on obedience to God. I mean, obedience, personal obedience,
then the obedience of their office, and then the obedience of the
church. And where that is not being demonstrated by leadership
and then being promulgated in the congregation, we've got a
problem in the church, do we not? And what you're going to
see over time is the devastation of King Saul's own house, the
devastating of his family. Look at 1 Samuel 19, verse 17. Here's where Samuel now talks
to Jonathan over the very indictment that he's trying to raise. No,
this is dealing with his daughter Micah. Notice what it says in
verse 15. And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, bring
him up to me in the bed. I'll talk about that in a minute,
that I may slay him. And when the messengers would
come in, behold, there was an image in the bed and with a pillow
of goat's hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michael, why
have you deceived me so? And sent away my enemy, that
he escaped. And Michael answered Saul and
said unto him, He said, let me go. Why should I kill you? Now, ladies and gentlemen, if
you missed it, the narrator just let you know that Michael had
figured her daddy out long ago. She knew her daddy was crazy.
And the way to deal with him was to lie to him, to keep him
off his heels. She lied to him. She lied to
him about David saying he would kill her. Do you see that? First of all, she did deceive
her father. I don't know about you, but that was a lot of work
to take a goat's hair and straw and make an image and put it
in the bed and then tell the servants, he's sick, he's sick,
right? Knowing eventually you're gonna
find out and then when he come in what you're telling me David
said he would kill me He would kill me if I didn't let him go
The family is already falling apart Can I tell you why it starts
with the leadership? It starts with the family if
the family is corrupt if the husband and the wife are Disobedient
if they're walking a rebellion if they're walking in these deceitful
principles guess where it's gonna go down to right to the kids
Do you see how a mess Michael is? We're going to learn some
things about her as well. But I'm simply saying to you
what you are seeing is Saul's lack of qualifications for leadership. Can I press that point home just
a little bit more before I go to my second point? So when the
Bible says that leaders in the church are to meet certain biblical
qualifications, do y'all know that the Bible teaches that? That you're not a leader because
you feel like you're called to preach. That's what goes on in
our generation. I feel called to preach therefore.
I'm free to preach. No, you're not free to preach
First of all, we have to determine whether or not you have a calling
You don't get to say you have a calling we get to test you
whether or not you are called We get to see whether or not
you're sounding doctrine I'll tell you as I've told you before
we funnel all of the so-called anointed prophets through our
men's meeting on Saturday night before they come into the church
and and we allowed them about two and a half minutes to prove
whether or not they are a prophet because we shut down all foolishness
in here. The moment you don't hear Reason,
rationale, a sound biblical exegetical approach to the scriptures, an
exalting of Jesus Christ as the sovereign Lord and the glory
of the scriptures. We know that you are a maniac on your own
journey, and we quickly shut you down and let you go. And
almost to a man, they come in here without being married or
having kids, and not being married and having kids that the wife
is subject to him and the children are obedient to him. Because
those are the biblical qualifications for leadership. for your church
to be healthy spiritually. Your leaders must obey God's
word and they must demonstrate that obedience first in their
own homes. The wife must love her husband. She must approve of his ways
and manners, both in terms of his giftedness to teach, but
how he lives at home. He cannot be a rank hypocrite
where in the church he's cool, but at home he's a fool. She
has no right to, as it were, perpetrate a fraud by suggesting
that he's qualified to lead by holding her peace. Long ago,
when we used to ordain elders, this is 100,000 years ago, it
don't happen today. Long ago, when we used to ordain elders,
guess what we used to do? We used to take the elders through
theological examination. Then we say, can we talk to your
wife? Because we know we're going to
get the truth right there. Can we talk to your wife? Because
see your wife gonna tell a story and she ain't even got to talk
back. All she have to do is say and then we know. Then we know. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? I just want you to understand that the allusion to leadership
is clearly laid out in the text. And the reason why our churches
are in a mess is because from the top down we are not obeying
the Word of God. And so our churches are jacked
up, our people are jacked up, our leaders are jacked up because
no one's obeying the Word of God. And what you are about to
see is a man go completely insane and then fundamentally kill himself. because he was not willing to
submit to the fact that God had disqualified him. He didn't even
have the grace to say what David said when David was in his low
air. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
See what David was saying is, Lord, if you want to take the
throne from me, cool. Just don't just don't send me to hell. See,
Saul didn't even have that much grace. Are you hearing? Are you
hearing me? When men are diabolical and led by the Antichrist spirit,
they'll tear up everything for their own glory. And unfortunately,
according to Jeremiah 531, the people love to have it so. So our churches are full-blown
Dallas churches. You'll get that in a moment.
