1 Samuel chapter 18. It came to pass that when he had
made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was
knit with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his
own soul. And Saul took him that day and
would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan
and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him
and gave it to David, and his garments even to his sword, to
his bow, and to his girdle. And David went out whithersoever
Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely. And Saul set him over
the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people,
and also in the sight of Saul's servants. And it came to pass,
as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of
the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel,
singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tabrets with joy,
and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another
as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and
David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and
the saying displeased him. And he said, They have ascribed
unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but
thousands. And what can he have more but
the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. So let's stop there and ask the
Lord to bless us. Gracious Father and mighty God,
thank you for your word and thank you for giving your people an
understanding, Lord, of your word. And we seek tonight to
look into your word and to learn of you. As you've commanded us graciously, we desire
to take your yoke upon us and learn of you and find rest to
our souls. Thank you for pulling us apart
from this world and giving us this quiet time,
Lord, of worship and adoration and learning. I
pray that your presence would be with us tonight and bless us. Be gracious as you've been so
many times before to bless your people and teach us and comfort
our hearts and our Savior in his precious name. Amen. So it came to pass that when David made an end of speaking
with Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was
knit with the soul of David. Jonathan and David had a bond
that went beyond what most people ever experienced. They had a
friendship that was very special. And we have some evidence as
to why Jonathan loved David so much and why David loved Jonathan. In chapter 14, if you'll remember,
when King Saul, who again represents the will of the people, the rejection
of God as king, When Saul had made an unbelievable mess of
things, he had shown himself to be inept as a leader and as
a warrior, a strategist. The Philistines were about to
destroy the Israelites. Most of the Israelite army had
defected and fled because they knew they were in for it. They
knew Saul was a fool. and that they were in for it.
So many of them fled and were hiding, scattered. It looked
real bad. It looked bad for the people
of Israel. How many times could we say that through their history?
But we're introduced on that scene, in that context, we're
introduced to Jonathan, Saul's son, in chapter 14. Let me read you a few verses
from that. Verse one of chapter 14. Now it came to pass upon
a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said unto the young
man that bare his armor, come and let us go over to the Philistines
garrison that is on the other side. But he told not his father. This is something that Jonathan
took upon himself to do because he knew that his father would
just mess it up. He messed up everything he got involved in.
So he did it secretly. And then in verse six it says,
Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, come and
let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised. Now remember,
we're thinking about why did Jonathan love David so much?
Remember what David called the life? An uncircumcised Philistine. These people who are not the
covenant people of God, they are God-hating idolatrous, Godless, the enemies of God. They hated the Israelites just
because they were God's people. So he said, it may be that the
Lord will work for us. He didn't say it may be the Lord
will give us a hand. Maybe God will do something for
us. What a great attitude. What faith. He believed that God What have
we got to lose? Why would we sit here and just
wait for the inevitable? Let's trust God. If God works
for us, hallelujah, if God doesn't work for us, at least we know
that his will is done. Sure enough, it's his will that
we be defeated and let's just take it. Let's deal with it.
Let's go find out if God will do something for us. I love that
attitude. For there is no restraint to
the Lord. Here's faith now. There is no restraint to the
Lord to save by many or by few. God can save his people by just
me and you just as easily as he can by the whole army. Everybody
else is running to the hills. They're scared. They realize
that my father is a fool and that we're in for it and they're
gone. That's okay. God can save with just a handful. I think I get a little bit of
a glimmer why Jonathan loved David so much, because he was
listening to what David said. And David had that same faith,
didn't he? The faith of God's elect. He said, these uncircumcised
Philistines, who are they to come? I come to them in the name
of the God of the army of Israel. And you saw us, Jonathan's listening
to all that. They had similar, you can see
why they hit it off. And his armor bearer said unto
Jonathan, do all that is in thine heart, turn thee, behold, I am
with thee according to thy heart. And there's a lot more to that
story, you'll remember some of it. But Jonathan turned the tide. God used him to turn the tide
and he did so by faith in God. He just believed God. We're gonna
go and see if the Lord will do this for us. And David, of course,
showed great faith in God and jealousy for the glory of God,
just as Jonathan did in the story of him and Goliath. And this
is the greatest bond between sinners. They say that blood
is thicker than water, or whatever that means. There's a whole lot
of things thicker than water. But I know what they're saying.
