to turn back in your Bibles.
First Samuel 18. And we will continue with our
message. We are in about our fifth message on the life of
David. The title of our message today,
David is in the house. Welcome to Dallas. J.R. Little Bobby, Sue Ellen, and
the whole gang of dysfunctional Saulites. who will serve to teach
us some lessons about the incongruency and the lack of compatibility
between the flesh and the spirit. The masterful hand of our sovereign
God, we may call him the undefeated chess player of human events. As I've told you before, he never
reacts. He always responds. And he's
more than two or three steps ahead of the maniacal machinations
and agendas of mankind and their selfish purposes. Our God ordains,
he rules, he overrules all of the affairs of men so that they
serve to work out God's eternal counsel everywhere in the world. The apostle put it this way,
all things are working after the counsel of his own will.
Everything. That is a major doctrinal truth
that we have to get a hold of, no matter how bad it is, no matter
how difficult it is, no matter how dark it is, doesn't matter
how perplexing it is, doesn't matter how much you don't like
it. It's all working out according to the will of God. It may grate
against your assumptions. It may challenge your presuppositions
and views, but it's all working out according to the will of
God. And the beauty of scripture, when we submit ourselves to the
narrative, is we learn that God never sweats. He never hurries. And as the old folks say, he's
always what? On time. because God is in front
of everything that takes place. Now under the clouds, it looks
a little murky, but that is only a problem for people who walk
by sight and not by faith. And David will serve as a great
model for us, not only of the superlative nature of Christ
and his condescension and humility Under uh, the duress and tribulation
and persecution of the house of saul david is in his best
days right now These are david's best days You know when we're
being humbled those are our best days When there's pressure on
both sides and on top keeping us down Those are our best days
when they keep us near the Lord and crying out to God and we
discovering that there's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Those are our best days. We don't
shine, but they're still our best days. We don't get the credit. We don't look good. We might
be running like fugitives, but those are still our best days.
And what you're going to see is how God molds a servant into
leadership position. And it's going to model for us
the condescension of Christ and the humility of Christ who took
on our sin and was highly exalted and given a name above every
name that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow.
So as we look into the Old Testament narrative, as the scripture says,
those things that were written for a time were written for our
what? that we through patience and consolation of the scriptures
might have hope. I want you to learn a number
of lessons. David is in the house now. He has been brought into
the royal family of mankind as Jesus came into the world. And
he has to deal with the jealousy and the envy and the hostility
and the rage of those who think that they should rule when in
fact God has chosen David. I'll pick up where we were last
week. Point number one in your outline, the humility and wisdom
of avoidance by the servant. the humility and wisdom of avoidance
by the servant. We marked how that when David
was brought into Saul's company by Saul's own selfish agenda,
by him seeing that David was a great warrior and by him being
opportunistic to want to use David for his own ends. Didn't
we learn that? That he took David as the prophecy
came through Samuel that a vile king will take everything you
have force you to pay taxes, take your children, take your
goods so he can blame and you can struggle. And that's the
nature of kingdoms in this world. That's even the nature of our
country as our taxes escalate. And it seems like more and more
is being taken away from us. And we wonder why, because it's
the nature of having anyone else rule over us, but God. When we choose to have a man
rule over us, God says, this is what you get. And so in this
context, we have to live in a world where people rule over us with
their own selfish agendas. That's the perplexity of life.
But David is going to teach you and me how we, as children of
God, sons of God, kings and queens of God, can live in a subservient
role and still be able to do the will of God. Is that all
right? The humility and wisdom of avoidance by the servant.
Well, there is a precarious situation that merits him avoiding something. Look at verse 11 of chapter 18.
It came to pass in verse 10, Tomorrow that the evil spirit
from God came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the
house and David played with his hand as at other times and there
was a javelin in Saul's hand and Saul cast the javelin for
he said I will smite David even to the wall with and David avoided
out of his presence twice Do you see that? Twice and then
again, if you would read over in chapter 19 verse 10, it speaks
of this event happening again It says in verse 9 and the evil
spirit from the Lord was upon Saul and he sat in his house
with his javelin in his hand and David played with his hand
you see how the author is repeating the scenario the scene and David
seeking to be a soother a comforter in his role as a musician because
that's all he is He's the sweet psalmist and he's seeking to
minister to Saul as was his first mission Remember that find me
a man that can play to ease my grief my burden my anxiety my
struggles my depression my melancholy and they brought David in because
they knew David could play well here David is playing a to no
avail. Because as you and I learned
last week, Saul is spiraling down into the abyss of spiritual
bondage. because of his rebellion against
God. The author and the narrative have already told you and me
that the Spirit of God has left Saul. I'm going to talk about
that more, not only today, but more fully next week. And that
the Spirit of God has left Saul, Saul has been left to himself.
And ladies and gentlemen, if God leaves us to ourselves, we
are a mess. And Saul is falling apart at
the seams. He's becoming more troubled in
himself. He's being filled with the stresses of leading a kingdom
without God's favor. And that is a remarkable set
of pressures that no one would want. And the text tells us the
same place that as the Spirit of God left Saul and an evil
spirit came upon him we'll see this in our second point that
the Spirit of God rested upon David and this exacerbates Saul's
situation because the very man that he has brought into his
home is bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God in his own
presence and this is killing him while David is playing the
blues to soothe his soul Saul is falling apart and realizing
that he is even more hostile and more angry than he was before. And he takes out a javelin to
thrust it at David to pin him to the wall. Ladies and gentlemen,
he wasn't trying to scare David. He was trying to kill him. The
construction in the Hebrew is with a javelin, Saul threw it. The emphasis is on him wanting
to kill David. And he does it three times. The
third time is given to us in verse 10. And Saul sought to
smite David, again, even to the wall with the javelin. Now you're
throwing hard when you're trying to lock a brother up on the wall.
