Again, let's open the second
hour with the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Let's
all stand together. The hymn that's on the back of
your bulletin. For unto us a child is born,
to us a son is given. The government shall rest on
him, the anointed one from heaven. His name is wonderful Counselor,
the mighty God is He. The everlasting Father and the
humble Prince of Peace. The increase of His government
and peace shall never end. reign on David's ancient throne
as ruler of all men. Upheld with justice, righteousness,
forever his reign shall last. The zeal of the Lord God most
high will bring these things to pass. Please be seated. Good morning. For our call of
worship, we're gonna be looking at, we're gonna read Psalm 34. Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. Humble, the humble shall hear
and therefore be glad. The humble is glad because our
boss is only in the Lord, the Lord alone. Oh magnify the Lord
with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord
and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They look to him and were lightning
and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord
heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps
round about them that fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusts
in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints,
for there is no one to them that fear him. The young lions do
lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not
want any good thing." We will not lack any good thing. We'll
be blessed by him and all his spiritual blessings. Come, you
children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. This is where we learn the fear
of the Lord from God himself. What man is he that desires life
and that loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue
from evil and your lips from guile. Depart from evil and do
good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous. and his ears are open to their
cry. What a promise do we have here. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil and cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. The righteous cry and the Lord
hears and delivers them from all of the troubles. The Lord
is near to them that are of broken heart and saves such as be of
a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. but the Lord delivers him out of them all. And I think this is why we have
many afflictions is because the Lord wants to deliver us and
he wants us to look to him for deliverance. He keeps all his
bones, not one of them is broken. Remember, remembering our Lord
Jesus Christ's prophecy here regarding his bones not being
broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and
they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeems
the soul of his servants, of his elect, and none of them that
trust in him shall be desolate. Father God, we come before you
this morning in the righteousness and in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, thanking you, Father, for your many, many blessings,
many spiritual blessings that are all found in Christ. Among
those blessings is to be here, to listen to your gospel, to
listen to your word, Father. But we are in great need, Father,
because we are sinners. We need your Holy Spirit to be
both with Greg, with Pastor Greg, and also with us, to be able
to be enlightened and to be able to see Christ more clearly, Father. We also pray likewise to all
the other churches that preach the gospel, Father, that your
gospel may be clear, the message may be clear, and that all honor
and glory will be of Christ, Father, and Christ alone. In
his name we pray, amen. Number 36 in the Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymnal. Let's stand together again. Behold my soul the love of God,
behold the grace most free. Before all worlds his purpose
stood, his heart was fixed on me. Elected by eternal love, the
covenant firm and sure, the triune God agreed in love, salvation
to secure. ? My soul was given to the Son
? He promised to redeem ? By blood and righteousness His own
? He would my soul reclaim ? In the due time Emmanuel came ?
To live and die ? He lives today and bears my name
? Christ is my surety ? In love he sent his spirit down ? Who
gave me life and grace ? He drew me and I followed on ? My savior
to embrace Now I rejoice in covenant love, amazing grace I sing. I now am conquered by his love,
my Savior is my King. Please be seated. Last line of that hymn, my savior
is my king. I believe that truth will help
us to understand this text this morning from 1 Samuel chapter
19, 1 Samuel chapter 19. Remembering that we are made
of dust and knowing that we are slow of heart to believe, our
Lord is full of mercy and of wisdom to tell us over and over
and over again what he has done to save us in Christ. In Philippians chapter three,
verse one, the apostle Paul in writing to the church at Philippi
says, I write the same thing unto you, which he says to me
is not grievous, but to you, it is safe. Paul says, I'm not grieved by
telling you the same thing over and over and over again. And
the safety that you have, and that