Family. Well, most of my blood can't
stand me. That wouldn't have anything to
do with me if my life depended on it, literally. But I'll tell
you what, I have a family a hundredfold in this world that would, even
when my life don't depend on it. They have a lot to do with
me. And this is the bond between
sinners. We have the same God. You remember
what Paul said? One Lord, one faith, one birth,
one hope of your calling. Christ is your Savior. Christ
is my Savior. Boy, you know what that makes
us? That makes us brothers in a sense that this world will
never understand. Never understand. That makes
us closer than anybody else, any other earthly bond. And that's
what happened here. Well, you say, well, all believers
don't love each other this much. But these two, for whatever reason,
God joined their hearts together. It was a great blessing, I'm
sure, to both of them and to many as the Lord worked in this
relationship. But they showed that they had
the same faith in the same God. And I know that that's the basis
of their relationship. There's no question about that.
Faith is what unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And faith
is what unites us to one another. Faith in him, love for him. Jonathan
watched David, he heard him say all that he said. And notice
the language of the text. Here's another reason now why
Jonathan loved David. It says in the text, when David
made an end of speaking. That's mentioned for a reason
now. Jonathan is listening and he's hearing what David says.
He's listening to the conversation that he's having with Saul right
before this. I'm sure he heard what David said to Goliath. He
heard his conversations with Saul and with the other men of
the army in chapter 17, all through that chapter. He saw how David
was treated and maligned and accused of wrongdoing when he
was the only one that had the guts to do anything at all. And
through all of this now, he ends up speaking to Saul here, that's
the final conversation that it ended with. The words of David
are emphasized here and it's likely that Jonathan had heard
everything that David had said throughout this whole ordeal.
And we're told that it was upon him hearing that, when David
made an end of speaking. When David had said all he was
going to say about this whole thing. Jonathan's heart was knit
his soul was knit Unto David and this is how it is with us
in the Lord Jesus Christ Pictured by David here we hear his words
and our hearts our souls are knit The men on the road to Emmaus
you remember as our Lord walked with them after his crucifixion
and They didn't recognize who they were speaking to physically,
but as he spoke to them, they knew something, they knew something.
And they said later, when the Lord revealed himself to them,
you remember what they said? Did not our hearts burn within
us while he talked with us, by the way? While he talked with us. if the
Lord will speak to us tonight. It has a profound effect on us,
doesn't it? It'll cause you to lay down in
those green pastures all over again. Maybe your heart's been
wandering through this world and upset a little bit and getting,
this world will get me riled up quicker than I can get out
that door. But then I don't always forget everything that I preach
and so sometimes even in this world I'm able to to remember
the words of my Savior and rest, remember His promises, remember
His covenant that we're going to talk about in a minute. But especially when I'm here, I'm able to lay down again and just sort of bask in His
love and in His protection of me and His power over me. So it's his words, isn't it?
Our heart burned within us. That's when you will fall in
love with the Lord, when he speaks and you hear his voice. Somebody
wrote a song that I think is real pretty. It's not super scriptural
in all of it, but I like the song. He speaks and the sound
of his voice is so sweet that the birds hush their singing.
A song about communion with the Lord. And that's the truth now. Whenever he speaks, he said,
my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. You ever thought about
that? We're usually quoting that in
the context of his irresistible grace and rightly so. He didn't
say they hear my voice and think about it. They hear my voice
and make a decision. They hear my voice and they follow
me. His voice is irresistible. There's no question about that.
