Thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen and
the weapons of war perished?" Now this was a very mournful
occasion for the children of Israel. It was a very sad time. Saul, their king, had been slain
by the enemy. his son Jonathan and his sons
were slain by the enemy. And this was, this would be sort
of like in times when our president has been assassinated. It's been
a few times and that it would be likened to that. A time of
great mourning in the kingdom of Israel. Now David has not
been officially crowned yet. He not officially taken the throne. but he is God's king. He's the
anointed of God and he's a picture of Christ. He's a picture of
our Lord Jesus. And one of the first things David
does here as the king is he composes this song. It's sort of a eulogy
of Saul, the king, and of Jonathan. And he does this for the comfort
of the kingdom of Israel. He does it for their unity and
And he does it because he actually is sorrowful over Saul and over
Jonathan. It's kind of like the night our
Lord was betrayed and how he was saying those last words,
those last words that he kept saying to his apostles. trying to encourage them, comfort
them, and that's what this was for. It was to comfort and encourage
them. So 2 Samuel chapter 1, and the
subject is David's lament. Christ Jesus the Lord, He will
put a song in the heart of His people, and He will comfort and
He will unite His people, increase our faith, because He's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, just as David was here for the
kingdom of Israel. We'll look at three things here.
We're going to consider first how the mighty are fallen. And
then secondly, we will look at Christ in David, David typified
by Christ, Christ typified by David. And then thirdly, we will
hear a word from our Lord. All right, first of all, three
times here in this Psalm, David says, how are the mighty fallen? How are the mighty fallen? He
says this three different times. How are the strong fallen? Saul was strong, Jonathan was
strong, and he says, how are the mighty fallen? Now here's
a question I want you to think about. If you died today, if
you died today, what would be your hope to stand before God
if you died today? Now death is certain. How are
the mighty fallen? Saul and Jonathan fell. Death
is certain, and this is the story of man. It doesn't matter how
mighty, doesn't matter how wise, doesn't matter what the state of a man is, all
will face death. All will eventually fall. Death
is certain for all. And then, everybody will stand
before God. Each of us will stand before
God. And we will either be accepted
of God or we'll be rejected of God. That's so of everybody. That's
serious business. That is serious business. If
you died today, would God accept you or would He reject you? And
what basis would that be upon? What would be the basis for him
to accept you or reject you? Now, every second of every day,
men are dying. If death's a fact of life, we
see it. Every second of every day, men
die. And then sometimes it hits home to us because somebody close
to us dies. a neighbor or a loved one. The
Lord said, it's better to go to the house of mourning than
it is the house of feasting. For then men will lay it to their
heart. The living will lay it to their heart. You know how
when that news comes that somebody you know that's close to you
died, how that just hits you in the heart. You think about
your mortality, you realize death is certain. and you think about
it, but without God making us the living and even for the living,
even for those born of God, isn't it amazing how when that happens
and you're struck with that news, in just a little while, you're
right back to your daily activities and forget about it and right
back into the world and right back doing the things of this
life until it happens again. wakes you up and kind of startles
you a little bit. You know, Felix heard Paul preach
the gospel. He heard the gospel preached
and he said, Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient
season, I will call for thee. And he never had a convenient
season. He never called. on the Lord,
he never called for Paul to preach the gospel to him. This is what
men think that, you know, I'll get around to that. I'll
get around to the gospel, I'll get around to eternal things
when I have a convenient season. When will that be? If today's
not a convenient season, when do you think a convenient season
will be? There won't be. There just won't
be. They're telling how much money
men spend on college, mothers and fathers spend on college. Think of the hours and the hours spent on studying earthly subjects. Hours upon hours, lots of money
spent on it. And it's to prepare and to seek
to be mighty in this life. to make a good living, to be
mighty in this life, but there's so little thought or no thought
to Christ and to this word and to eternity. So little thought. And for some, none. And you know,
it's really foolish when you think about this. We spend this
money for our children and we do the things that we do and
we study to rise. We want to see them and our own
selves rise to the level that God says in his word, not many
are called. He said, you see your calling
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. That's God's Word. That sounds,
you know, we immediately start thinking, yeah, but, you know
why we say, yeah, but? Because we're, we got to go along with the world. If a man becomes mighty, if he
becomes accomplished, if he becomes highly esteemed of men, There
will come a time when he's going to fall and face God. It doesn't matter what we accomplish
in this world. Look over at Luke 12. Let's share
the Lord on this. Luke 12. Verse 15, he said to them, this
is the Lord Jesus speaking, take heed and beware of covetousness. That's just wanting more. Wanting
more, not content with where we are, but wanting more. Beware
of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of things which he possesseth. You see that man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of things which he possesseth. And he spake
a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. and there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods, and I'll say to my soul,
soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And
he said unto his disciples, therefore I say unto you. Now here's the
master speaking. Here's the master speaking. Now
here's what he says. Take no thought for your life.