Point number two. Point number two, the work of
a mediator in the times of trouble. the work of a mediator in the
times of trouble. What you will notice is that once the indictment
was given to kill David, that David has to flee. And in our
context, there are three persons that enter into the role of what
we call mediation. I want you to grasp this because
these two are allusions to great redemptive truth. When you are
in trouble, don't you need somebody to stand in your defense? When
you are in trouble at a level of which you know the forces
that are coming against you are greater than you have any ability
to refrain or withstand, don't you need a friend in time of
trouble? Don't you need a mediator? Now
a mediator, if you don't know, is someone that stands between
two people who are at variance and hostility towards one another.
Let me teach you a little bit on this, because this is a wonderful,
wonderful account before us. The work of a mediator is a person
who stands between two persons. Now watch this. Assuming a position
of favor with both. I want you to get this. The true
mediator is an individual who actually has favor with both
parties. You cannot be a legitimate mediator
if you are at variance with one of the two parties. You've got
to have favor with both parties to be a legitimate mediator.
Are y'all hearing me right now? So I'm defining some things so
you can get the gospel out of this in a moment. First and foremost,
then, the mediator stands between two persons, assuming a position
of favor with both. Secondly, his function is to
intercede. Intercession is a function. Mediation
is a role. When you mediate, you are taking
the position of interceding for someone. You are interceding
because you don't want the person that you care about hurt by the
other person. Am I making some sense? When
we intercede, when we stand in the gap, we see an individual
that we care about and assumedly we have favor with, we don't
want them hurt by the other person. So we intercede. That's powerful. For which the question is asked
to every Christian in this room, do you spend time interceding
for anyone? See, because everybody needs
a mediator. The question is being asked again,
as you are called to be priest, a holy priesthood to God, is
there not one person in your life? for whom you stand in the
gap between them and a holy, righteous God, or between them
and a hell-bound devil that would send their soul to hell, do you
stand in the gap for them? Do you mediate? Do you intercede? Do you plead with God for their
souls? This is the doctrine of mediation
coming up out of the text, because David, while he is a great picture
of Jesus Christ, he's also a believer, and every believer goes through
common temptations. There's no temptation that comes
upon us that is not common to man. There are times when you
and I are fleeing from trouble too. And I'm so glad that people
stand in the gap for me. Aren't you? I'm so glad that
people stand in the gap for me, that pray for me as I pray for
them. I'm confident they pray for me.
Can I tell you why? Because I pray for them. I don't
expect anyone to do something for me that I don't do for them.
And because I stand in the gap, Lord, have mercy on my brother.
Have mercy on my sister. Lord, you see their need. You
see their trouble. You see their burden. I'm saying,
Lord, you see my need. You see my troubles. You see
my burdens, Lord. That's what it means to be a
mediator. And if you aren't mediating for somebody, you're missing
an action, child of God. Am I making some sense? And so
here, David, this is remarkable. This is the other thing that's
just cool about narrative theology. If you move slow enough, you
learn rich theological truth, but it's in the smooth progression
of the historical context. It's easy to grasp. Let's first
mark the first Mediator. I call this Mediator in Jonathan
the devoted Mediator. The devoted Mediator. You can
see I got three D's, the devoted mediator, a diabolical mediator,
and a divine mediator. So let's talk quickly about the
devoted mediator. I love Jonathan. We talked about
Jonathan being a great type of the believer in his relationship
to David and a great type of Christ too. You can switch these
around depending on the context, but we see in 1 Samuel chapter
20 verse 3 and 4, David saw us, Jonathan's mediation for David. In chapter 20, notice what it
says. in verse 3 and 4 under this concept
and rubric of mediation, the devoted mediator in Jonathan,
verse 3 and 4 of chapter 20. And David swore moreover and
said, that is to Jonathan, now watch this, your father certainly
knows that I have found grace in your eyes. And he said, do
not let Jonathan know this thing lest he be grieved. Now what
is he talking about? He's talking about Jonathan's
ignorance that his daddy, Saul, wants to kill him. Now this is
so, so interesting because Jonathan has heard literally in chapter
19, daddy said kill David, right? But between chapter 19 and chapter
20, we discover Jonathan's human element. What is that human element? The man that wants to kill the
man that he loves, which is Jonathan, is his daddy. Doesn't that put
him in a quandary? He loves his father too. And
it's hard for him to believe that his father has an unmitigated
hatred for Jonathan. Remember what he pleaded to Jonathan
in chapter 19? All right, I won't kill him.
Let him come back in the house. Remember that? I didn't believe
that for a moment. Did you? I didn't believe it
for a moment. But Jonathan, in the position
that he's in, is inclined to believe that his daddy had a
change of mind, right? He's inclined to think, you know,
David, David, look, man, I know my daddy is a little nutty. I
know he's a little crazy, but he ain't all that bad. He's just
not all that bad. Can I teach you a doctrine right
here? We've already identified Saul as a type of the what? The
flesh. Is there any good thing in the
flesh? Point number two, it's something that you as a believer
have to come to learn to agree with over time. Because in your
own walk, you will negotiate with the flesh as if it's your
own daddy, hoping that somehow it works out when in fact it
never does. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Our brother Jonathan is struggling with the reality
that his daddy is reprobate. And until you and I come to understand
that our sin nature never ever does good, never ever will do
good, cannot do good. It will betray us and kill us
if we let it. If someone does not intercede
for us, our own sin nature will kill us. Am I making some sense?
