verse 8 1st Samuel 19 8 this
is be our text of course tonight so kind of get an idea in your
head of the of what's going on here then you remember the first
eight verses we looked at last time where Jonathan we saw Jonathan
as Christ and Jonathan as us and David as Christ and David
is us and how that Jonathan conspired to protect David from his father
and then verse 8 and there was war again and David went out
and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter
and they fled from him and the evil spirit from the Lord was
upon Saul as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand
and David played with his hand 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. Saul also sent messengers under
David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning. And
Michael, David's wife, told him, saying, if thou save not thy
life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain. So Michael let David
down through a window and he went and fled and escaped. And
Michael took an image and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow
of goat's hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is
sick. And Saul sent the messengers
again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that
I may slay him. And when the messengers were
come in, behold, there was an image in the bed with a pillow
of goat's hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michael, Why
hast thou deceived me so? and sent away mine enemy, that
he is escaped. And Michael answered Saul, he
said unto me, let me go, why should I kill thee? So David
fled and escaped, and came to Samuel, to Ramah, and told him
all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt
in Nao. That's a key verse right there,
verse 18. And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naoth
in Ramah. 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 prophesied. And when it was told Saul, he
sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul
sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then went he also to Ramah, and
came to a great well, that is, in Siku. And he asked and said,
Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be
at Naoth in Ramah. And he went thither to Naoth
in Ramah, and the Spirit of God was upon him also. And he went
on and prophesied until he came to Naoth in Ramah. And he stripped
off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner,
and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore,
they say, is Saul also among the prophets. Let's pray together. Our gracious Father and great
God, may we look into your word, Lord, again tonight as you've
brought us here together to hear from you, to learn of you, Lord.
You've commanded us very graciously to take your yoke upon you and
learn of you. And you've given us the desire,
Lord, to do that. And we would learn of thee tonight
and rest. We would find rest unto our souls
in our Savior tonight. Encourage us, Lord, feed us,
build us up in the faith. May Christ be to us all that
he is, which is all. May we find in him this very
night an actual experience, Lord, find in him our comfort and our
peace and our very life. And may it be to the praise and
honor of his great name. In that name we pray, amen. And there was war again. And that phrase, the opening
phrase of this passage is a very telling commentary on human nature. There was war again. Because
you see, not only was there war again with the Philistines, but
there was war again in the heart of Saul. War again. After he swore, he promised that
David would not be killed, he repented, so called. You know
that word is used in the scripture in different ways. Repented.
He repented in a sense. His son made him realize what
a horrible thing it is to kill David. He's done nothing but
good. He's never done anything but good to you. He's behaved himself wisely.
He's submitted to your authority. He's never threatened, he's never
done anything to threaten your throne or to even be disrespectful
at all to you. What in the world are you doing
trying to kill him? And Saul He said, you're right. And he swore he will not be killed.
I just, I don't know what I was thinking, you know. And now he's
talking to his daughter in our text tonight, in the same chapter. And says, you've let my, you've
conspired to let my enemy go. Enemy? David was nothing but
a friend. Nothing but a friend to Saul
in every way. And not only just a friendly,
but what a friend. What a benefit he had been to
Saul. Saul would have already been,
there would have already been mutiny against Saul. He would
have been dethroned in disgrace if it wasn't for David. Because
Saul was a disaster. And everybody knew that he was. So this is a telling phrase. There was war again. In the heart
there was enmity again, there was conflict again in the heart
of Saul who represents our nature, represents our flesh, represents
us ascending the throne and rejecting God as king. This is religious
man making a decision for Jesus, making things right with God,
and then before long though it's war again. They'll come down,
they'll dedicate their lives to God, and then they'll rededicate
their lives to God every six months or so, but it's going
to be war again. It's going to be war again. Man
is at war with God by nature, and we want to kill him. People
don't realize that. That's exactly what sin is. It
is hatred of God and constant desire to murder him. Again,
revealed when he put himself in our hands, what did we do?
We did what we did in the garden. In effect, we murdered God. We killed God. And that's what
we'd do again if he came down here and submitted himself into
our hands again. We'd kill him again. I saw somebody
holding up a sign. Literally, holding up a sign
that said, if Jesus comes back, let's kill him again. I saw that
on the news. And I knew that that's what people
think. That's what they do. And then somebody will get up
behind the pulpit and say, what a horrible thing that is. You
know, Jesus went about doing good. He never did anything,
you know, evil or offensive to anybody as far as hurting anybody. He never did anything but good.