Is that right? You're throwing real hard. I don't know what
he was doing, but he had to be heaving back. He had to get some
thrust in with that, didn't he? He wasn't settled with that.
That wasn't one of these things where you do that. I'm trying
to help you understand that the narrative is teaching us the
nature of enmity between the flesh and the spirit. That the
two will never ever walk in harmony and unity. There is an enmity
and hostility between the carnal man and the spiritual man. And
that enmity was seen in the life of our Lord Jesus, was it not?
Everywhere he went, the rulers sought to slay him. And so we're
seeing the persecution of the son of God being worked out in
the narrative between Saul and David. These are two kings at
battle, are they not? Watch what it says. And Saul
sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but
he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he smote the javelin
into the wall and David fled and escaped that night. Now, when we get to chapter 19,
you're going to discover that that was the last time he let
Saul do that. You know, I mean, if a brother
swing at you once, you might give him a break. If he swings
at you twice, you can know what his motive is. If you let him
swing a third time, that's your fault. Saul was intending to kill him
and David was really struggling with working it through. But
I'm going to show you how that the character of David in this
context corresponds with the character of Christ and his love
for his people, though they hated him for it. You know, you try
to hang in there as long as you can when you're in the midst
of trouble. And when you have to deal with
people that don't like you, you try to hang in there as long
as you can. You try to rationalize where you know they're just having
a bad day. That's a real rationalization here. But when the javelin is
coming straight at you three times, you got to think about
another plan. And this is not Neo in, you know,
the Matrix, where he just kind of bob and the bullet passes,
you know. No, no, no, no, no, no. The text
is teaching us that David avoided him. The Hebrew word there means
to actually take a circuit around. And the word literally means
that David put in much effort to not even be in Saul's presence. Just imagine what David had to
do when once it became clear to him that Saul was murderous
in his desires. David sought to never be in the
same room, in the same space with King Saul, short of just
abandoning his mission. He struggled because he knew
the very man that had called him into his presence was seeking
to kill him. Three points then under which
I want to call your attention under point number one, sub points,
the humility and wisdom of avoidance by the servant. There are three
things that we need to know. David didn't get killed because
it wasn't his time. You know, danger will come close
to you, but if it's not your time, you're not going anywhere.
Do you know that? And this was true for our Lord.
They sought to catch him, but he escaped many times as the
narrative said what it was not in his time. They sought to take
him, but it wasn't his time. Secondly, why was David there?
Faith says God put him there. Is that true? Did God put him
there? See, when God calls you out of
the sheepfold, and then God anoints you to be king, and then he lets
you have the greatest victory that Israel ever knew, and then
the king calls you into his presence, you have to conclude that God
put you there. So David is struggling with this
reality. I don't like my situation, but God put me here. That's a
word for some of you. I don't like my situation, but
I know God put me here. So now God's going to have to
come through just like Pastor Jesse says. He's got to come
through because he put me here. How does God put us in situations
that are so precarious and so difficult and so dangerous and
so problematic and so troublesome and expect us to be able to negotiate
it? Here's the answer. You come to
realize that God has a purpose for you being there. This is
what David would have known. This is what David would have
known. And the trials that David is going through here, as I said
before, you've got to understand what's going on. God does multiple
things at the same time. You have your larger narrative
account where God is moving David into a position of leadership.
But what he's really doing on a micro level is shaping David's
character. You got that? Because when he
puts David on the throne, David is gonna know so much more about
leadership, both in terms of character, qualifications for
leadership, and those dysfunctional characteristics of unqualified
leaders as he has to deal directly with Saul. Saul will teach David
what not to do when he gets on the throne. This is often the
blessing of being second in command. You have authority, but you're
not top dog. You get a chance to see things from your position,
but your job is to remain humble so that you can learn what first
position is about and ask God to give you help not to make
the same mistakes that first position does. Are you hearing
me? The third and final thing that
I want you to see under this first point is that when you
and I are struggling through adversaries and difficulties
and challenges, if we can, if we can, if we can, if we can
understand, and I'll be driving into my second point on that,
that I am God's servant, God has a purpose here. This is not
really about who? Me. This is really not about
me. Saints, when we default to the
situation being personal and really about us, we fail to see
what God sees. And when we do that, we will
not be able to recourse to the principle that God is the avenger
against all evil. If I'm thinking that this is
all about me, if I'm thinking that I have to preserve myself
and keep myself and defend myself, then I'm going to fail to see
how God is setting me up for something that I cannot see.
And he's really requiring me to do what? Trust him. I love
where we are right now because, as I've shared with our group
in our Psalms study, that David is the one that God had to initiate
the whole psalmity and hymnity for the worship of Israel so
that he wrote two-thirds of the Psalms. Many of the Psalms were
born out of these contexts. like Psalm 59 and Psalm 5 derived
directly from David's struggle with Saul. Can you imagine God
teaching you a song in the midst of your trouble? Yes, you can.