So Jonathan is devoted to David, but he's struggling because he
loves his daddy. I love me some Jonathan, but
you know what Jonathan is gonna do? He's gonna die. Is that right? He's gonna die because he has
to die in order to separate himself from his daddy. And so you and
I have to die in order to be separated from our fallen nature.
Is that true? But I want you to mark what he says here in
verse 3 and 4. And so David swore him over and said unto him, Your
father certainly knows that I found grace in your eyes. He says,
Do not let Jonathan know this thing, lest he be grieved. But
truly, now watch this. But truly, as the Lord liveth,
brother, I tell you the truth, as your soul lives, Jonathan,
there is but one step between me and death. Did David know
that Saul was seeking to kill him? He said, Jonathan, there's
one step between me and death. Now watch this dramatic revelation
of David's own analysis. Watch how it impacts Jonathan.
Look at verse four. Here it is. Then said Jonathan
unto David, here it is, whatsoever your soul desires, I will even
do it for you. Do you see it? You know what
he's going to do from here on out? Mediate for David. He's
going to stand in the gap for David. Do you know what's going
to happen to Jonathan? This is bizarre. I'm just going
to tell you now. Jonathan is going to become David in the
presence of his father. And you know what his father
is going to do? Take the same javelin that he threw at David
and throw it at Jonathan. Why? Because when a believer
is one with Christ, all that Christ is, they are. and all
that they are, Christ was. So that as Jesus stated, if they
did this to me, they'll do it to you too. So you see the union
doctrine between Jonathan and David, do you not? But what I
also want you to see is the mediatorial role. As I taught our men last
night, this is crazy, you may not believe it, but I do. If
you have the mediator in your life, and there's only one mediator
between God and man, and what's his name? That's right. If you
have the mediator in your life, and you have experienced the
blessings of his mediatorial work in your life, and he's brought
you into fellowship with him, watch this now. You have the
privilege of mediating for Christ. You have the privilege of standing
in the gap for the Savior. You have the privilege in getting
in between the master and crazy fools that want to talk bad about
your Savior. You have the privilege of mediating
for Jesus Christ to whom for you He is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. He is the Son of the living God.
He is very God of very God. He's the creator of the universe.
He's the only Savior of the world. You have the right and privilege
to stand in the gap for Christ. against every assailment, every
charge, every scandal because men do hate him, don't they?
Men do twist his words. Men do mock him. Men do ridicule
him. And who's standing in the gap
for Christ? His own witnesses. His own people. And if you didn't get it, think
about our brother hanging on that cross who said, Lord, remember
me when you enter into your kingdom. And the master said, I will.
But before he asked the master to remember his covenant mercies
to him, as we learned last night, that thief stood in the gap for
Jesus. And he told that other fool thief
on the other side, this man hasn't done anything wrong. He's holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He's just, we deserve
damnation. He's righteous, we deserve to
go to hell. Was he mediating for Jesus? Was he mediating?
And when you become a true believer, your job is to mediate for your
master. he mediated for you am I making
some sense I just want you to get that you are not a true witness
if you let folk talk bad about your Savior would you let him
talk bad about your wife about you might do you might let him
talk about about your husband but see if even being a little
satirical there my point is our character is flawed is it not
it's not our character flawed if we say we love somebody and
we let somebody else talk bad about him. It's not our character
flaw. If we sit up and let somebody
talk bad about the one we say we love, we're not a mediator. We're not a mediator. More than
that, both Michael and Jonathan, even though we're getting ready
to talk about Michael next, stood in the gap for David, they could
have both been killed. Their daddy was just nutty enough
to kill both of them. Which means when you take on
the role of mediation, you are ready to die for the person you
love. Can I tell you why? Can I tell you why? Because mediation
is a covenant concept. It's a covenant concept. Show
you the gospel here. Show you the gospel here. You
will see as we wrap it up with Samuel, because Samuel will be
the third mediator, that all three parties that are mediating
for David, Jonathan, Michael, and Samuel, are all covenant
paradigms. Remember what we learned? There
are three major covenants in the Bible. The first is what?
Father-son. Is Jonathan the father-son paradigm
with his daddy Saul? Father-son. What's the next one?
King-servant. King-servant. Do we not have
a king-servant model here? What is the king-servant model?
Jonathan and David, right? Jonathan and David. And then
also with Samuel, do we not? Samuel's a servant. Right? And
then we also have now the final model, which is what? Husband-wife.