But have you ever thought of it this way? Why do we follow him when
we hear his voice? Because just hearing his voice
will cause you to fall so deeply in love with him. Where else
are you going to go? You can't resist. His words cause
us to not be able to live without him. That's what Simon said in
John 6, 68. And the Lord asked his disciples,
who do you say that I am? Or in verse 68, Simon Peter answered
him when he had been speaking to the multitude and he had said
to them, no man can come to me except my father which has sent
me, draw him. And he says many went away and
walked no more with him at that saying, at what he had said.
They said this is an intolerable saying. Who can hear that? Who can listen to that? We don't
have a free will. We'll just go find somebody that
will tell us what we want here. And he turned to his disciples
and said, Are you going with them? Everybody's leaving. And Simon spoke up and said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words. The words of eternal life. So
Jonathan loved David and David loved Jonathan. And their bond
was faith in God and love for God. And because of the way David
spoke, you see, Jonathan had that heart in him. He had that
same heart in him of jealousy for the glory of God and faith
in God. John 8, 42, the Lord said to
those religious Jews that stood there, they were always tempting
him and always angry at his words. They
were just the opposite. You know, some people when they
heard what David said, got mad. Jonathan fell in love. He had
a deep brotherly love for David. But when the Lord spoke to these
Pharisees, they got mad. They got mad. But they, you know,
he told them that the devil was their father. He said, no, they
said, no, God is our father. Abraham is our father. God is
our father. And he said to them in verse 42 of John 8, if God
were your father, you would love me. That's why Jonathan loved
David, because they had the same father. They had the same father. You would love me, for I proceeded
forth and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent
me. You would love me if God were
your father. That's the truth. Our relationship with God the
Father causes us to love God the Son. because of who we are
now because of that relationship by his grace by his eternal grace
the father causes us to love god the son and the son loves
us because we're children of his father we see that in the
scriptures too given to him by the father hebrews 2 11 for both
he That sanctifyeth, that's the Lord Jesus, with his precious
blood he sanctifies us, he makes us holy, he sets us apart unto
God with his blood. Both he that sanctifyeth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. They're all, just like
Jonathan and David's souls were knit together like they were
one. That's us in Christ. For which cause he's not ashamed
to call them brethren. Brethren. We have the same father
Saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst
of the church while I sing praise unto thee And again, I will put
my trust in him and again behold I and the children which God
has given me And so you see the same relationships and the same
motives the same reasons for the same love Now it says in
verse 3 that they made a covenant and with one another and we see
more about that in chapter 20 we'll see that if you want to
read it later you can see a little bit more about that covenant
they sort of it was an ongoing agreement between them that that
David Jonathan conspired with David against his own father
against Saul as you can already see in the text that we read
we won't get that far really today except just to mention
Saul's attitude toward David already and in comparison to
Jonathan's But you can see already that David, that Saul is starting
to get a sour taste in his mouth with regard to David. But Jonathan conspires with David
against Saul to protect David, to warn him when Saul was up
to some no good and things like that. And David promised to show
kindness unto Jonathan's family for generations to come. Jonathan
said, from now on, when Jonathan understood who David was, he
knew he was the Lord's anointed. Whether he knew that, that he
had actually physically been anointed King of Israel or not,
I'm not sure about that, but he knew who he was. You can see
it in the language of the chapters to come. And he said, when the
Lord has subdued all your enemies, even years to come now you take
care of my family love my family watch over my family be sure
that they're safe and cared for and David said I agree I'll do
that and so there was a covenant between them and we know that
David remembered this covenant years later and showed mercy
into Mephibosheth Jonathan's son Saul's grandson and Mephibosheth
was afraid of David because of the enmity between the houses
of Saul and David. He didn't understand about Jonathan.
He didn't know about the covenant. Mephibosheth didn't understand
that. It happened before he was born, probably. He was very young
when Jonathan died. I believe the scriptures are
pretty clear that Mephibosheth was five years old when Jonathan
died. And when this covenant was actually
made, likely Mephibosheth hadn't even been born yet. But Mephibosheth
is going to benefit from a covenant made before he was even born. And because of that covenant
that was born of love that we see in our tater. Why did Jonathan
make a covenant with David? Because he loved him. Because
he loved him. And David took in and showed
mercy to Mephibosheth, though he was a worthless cripple. He
couldn't serve. You know, religion loves to say
we're saved to serve. God has recruited an army. God didn't save us because he
needed some help. Because he needed servants. Mephibosheth
was lame on both of his feet. And David said, go fetch him.