word safe means to be convinced, the conviction that you have
is because of the repetition of this message. Proverbs chapter two, the Lord
tells us to search for wisdom as a hid treasure. We know that
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is not only the key that opens
the treasure chest of God's word, but he himself is the treasure. He's the message. And so wherever
we go in God's word, we must look for him. And the Lord will confirm to
us again the glorious hope of our salvation in the person and
accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see in these
Old Testament types a picture of the gospel. And we're gonna
see that again with Saul being a jealous king, David having
a decree sent out by the king to kill him, and Jonathan interceding
with his father Saul to save the life of David. Can you see
the gospel in that? We serve a God who is a jealous
God. The scripture says his name is
jealous. Now though Saul's jealousy was irrational and sinful, it
does not remove the fact that our God is a jealous God. And a decree has gone out from
him. The soul that sinneth must surely die. And the king's son Our Jonathan,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has gone before the king and he has spoken
to his father on our behalf and restoration comes. The cause
of our separation from God, yes, is sin, but it is really the
jealousy of God. The cure is the intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you need an intercessor? Do
you need an advocate? Do you need one who can stand
in your stead and speak to the king, his father, and restore the conclusion of
the matter you're going to see from our text is the restoration
of the relationship between Saul, the king, and David. David's name means beloved. And how many times we see in
God's Word where the children of God are referred to as the
beloved. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
one. Colossians chapter one. You can hold your finger there
and in our text we'll get to it in a moment. Colossians chapter
1. Look at verse 26. Even the mystery, great is the mystery of godliness. Christ was manifested in the
flesh. The Son of God has come into
the world. The mystery of the gospel is hid from the natural
mind. It is also hid in the scriptures. And you and I are dependent upon
the Spirit of God to open the eyes of our understanding and
reveal Christ to us. It wasn't until the coming of
the, you see, we interpret everything in the Old Testament in light
of the New Testament. And more particularly, in light
of the cross. We look at these Old Testament
types and pictures and we see them now. The Old Testament believers never
would have seen what we're gonna see this morning in 1 Samuel
chapter 19. It was hid, it was a mystery.
But now the key to the mystery has come. The treasure chest has been opened.
Look at verse 20, 26 again. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to the
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. So when we go to God's word,
we're always looking for Christ. In hopes that the Lord Jesus
Christ. And his face would shine in our
hearts to the glory of God and the salvation of our souls. Old Testament saints would have
read this story that we're about to read. and seen God's providence
and God's protection and gloried in the fact that
it was the Lord's purpose to preserve David and to make him
king. But only now, in light of the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the mystery that was hid for
generations revealed. And I'm so thankful for that.
And I always, we go to God's word, Lord, open the eyes of
my understanding. Lord, reveal Christ to me. We
don't study these stories for any other reason, but to have
the Lord Jesus Christ revealed. In Job chapter 33, Job lamenting
over his condition cries out and says, oh, if I
had an interpreter. And then he says, one among a
thousand. He's talking about someone that
could interpret these things for him. Then he would be gracious to
me. And then he would deliver me
from going down into the pit. That's the end result of God
interpreting his word and revealing Christ to us is to keep us from
going down in the pit. And then Job said this, I have
found a ransom. I have found an intercessor.
I have found an advocate. God's word has been interpreted
now. And the Lord has spoken by his
word and by his spirit to my heart and revealed to me his
son. I need an intercessor. I've offended
the king of kings. I love it in Luke chapter 24
after the resurrection when the Lord met with the disciples in
the upper room and the scripture says, and he opened to them the
scriptures that they might understand the Word of God. If we don't
see Christ and his work of redemption in a passage of scripture, we've
not understood the scriptures. Christ is all and he is in all. Saul was afraid of David Saul
was jealous of David. And all of Saul's rage and resentment
was rooted in Saul's sin. But that does not change the
fact that you and I worship a God who is jealous. Jealous for his glory. Jealous
for his righteousness. Jealous for his justice. A God
who must punish sin. Those who have been made to know
that our God is this way know that they need an intercessor.