Is not Michael the husband of David? Do you see that? And what
we're getting at is covenant theology. Do you hear me? Covenant
theology teaches that we take on Christ-like patterns when
we enter into those covenant paradigms. Father-son, king-servant,
king-servant, husband-wife. Father-son, king-servant, husband-wife.
And then if we were to grab this concept that we're working through
and look at it in its larger redemptive sense, King Saul is
the king, is he not? Is he the king? He's the king.
Now there's really only one true king, is that true? And that
king is God Almighty. And as King Saul is seeking to
pour his wrath out on David, does not God's wrath hang over
the head of the whole human race? Do you see the parallelisms?
This is what we mean by deriving the gospel out of the text. There's
a wrath hanging over the head, and the solution to the wrath
is a mediator. You guys follow that, right?
There's a wrath hanging over the head of guilty sinners, and
the only solution is a mediator. is a mediator all right then
let's let's deal just a little bit with uh i'm gonna leave michael
alone let me go to my third one a divine mediator in samuel first
samuel chapter 9 verse 18 this is interesting how how the narrative
works this through and this is what we are told in verse 18
as we prepare to consider now samuel's mediation although it's
hard for you to see samuel is a mediator for david Verse 18. So David fled and escaped and
came to Samuel to Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to
him. And he said, and he and he and
Samuel went and dwelt in Naath. You know what that means? Samuel
took David and they went even further away from the Kingdom
of Saul from the home of Saul to give David some space now
watch this and it was told Saul saying behold David is at Neah
in Rama and Saul sent messengers to take David and when they saw
the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed
over them the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul and
they also began to what and when it was told Saul he sent other
messengers and they did what and And Saul sent messengers
again a third time, and they did what? Mediation! I know you don't see this, but
I do. I was rejoicing when I saw this. And this is actually moving
towards my third point. How God, in the process of mediation,
protects his people. How God, in the process of mediation,
protects his people. So let's look at it just for
a moment, progressively. David is in the house. He comes
to discover that the king wants to kill him. The person closest
to him is his what? Wife! She helps him get out the
house. Samuel helps him get way down
the road. And Jonathan is going to help
David escape altogether. Mediation is designed to remove
the guilty sinner from the wrath completely. Are you guys hearing
me? to remove the guilty sinner from
the wrath completely. There's a sense in which even
though the motive is flawed on Michael's part, I'll retain that
for when we get down the line and see how Michael gets exiled
from David's house. There's a sense in which her
motive is flawed, but her model is perfect. Her model is perfect
because it works. What does she do? She intercedes,
he gets away. So it happens here. Now what
this does for us, bringing us to our third point, Causes us
now to ask some real serious questions about what the holy
ghost is doing in this narrative David is fleeing like a bird
to the mountains as he said in another song He's fleeing from
the king's wrath He's been held by his wife He's being held by
his dear brother that loves him, but he went to the one place
where he knew he was safe He went to the prophet now he went
to the prophet because the prophet is both the judge and Prophet
and priest of the kingdom Samuel is the shifting point from the
theocratic government to the monarchial government and he
still possesses the anointing Samuel it's the shifting point
from the theocratic government to the monarchial government
and he still possesses the anointing Where does gave David go? He
goes to the one that anointed him He goes to God, but he goes
to God through Samuel Are you guys hearing me? He goes to God,
but he goes to God through Samuel. Some lessons we're gonna learn
here. So under our third point, the protection and power of God
for his what? Verses 20 through 24 began to
give us a strange picture of some bizarre language that I
wanna make sure that I capture for you and that we don't draw
wrong conclusions about it. Verse 22 says, then when he also
to Rama and came to a great well that is in Sukkah, And he asked
and said, where are Samuel and David? This is Saul. And one
said, behold, they are, they be at Neoth in Ramah. And he
went there to Neoth in Ramah and the spirit of God was upon
him also. And he went on and prophesied
until he came to Neoth in Ramah. Then look at what this man does
in verse 24. He stripped off all his clothes
and prophesied before whom? In the same manner in which his
servants did. And he laid down naked all that
day and all that night. Wherefore, they said, is Saul
among the prophets. Ladies and gentlemen, it requires
understanding how narrative theology works to know why it closes like
this. We're dealing with the monarchical
kingdom, kings. It's a secular institution. It closes out dealing
with the prophetic anointing of Samuel, who was the ruler
at that time under the judges. The two are at odds with each
other. The anointing that's residing upon Samuel has just arrested
King Saul and arrested his men. What we have in our text are
the forces of good and evil at odds. Saul is coming with his
wicked and ungodly men to do what? Take David. To do what? Kill David. And if he could,
he would have taken Samuel too. Isn't that what the text says?