He's going to sit at my table from now on. That's me. I don't
know about you. Maybe he recruited you because
he needed your help, you know, with his ministry. He recruited
me because he had mercy on me. And I just suspect just about
everybody in this room feels the same way about that. I'm absolutely worthless. I was
before He saved me and I'm worthless right now. But my Savior is mighty. He's mighty and He's gracious. So what a beautiful picture of
the covenant of grace which God made with His Son before we were
ever born. And because of that covenant, which was a covenant
of love, God made a covenant with His Son because He loved
Him and because He loved us. We're loved now, to this day. We were loved before we were
born. We didn't know about that covenant. But bless God, I do
now. And I'm taken care of, and I'm
eating at the king's table. It don't get any better. It just
don't. And then in verse 4, we see that
Jonathan greatly honored David. He took off his robe. You think about this now, and
gave him his sword and his bow, his weapons, and his girdle.
We'll talk about that a little bit. The way that he honored
him and the spirit in which he honored David here is very instructive
to us. Jonathan took that robe off and
put it on David. And you know that robe now, he's
the son of the king. This was not just an ordinary
robe that he picked up at the general store. This is a kingly
robe. He was the heir to the throne.
It was a royal robe. But when we meet the Lord Jesus
Christ, as Jonathan here, and we fall in love with him, one
of the first things we're going to see is that we don't deserve
any honor whatsoever. It all belongs to him. We're
going to give all honor unto him. We don't deserve any kind
of a kingly robe. Now, by nature, you know, we
think we're kings. We think that we, you know, have
some authority and we can make decisions and things. But we
find out that's not the truth. We find out that there's just
one free will and it ain't mine, it's his. And there's only one
worthy of getting his will, getting his way. Who am I to get my way? I'm an idiot. You don't want
me to have my way we all by his grace want him to have his way
in everything because he's good and wise and and powerful and
gracious And so any we don't deserve it
all belongs to him we say with david in psalm 115 1 not unto
us oh lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory That's what
Jonathan was saying to David. You're the one that deserves
this. David had just saved everybody in Israel. Why does the Lord
deserve all of our honor and respect and allegiance? Because he saved everybody in
Israel. That's why. And even if he hadn't, he'd still
be worthy of it. But that's how we find out. We find out, don't
we? He saved us. He saved us. And saved everybody
that he came to save. And all the honors go unto him.
One way or the other. And we're glad about it. Not
unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. And notice also he gave him his
sword and his bow and his girdle. Now the girdle was a leather,
a big leather belt that was worn, that his sword
hung from the girdle. And it was a large leather belt,
it was more than just a belt, but it went around his waist
and it was protection and it was a symbol of strength and
power. You've heard the phrase, gird
your loins, and what that means is Prepare for battle. Prepare
for a task. And so why is this given to David? Well, it was a gesture of honor
of what David had accomplished. No doubt between Jonathan and
David. This is just, you know, the robe, now that says a lot
more, but the instruments of war and his valuable things like
that. This is Him just saying, you
know, look, you just saved all of us, and you deserve this. You'll use this better than I
ever would. But also, it signifies us taking off that which we would
have considered our protection, our strength, our ability to
accomplish anything in war, our defense. We commend all that
unto Christ. I don't need a sword. Not a physical
sword. You know what? Because he's my
protection. He's my defense. He's my rock.