They know that they cannot approach a holy God in their sinful state. They know they need an advocate
with the Father. They know they need a Jonathan
who can speak to his father and appease his wrath, to plead their case before God,
one in whom they can find acceptance, one who is able himself to satisfy
God's justice and God's righteousness and reconcile us to God. That is your need and that is
my need. The scripture says of the unbeliever,
there is no fear of God before their eyes. And the best, clearest way to understand the
fear of God is the fear of having to stand in the presence of a
holy God without an intercessor. without an advocate, without
a righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to find a hiding place, a safe place while the Lord Jesus
Christ does our work of redemption for us. Now, with all that being
said, let's read these verses together, and I hope that the
Lord will open our understanding and show us the glory of Christ
in this passage. Verse 1 of 1 Samuel 19, and Saul
spake to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they
should kill David. A decree has gone out from the
king. death to David. The king had
the authority to issue such a decree. No one could question. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted
much in David. Here's the cause of our salvation,
brethren. It's the love of God. He's loved
us with an everlasting love. It's the first cause of everything
else that God's done. The original cause, the first
cause is God's love. He delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David saying,
saw my father speaketh to kill thee. Aren't you thankful and I'm hopeful
right now that the Spirit of God is speaking to our hearts
and that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ said, and they
will hear my voice and they will follow me. That Jonathan is speaking
to us and warning us. He's warning us right now that
we need an intercessor. We need an advocate. We need
a sin bearer. We need a substitute. The king
has issued a decree. Saul, my father, seeketh to kill
thee. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
take heed to thyself until the morning and abide in a secret
place and hide thyself. Oh, hide thyself in Christ. a
secret place, a safe place, until the rising of the sun, until
the noonday rises, hide in Christ. And I'm going to go speak to
my father on your behalf. And I will go out and stand beside
my father. David couldn't stand beside Saul,
but Jonathan could. in the field where thou art,
and I will commune with my Father of thee. And what I see, I will
tell thee." Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
the Word of God said, I speak not of my own. I tell you what
my Father said. When the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
to our hearts, He's giving us the very word of God from his
heavenly father. And Jonathan spake good of David
unto Saul. Now the rest of this we must
understand in light of our union with Christ. Because that's the
only ground upon which the Lord Jesus can speak to his father
on our behalf. These things are not true of
us as they were of David in the flesh. They are true of us as
they are true of Christ. He's the one that got the victory
over the Philistines. He's the one who never did the
father any harm. Jonathan now is speaking to David,
speaking to Saul of David. and said unto him, let not the
king sin against his servant against David, because he hath
not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to
thee word very good. For he did put his life in his
hand and slew the Philistine, and the Lord brought a great
salvation for all Israel. Thou saw'st it and did rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin
against innocent blood to slay David without a cause? And Saul,
the king, hearkened unto the voice of his son, Jonathan. And Saul swear, as the Lord liveth,
he shall not be slain. He's found a ransom. He's been
delivered from the pit. And Jonathan called David. And
Jonathan showed him all these things. And Jonathan brought
David to Saul. Oh, how we need the Lord Jesus
Christ to bring us into the presence of our heavenly father. Every
time we go before the throne of grace, yes, we go with confidence,
but not in ourselves, but in Christ. And we pray in his name. Praying in the name of the Lord
Jesus is saying, Father, I can only come into thy presence because
of him. Jonathan called David and Jonathan
showed him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to
Saul and he, David, was in Saul's presence as in times past. Restoration. Turn to me to Exodus chapter
20. There's a glorious truth about our God that the natural
man does not believe. Only by grace and only by the
revelation of God's Word and God's Spirit will we believe
this. The cause of the death penalty. The decree of the king, yes,
is sin. Our sin has separated us from
our God. And the soul that sins shall
surely die. But the real cause is the jealousy
of God. The jealousy of God. Because
that's what sin has offended. Look at Exodus chapter 20 at
verse five. Thou shall not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Saul was
jealous of David. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
34. Exodus 34. Look with me, if you will, at
verse 12. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. but you shall
destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down
their groves. Oh, how oftentimes you and I
have committed spiritual idolatry by trying to find our comfort
and our hope, our satisfaction and our peace somewhere outside
of Christ. This is what the Lord's forbidding.