Can you imagine how God can take the burdens of your heart and
show you how to sing seven lines, eight lines to the Lord God Almighty
because he has kept you by his grace from acting a fool. So
what god is doing with david is teaching david how to trust
the lord This is why so many of our psalms talk about trusting
the lord. I trust it in the lord The lord
was my deliverer. The lord was my stronghold. The
lord was my rock and he was my refuge The lord kept me in the
midst of evil. This was david learning how to
trust god in the midst of the trials finally It wasn't his
time faith says god put me here. God says i'll be with you as
we'll see in a moment and then God will avenge My what? Man that takes faith Doesn't
it take faith to say god will avenge my foes? Because we don't
we just want some time to punch him in the nose Just just lord
forgive me before I do it I'm getting ready to do it I'm getting
ready to do it I know i'm wrong Everything in me wants to do
it. All right, so now this is not the Lord Jesus, this is David
now. The Lord Jesus didn't have such temptations like you and
me, but I know David did, because David knew how to fight. Don't
you think David wanted to at least once take the javelin off
the wall, throw it back, not kill him, but just show him he
was a better marksman than Saul? We're gonna see that when David
is driven into the wilderness. The tension of the conflict between
the flesh and the spirit here is designed to teach us a lot
of things if you can be patient. But Saul is getting ready to
drive David not only out of his house, but out of the kingdom
into the wilderness, which becomes another paradigm of the sufferings
of Christ. We'll get there in about three
weeks. God will avenge my foes. Is that true? God says vengeance
is mine, I will repay. Therefore, don't take on yourself
the job of wrecking pits. God knows how to do it. God knows
how to do it. Point number two. Here's the
larger reason for which David could hang in there for this
short period of time and this tenure is that the Lord was what? Yes, indeed, the Lord was with
him. Saul observed this a few times. He saw it. The text is very clear. Look with me at verse twelve
in chapter eighteen. And Saul was afraid of David
because the Lord was what? With him. And was departed from
Saul. You can see it again over in
verse fourteen. Notice what it says. And David
behaved himself wisely in all his ways and the Lord was what?
And again it's also in verse twenty-eight. Will you notice
what it says in verse twenty-eight? And Saul saw and knew that the
Lord was with David. And that Michael saw his daughter
loved him. And we'll stop right there. Three times the author
tells us that the Lord was with David. And for those of us who
know a little bit about our Bibles, we know about the auspicious
blessing of the Lord being with you. Is that true? In fact, the
narrator of scripture will simply say when he wants you to understand,
don't start crying. You know how we watch movies
and those movies get us to want to cry. Some of us get really
involved in movies. Don't we get more involved? It's
just a movie now, but we get involved in the movie, don't
we? So we need a narrator to pop up on the screen and say,
chill, she gonna get out of this. She gonna get out of this. Now
in the scriptures, it goes like this. The Lord is with him. Okay, so you don't have to worry
about David disappearing or falling out. The Lord is with him. But
I want to teach you a theological truth around that preposition.
Certain prepositions in the scripture are critical to our understanding
of the gospel, and they are critical to our assurance. Do you know
that the Bible says that God is for us? Right? Romans chapter
8. If God be for us, then who can
what? It doesn't mean that people won't
be against us, but God is for us. That preposition is critical
because it speaks to the eternal purpose of God, which he purposed
in Christ before the world began to have a people for himself,
to infallibly bring them into a state of eternal blessing with
God. God has always been for his elect. Do you believe that? Before time!
in time and for all eternity we will be able to say God was
for us. But then God is also to us. That's
another very important preposition because I might not know that
God is for me until God comes to me in the proclamation of
the gospel. And this is why we preach the
gospel everywhere that we might bring to men and women a knowledge
of God. So the gospel has to be brought
to me that I might know that God is what? For me. Is that
true? See, there are folks who struggle in their world because
they've never heard the gospel. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. Until the gospel
comes to us, we don't know that God is for us. But it has to
do more than come to us. The gospel has to penetrate our
lives in a saving way. It has to come in the power of
the gospel to break through your cranium and take residence in
your heart, snatch out that old funky heart, put in a new heart,
and write God's laws on it so you see the glory of God in Christ
from within. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses
4 through 6 where the light shines out of darkness shining in our
hearts Causing us to see the glory of the Lord in the face
of Jesus Christ We're talking about Christ in you the hope
of glory. Is that good? I So when a believer
knows that Christ is in them, we know then that Christ has
taken residence in our life for a saving purpose. But here's
the preposition I want you to grasp. Christ is not only in
you, the hope of glory, that's the incorruptible seed of the
gospel. First John 3 verse 9, for those of you who are truly
born again, but Christ is with you. with you. I love this concept
because it doesn't only mean in terms of proximity, it means
in terms of purpose. When God is with you, it means
he has a purpose for your life. Look at point number two. The
Lord was with David. And he was with David so that
he might accomplish three things, which is true of David, is true
of Joseph, is true of Daniel, is true of Paul, is true of Christ,
and is true of every one of God's believer. When God is with you,
wisdom is the consequence of you being divinely guided by
God. When God's with you, he gives
you wisdom. When God's with you, he gives
you Wisdom and wisdom is the ability to make right choices
based upon knowledge Wisdom biblically is the fear of the Lord that
drives you to seek God's counsel So that you don't make mistakes
by leaning to your own understanding when God's with you He restrains
you from taking the situation into your own hands when you're
conscious that he's with you Are you following me? Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto your own understanding.
That verse only activates itself when you are sure that God is
with you. When you're not sure that God is with you, you never
read that verse. You never quote that verse. You get about the
business of solving your own problems. But when you know God
is with you, you can wait on the Lord to give you discernment
as to which way to go. Am I telling the truth? Now watch
David. Now watch David. Psalm number
25, verse 9. And I could actually quote all
Psalms around these three concepts that I'm underscoring in the
idea of what it means for the Lord to be with you. But David
says in Psalm 25 verse 9, something that he learned by experience
and every believer has available to them this experience if you
want it. Now you can walk in your own strength and you will
never know the evidence of God being with you when you do that.