He wanted to take Samuel and he wanted to take David and he
wanted to what? Kill them. Ladies and gentlemen,
this is what we call technically the Antichrist spirit. But what
happens? God intervenes. This is amazing. Samuel's an old man, still full
of the Holy Ghost, so fully invested by the Spirit of God that you'll
notice that he doesn't say a thing. He just stands there in the fullness
of his anointing, in his sagacity of wisdom and maturity, in his
comfort, knowing that God is present with him. And he watches
and he sees how God arrests these men three times. Now, in your
Bible, we talk about the recapitulation principle. So this text before
us is not describing for us the normative work of the Spirit
of God. In other words, be careful. Don't
ask yourself, Lord, would you send me your spirit so I can
act a fool, run around, strip my clothes off, prophesy, and
lay on the ground all night long naked? No. No, no, no. That is not the way the Spirit
of God behaves. That is not his character. That
is not the manifestation of the spirit and the normative fashion
in the life of those who are born again. What you and I are
facing is an enigma. We are facing an omen. We are
facing a parable of sorts, if you will, of God's judgment upon
his rebels. And in fact, the way that the
Psalms puts it, underscoring The way that the Psalm puts it,
he says, the wrath of men shall praise the Lord. Psalm 76 verse
10. Psalm 76 verse 10 says, God will
restrain men so that even the wrath of men will praise the
Lord. Is Saul now acting in a wrathful
way towards David? Is he seeking to destroy David?
Psalm 76 verse 10. Is he seeking to destroy David
and Samuel? Surely the wrath of men shall
what? Ooh, stay there for a moment.
What's happening to Saul's servants when they run up against Samuel?
They start prophesying. It happens not only once, not
only twice, but how many times? What happens when Saul decides
to bust on in into the presence and try to arrest David and Samuel? He does what? He prophesies.
Does this text speak to that? The wrath of man? So what? Praise
thee. What's going on here, children
of God? Well, this is a term in theology we've shared before.
It's called the sovereignty of God. the sovereignty of God.
In other words, evil is never depicted in the Bible as being
so out of control, so free, so loose from the reins of God's
sovereignty that God can't stop it whenever he wants to. God
can squash evil whenever he wants to. Now not only that, not only
can God just arrest evil like he's doing here, he can open
the mouth of the ungodly. He can open the mouth of the
wicked. He can open the mouth of the Antichrist like he did
Caiaphas, like he did Balaam. He's doing with Saul and demanding
that these very men who want to kill God's servants actually
praise God and actually tell truth, even though they are hell-bound
sinners. Are you guys hearing me? Stay
with me. This is very important, very, very important on a larger
theological level. Surely the wrath of men shall
praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou what? He's going
to restrain Saul from actually achieving his goal of killing
David. He will never get David. And
do you know why? Psalm 105 verse 15a says, touch
not mine anointed. Is that text coming to pass in
our historical narrative? Touch not mine anointed. Is that
what the Holy Ghost is saying to Saul and all of his servants
who are coming after David? Is not David his anointed? Didn't
God anoint David through Samuel? And here comes Saul seeking to
touch God's anointing, right? And then part B says what? Do my prophets no harm? Is the Holy Ghost telling these
fools, you better back up from my boys? That's my translation. Is that what he's saying? You
better back up from my boys right now. See, when you are gods,
Nothing can harm you if he doesn't want it to. What David is learning
in this account, again, in the process of his humility, is that
God is with him. Is God with him? God is with
him in an enormous way to take the military of Saul and to take
Saul himself and not only just stop them, but force them to
actually prophesy. Force them to actually prophesy.
We'll be done in a minute. I got one more point to make
after this. This is crazy. Point number one, the rule is
touch not mine anointed. Point number two, and do my prophets
what? Point number C, here's my question to you. What did
they prophesy? What did they prophesy? I'm gonna
give you two implications of what's taking place here. The
first prophecy is this, are you ready? David is king, like I
told you. Back in chapter 15, when I took
the kingdom away from you, in verse 26 and 27, when I rented
from you under my servant Saul, I found a man after my own heart. He will do my will. He is the
son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite of Ephrata. His name is David.
David will be my king. Decree came out of Saul's mouth. Decree. He prophesied what God
had decreed. Do you know why? You can't frustrate
God's counsel. You can't do harm or alter or
void out God's decrees. All you and I can ever do is
fulfill God's will. Am I making some sense? We had
learned this a few weeks back. A man devises his way, but God
directs his step. There's no counsel nor knowledge
against the Lord. You can't devise a mechanism
by which if you kill his servants, you can take the kingdom over.
God's letting Saul know right now, you're not gonna kill him.
In fact, you're not going to even touch him. Over the next
nine chapters, Saul is gonna be furiously seeking after David,
is he not? He won't touch David. Are you
hearing me? He won't touch David. First prophecy
then, David is king. You know what the second prophecy
is? Jesus is Lord! No man can call Jesus Lord except
by the what? Yeah, you guys better get that.