Why would you think that of him? Why would you feel that way? And you know, the Lord himself,
he said, Which of these good works are you going to stone
me? Why are you calling me enemy without a cause? And then people
will feel sorry for Jesus and they'll dedicate their lives
again. They'll rededicate them again. But sooner or later it's
always war again. We try to kill him again. Paul
has called us on that. We realize that's what sinners
are doing when they reject the gospel. Paul's talking about
that in Hebrews chapter 6 and in that context of people despising
the gospel, rejecting the word of God, rejecting the will of
God, rejecting the way of God. He says in Hebrews 6.4, it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened. Oh, they've
made decisions for Jesus and they've dedicated themselves.
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the
powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away. And
they will, if he doesn't say, if he doesn't give them a new
heart. If they shall fall away, it's
impossible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh. And put him to
an open shame. He said in another place, you're
trampling under your feet his precious blood when you talk
about how good you are before God. And recommend yourself to
God by your own works. You're counting the very blood
of Christ as an unclean thing. And David pictures Christ in
that he is God's anointed king here in every passage we read
in 1st Samuel, he's the one that God has blessed with wisdom. He took, Saul didn't have much
common sense to begin with, and what little he had that God had
given him for a while, for the good of his people, he took it
away, he left him. But boy, he gave David great
wisdom, didn't he? Skill in war, and in just faith. David said that with his armor
bearer, he said, let's just go up and let's go face the Philistines.
Maybe God will do something for us. Why are we sitting here and dying?
They're going to kill us. He had great courage and faith
and success in everything that he did. The more Saul tried to
defeat him, the more he won, the more exalted he was in the
eyes of the people that loved him. and how he pictures our Savior.
He's the very wisdom of God himself. And he set his face like a flint
to accomplish the work that the Father sent him to do. He never
flinched. He was courageous and bold. And he believed and loved his Father
and served his Father unfailingly. And he did it as David did, for
the glory of God, only perfectly. David's just a picture. David's
just a shadow. Christ is the one who cast the
shadow. And he accomplished everything
he came to do, just like David was successful even when he was
opposed. The more he was opposed, the
more successful he was. The more God used the evil of
those around him to accomplish his purpose and to glorify. And
that's Christ. The more his enemies sought to
kill him and defame him, and finally he submitted himself
into the hands of wicked men and they crucified and slew him.
That just accomplished his greatest glory. He accomplished his greatest
glory and used them as pawns in the accomplishment of it.
And we see that in David's life here. And so David, though wise and
bold and successful and all that, he was despised and rejected
as king. And so was our Lord. But anointed
by God, anointed by God, but not recognized or obeyed by man. But look at something else in
this passage of scripture, that how clearly we see and gloriously
we see the great sovereignty of our God. in controlling every
aspect of everything that happened in this passage. Who sent the
evil spirit unto Saul? The Lord did. The Lord caused
that. Who caused a skilled warrior,
Saul? Saul wasn't too shabby. He slayed
his thousands. But who caused him to be completely
unable to spear a man sitting in the same room with him? Probably
not far away. He's playing the harp for Saul. But Saul couldn't spear him that
close. That's the hand of God. Who arranged
everything so that David could escape Saul's messengers? Or
should I say assassins? That's what they were. Who, when
they came to kill David, put his spirit upon them and caused
them to prophesy instead. That was kind of strange, wasn't
it, reading that. Three sets of hit men go to kill
David. They end up prophesying. They
end up rejoicing in the Lord. They got caught up in the worship
of God somehow. I don't understand exactly what
happened there. But let me ask you this. And
Saul himself, same thing. Is it a comfort to you to know
that the God who loves you and has saved you is so utterly in
control of everything? Do you ever get tired of seeing
that in the scriptures? That's our comfort. That which
infuriates religion the most comforts me the most. I'm so
glad he's on the throne. I'm so glad it's not up to me,
aren't you? Boy, that's a comfort. He's in control of everything.
The one who shed his precious blood for you sits on the throne. Do you have anybody trying to
kill you tonight? Is there anybody in this world
tonight whose sole purpose seems to be to put you in your grave?