He's my strong and mighty tower. I give that to him. I commend
all that to him. He's our defense. He's our strength. He's our power. Our lives and
our souls are in his hands now. We don't defend ourselves. You
see, we may be called warriors in the sense that he has chosen
us to a warfare, and we do fight against, not flesh and blood,
but spiritual. It's a spiritual warfare between
the flesh and the spirit. But also we're sheep, and sheep
are defenseless. They depend on the shepherd to
take care of them, and that's true of us. We don't fight in
the sense, in a physical sense. We don't protect ourselves. We
don't have anything. We commend all that to him. That's
his business now. If he allows us to be harmed,
then he's got good reason for that. He allowed Stephen to be
stoned and he called him home and stood up at the very throne
and welcomed him home. That'll be fine. But if we're
going to be defended and our enemies are going to fall, they're
going to fall in his hand, not mine. Here, take my sword. We couldn't defend ourselves
even if we knew how, and we don't. That's his business now completely.
We utterly depend upon him to protect us. I'm okay with that. Anybody that knows him is okay
with that. And most important now, Jonathan
was the rightful heir. I want to emphasize this thing
of Jonathan honoring David by taking that robe off and putting
it on him. He knew, he understood who the rightful king was. And
he knew he didn't have any illusions about his father, did he? Even
back in chapter 14, he didn't even include his father in that
whole idea. He knew he'd just mess it up. We see how that he conspires
with David against his father because look, David's blessed
of God. He's got right thinking. He knows
what's up and Saul does not. And Jonathan quickly recognized
that early on. And so, but also think of it
this way. Think of it this way. Jonathan
was the rightful heir to the throne of Saul. Jonathan had
a personal interest here that he completely relinquished. Completely, fully, without reservation,
he relinquished his own personal interest in any kind of authority,
in any kind of privilege. All he cared about was David
being exalted, David being honored, David being the one who made
the decisions, whose way was followed. And we'll see this
in all of Jonathan's dealings with David. We see in the text here, look
at verses five through nine again, because this is the reason I
read ahead that far. David went with us whoever Saul
sent him and David behaved himself wisely David proved to be blessed
of the Lord That's that's how that happens not because he was
a better man than Saul. He was blessed of the Lord And
it was it was evident in everything that he did just like Daniel
reminds me of Daniel in that regard and everybody that the
Lord blesses and in verse 6 it came to pass as they came that
David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistines the ladies
start singing a song and Apparently, Goliath wasn't the only Philistine
that David had a hand in ending. That day, remember when they
pursued the Philistines after Goliath fell, they pursued the
Philistines. And I suspect David probably
didn't kill 10,000 people himself. I figure this is probably an
exaggeration. But clearly, David was getting the glory. Saul wasn't
left out of it completely. But David was getting the glory
and Saul didn't like it. They didn't like it. He didn't
like it. And it says in verse 8, Saul was very wroth, and the
saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed
unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but
thousands. You know, that's really pretty
good. Saul killed a thousand people, or thousands of people.
That's pretty solid. But that wasn't enough for him.
If anybody's getting any more glory, and there's a lesson there,
I'm sure. But he said, what can he have
more but the kingdom? Saul's beginning to get the idea
here. And here's the thing about it. David made absolutely no
claim on the throne. He's waiting on God. He's waiting
on God. Why does Saul, though he sees,
he says, wait a minute. The only difference, the only
thing left is for him to actually take the throne. You know why
he's saying that? Because David was a king. God had already made
him king. And he made him a king. And you
know, a king is going to be on the throne. If that's what you,
if you're a king, you're going to be on the throne sooner or
later. And that's just what it was. Saul was on the throne,
but he wasn't a king. God had already rejected him.
And so the lesson there, one of the lessons there is it's
not about what this world calls, who this world calls a king or
a servant, or who this world calls a believer or an unbeliever.
It's about who God has anointed. It's about who God endorses.
It's about who God has blessed. God's king wasn't on the throne
yet because it behooved him to suffer a while. He's a picture
of Christ in all of it, isn't he? But he's gonna be on the throne.