And there's a day coming. When every knee shall bow, every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Every knee. I'm talking about
the knees of humans and the knees of angels. The knees of demons
and the knees of devils. The knees of apostates and the
knees of God's saints. Everything that has knees gonna
bow down that day and call Jesus Lord. Is that true? Everything
that has knees gonna bow down and call him Lord. This is a
good study whether you like it or not. It's a great study It's amazing
amazing. All right, let's go to point
number four wrap this up I love historical narratives because
they have the rich nuggets of theological truth that are established
clearly in the New Testament And this is how you make the
corresponding factors point number four the folly of false prophets
exposed I told you earlier that what we're dealing with is an
omen, an enigmatic parable laid out in verse 24 for which you
and I, if we are wise, would be instructed. Verse 24 says
that Saul stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before Samuel
in like manner and lay down naked all that day, all that night.
And the question was raised, is Saul also among the what? And the answer is no. He's not. He just appears to be. No, he's
not. He just appears to be. Give me
10 more minutes of your time. Like people make the mistake
of saying that Balaam was saved. Balaam was not saved. Balaam
was not saved. Balaam was reprobate. Balaam
was ungodly. He loved the wages of unrighteousness.
He wasn't saved and then lost his salvation. He never had it.
He was a hireling, according to Peter. And the Lord Jesus
Christ made it very plain that the wages of Balaam sent him
to hell. And he even used that terminology
for all the present-day false prophets. They are called Balaamites.
They love the wages of unrighteousness. Balaam was never saved. Judas
Iscariot was never saved! And he got a plaque on his door
called Apostle right along with the rest of them. But he was
a hell bound sinner called the son of perdition. He was a child
of the devil all along. Are you guys hearing me? It's
very important for you to make sure you rightly divide your
work. In other words, there are clear and undeniable fruits of
conversion. What it means to be truly a child
of God. And then you have to make a distinction between what
it means to be a child of God and a professional con man in
the business of religion. Because that's what Balaam was,
and that's what Judas Iscariot was, and that's what Jonathan
Jambres was, and that's what Alexander the Coppersmith was,
and that's what a whole litany of false prophets in the Bible
warning us about in terms of their ethics and moral contrary
to the Spirit of God, which is an evidence that they don't know
God. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. A bad tree cannot
bear good fruit. This is how you shall know them,
by their fruit. Now watch this. Watch this. Why are we contemplating then
the prophetic office with the monarchical kingdom? Because
as I told you earlier, when we contemplate the monarchy, we
are contemplating the role of Messiah. And there are three
marked roles that Messiah holds with subordinate roles under
them. Do you know those roles? Prophet, priest, and what? prophet, priest, and king. Ladies
and gentlemen, who is Saul going to go after next? The priest. And he's going to kill the priest
because he is operating out of the spirit of Antichrist. Are
you guys hearing me? We have the picture of the battle
between Christ and Antichrist in our narrative. And what you
and I are told to be careful of is don't just simply accept
any kind of leadership. If that leadership is not biblically
qualified, you can expect them to rise up against Messiah at
some point and in some fashion because you only have two spirits
in the world, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. You
have the antichrist spirit and you have the true spirit of Christ.
You are very fortunate today in this kind of lesson that you're
listening to because you don't have these kind of discernment
messages taught in your churches today. And you don't have the
opportunity to work through your Old Testament, understanding
the redemptive implications critical to a Christocentric theology
like you are now. And you can be lost in the wash
of all of this confusion that goes on in our churches today
in the name of Jesus when it's filled with all sorts of anti-Christ
elements. So now the question is, is Saul
among the prophets? And I have stated a resounding
no. Why? Because he's naked first
and foremost. His nakedness describes his shame,
which is the reward for every false prophet on the last day. On the last day, Christ will
expose every man for having been a sham or been legitimate in
the preaching of the gospel. The man or the woman that never
knew Christ will be exposed to not having any righteousness
to cover their soul. And they will be just as naked
before God as Adam and Eve were when they fell in transgression
and rebellion against God. Nakedness in the Bible always
warns of being under the curse of God, separated from Christ's
righteousness. Am I making some sense? In a
sense, Saul was exposing himself. Revelation chapter 16 verse 15. Listen to the last warning in
your Bible around nakedness. This is a text that I developed
when I did the series out of Revelation 2 and 3 around the
three churches, the seven churches. Behold, Jesus is talking, I come
as a what? Blessed is he that what? And
keepeth what? Whoa. That's right. That's exactly right. Stay with
me, ladies and gentlemen. I'll give you a few more minutes.
I know you're hungry. In our culture, in our present culture,
Then our culture promotes the antithesis to what God promotes. This is why you have to know.
Please listen to me. Love not the world, neither the
things in the world, for they are not of God. He that hath
the love of the world does not have the love of the Father.