What you shall eat, neither for the body, what you shall put
on. The life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment.
Look at verse 31. But rather seek ye the kingdom
of God and all these things shall be added to you. And then he
speaks to his people. Fear not, little flock. It's
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that
you have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. Where
no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your
treasury is, there will your heart be also. And the danger
here, brethren, is not only for rich men. It's not only for men
who have wealth. Poor men are just as proud and
consider themselves mighty as rich men do. The poorest man
without God giving a new heart, he thinks he's secure, thinks
he's mighty. But this life is just a moment. It's just for a moment. We're
sinners, and this world is not our eternal home. That's so of
everybody. Wherever we spend eternity, it's
not going to be here. It's not going to be here. Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity. You know what the commandment
of God is to us? All the commandments of God is to stop trusting man and trust
the Lord Jesus. Is that too simple? If our basis
for standing accepted of God is anything more than Christ,
we won't be accepted. cease from trusting man and trust
the Lord Jesus. Jesus answered, said, this is
the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. I am that bread of life. Here's
the word of the Lord. Thus said the Lord, let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but
let him that glory glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me." Do we understand and know God? That's the question. That's
what we need to ask ourselves personally. Do I understand and
know God? I don't want to take that for
granted. I want to seek Him. Do I know You, Lord? Do I understand? He said, I am the Lord which
exercised love and kindness and judgment and righteousness in
the earth for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. That's
the first point here. The mighty are fallen, David
said, and it doesn't matter who we are. We're going to fall.
We're going to die. Seek the Lord now. Seek Him while
He may be found. And don't stop seeking Him. You
don't stop seeking Him. We won't be saved till we're
with Him in glory. Now secondly, behold a type of
Christ in David. Back in 2 Samuel 1, we see a type of Christ. Though
Saul had sought David's life, repeatedly tried to kill him, David wept over Saul's death
and he only spoke good of Saul. Verse 23, he said, Saul and Jonathan
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they
were not divided. They were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep
over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other delights,
who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. Now, natural
man, we don't have this spirit of forgiveness by nature. We
just don't have it. and God's children only have
it by the Spirit of God. David, though, he beheld himself
as the sinner. He beheld himself, and David
beheld himself worse than Saul. That's really how David saw himself,
worse than Saul. Do you see yourself worse than
Saul? I'm worse than Saul. I do believe that. I am worse
than Saul. And David saw that about himself.
He said repeatedly to Saul, you've come out after a flea. What is
more insignificant and powerless than a flea? That's what David
called himself, a flea. But David also saw the multitude
of God's tender mercies to him. For Christ's sake, he saw what
God had done for him in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what made
David merciful. That's why he spoke only good
of Saul. I mean, you think about it. Saul
tried to kill him. He didn't just say something
negative about Saul. He hunted him and tried to kill
him. And then David says good things
about him and wept over him. wept over him. That was his king.