I'm going to show you one example of that. I'm going to show you
just one today. Or you can trust the Lord and say, Lord, take
me by the hand and leave me. And if you leave me, I'll be
led. I don't care where I go. As long as you go with me, holding
my hand, I'm OK. Watch how David puts it in Psalm
25, verse 9. David says over in verse 8, good
and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he will teach sinners
in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment. Do you see
that? The meek, will he what? Guide
in judgment. Watch this. And the meek, will
he what? Teach his ways. The word I want
you to mark is the word meek. It's the word meek I want you
to mark. Because the meek man or meek woman is a person who
has truly learned how to trust God. So as to avert trusting
in themselves. What does it mean to be meek?
It means to voluntarily submit to the yoke of the authority
that's over you. It means to recognize that while
you may have intrinsic powers by which to do things, because
you have an owner, you're going to submit to that owner. I.E. when Jesus says, come unto me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,
take my yoke upon you. You know what he was saying?
Become meek enough to let me lead your life. Now every horse
is powerful. Every donkey is powerful. Every
mule is powerful. Which one you want to be? You
can be the horse, you can be the donkey, or you can be the
mule. I'll take the first two. Okay? Because the mule is a little
bit more cantankerous and inclined to try to break out from the
bridle and the yoke. But when you and I learn how
to submit to the yoke, what it means is we are constrained by
God's will. to allow God to nudge us in the
direction that he wants us to go. It is a wonderful thing to
see a powerful animal like a horse or a donkey submit to his master
like a little child. Is that true? But don't you ever
doubt for a moment that that animal has enough power, humanly
speaking, to kill his master. But meekness allows him to submit.
And what David has discovered is even though he had intrinsic
gifts and powers, the best thing for him to do was to submit to
the Lord and say, Lord, you lead me. I am not going to resort
to my own strength. I'm going to let you lead me
through this battle with Saul. And this is what you and I are
going to see. And of course, speaking about meekness, there
are two other men that we are considering now, are we not?
Moses was a meek man, was he not? And the meekest of all men
was who? Christ. Because the concept of
meekness is the concept of being a servant. And I told you this,
this is where we are in our narrative. While David is anointed to be
king, he's not yet appointed. His role is servant. Like our
master's role when he came was to be a what? A servant. The
son of man came not to be ministered to, but to be a what? Servant.
And that's really what I want to press home for the people
of God at grace. You will miss your blessing if
you think that you're here to be served and not to serve. Do
you understand that? Your role in mine is to find
out what God has kept us in this world to do and grace us to serve
because that's where Christ is glorified. That's where Christ
is glorified, particularly right now in this dispensation of his
manifestation through his people. We are royal servants as David
has to remain a royal servant. And so wisdom is the consequence
of divine guidance. It helps you make right choices.
I think you would agree with me when you and I actually make
the right choice. We thank God, don't we? Because
we know, we know that wasn't me. I would mess this thing up
so many times. God, I'm so glad you did it for
me this time. Even our heart quakes sometimes
when God gets us through a trial. Our heart quakes because we know
what kind of impulses were driving us to do the wrong thing. And
God kept us back. And that's meekness. I'm talking
to somebody. Point number two. Here it is.
He is there to do what? Protect you from the evil one. I love it. I love it. That construction is literal
in the Greek. It is the prayer that our Lord taught the disciples
when they said, Lord, teach us how to pray. Our Father who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. After all, you are the king and
you have a kingdom. And I've been called to that
kingdom. I want that kingdom to come. I want that kingdom
to be done in my life. I want it to rule my life. I'm
trusting you for my daily bread. I'm trusting you to deliver me
from my debts. I'm trusting you to grace me
to forgive others so I can walk in the grace of God that has
been bestowed upon me. But most of all, deliver me from
evil. Deliver me from the evil one
who is lurking to destroy every one of God's elect. He's behind
every door, every corner in terms of his machinations and intentions
to get you. He wants you to stumble. He wants
you to fall. He wants you to fail. He wants
you to keep, he wants to keep you from doing God's will. That's
his goal. And if you are not waking up
every day saying, Lord, lead me not into temptation. Don't
lead me into temptation. And the construction there means
to don't give me over to the temptation that's coming because
we're tempted. But don't don't give me over
to the temptation. This is what I've discovered.
This may not be true of you, but it's true of me. If God puts
me in a trial and leaves me there, I'm falling before I even get
in the trial. I don't want to go through no
trials. Am I making some sense? But if I do go through them,
I want him to deliver me from the evil one. And 1st John chapter
5 verse 18 through 20 don't go there it's very plain. He that
is born of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth
him not. I've got that promise. He that is born of God keepeth
himself and that wicked one toucheth him not. It's first speaking
to the keeping power of Christ for his elect, but secondly,
it's speaking to the keeping power of God's elect who trust
Christ. Here's what I'm getting at. Here's
what I'm getting at. If you learn how to trust him in everything,
down to the smallest matters, God will keep you. If you get
proud, you can expect to happen to you what happened to Hezekiah. And it's in the book, I think,
of 2 Chronicles. Hezekiah had gotten sick. Remember that? And God was saying,
come on, let's go home, brother. Let's go home. And he said, no,
I want to stay because I've been enjoying life down here. And
that's how a lot of Christians are. A lot of Christians enjoy
life down here. And Hezekiah had got enamored
with the massive blessing of being the king in Israel. He
was a son of David. He was one in the line of Jesus
Christ. But he asked God, could he live
a little longer? And God gave him how many years?