The love of the Father cannot be in us if we promote, if we
accept, if we engage in, if we are comfortable with this world
system. One of the reasons why you know
you're actually born again. Whenever you see anybody's butt
on television, it causes you to move. You know something is
wrong. Will you hear me? Will you hear
me? Whenever you see nakedness, you have what is called a conviction
in your spirit that you are engaging in something wrong right now.
Why? Because the born again believer,
his first experience with Christ is that Christ clothes him of
his nakedness. He clothes them with His righteousness. He covers His sinfulness. And that's the paradigmatic pattern
throughout the Scriptures. God clothes His children. He
clothed Adam and Eve. He clothed them. He clothed the
priests. He clothed His saints. We are
those who are clothed, not unclothed. And whenever we see nakedness,
we know we are dealing with, peering into something that is
not right for us to see. Because the Holy Ghost in you
don't want to see your nasty tail. Am I telling the truth? See,
we are in an unclean world. It's filthy. It's filthy. And it's so reprobate that it
has a harlot's forehead. In other words, it don't even
care about people seeing your nakedness. But God uses very
derogatory terms around nakedness in his prophetic word when he
warns Israel, I will cause you to go naked with your tail out
so that everybody will see it, so that they might know that
you don't have a covering in me. He did it in Isaiah chapter
20 verse 3. In Isaiah 23, when he used this
prophet Isaiah as an omen and a warning against Israel, See,
I'm so glad I'm not in the Old Testament today, because the
Lord might have me doing crazy stuff like this. I'm so thankful
I'm a New Testament preacher. The Old Testament saints had
to do some crazy stuff, didn't they? Brother Isaiah had to walk
around for three years butt naked and barefoot. And the Lord said,
like as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and what? That's
cold. Isn't that cold? But see, when
you're the Lord's servant, you just got to do what the Lord
say do. I'm so glad I'm in the New Testament. But this was a
reflection of Israel's uncleanness and rebellion against God. And
the prophet is a mediator between God and the people, is he not?
And he's speaking in the behalf of God to let the people know,
you might come to church all dressed up, dressed to the hill,
your gold and your silver and your precious stones and your
fancy outfits. But before God, you're still
naked. You're still in your sin. You're
still exposed. You don't have Christ's righteousness. And as a consequence, God has
to reject you when you are walking in this state. Am I making some
sense? Alright then, let's work through just a few more things
about Saul and we'll ask a question and we'll go home. Under the
folly of false prophets exposed, nakedness is a shame. There are
many verses underscoring that. Secondly, Saul was a lying sign
and wonder. He was a lying sign and wonder.
Was he among the prophets? No. You saw Saul twice play church. The first time is in first Samuel
chapter 10. When Samuel told Saul, I want
you to follow and go down the road. You're going to go to the
hill of God. You're going to meet a bunch of prophets and you're going
to find yourself among the prophets and God's going to change your
heart. He's going to give you another heart. you're gonna start
prophesying among the prophets. You guys remember that? That
was on his way to the throne. Now why did Samuel do that? Because
as I told you, the monarchy is a messianic office and therefore
the king is also a prophet, as David was a prophet. So Jesus
is a prophet, but also a king. So Saul had to, as it were, appear
to be among the prophets. But I want you to hear what it
says in that text. It's just amazing. 1 Samuel chapter 10, verse 6
through 12. Notice what it says. 1 Samuel
chapter 10, verse 6 through 12. Because the same question is
asked, is Saul among the prophets? It's Saul among the prophets.
Now, when somebody asks you, is he a Christian for real? Then
you know they wasn't a Christian before. Because they don't have
the legacy of Christian decorum. Folks really want to know, are
you really a Christian? And we know Saul. He's from the
family of Kish. He's a Benjamite. He's a hellraiser. How is it that he's all of a
sudden going to church? Those are good questions, aren't they?
You know why? Because we play church. And when you play church, people
see you from angles that you don't realize. And they ask the
question, can this lying, manipulating, foul-mouthed co-worker of mine
that sits in the next stall, gossiping all day long, blaspheming,
be actually saved? No. But she can play church. He can play church. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? Hear what it says. I'm in 1 Samuel
chapter I'm gonna reverse 6 through 12 because this is where Samuel
told him to do it In fact, let me start at verse 9 and it was
so that when he at verse 9 when he had turned back to go from
Samuel God gave him another what and all those what came upon
him signs We're talking about signs here not substance signs
and when they came to the hill behold a company of prophets
what a And the Spirit of God did what? See what I meant by
capitulation principles? There are times when the same
thing happens two and three times in the scripture. And now we
have to arrest those events and understand their correlating
factors as well as their distinctions. What you are seeing here is God
setting Israel up to be deceived by the very king that they wanted.
Just like the church in the latter days is deceived by the very
kind of false Christ that it wants. giving the people the
signs that they want. See, he was conditioning the
heart of the people of Israel to accept Saul based upon superficial
signs. Are you guys hearing me? I want
you to watch the language. We'll be done here in a second.