That was his father-in-law. That's an example of 1 Corinthians
13, 5. Love thinks no evil. Peter said, above all things,
have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude
of sins. It did in David. He just looked
over all the sins of Saul trying to kill him. David did this only
by the Spirit of God dwelling in him, by the Spirit of Christ,
because that's the Spirit Christ had and has. Only because David's
faith was in God and in God's Son and in God's power. David
knew that the Lord was sovereign and though Saul meant it for
evil, God meant it for good. And he knew everything Saul had
done to him was God working good for David. That's what he knew. That's what
it was. Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. That's the spirit of our Lord
Jesus that we see in David. Christ, you remember, when you
behold David weeping over Saul, It reminds me of our Lord Jesus
weeping over Jerusalem. This is what he said in Matthew
23, 37. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and you would
not. And he said, behold, your house
is left unto you desolate. God has no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. Here's the other thing we need
to get. Not only that life is short and
we're going to fall no matter how mighty we might be, but here's
the other thing. God has no pleasure in sending
anybody to hell. That doesn't give God any pleasure.
He doesn't have any pleasure in seeing anybody perish forever. Now, we know we're going to die.
We know we're going to face God. We've sinned. We know that just
as God demands we die, and God has no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. If we won't believe on Christ,
it's just our own fault. This is what the Lord said. God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world. That's
what Christ said. God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. He's going to save some people
all over this world. He said, He that believeth on
Him is not condemned. You that believe on the Lord,
get that in your heart. You are not condemned. That means
you won't ever be condemned. But he that believeth not, he's
condemned already. Why? Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Because he has not
believed on the Lord. David told the daughters of Israel,
he said, we oversaw because he clothed you in scarlet. Now if
he told them to weep over Saul because Saul clothed them in
earthly things, how much more are we to bow and believe Christ
who clothed his people with eternal righteousness? Who laid down
his life for his people and put away the sin of his people and
saves his people? Do you see how insane really
brethren our unbelief is? You got, you got, okay, You know
you're going to die. You know it's just a short time.
This life's going to be over. You know that. See it happening
all around us every day. You know God has no pleasure
in sending men to hell. Christ said, I didn't come to
condemn men. I came to save men. Those that believe Him are not
condemned. That's the clear way. He just declares the way right
there. Those that believe Him are not
condemned. Those that don't are condemned already. And you see the insanity if we
don't just take every second we have in this life to seek
the Lord, to seek after Him while He may be found. And then men want to blame God.
They blame God because he elected a people. If God hadn't elected
a people, nobody would be saved. That's not what keeps men from
being saved. Men aren't saved because they don't want to be
saved. That's why it takes God giving
the Spirit and regenerating us because by nature we just don't
want to have anything to do with God. But we see the everlasting
saving love of God in Christ right here in this love between
David and Jonathan. You know, and you see, this is
the nature of all of us right here. Don't want to have anything
to do with God. Don't want to be saved by God.
We got better things to do. What? Taking everything God's
given us and the breath that he's given us to breathe and
every single thing we have in our life God gave us, taking
all that and just ignoring the giver. That's what we have better
to do. So what's it going to take to
save us? It's going to take God saving His people. Because that's
us by nature. Listen to verse 26. This is the love between David
and Jonathan. It's a picture of God's love
for His people in Christ. Listen to this. He said, I'm
distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast
thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women. It's a sad thing and it's just
depravity that men will hear that right there and think that
has some kind of sexual meaning to it. It doesn't. It doesn't. This was the supernatural love
of God that knit their hearts together. That's what this is. Jonathan's love for David typifies
Christ's love for his people. Jonathan's love for David typifies
it. And it typifies the love that
God puts in the hearts of His people for Christ. Go back to
1 Samuel 18. Listen to this. 1 Samuel 18 and look at verse 1. It came to pass when he 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. God did that. That's what God
does right there. That's what God does in the hearts
of his people between Christ and his child and between Christ
and our brethren. God does that. He has to knit
the heart of Christ and his people together. And he said, verse
3, 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 and to his bow and to his girdle.
That's how Christ loves his people. He loves his people as his own
soul. The Lord Jesus Christ, his heart
is knit together with his people, and he's going to knit our hearts
together with him when he calls you. He makes an everlasting
covenant in the heart of his child. He makes you know that
he saves by his everlasting covenant. It's ordered and sure in all
things. He has done it all, and he makes
you know this. He makes you know this in the
heart. David didn't have any armor. He didn't have anything.