It's called sin. For thou shalt worship no other
God for the Lord whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. I will not give my glory to another. And the very issue of sin goes
all the way back to the garden. When Satan tempted Eve by saying
to her, God does not want you to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil because he knows in the day in which you eat of
it you will be like God. Is that not the root cause of
all of our sin problems? I'll be in control, I know better
than God. I'm going to have it my way.
It is rebellion. It is insurrection. It is high
treason against a holy God. And our God is a jealous God. He's jealous for His holiness.
He's jealous for His justice. He's jealous for His righteousness.
His holiness demands justice. He must punish sin. He can, according
to His own Word, by no means clear the guilty. Here's the problem, isn't it?
There's only one solution. Only one solution. No other name
has been given under heaven among men whereby you must be saved.
Jonathan must go to Saul. The Lord Jesus Christ must go
and stand beside his heavenly father and plead our cause. That's exactly what he did. The
intercession of the Son of God is what his coming into this
world was all about. Turn with me to 1st John chapter
2, 1st John chapter 1, 1st John chapter 1. You see, the natural man does not believe that God's a
holy God. They don't believe that he's
just. They don't believe that he's righteous. They don't believe
that he's jealous. They have fashioned a God in
their own imagination that is altogether like themselves. They think, well, if my children
disobey me, rebel against me, I'm not going to kill them for
it. I'm going to forgive them. Well, there's only one problem
with that analogy. You're not holy. You're not holy. God is. God
cannot in any way overlook sin. It is an affront to his holiness.
But the natural man doesn't believe that. He thinks, well, God loves
me and He's just going to forgive me. He cannot love us without
satisfying His holy justice. And that is what happened on
Calvary's cross. When God the Father was pleased
to bruise His Son, He poured out the full wrath of His justice
on His darling Son and put Him to death as a penalty for sin. And God looked at him and saw
the travail of his soul and God said, now I'm satisfied. Now I'm satisfied. Nothing more
required. Nothing less can satisfy. Look at 1 John 1 at verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the truth
is not in us. We say, well, you know, yeah,
it's... My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he
is the propitiation. Now, we don't use that word much
anymore. But to be made propitious is
to put out the fire of wrath. That's what we see a picture
of at Mount Carmel. That water quenched the fire. The fire lapped up the water
and the water quenched the fire. There's no more fire. Propitiation. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world. Look at chapter four in this
same passage, or this same book, chapter four, and look with me
at verse 10. Hearing His love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Saul was filled with rage, he
was filled with wrath, he was filled with jealousy. He determined
to kill David and Jonathan was David's propitiation. Jonathan spoke to his father
and put out the fire. Isaiah chapter 59 verse 16 says,
he found no man, speaking of God the Father, he found no man
fit for the task and so he did it himself. God could find no man fit for
the task except Christ. Christ could find no man fit
for the task except himself. He did it himself. Psalm 85 says that mercy. Yes, God delights in showing
mercy and he is a God filled with mercy. But he's also a God
of truth. Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and justice have
kissed each other. Where did that happen? Happened
at the cross, didn't it? Happened at the cross. When the
Lord Jesus Christ went to his father, made an offering himself
to his father, stood in our stead at the side of his father and
pleaded the cause of his people, he became our intercessor. Can't intercede for ourselves.
We can't offer to God anything that's going to appease his wrath,
or satisfy his justice, or establish his righteousness? Only Christ
can do that. Go back with me to our text. If the cause of our problem is
the jealousy of God, and it is, And the cure for that problem
is the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the only
cure. Now we have in our text the conclusion
of the matter. And here it is. Look with me
at verse 7. At the end of verse 7, Jonathan
brought David to Saul and he David was in his, Saul's presence
as in times past. Reconciliation, restoration. What was David's relationship
with Saul in times past? Well, look back with me to chapter
16. Chapter 16, here's what Jonathan restored. Chapter 16 at verse 21. And David came to Saul and stood
before him. And he, Saul, loved him greatly. And he, David, became Saul's
armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse saying,
let David, I pray, stand before me. for he hath found favor in
my sight. That's what we've been restored
to by the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are now
in the presence of God as before. Before sin, Adam had fellowship with God.
He walked with him in the cool of the day. He communed with
God without fear, without fear. It was sin that brought separation.