Watch this language. Verse 11. And it came to pass
when all that knew him before time saw that, behold, he prophesied,
he went to church, he got a Bible in his hand, he preaching now.
Then the people said to one another, what is this? This is the son
of Keith, man. This dude lived down in West
Oakland. I see him on the streets at three
o'clock in the morning selling bags. How he preaching today? It's all among the prophets.
And one of the same place answered and said unto him, but who is
their father? Therefore it became a what and
the proverb is this is Saul Among the prophets pull my PowerPoint
up. I'm gonna close right here teach you a truth teach you a
truth and we're going home Jesus told his disciples in all
the Old Testament has told us that many false prophets shall
arise and deceive many and Many of them will come with signs
and wonders, all lying signs and wonders, and deceive the
simple-minded. And they all rise up out of nowhere,
seemingly, and just come on the scene autonomously with these
magnificent gifts. And for a season, like a wind
blowing through, they take a whole mass of people with them. But
the question that's raised in our text forces us to ask the
question under sub-point C, Did they have a father? And what
is the answer? No, they did not have a father. They were bastards. Do you hear
me? So I'll show you a gospel truth
here. The scriptures are very clear that every true believer
is first and foremost gifted to prophesy. They all shall prophesy,
my sons and daughters. They shall all declare the word
of God. They shall all preach the gospel. Is that true? We
all have the privilege of sharing the word of God with people.
In fact, that's one of the tokens. We've been born again. He's gifted
us with the spirit and the spirit of prophecy. And for us, it's
the testimony of Jesus. Is that true? I don't give you
a little child born again. You can tell many women, Jesus
is Lord. You can tell them what the Bible says. That is prophecy.
Forget all of this high-fangled stuff about the Lord told me
to tell you this. No, prophecy is what the Bible
teaches. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And when a man or woman is born again, the Spirit of God gives
them connection with the text of Scripture so that they can
quote Scripture and understand Scripture even as a little child
and declare it for them that it's prophecy. But there is no
child of God that is without a father. Every believer has
a father. And in fact, we all have the
same father. Are you hearing me? I'm talking
about true believers. We all have the same father. Mark this
now. This is very important. The man or the woman that has
the spirit of God has the spirit of adoption within them. And
I don't have to convince you that I have a daddy. The Spirit
of God has already convinced me that I have a father. We cry,
Abba Father, Abba Father, because of the presence of God in our
life, because we've been adopted in the Beloved, because we've
been made a child of God by faith in Christ, by the power of His
Spirit. Beloved, we are now called the sons of God. Is that true?
Every believer. No believer is a bastard child
and no one can ask the question of a true believer. Does he have
a daddy? Yes, he does. His daddy is God. God Almighty. the maker of heaven
and earth he is our heavenly father and we are sons of god
through jesus christ our lord am i making some sense and in
fact when a man or woman is truly born again one of the things
we let people know first and foremost that god is our father
do you hear me god's our father god's our father and that's why
jesus said in matthew chapter 23 call no man your father on
earth For you all have one daddy, one papa, one pater, and he's
God almighty. And as such, our standing in
the world as sons of God are legitimate because we actually
have a father. And we can trace our lineage
back to God through the word and authenticate our calling
as prophets. Am I making some sense? I'm going
to say it again. We can authenticate our calling as prophets because
we can trace our lineage back through the word of God to God.
I can defend my call as a preacher. I can defend my call as a prophet.
I can defend my call as a son of God through this book. Secondly,
I can defend my call as a prophet because of all the other godly
prophets who have the same father. And when we all have the same
father, watch this now, we all talk alike. We all say the same
things. We all declare the same gospel.
We all declare the same glory. We preach the same Christ from
the same book. This is how we know we are brothers
and sisters in Christ. The man or the woman that does
not preach this book, doesn't preach Christ, doesn't have the
Father. And you have every reason to
ask them, who's your daddy? They had no father. They were
bastards. They were renegades. They were prophets. They were
what? And this is an awful warning of the religious, as we have
in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 4 through 6. Remember what the writer to
the Hebrews said? Interestingly enough, to the
very people we're dealing with, the Hebrew people. And he said,
it's impossible if you are once enlightened and have tasted of
the good things to come and have been made partaker of the heavenly
gifts and of the spirit of God to fall away to renew you to
repentance is utterly impossible. And what that means is when men
and women are brought near to the gospel, as Saul was, but
the heart remains impenitent and hostile, there's a point
at which the Spirit of God moves on away. And this happens in
people's lives today. The warning is this. Just because
you're near doesn't mean that you're in. Do you hear me? I'm going to close with this
word. for you, my brothers and sisters,
and you who are at the door but not inside. Will you hear me? Son of David! Son of David! Have mercy on me. Have mercy
on me. Amen.