Jonathan stripped off all his and gave it to David. And our
Lord Jesus Christ came into this earth to take flesh, to be a
sinless man, that he might go to the cross and be stripped
of all. that he might save us because
justice demanded it. That's what Christ did. And when
Christ comes to his child, he gives you life by the sword of
the Spirit, just like Jonathan gives him his sword. The sword
of the Spirit is the word of God. He gives you life. This
word we're preaching right here today, if Christ quickens somebody,
it's going to be Just what was pictured there when Jonathan
gave that sword to David. It's going to be Christ giving
you the word of the Lord and quickening you to life, the sword
of the Spirit. And when he does that, he'll
give you faith in Christ and he'll make you know this everlasting
covenant is sure to you and he'll robe you in his righteousness. It'll be a girdle about your
loins just like it was, just like that girdle was. And Christ
makes us willing then by that to be stripped of all of our
vain works and all of the vain things we boasted in. And He
makes us submit to Christ. He makes us follow Him. And every
time that we need to be turned, He just shows us Him again and
what He's done for us, and He does it again. He makes you just
willing to be stripped of all to follow Him and have Him. Nothing's
too great. It's in Christ that God our Father
views His child, and He views us as perfectly righteous, brethren.
This is the good news right here. God views us in Christ as perfectly
righteous. That's the picture we see here
in David speaking only good of Saul and Jonathan. He said there
in verse 23, Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their
lives. Now Saul and Jonathan, they were
father and son. But you look at them right here
just for a moment. I want you to think of them as
one person. One person. And you that are born again of
God, you have an old nature like Saul, and you have a new nature
like Jonathan. And though our sin nature is
only sin, God views his people in Christ and he only sees the
good in his people. He knows our sin, he'll correct
our sin and all that, but I'm talking about before his justice
and him being able to accept you and what he says of his child,
he only accepts us, I mean he only sees the good. I've shown
this to you several times, but you know how in the Old Testament,
that's a picture of the law, that's a picture of being under
the law, and what the law only speaks to those that are under
the law. And you can read of God's saints, true believers
who believed God, born of God, saved by Christ, under the Old
Testament, and it gives the true account of what they did. And
then you read the New Testament, and that's a picture of being
in Christ, and it tells you what God says about them, and how
they're viewed in Christ. And I'll give you an example.
In the Old Testament, we see Sarah and her sin nature. We
see the Saul and Sarah. She laughed when God said she'd
have a son. And God said, why did you laugh,
Sarah? And Sarah flat out lied to God. I didn't laugh. And God said, yes you did, love.
Now that's you in your sin nature. That's you and me in our sin
nature. We come forth from our mother's womb speaking lies.
And what did God say about her in the New Testament? This is
what God says about His child in Christ. Through faith, through
faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and
was delivered of a child when she was past age because she
judged him faithful who had promised." Why did God see her that way?
She didn't do that in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament
she laughed and didn't lie and said, I didn't laugh. Why did
God say through faith she judged God faithful that promised? Because
Christ did. Because Christ did. And God counted to her the righteousness
of Christ. His obedience was counted to
her. That's why God said that of her.
What about Abraham? Same thing. Abraham doubted that
he'd have a child due to his age. He even went so far, and
Sarah was part of this too, as producing a son with his handmaid. That really happened. Here's a married man and he has
a child with his handmaid because he don't believe God can bring
his promise to pass. Surely God would cast a man out
for that. Surely he'll just reject him and send him to hell for
that. Brethren, everything we've ever done is just as sinful. It is just as sinful. That's
what he did in his flesh. Here's what God says about him
in Christ. Being not weak in faith, he considered not his
own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither
yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. How on earth could God say that
about Abraham when he did nothing of the sort? Because Christ did
it. That's exactly what Christ did.
That's the righteousness of Christ imputed to Abraham. That's the
Spirit of God's whole point in Romans 4. That's what was imputed
to Abraham, the righteousness of Christ. That's Christ's obedience. So in Christ, God sees you as
he is, you that believe in Christ. He sees you perfect due to Christ's
righteous obedience. Does that mean something to you?