It was sin that caused Adam to hide. It was sin that brought
fear. Adam, why are you hiding? And
why do you say you're naked? Have you eaten of the tree? Of
course he had. And that's why he's ashamed and
that's why he's naked and that's why he's trying to hide from
God. The fall came and all was lost.
The fellowship was broken. The friendship was now enmity. Love was now wrath and hatred. Separation came as a result of
sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to restore. restore what Adam had and so
much more. So much more. Turn with me to
Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Look at verse 19. For it pleased the father that
in the son in Christ should all fullness dwell. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled."
Oh, here's our hope. It is a glorious gospel story,
isn't it? It's what Christ did. He went
to our Heavenly Father and through the blood that he shed at Calvary's
cross, He satisfied God's justice. He established righteousness. And we are in the presence of
the King as we were before. As we were before. And yet so
much better. So much better. Adam knew that
God was the creator. Adam knew that he was sovereign.
Adam knew that he was glorious. Adam knew that he was kind. Adam enjoyed his fellowship with
God. Adam knew nothing of mercy. He
really didn't understand the depths of love. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and gave his son. No greater love hath no man than
this. They lay down his life. The love
of God was not demonstrated in all of its fullness until the
cross. The holiness of God was not demonstrated in all its fullness
until the cross, the righteousness of God. What am I saying? All
the glorious attributes of God are on full display at Calvary's
cross and we have so much more revealed to us of his glory and
of his grace as a result of the fall than Adam ever had before
the fall. when the scripture says he was
restored as he was before. Turn with me to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2 and look with me at verse 13,
but now we who were alienated, we who
had a death sentence written by the king against us, but now
as a result of the king's son going and interceding for us. Now in Christ Jesus, you who
were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace who hath made both one. and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in the ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man,
and so making peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby
and came and preached peace to you which were far off and to
them that were nigh for through him we both have access by one
spirit unto the father now therefore You are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and with the
household of God. Oh, we have a merciful and faithful
high priest who has made intercession for the sins of his people. Paradise has been restored. The full display of His glory
is going to be made known. What we have now, Adam was under a covenant of
law. In the day in which you do this,
you're going to die. And now, as a result of the Lord
Jesus going before His Father and interceding on our behalf,
We have the hope of knowing I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me shall never die. Shall never die. Death has been
conquered, the grave has been opened. How much more we have now than
Adam ever knew. How much more. That's really what we learn from
the story of the book of Job. Job's latter end. You know, people read the book
of Job and they say, well, God was rewarding Job with material things. You
know, he had more children and more wealth and more cattle at
the end than he had at the beginning. As wealthy as he was at the beginning?
No, no. That's not the story. Job's latter end was infinitely
better than his former glory. and so it will be with all of
the people of God. Our latter end, as a result of
the King's Son interceding on our behalf, will far exceed,
far exceed anything that we may have suffered in this life. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8 and I close Romans chapter 8. Verse 17, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon, and I
remind you again, brethren, This word reckon is not like we use
it in South and we say, well, you know, I reckon so, maybe
it will be, maybe it won't be. No, this is dead reckoning. This
means it's sure. And what's Paul saying? He said,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed
in us. And Jonathan brought David to
Saul and David was in the king's presence as in times past. Our heavenly father, thank you
for thy dear son, our intercessor, Thank you, Lord, for the success
of his work. For his namesake, we ask for
your forgiveness of our sin. And might we have the hope of
knowing that we will stand in thy presence. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 352, let's stand together. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. ? While the nearer waters roll
? ? While the tempest still is high ? ? Hide me, O my Savior,
hide ? ? Till the storm of life is past ? ? Safe into the haven
kind ? ? O receive my soul at last ? Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
all my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want. I find. Raise the fallen, cheer
the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. ? False and full of sin I am
? Thou art full of truth and grace ? Plenteous grace with
Thee is found ? Grace to cover all my sin ? Let the healing
streams abound ? Make and keep me pure within Thou of life the
fountain art, freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within
my heart, rise to all eternity.