That's pretty much, do you think I'm exaggerating David's situation
here? Saul lived, all he thought about was killing David. At this
point. You got anybody like that? You
got somebody trying to kill you? No? Whatever you're going through
right now is not quite that bad? Will you admit that? I gotta
admit that. It worries me, it keeps me up
at night. It ain't that bad though. It ain't that bad. And if it
was, it'd be the Lord. If it was that bad, it would
be your Lord. Perfectly orchestrating every
move, every thought even, for your good and His glory. This religious world likes to
say, I've heard it so many times throughout my life, when somebody
dies or something bad happens to you or even might happen,
you know, They love to say, they'll come up to you, you know, and
get sentimental. And look, I'm not being unappreciative
of that, but people love to say, it's going to be alright. And
I always wonder, how do you know? Those can be the emptiest words
ever spoken. You realize that? Have you ever
heard somebody say that it was just empty? How do you know it's
going to be alright? If you don't know the Lord Jesus
Christ, you don't have any right to say that. You have no right
to say that. But I can tell you tonight from
this pulpit, without fear of reasonable contradiction, I can
stand before God and tell you tonight, if you are His, if you
belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, it's going to be alright. Everything
is going to be alright. And I'm real glad to be able
to say that. The more Saul tried to destroy
David, the more David is exalted. And Saul is doing everything
he can to keep David off of the throne. That's the thing. That
was the sticking point. You remember? He said, what can
he have but the throne itself? What more can he have but the
very throne? The very crown. And that's why
he began to eye David and hate David and plot against David.
and everything he does to keep David off the throne. God is
using that to groom David for the throne. What about this prophesying?
Let's talk about that for a second, because as I said, that was kind
of strange. Why would the Lord do that? Well, I can't answer
that. It made them ask, is Saul also among the prophets? In other
words, is Saul a believer too? You know Saul, he's you know,
nobody and look everything about Saul is not recorded in the scripture
But there's enough to know he was not a godly man and everybody
knew that I'm sure better than even the scripture Reveals it
everybody that knew him personally They knew that and they're saying
it's all among the prophets all prophesy really Saul worshiping
God Saul's a believer, too And some say, some of the commentators
say that that was a, they said that in a mocking way. You know,
they weren't really wondering, they're saying that in effect
saying, yeah right, Saul. I tend to believe that's the
attitude in which that question was asked. But we could maybe
ask that question, you know, is Saul a believer then? He's
prophesying? Why would God have him, could
he be an unbeliever and prophesy? Well of course he could, Judas
did. Judas walked with the Lord Jesus and with the other eleven,
and I suspect if he had been preaching heresy that probably
would have been discovered pretty early on, don't you think, and
they would have run him off. But he walked with them to the
very end and fooled everybody except the Lord. And so Saul prophesied, but that
didn't change his nature any more than preaching the gospel
changed Judas' nature. It was temporary. The Lord used
it. The Lord used Saul. He raised
him up for a purpose. And then when he got done with
him, he threw him away. That's what he said about Pharaoh. For the same purpose have I raised
you up. That I might show my power in
you. That I might show everybody my wrath. against those who defy
me and my grace toward my people and letting them go despite you. So it's all a matter of fooling
some people. It's all among the prophets,
unless they were indeed asking that sarcastically. But it didn't fool God. God's
just using him. So that's what it was. We don't
understand exactly what happened there, but we know God did it.
And God did it for David. And David is Christ here. God
does everything he does for the glory of his son. The king's
making a marriage for his son. He that honoreth not the son,
honoreth not the father. So what about this evil spirit
from the Lord too? Let's talk about that for a second
and then we'll see some Some just simple basic, there's no
surprises in this text. It's just beautiful to see the
sovereignty of God and bringing about his purpose in exalting
his son, that we see in David, to the throne. But what about
this evil spirit from the Lord? Was that an actual demon possession
that took place? It says that Satan entered into
Judas Iscariot. Was it Satan entering into him?
I don't know for sure. As we've seen in the scripture,
that's not always the case when an evil spirit, you know, that
could be just a spirit of depression or great sorrow that would come
over him. Was it both? Maybe that is what
it was, but it appeared to everybody else, well Saul's depressed again,
you know, he's got He's got issues, he's manic-depressive, they didn't
have that phrase back then, but people, you know, we've got all
kinds of names for conditions like that now. But is that what
it looked like to everybody else? Well, he's just depressed again,
he's in one of his, you know, funks, being in a funk, you know. But is that, does Satan have
something to do with that? Maybe, maybe it's both. I don't
know for sure. The Lord hadn't revealed that,
but what we do, what he did reveal is that it was of him. He's the
one that sent it. That's what we need to know.