Fifteen years. Boy got up off that sick bed
and started acting a fool. read it for yourself in second
chronicles 36 in your own time not now and the text says this
very plainly but hezekiah lifted up himself in the presence of
the lord and when the babylonians came in to spy out the kingdom
he opened the doors wide to them without any discretion without
any discernment without any understanding what their objectives were and
you know what the text says and god left him god left Hezekiah
left him. The word literally means to forsake,
to abandon him. You know what that means when
we read into that text more carefully? The Spirit of God had been already
telling Hezekiah, slow down. You're pushing the envelope,
boy. I made you king. I caused you to be born in the
line of David. You didn't pick your mama and your daddy. You
didn't establish the blessings in your life. You have no reason
to boast about being the king Yes, you have been the king for
many decades now and you've been a major blessing to israel But
all that you have I gave you you have no reason as king to
think you can do whatever you want to This is a word for some
of us Because god's been good to us But god wants you to understand
he runs your life And remarkably, sometimes it only takes one mistake,
particularly when you're in a major leadership position, to lose
it all. God left him. God left him for
a season. And this is why we teach the
total depravity of man. That mankind has no power in
himself to do the right thing. that God has to keep you in order
for you to make one right choice and to do one right thing. Am
I making some sense? If God backs up off of us, every choice we
make will be a mistake. And he allowed it for his servant
to humble Hezekiah, to humble him because he was too proud.
And so it's very important for you to understand the blessing
of God being with us. He's with us to give us wisdom
and the consequences of his divine guidance so that we can Make
right choices. He is with us to protect us from
the evil. And finally, he's given to us
to advance his purpose in our life. Do you believe that? Now,
this here raises a number of questions for the average Christian.
And that is this. Why did God save you? I mean,
you individually, you're part of the body at large in some
tangible way, I suppose. But why did God save you? Why
are you here right now? Why are you even at this very
moment under this message hearing a very pointed message about
your calling and purpose right now? What is God's purpose in
your life uniquely? The God who has named every star
in the universe of the hundreds and billions of galaxies that
he's made and never got tired of naming them and named you
before the world began called you, saved you, quickened you,
and placed you right here, right now. What is God's purpose for
your life? Why did God preserve you up to
this very moment? What are you here for? Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? This is very important because
I think that Christians walk around in a cloud. ignorant of
the commission and mission to which God has called them. So
I'm pressing home right now concept of the kingdom of God on Friday
night. If you're not here, get them because we are part of a
kingdom. We have a king and we have a
constitution and we have bylaws and we have promises and we have
blessings and we have a number of things in the commonwealth
of the kingdom that are designed to provide for us everything
necessary for life and godliness. But as people of the kingdom,
We have a mission, do we not? And the reason why God is with
you is to advance his purpose in your life. Give you one example.
Although there are many, Joseph, we're learning about brother
Joseph in Sunday school right now. Joseph was called to be
second in command over Egypt under Pharaoh, was he not? And
Joseph was called as a young man, about 17 years old to go
into this wonderful position of exaltation. But you guys know
his journey, don't you? Was his journey a mess? His journey
was a mess. But here's what the narrative
says, are you ready? And God was with him. And do you know
what Joseph was able to say when God actually got him to his position?
When his brothers came, he says, hey, God sent me in front of
you. You didn't send me, God sent
me. That's called sovereignty. When you understand the sovereignty
of God, that's how you talk. I didn't go in my own strength.
Human powers didn't take me there. Ultimately, God, according to
his counsel, governed everything to get me to the place where
God wants me to be. And then do you know what Joseph
said? I'm here so that you might be
preserved alive even to this day. Can I share with you? All
those years from 17 to the throne, God had taught David, not David,
but Joseph, why God was with him. And every one of us ought
to know why God is with us. We ought to know our purpose
in life. We ought to know the objective for which God called
us. We ought not to be sleepwalking into the kingdom, because one
day you're going to bump into Jesus. Because we all got to
meet him. Don't we got to meet him one
day? Don't we got? I don't care who you think you are. You're
not going to come through the back side of the kingdom and get you
a little condo way 50 miles away. No, you're coming through the
front door. And guess who you got to meet? You got to meet the
king at the front door. You got to meet the king. And
there's an accountability that's going to take place. This is
why we're going to learn about rewards in the new year. So we
can understand that God called you And He has purposed you. This is you and me too. So He
gives this confidence of Him being in our life in order to
advance His purpose in our life. Psalm 31, verse 3. Let's work with this last one.
Psalm 31. This is how David puts it. And
then we'll go on to our last couple of points. Psalm 31. Here's
how David puts it. And David knew very well that
God was with him. In Psalm 31, I'm going to start
at verses 1 and read all the way through verse five. Show you the redemptive connotation
here too. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
what? Told you David learned. Did he learn? Did he learn? Did
the boy learn? Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in your righteousness. Bow down your ear to hear me.
Deliver me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for a
house of defense. To do what? That brother needed
him some God. Did he need some God? Verse three,
for you are my rock, my fortress. Therefore, for your name's sake,
what? Lead me and what? There it is. Pull me out of the net that they've
laid privately for me, for you are my strength. Into your hands
do I commit my spirit. Doesn't it sound like Christ?
You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth. And the whole of
the Psalms is around David's dependence upon God to lead him
where he needs to be. Point number three then, point
number three. Let's look at this. This is quite interesting. We're
going back now to the narrative and we have to deal with the
diabolical J.R. Ewing for a second. I told you
we are in the scenes of Dallas. Now I'm dating myself because
you young people say, why pastor keep talking about Dallas, Texas?
That's because you guys were not around in the years when
this was one of the most prolific soap operas in the world. And some of us enjoyed it because
we just like looking at evil dudes running the show for a
minute. Then some of us in our unsafe state love drama. We just
love drama. We love the diabolical chicks
in the movie, like Sue Ellen and the rest of them, hooking
and crooking. and pulling the house down because
most of our homes were like that. Am I telling the truth? You may
not have been rich, but you were just as vile, wicked, and manipulative. Your uncles, your aunties, your
cousins, your brothers, and your sisters. You can see JR in all
of them. You can see the naive ones, too.