And our David, David's son and Lord is on the throne now. And
always will be. But you see here, Saul, in contrast
to Jonathan, Saul is just, he's just hearing David being honored,
and rightly so. David saved him. Whether you
like that or not, David saved him. And Saul clearly didn't
like it, He didn't like the glory that David would receive. But
Jonathan now, Jonathan has just as much personal interest in
this matter. He's going to be the heir to
the throne. He's the rightful heir. If something
happens to Saul or when Saul dies, Jonathan's going to be
on the throne. But what did that mean to him? Nothing. He wanted
David to be on the throne. He wanted David to be honored. And so Jonathan honors David,
and he always did. This jealousy that Saul, he not
only didn't give any glory today, he didn't take his robe off and
give it today. He didn't take anything. He didn't give David
a ring. He didn't give David anything except what he had promised
to whoever the champion was going to be. I'm sure he followed through
on that. But he didn't honor David at
all, but Jonathan did. And he not only didn't give David
any glory, but he was mad that anybody else was giving him any
glory. And that's this wretched world, isn't it? They not only
hate him, they hate the ones that love him. He considered it, Saul considered
it a slight toward himself. Do you feel threatened in any
way whatsoever by the fact that Jesus Christ is on the throne
and is calling all the shots in your life? Does that bother
you? Does it bother you that you have absolutely no authority
whatsoever except what He gives you and He'll take it whenever
He wants to and you can't exercise the authority He's given you
rightly without His grace and wisdom. He's going to get all
the glory and some people don't like that much. There's a lot
of people that don't like that much. I kind of like it. Thank
God. That's grace, isn't it? It's
grace when you can like it. Not unto us, oh Lord. You never see an ounce of that
with Jonathan. No jealousy, never any of it. We're going to see
their relationship throughout these chapters to come. Never
one time. Jonathan unreservedly honored
David in everything that he said and did. Right from the start
he did. And those who, by the grace of
God, love the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't want any glory for
themselves. Just don't. We still have the heart of flesh
in us that wars against the Spirit. There's no question about that.
But we have a new heart that desires for all honor and glory
to go to the Lamb that was slain. the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
we have fought a good fight and kept the faith, as no doubt we
will if the Lord gave it to us, he'll see that we keep it. He'll
keep us in the faith. As Paul said, I fought a good
fight, I kept the faith, I finished my course. And when that happens, we are
pictured in glory. Listen to this, in Revelation,
turn over there with me, I haven't had you turn to any scripture
tonight, so let's Let's do that in Revelation chapter four. This
is beautiful now. We want him to have all the glory
tonight and we don't even really know him yet. We're going to
though. And I'll tell you what, look
at Revelation 4, 6. Revelation 4, 6 and before the
throne. There was a sea of glass like
unto crystal and in the midst of the throne and round about
the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Now
just for the sake of something interesting
that I read John Gill is one of my favorite commentators because
he's so thorough and he doesn't skip over anything. A lot of
the commentators if something is tough they'll just skip over
it. Gil will tackle it one way or the other, and I enjoy reading
him. But he says these four beasts
represent God's ministers, and that even in glory, the ministers
of the Lord that he chose to lead the worship here, they're
gonna have some kind of a leadership role there, just in leading the
worship. I don't know if that's true or
not. But he says these four beasts represent them. One of them was
like a lion, and he says that's the courage that the Lord gives
to his ministers. in the preaching. The line is
courageous and bold and strong. And I'll tell you what, most
of y'all know me in my personal life pretty extensively, and
you know me from this pulpit, and it's like it's two different
people in there. You know that's right. The Lord
gives you courage, won't he? I'm not sure of a whole lot else,
but I'm sure of this gospel. I'm sure of him. I'm not gonna
waver as long as he'll keep me. I'm not going to waver in it.
So he does do that, doesn't he? And the second beast, like a
calf or an ox. This is an ox. And this shows
that the ministry is a labor. And we see that all through the
scriptures, don't we? It's a labor. It's a toilsome thing. It's work. And this is the Lord giving them
that ability to do the work. Paul said, who's sufficient?
We can't do it. But the Lord is our sufficiency.