Does that mean anything to you? If we see what sinners we are,
it does. That means everything to you. Everything to you. Because our
old man being crucified in him, my old man already having answered
to justice, that means we're not going to stand before God
in judgment and God pour out justice on us. He already did
it in His Son for His people. Christ purged all our sins, and
Christ did it all just as you read about Sarah not wavering. You read about Abraham not wavering,
being strong in faith. That's how Christ did everything
He did. And so that's what God imputes
to you that believe. This is why Paul said, I want
to be found in Him not having mine own righteousness. Not having
mine own righteousness. I want to have that which is
through the faithfulness of Christ only. That's the only thing.
That's the only place I want to stand. Let me end with this. For you that do not believe on
Christ, you see why Christ is the one that we should spend
our time seeking? You see why he's one? We ought
to give more diligence to seek and know Christ than we do anything
else in this world. With Christ, we have everything.
With Christ, we have all. Without him, we have absolutely
nothing. It doesn't matter what we have
of this world, we'll have nothing. Come hear the gospel of Christ
preached. It's life or death. And go home and study the word.
And go ask God. Get alone with God and ask Him
to have mercy on you. Ask Him to give you faith. Ask
Him to bring you to the place where you can look at these scriptures
and say this personally. Where you can look at it and
say what Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. That is where you
want to be. It doesn't matter. Your concern
is not with other folks. It's can you say I am crucified
with Christ? Can you say he loved me and he
gave himself for me? Ask God to give you the faith
to be able to say that. The only way God's going to accept
any sinner is in Christ Jesus the Beloved. No other way. If
our basis for being accepted with God is something we did,
we won't be accepted. We will not be accepted. Believer,
as you see David lament Jonathan, you know this, Christ is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows our weaknesses and as
we see him there give this song to comfort the people in his
kingdom and to unify the people in his kingdom, Christ is going
to put a song in our heart in the night season. That's what
he promises to do. We live by faith, but it is little
faith. Can we agree with that? It's
little faith. Very little. But it's not the
degree of our faith, it's Christ. And if he's ever given you faith,
he's going to keep faith in your heart. And just like these Philistines
cause the children of Israel to mourn and to be fearful, our
flesh starts looking at carnal sight and we start reasoning
carnally, and that's not faith. That is just not faith at all.
Go listen to that message I preached years ago called Unbelief and
Faith. Go listen to that message. Those children of Eresville had,
God told them exactly what that land of Canaan was going to look
like. And they had the idea, we're going to send spies in
first to look at it. That's not faith. We'll send
spies in to look at it, then once we've checked it out, make
sure it looks like what you said it looked like, then we'll believe
you. That's not faith. And they didn't believe him.
He let them do it, and they didn't believe him. But for you that
know Him, He's going to keep you believing Him. Even He'll
let you see that if He didn't, you wouldn't. But He's going
to keep this faith strengthening you to look to Christ only. And
the way He does it is by showing us time and again. The worst
thing we can do is look to ourselves. And He shows us that over and
over and over. He gives you a song in your heart.
He says to his child, fear not, I'm the king of kings and lord
of lords. I'm ruling everything. It's your
father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, little flock.
And even if you're in darkness, He says, you stay upon your King. You trust Him. And He'll keep
you doing it. And He's going to keep you walking
by faith. You know what happens then? We can turn this around
then. When He gives you faith to see
everything is in His hand and He's working everything according
to His will, And it's all been for your good and everything
that took place here with David and Saul and Jonathan, it was
all for David's good, all for the good of his elect in that
kingdom. When he makes you see that, you can turn it around
then. And concerning all the enemies
that are mighty and all their mighty weapons, verse 27, behold
in Christ our conqueror, you can say, how are the mighty fallen
and the weapons of war perished? You can say that about the enemy.
Christ has conquered, and He's made you a conqueror. So, I pray God will bless that. I pray
He'll give us the heart to seek Him. Let's go to Him, brother. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. Thank You for gathering us here, and we pray,
Lord, that You would bless it. We need you every hour. We need
your spirit. We need your word. We pray, Lord, you would call your
lost sheep. Pray that you would call your
wandering sheep. Lord, we pray you'd give wisdom
to your ignorant sheep. Lord, we are just sheep in need
of a shepherd, and we ask you to guide us, lead us, protect
us, keep us. We thank you, Father, for Christ's
sake. Amen.