The innocent ones who just never got it. You tried to tell him,
but the cousin kept ripping him off. Now David is in the midst
of this, and characters are about to emerge to show you how God
is dividing the kingdom and giving David favor with Saul's household. And this is a picture of how
Christ, for God's sake, is able to draw sinners to himself. although
they are part of Saul's household, like you and I were in Adam.
Oh yeah, we are diabolical by nature. Our daddy is JR, Adam
one. We got hook and crook family
members. And if we could, we would have taken the throne.
But God in his mercy allowed a brother named David to show
up in the family. And he gave us grace to see him
for who he was. And we fell in love with him.
Jonathan loved David. Micah loved David, and his other
bride, as we're gonna see, who was Saul's daughter, also loved
David. Saul's servants loved David.
All of the people of the kingdom at this time are loving on David. This is remarkable. Look what
the text says in verse 25 of 1 Samuel 18. Here's what Saul
begins to do. I'm at verse 25, and Saul said,
thus shall you say to David, the king desires not a dowry,
but 104 skins of the Philistines to be avenged of the king's enemy.
What's he wanting to do? Give David his daughter. But
Saul thought to make David do what? Fall by the hand of the
Philistines. Now I want you to mark this.
In fact, I better back up at verse 19. But it came to pass
at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given
to David because remember Saul told David, if you kill the Philistines,
I'll give you my daughter. And David went out and did the
same thing. Saul decided not to give David Merab. And then
it reads in verse 20, and Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David.
And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. And Saul said, I'll
give him her, that she may be a snare unto him, that the hand
of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore, Saul said to
David, you shall this day be my son-in-law in the twain. That is, at the same time. And
so we read in verse 25, the intent for which Saul wanted to do it,
that he might cause David to fall by the hand of the what?
Isn't that terrible? Now watch this. And when his
servants told David these words, not the latter part, but that
he should marry Micah, I want you to mark how David responds.
David, when Saul's servant told David these words, it pleased
David well to be the king's son-in-law. Do you see that? And the days
were not expired. That is the days in which David
would have to do this deed in order to obtain his bride. I
want you to mark this. David was more than willing to
please the king. You notice that David doesn't
have any desire in his heart to hurt the king. He actually
wants the kingdom to be established and Saul's rule to advance. And
the idea that he would be Saul's son-in-law, while it is humbling
to David, he already said, who am I and who is my father's house
that you should make me your son-in-law, which is another
allusion to the lowly nature of Christ, right? Christ was
born in Bethlehem. In Nazareth, he grew up. Very
poverty stricken situation. This is the motif of our master.
He was poor, right? And he took that position very
well. So David is taking the position. Who am I that you should
do it? But David was more than glad to do it. And this idea
of a bride being given to the son by the king is a motif in
scripture. Point number three. The price
of the bride of Christ motif. Now a motif is simply a design
or pattern that actually underscores a principle in a repetitive way.
That's what we mean by a motif. It's a sort of pattern. And in
art, they would make motifs, images, icons. And where you
see these same images or icons, they are called motifs. In the
Bible, motifs would be patterns like the slaying of a lamb. So
you saw lambs slain in the Genesis, in the Exodus, in the Leviticus
account. Here we have the marriage motif, which is the motif I want
you to capture now, because there is a redemptive truth to be underscored
here. You remember when David asked
the question back before he fought the Philistine? He says, what
shall be done for the man that kills this uncircumcised Philistine? And do you remember what everybody
said? The king will make you his son-in-law, give you his
daughter, and he will give you wealth untold, and you won't
have to pay what? Taxes. Y'all better get that.
That's heaven. That's heaven right there. No
taxes. Y'all missed that chapter 17.
Go back there in your own time. No taxes. And I taught you the
redemptive truth there. I hinted at it. I'll develop
it a little bit more fully now. And again, motifs run through
the scriptures as patterns. When you and I, that's some jazzy
music, but it's got to stop. When you and I, when you and
I are brought into the kingdom of God, the last major covenant
paradigm is that of what? The husband and the wife. The
first major paradigm is what? Father, son. The second one is
what? King, servant. Please learn these.
These are your major covenant paradigms by which you understand
scripture and understand your world. One of the problems in
our present church age is this. Christians are not knowledgeable
enough about their Bibles to understand why a biblical worldview
is so antithetical to our present worldview system. And because
Christians do not take their Bible seriously to learn the
larger framework of a biblical worldview, we compromise in so
many areas of biblical truth because we don't understand that
God set up frameworks from the beginning that are inviolable.
When God set up the marriage paradigm in the beginning, he
gave us the definition for marriage and he didn't mean for anybody
to change it. Do you hear me? And that paradigm
runs all the way through scripture and it ends in the book of Revelation.
And it tells us when God creates a new heaven and a new earth,
that's the way it's going to be. The bride of Christ with
Christ, the Father, the Holy Ghost and the angels running
a new universe. So while man is down here corrupting
and twisting God's models of government, God's obedient church
is going to always do it God's way so that it can have God's
blessing because it sees God's picture. Am I making some sense?
Well, here goes another one, and this is going to hurt a little
bit, brothers. It's going to hurt a little bit, but it's meant
to. In the Bible, the concept of marriage is very precious
to God. And the concept of marriage is
so precious to God that it always has involved in it a pattern
of suffering and death as the price paid for the union of the
two. Can I get into this for a minute?