You know, if I know that God is on the throne, I don't need
a whole lot of other questions answered, do you? That's kind
of enough. You know, it's good, everything
that God is pleased to reveal is wonderful, but you know, if
he just told us this, if he told us the gospel, that you know
I sent my son to die in the place of my sheep and every one of
them are saved and everyone is brought to repentance and faith
in him everybody he died for all that the father gave me shall
come to me if we see the definite successful victorious redemption
of sinners by Christ and then he said this I'm on the throne
and I'm running everything and it's all going to be fine I'd
kind of be enough with it Sometimes that has to be enough
and it is. It is. So I don't understand
all about that. I don't understand exactly what
happened when they prophesied. Did God give them the ability
to see the future? A lot of times prophecy had to
do with the future back then because Christ hadn't come yet.
So a lot of important revelation from God had to do with the future
then. Maybe that was had something I don't know but I know the Lord
did it and I know why he did it. He did it for his glory and
he did it for the good of his sheep David and me and you if
you know him and that makes me real glad. It says in verse 18
and in three places it says David fled and escaped. David fled
and escaped and this is not just this chapter this mentions it
three times I believe just in this chapter and that's not the
first time that we see that. Saul tried to spear him to the
wall a couple of times before this. And he fled and escaped. So we see that a lot about David.
He fled and escaped. And this reminds us of how often
they tried to take our Lord. We see Christ in this too, don't
we? But they couldn't. They tried to kill him too, but
they couldn't do it. Couldn't get it done. David was
under divine protection. And he's a picture of Christ
in that. They tried to throw our Savior off a cliff in Luke
chapter 4. But it says in verse 30 of that
chapter, he passing through the midst of them went his way. He
went his way. Here's a mob of people trying
to throw him off a cliff and it sounds like he's just taking
a stroll. He went his way. That's our Savior. That didn't
mean anything to him. That's no threat to him. He came
down here to accomplish a purpose and he's going to accomplish
it and no one can stay his hand for saying to him, what doest
thou? In John 8.59 it says they took
up stones to stone him. But it says he hid himself and
passed through the midst of them. He passed right through them,
through the middle of the crowd. And they couldn't touch him. Because he hid himself in John
7 verse 30. It says they sought to take him
but no man laid hands on him Why not because his hour was
not yet come As soon as his appointed hour came then they grabbed him
they got a hold of him, but before that you're not touching me We worship a sovereign a powerful,
omnipotent sovereign. He does as he pleases, when he
pleases, with whom he pleases. You know what popped into my
head is that that's my favorite thing about him. But how could
you even say that though? Everything about him is my favorite
thing about him, his love, how could you? How could you choose
all of his glorious acts? But you know what? I couldn't
be gladder that he is on the throne. He is the sovereign.
You don't touch him unless he allows it. The woman with the
issue of blood couldn't have touched him unless he allowed
it. Nobody could take his life from
him. And you know what? Nobody can take yours either. He's just as sovereign over your
life as he was over his own. No weapon formed against you
will prosper. Doesn't that apply to that javelin
that Saul had? No weapon formed against you
shall prosper. I'm sure as far as Saul was concerned
that javelin had David's name on it. It's not going to get
it done. It's not going to be successful.
Our Lord told Simon Peter, he said, Satan hath desired thee. He's come for you. He's after
you. He's determined to sift you as
wheat, but he's not going to get it done. He's not going to
be able to make it happen because I'm your intercessor. I'm your
great high priest. I'm your shepherd. It's not going
to work out for you. It's going to work out for you. He's not going to be allowed.
A lion and a bear may come to take one of the sheep. You know
what's going to happen? Our David is going to deliver us out of
their mouth. That's what's going to happen. And put us right back
down in those green pastures, walking beside the still waters,
preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Boy, if we can't rejoice tonight,
something wrong with us. Well, there is something wrong
with us. But even though there is something wrong with us, I
pray he'll give us a little joy tonight. Contemplating his greatness,
his power, and his love for us. Michael comes up with this plan
of deception. And in verse 17, she just flat
out lied, didn't she? She said, Saul said, you're my
daughter. What are you doing? My enemy,
you helped my enemy escape. And she said, well, he said to
me, let me go. Why should I kill you? In other
words, I'm going to kill you if you don't. And I don't want
to kill you, so just let me go. She told her dad that David threatened
to kill her if she didn't help him escape. And that was a lie. So the Lord used even that against
his enemies and the enemies of his people. Even the sins. It's a sin to lie. But God's
in control of that too. He uses that for his glory too.