And the third beast had a face of a man, and that's, you know,
of course we are men, and that's in the image of our Lord, you
know. He gives us wisdom and understanding and causes us to
be able to speak, you know. I can relate to you because I'm
a man just like you, you know. If an angel came and preached
to you, he'd probably do a better job, but he don't know anything
about being saved by grace. Isn't that wonderful? And the four beasts. The fourth
beast was like a flying eagle. And this is just the swiftness. You can see how that could easily
represent. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about
him. Like the seraphim in Isaiah chapter 6 who flew with two of
their wings and with two they covered their faces and with
two their feet. All of God's messengers. And that's why one
of the reasons Gil says this is his messengers is because
angels The word angel is messenger. And the pastors of the churches
are called angels. The angel of the church in the
book of Revelation. You've read that. And so I think
there's something to it maybe. And it says that they had six
wings and for the same reason now. They are swift to do the
will of God. Angels are. And they're also, they're humble
in the sight of God. They have to cover their faces.
And their feet. But look at what they did. They
didn't rest day and night saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was and is and is to come. We worship the same God the angels
do. And we know something about his holiness from a little different
perspective than they do. From the perspective of a sinner
for whom that holiness was eternal hell at one time. Just as sure
as we're standing here. But that he sent his holy son
to die in our place and shed his precious blood. And now we
can stand before his throne and cry, holy, holy, holy. which
was and is and is to come, verse nine, and when those beasts give
glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who
liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders fall down
before him. It's as though these beasts are
leading them in the worship, just like his ministers do now.
I don't see any reason to believe that God would change that, do
you? I think that's a good thing. But these four and twenty others,
they're going to fall down. This is all the people represented
by these elders. They're going to fall down before
him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever
and ever and cast their crowns before the throne. This is what
we're talking about. All glory is going to be, it's just like
Jonathan taking that robe off and putting it on David. By nature, we think ourselves
to be kings. In Psalm 2 where it says, the
kings of the earth have God humbled and he set his king on his holy
hill and all the kings of the earth are to bow to that king.
That's all of us by nature. We all think we're some kind
of king. But even when we are kings, we are made kings and priests
under our God by the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when we are kings,
we're going to take the crown off of our own head and throw
it at his feet. They cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord. You're worthy. This is your crown. You gave
it to me. You earned it for me. And all
the glory is yours. You are worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power, and clearly we're not. That's why
we're taking the crown off. You've bestowed it upon us, but
not because we're worthy, because you're worthy. Honor and power
for thou has created all things. And that's not just talking about
him making the earth and the sky. You've done all of it. Here's
what we're saying. It's all you. You've done all
of this. All of it. And you did it for
your own pleasure. And we're in on it because you
were pleased to let us in on it. Now what is that crown? I don't
know really, but I know this. It says, James said, blessed
is the man that endures temptation for when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life. which the Lord hath promised
to them that love him. In Revelation 2.10 it says, Fear
none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil
shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you
shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give you a crown of life. So the Lord, these crowns
may signify other things too. This crown, Paul said, if we
suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. Not as rivals,
but we reign with Him. In 2 Timothy 2.12, He said we're
going to reign with Him. He's going to exalt us to the
very throne. And we're sent in other places to reign, Him having
made us kings and priests unto our God. But whatever these crowns
are, this crown that embodies different things, we know this
about them. They come from Him. And if they're going to be on
my head, if one of them is going to be on my head, it's going
to be there by grace. It's going to be there because
he did something, not because I did something. And I know this
about it. It's going right back to him.
I'm going to throw it right back at him because he alone is worthy. And this is what Jonathan is
signifying here the crown that would have been his. He wanted
David to have it. God had anointed David king. And somehow Jonathan knew that.
He sensed it even if he didn't know it. And God has anointed
his son, Jesus, and set him upon his holy hill of Zion. And one
of my favorite things to do by his grace is bow. I just love
being at his feet, don't you? I love if he will enable me and
give me grace to honor him and glorify him and somehow point
people to him and say there's the one who's done all of this
for his own pleasure and he deserves every bit of praise and glory
and adoration and then some. We can never praise him enough.
May he give us grace to Like Paul said, unto him be glory
both now, right now, and forever. Let's pray.