It's gonna hurt, but I'm gonna get into it, okay? I have to
because we're so jacked up in our present culture with the
kind of petty peasantry we employ in relationships and getting
married that we are vacuous of God's wisdom and God's view of
marriage. Will you mark that what Saul
did was tell David, I want 104 skins of the Philistines. All
right, for those of you who don't like war movies, I know that's
tough. Understand in that culture, they were at war. And war has
ugly scenarios to them. To obtain 104 skins is to kill
old brothers and take, y'all know what I'm talking about,
and put it in a bag. Bring it to the king. You better
calm down and get this because there's redemptive truth You
got to get this swallow your pride because you and I know
how to get into other gory stuff for skin Ain't nothing but the
excess hangage off of the reproductive organ of the male, right? There
is a typology there that has to be comprehended because the
reason you're saved is because Christ was cut off and And he
was that one seed, incorruptible seed that God had to cut off,
circumcise. And we were circumcised with
the circumcision of Christ in order that we might live with
Christ when he rose again from the dead. Am I making sense?
And this is why one of the early patterns of the kingdom, as you
learned on Friday, was what? Circumcision. In the patriarchal
model, God said, circumcise, cut it off, cut it off, cut it
off. Even in the biological makeup, the structure of our anatomy,
Taught us that our sinful nature would send us to hell if it doesn't
get cut off Our sinful nature would send us to hell So in the
destruction of the Philistines and bringing those four skins
what David was typifying was the killing of the flesh Which
the New Testament says must continue to occur in our lives Because
the flesh left against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
Can I keep talking? I See, and if you walk according to the
flesh, you'll die. Am I making some sense? If you yield to the
flesh, you'll die. Saul is going to die by the Philistines.
I told you this two weeks ago. Goliath is nothing but Saul on
what? Steroids. Remarkable. What is Saul doing?
Saul is throwing a spear at David three times. Remember what David
said to Goliath? You come after me with a sword
and a what? Spear. David had to deal with
Goliath's spear and he had to deal with Saul's spear because
they both are fleshly men in opposition to the kingdom. He
had to deal with it without, and then he had to deal with
it in the church. Are you hearing what I'm saying? As Christ also
had to deal with both the Jews and the Gentiles seeking to kill
him. So see, you want to be taught.
You don't want to avoid being taught. Here's the gospel. Are
you ready? God meant for every union between
a man and a woman to take place with a view of that marriage
being so precious in his sight and so costly in his sight that
the man would be willing to pay whatever price was necessary
for his bride. Think about the heroic nature
of David to marry Merab and to marry Micah, a hundred foreskins. You know what that means? He
had to kill a hundred brothers for that. Do you know what that
means? He put his life in danger for the woman. Is that not what
Christ did for us? Did he love us enough to put
himself in the midst of danger, to fight the battles of hell
and sin to redeem us? Did he not? Did he not prove
his love to us that he would lay down his life? Those are
the four points in your outline. The pattern of purchasing the
bride. That's Genesis 2, 21 through 23. You remember what God said
about Adam? Adam, it's not good for you to
be alone. I'll make a helper for you. And God didn't look
across the earth and try to find a woman that would hang out with
Adam. He put Adam into a what? Deep sleep. And that's a metaphor
of death. Particularly for the believer
because our death is temporary He's gonna bring us out of it
and it's a picture of the sufferings of Christ and out of that death
He took aside from Adam and built a woman and brought her to him
the price that Adam had to pay for his bride was death typologically
The second pattern is in Genesis chapter 29 18 27 and 28. You
don't have to go there I know a brother that had to work 14
years for his wife. I Man, that's a long time for
a sister, isn't it? He worked seven years for Rachel. Do you know why? Because he loved
her. Because he loved her. That's
all the scripture says. What is God teaching? That we
are not to get married on a whim. We're not to get married on some
type of whimsical, emotional bent or some kind of pressured
situation by which we are seeking to save face or get ourselves
out of a precarious situation. It must always be based on love,
the kind of love that is sacrificial in nature and points to Christ. Can I ask a question then? Can
I ask a question? Brothers, is she worth it? That sister looked at me a little
crazy, but I know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking
about. I want to nail you to the wall
and help you understand that when we think in a secular way,
we diminish God's glory in the context of marriage. Brothers,
is she worth it? Is she worth 14 years? Hard labor. Is she worth God? engaging in
the first spiritual operation of laying you down, putting you
to sleep, and taking from your own body to build a woman that's
compatible to you, opposite of you, corresponding to you, to
help you do what you can't do by yourself. Is she worth it? Is she worth that? Is that woman
all that she is to be for you so that you are willing to lay
down your life for her? Is she the kind of woman Are
you ready? As the Proverbs puts it, she
will do you good all the days of your life, and you will never
ever have to worry about her speaking bad about you or doing
you harm at any time. Are you willing to lay down your
life for that kind of woman? See what I'm getting at? So what
happens in marriages, you know what happens? We fail to understand
the criterion from a biblical perspective, and as a consequence,
when the trials come, we don't have that kind of foundation.
You know what kind of sister Christ wants? Are you ready? He wants a ride or die check.
Didn't we learn that sisters? He wants a ride or die check.