Religion likes to picture God as trying to rescue everyone
from the lies of the devil. No. How does that reconcile,
you know? with this scripture listen to
this 2nd Thessalonians 2 11 and for this cause God shall send
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie God's trying
to rescue you from the lies of the devil maybe he is and maybe
he ain't maybe he's using the lies of the devil to send you
strong delusion that you should believe a lie It is given unto
some to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To others
it is not. And God used even a lie and deception
here for his glory and for the good of David. And he did it that they all might
be damned. That's not the God you're going
to hear about in most so-called churches. God shall send them
strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might
be damned who believe not the gospel, the truth, but have pleasure
in unrighteousness. You reject his gospel at your
imminent and eternal peril. But I don't want to stop reading
there. Next verse there in 2 Thessalonians. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. They're
going to believe a lie because God's going to send them strong
religion. But God chose you from the beginning to salvation through
belief of the truth. Does that sound like he left
it up to you? And it's some just aren't as smart. Some just aren't
smart enough. They're going to believe a lot. And others, boy, they're
they're a little bit smarter. So they're going to believe the
truth. It kind of sounds like God set it all up from the start. You can't do anything but worship
a God like that. And notice where David fled to.
This is such a blessing to me. I kind of just want to close
with it. We pretty much will, I guess. Look at verse 18. I mentioned to you that that's
a key verse, a very special verse in this. Listen to it again.
So David fled and escaped. And he came to Samuel. Remember
who Samuel is now? He hasn't played a big role in
the narrative in the last couple of chapters, but Samuel is God's
chosen prophet and priest. Samuel represents Christ here
in a very beautiful and special way. God, David fled to the man
of God. He fled to the one whom God reveals
himself in and through. That's Christ. No man knoweth
the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him. And that's the prophet in that
day. God's purpose in his gospel was
revealed through that person that represented the Lord Jesus
Christ, our great prophet and high priest. Samuel is that man. David fled to God's man. Well,
that's a good place to run to, isn't it? And he told him all
that Saul had done to him. Isn't that comforting? Don't
you just need to tell somebody sometime, you know who you need
to tell? The Lord Jesus Christ. The man of God, God's man, God's
prophet. I know that David pictures Christ
in so many ways, but here David is the believer in trouble, fleeing
to Christ and telling him all of his heart. Let's learn this tonight because
I suspect you're like me. I suspect you don't do that much.
Not near as often as we should. Do you ever just unburden your
heart to the Savior? People go see, you know, marriage
counselors and guidance counselors and this kind of counselor. He's
the mighty counselor. His name shall be called Counselor. There's only one place for the
believer to run to. There's just one refuge. It's
God's man, God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king, the Lord
Jesus Christ. May God give us grace more and
more, and I suspect as you get older, and maybe grow in grace
and in his knowledge a little bit, maybe more and more, You'll
turn less to this world and more to him. Maybe we'll do that. Maybe if he'll be pleased to
cause that. That we'll be less distracted
by the things of this world and less self-reliant on this impotent
flesh. and more inclined to come to
the feet of the Savior and say, Lord, here's what happened. I
know you know about it, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway.
And you're the only one that can help me. You're the only
one that can give me what I need. You're the only one that can
do for me what needs to be done. And even if I ain't got the sense
to even know what needs to be done, I know you'll do what's
right. Just unburden your heart. to the king who has loved you
with an everlasting love. Why in the world would we not
do that every day, every hour in our hearts? There ain't but one reason why
we wouldn't, is that we think we don't need him. It's just
that simple. Can you think of another reason?
As soon as you need him, you'll go to him. And I will too. Oh, may he give us grace to,
may he just break us. Cause us just to lay at his feet
and confess. You know, in a sense, it's not
hard to see here, part of what he's confessing is his own sin
because Saul pictures our nature. Saul's not the devil. Saul is
us. Well, wait a minute, Saul's pursuing
David. Yeah, we're our own worst enemy. We're trying to kill ourselves,
aren't we? We're self-destructive. So part
of what we confess is our own wretched evil and sin. Just lay
at his feet and confess and repent and tell him our sorrows, tell
him our burdens, tell him our fears. You remember in Acts chapter
four, I was gonna have you turn there. I guess, well, let's don't
read all that. There's a long passage of scripture
there that kinda leads up to what happened, but the enemies
of the gospel We're trying to shut the disciples down. They're
preaching the gospel and going everywhere proclaiming the good
news of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course the religious Jews,
they're trying to shut them down. And they're threatening to kill
them. And many were killed in those days. And so they knew
it was a legitimate threat. And they warned them, don't you
speak in this name anymore. And they said, well, whether
we ought to obey you or God, we'll let you decide that. What
we're going to do is obey God. We cannot but speak the things
we've seen and heard. And they threatened them. And
they could carry it out if the Lord... It was a very real threat
to them. But it says, when they were released,
they went to their own company. They went to the other believers. And the first thing that they
told them, everything that happened, They came to church. They came
together in worship. But you know it didn't stop there.