You better get this now. The bride of Christ is a sister
that's going to roll with him come hell or high water because
the price he paid was worth rolling with Jesus. When you think about Him who
loved us and gave Himself for us, how He left glory, came into
this world, assumed a human nature, dealt with all the heat that
He dealt with, the hell that He went through just to have
a bride for Himself. Isn't it worth it to respond
in kind to the lover of your soul if He laid down His life
for you? Can't you lay down your life
for Him since you are already more than conquerors through
Him that loved you? And if the church doesn't recover
this superlative model of marriage, our marriages will always be
a mess because the world is intentionally committed in destroying this
model. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
Can I show you what David did? David called. David called. Saul said, give me a hundred. Brother David went out and got
200. Man, the brother went out and got 200. Do you know what
that means typologically? That the love of God typified
by David in the heart of Christ for his elect is so massive that
he goes far beyond what is necessary to secure his relationship with
you because he loves you. That's David. That's why I told
you I'll roll with David any day. We can play music together. We can thug together. We can
worship together. David's a cool brother, isn't
he? And see, truth be told, some of y'all sisters know, you need
a brother that can, you know, play music a little bit, but
thug it up a little bit when we need to thug it up. Right,
because we're going to help keep the kingdom in order. Because
it's all for the glory of God. Is it for the glory of God? Is
it for the glory of God? Is it for the glory of God? I'm
speaking spiritually now. You know that, right? I'm speaking
spiritually. all right all right let me go
to my fourth point and wrap it up and so this is not hard to
comprehend that at this point david is serving as a great model
of the the pure innocency of jesus christ verse 18 again we
remark how david responds when saul says in verse 17 and saul
said to david behold my elder daughter merib Her will I give
to thee, to wife. Only be thou valiant for me and
fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, let not my hand
be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines. I'll deal
with that more next week. I just want you to see all of
the characters in this movie. And I want you to see the character
of David. The immovable, unchangeable humility and servanthood status
of our David. the innocency of heart, not to
even read into Saul's propositions anything malevolent or dishonest. Although it was right there.
That when the proposition to become the son-in-law was given
to him, he was so humble that he couldn't believe that it was
actually given to him. And yet, he was anointed to be
king, wasn't he? So here's what David was doing.
He was holding two realities in his heart. He was holding
two realities. He was holding the reality of
the prophecy. The reality of the prophecy.
Samuel had said, you're going to be king. He held that, but
he didn't know how it was going to be worked out. It's one thing
to have the promise. It's another thing to see how
that promise works itself out on a practical level and how
you and I have to maintain our lot and keep our perspective
while it's working itself out so that we don't start manipulating
things. And then when he begins to see
how God moved him from the sheepfold to the military, into Saul's
army, now into Saul's house to give him Saul's daughters, David's
blown away. See, now are we not blown away
when God shows his goodness to us? When God is doing things
in our life that we know we don't deserve, we didn't earn, we can't
even find anything as to why God would do that to us, God
is just good to us like that? Aren't we pinching ourselves
saying the Lord is good? The Lord is good. Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord, for your goodness in my life. And that's true.
That's very true. And David gets here and he's
amazed. And I want you to see verse 18,
here it is, as we close it down. David said unto Saul, who am
I? And what is my life or my father's
family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king? Do you see it? He earnestly felt
like he wasn't worthy of it. And this is the right attitude
to have. When God gives you a blessing or puts you in a place where
he prospers you or increases your position and status and
influence, you have to know that it was an act of grace. You didn't
earn that. You didn't earn that. So point
number four, the innocency, zeal, and honor of the king to be. Three things in closing. It's
an undeserved appreciation that he acknowledges. You see that.
Secondly, a sincere honor and delight to be in the family.
Thirdly, a greater than required zeal demonstrated. Crazy! The Lord Jesus is all in this. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ
is the second person of the triune Godhead? And I'm not speaking
in mere abstract theological terms. He is God the Son. That He created the universe,
that He is the Word made flesh dwelling among us, that He came
into this universe to dwell among mankind, not out of a mere compelling
on the part of His Father to do it reluctantly? Do you know
Jesus loves to be with sinners? Do you know Christ loves to dwell
among men? I was daily my Father's delight. And my delight was with the sons
of men. I want you to get that picture.
The son of God took on a human nature forever because he loves
hanging out with us. Write it down, write it down.
Jesus loves hanging out with me. Christ loves hanging out
with me. He loves hanging out. He's glad
to be part of Adam's family. He's glad to be part of Adam's
family. Oh, this is good. We get into
all kinds of theological nuances about being the chosen, the elect,
and brought out of Adam's family into Christ's family. But here,
watch this. I want you to get this now. It is Adam's humanity
that Christ saved. Because just as we see our picture
of being in Saul 1, we are there, are we not? That we had to come
out of him in order to get into Christ? Because we're going to
see down the line, every one of us is a Mephibosheth. But my granddaddy is Saul, and
I act like him sometimes. I'm so glad that David showed
up in the house. I'm so glad he came into this
world. I'm so glad that he manifested his father's glory. I'm so glad
that he loved to eat and drink with sinners and publicans, aren't
you? I'm so glad that he laid down
his life for his bride, who are made up of harlots and publicans
and tax collectors and dope fiends and crooks and alcoholics and
fornicators and adulterers and idolaters and rank hell-bound
sinners. See, to me, that's the gospel.
That's the gospel. See, down the line, when David
is running around in the wilderness because Saul is going to go after
him, David gonna be hiding in a cave called a dewlap. And guess
who gonna come to David? All the broke people, all of
the distressed people, all of the discontented people, all
of the vagabonds, all the crazy... David gonna have an army of crooks
and they gonna do the will of God. Do you see the picture? Crooks gonna do the will of God.
Thugs gonna do the will of God. They're gonna have pitchforks
and rakes and hammers. Nobody know war, but they wanna
be with David. Why? Because they're gonna see
him in his lowliest state, as Jesus was, meek and lowly, riding
upon a foal and the foal of an ass. And they're gonna recognize
that he's the son of the living God. Son of David, Son of David,
have mercy on me. Amen.