They didn't just talk about it among themselves. They began
to pray to the Lord. Do you remember that? Let's at
least read part of it. Chapter 4. Let's read the last
part of it. Because it's so beautiful. This
is what David's doing. He's going to God's man. He's
taking refuge in the Lord. Seeking the will of the Lord
and burdening his heart before the Lord. Acts 4. If you want
to read the whole passage later, it kind of starts in verse 18
and through verse 31. But let's read the last few verses
of that passage. Where they began, they began,
okay, look, verse 23, let's read quite a bit of it. In being let
go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said unto them. Their very lives were threatened
here, just like in David's case. And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God. They didn't just talk about it,
you know, you're a comfort to me too in God's providence, but
he's all of our comfort. We're going to have to go to
Him, aren't we, together. We can go to Him together. We can
go to Him in our closet, individually, but we can go to Him together,
too. Is that what we're doing tonight? Unburdening our hearts
to Him and communing with Him. And with one accord, they said,
Lord, You're God. Isn't that a good way to start that prayer?
I mean, their very lives are in danger here. Let's start with
that, Lord, You're on the throne. They're not. They can't do anything
without you. You made heaven and earth and
the sea and all that in them is. You made these rascals out
of the dust just like you did us. And you're running them just
like you are. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, Why did the heathen rage? They were raging
then in David's day when Psalm 2 was written and they're raging
in here in Acts 4 in the early church. They still are in their
own way. And what they can get away with
now in God's providence. Why did the heathen rage and
the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. You see the context of that? They're raging
against us, but the epitome of the rage of the evil men is what
happened at Calvary. We haven't yet resisted unto
blood, but he did. So they're exalting him. They're
not harping on, oh, woe is us. Here's what the heathen did.
They're against him. That's why they're against us.
Because they were against his Christ. Verse 27, for of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. And in that case,
when we're speaking about the very epitome of their opposition,
it was God's purpose. And now when they're opposing
us because they hate him, they're doing exactly what God's hand
and counsel determined before to be done. And they still are
now. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings,
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word. Don't let us be cowards, because
that's what we are by nature. The minute the Lord took his
hand off Simon Peter, what did he do? I don't even know him. And that's what we'll do. Lord,
grant, oh look at that, grant unto thy servants boldness to
preach your word. Pray that for me before the Lord,
would you? And I'll pray that for you, where
you have opportunity. By stretching forth thine hand
to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy
holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word
of God with boldness. The Lord said, yes. The Lord
always answers prayer. And when it's for his glory and
our good, he answers it, yes. And what a blessing that is.
And notice this back in our tale. We're really close with this
thought. Verse 18 again, it says, David and Samuel went and dwelt
in Naoth. You know what that word means?
Principally, it comes from a root word that has three meanings,
but principally it means rest. When we go to our Savior, they
went together to the place of rest. Our Lord said to us, come
to me, learn of me, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, and
you'll find rest under your souls. He takes us to the place of rest. It means to sit down and rest. It means to be beautiful. Boy, this world is an ugly place,
isn't it? Do you want to go someplace beautiful? Go to the arms of
the Master when you're in trouble. You're tired of the ugliness
of this world and of your own heart? Flee to Him who is altogether
lovely. And it means to celebrate. It
means joy. Paul and Silas were able to sing
songs of praise to the Savior while they were in prison, likely
to die the next day. And we can do that too. Even
when we've sunk as low as we think we can possibly go, we
can sing. We can go to the Lord Jesus Christ
and rest in Him. and sing his praises. The answer to all of our problems
is not to do something. It is to rest. To rest in him. While blessed with a sense of
his love, a palace a toy would appear, and prisons would palaces
prove. if Jesus would dwell with me
there. Amen.