Alright brethren, back in 1 Samuel
23, read here in verse 14. It says, David abode in the wilderness
in strongholds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness
of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day.
Now that was an extremely hard time for Saul. He's in this mountain,
he's in the wilderness, Dwelling in caves. He had a rock for his
pillow and rocks for his bed. It was hard. It was a hard place
to be. He was probably having a forage
for food. He had 600 men with him. So troubled in spirit that he
couldn't eat. which is what a true fast is. And not only that, he had this
burden that he's leading 600 men. Those ones that we saw that
came to him, there were 400, and the Lord's added to it. He's
responsible for them. Their blood is on him. And he's
now out in the wilderness with them. And he's a fugitive. He's a hunted man. And this was
the thing is Saul had 3,000 soldiers. And they're hunting David and
these 600 men that are with him. And David is the primary target. I mean, he is a hunted man. I've never been hunted. And I
don't think any of us have. Even soldiers in the military
were not the sole subject of the hunt. This was the sole target
was David. Saul wanted to kill him. Saul
and his soldiers represent the many enemies of Christ and his
people. The devil and his children, the
devil and his seed represents our sin nature, our sins, our
doubts and fears and everything that would turn us from Christ.
But we read here verse 14, it says, and Saul sought him every
day. but God delivered him not into
his hand. And not only that, we read here
in verse 16, Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David
into the wood and strengthened his hand in God. He strengthened
his hand in God. And that's what I want to talk
about, strengthened in God. Our Lord Jesus, because He suffered
as a man, because He walked where we walk, suffered as a man, experiencing
God the Father's faithfulness to him and the mercy of God to
him as a man. And having experienced that,
he not only saved his people from our sins, but he now is
risen as our God-man, as the Christ of God, the King and the
High Priest, so that he is faithful and merciful to save us and teach
us through all our suffering in this life. Not only does Christ
not deliver us into the hand of the enemy, but He comes and
strengthens our hand in God and keeps strengthening His people.
And by this, He's growing us up into Him to be more faithful
to Him and more faithful and merciful to one another. He's
a faithful and merciful high priest, and that's what he's
teaching us, to be faithful and merciful. Now, first I want to
look at David here as a type of Christ, and then we'll look
at David as a sinner saved by grace. Now, first of all, David
was God's anointed king. Now, it didn't appear that way
right now, but Saul knew it, and Saul was seeking to kill
him. And that was so of our Lord Jesus when he walked this earth.
Our Lord Jesus came and the devil and sinful men sought to kill
him the whole time, throughout his life. And the reason is because
God saves in a way that to carnal sight is foolish. It's just foolish,
that's one of the reasons. Isaiah said, who hath believed
our report? Our report's our gospel, the
preaching of the gospel's foolishness to carnal man. I mean, God's
gonna do this, he's gonna strengthen his people and save his people
through the preaching of the word. Who hath believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? The arm of the Lord's Christ.
You mean to tell me, this is what Cardinal Seitz said, you
mean to tell me the arm of the Lord, the power and wisdom of
God, is a man, a poor man, who went to a cross and was crucified
and rejected of men? That's what Colonel Sykes said,
and it's because he shall grow up as a tender plant, a root
out of a dry ground. There's no form nor comeliness
about him that when we should see him, we should desire him.
It was nothing, and that was on purpose. David here doesn't look like
he's the king. Christ didn't look like he was
the king, but he was. When we see him, there's no beauty
that'll make us desire him. He was despised and rejected
of men. A man of sorrows. You mean that's
the power and wisdom of God to save through a man who was a
man of sorrows? Exactly. He was acquainted with
grief continually. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. There's nobody esteeming David
right now. Worse was Christ. Nobody esteemed
Him. Turned away from Him. Just like
Saul was seeking to kill David, the devil sought to kill Christ
from the very beginning. Herod tried to kill Him at His
birth. Why didn't he? Why didn't he
succeed? God delivered him not into His hand. And then, like
these 3,000 soldiers that Saul has that are going after David,
The whole religious host, the Pharisees and all the other Sadducees
and they all were trying to kill the Lord and wanted to take him
throughout his days. We read, they sought to take
him but no man laid hands on him because his hour was not
yet come. That's another way of saying
God delivered him not into their hand. And you know what the Lord
did? The Lord sent an angel to Christ.
He's God, but he's as a man. The Lord sent an angel to him.
He went into the wilderness. That's where David is. He went
into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil 40 days and 40 nights. And he perfectly, faithful to
God, perfectly on behalf of his people, resisted the devil. And
when he finished, scripture says, then the devil leaveth him and
behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Just like Jonathan's
son went and ministered to David, angels came, messengers of God
came and they ministered to our Lord Jesus. And then again in
the garden of Gethsemane, he was praying, he was exceedingly
sorrowful. And the scripture says there
appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him. And
the enemy finally laid hold of Christ, but the only reason they
did is because he gave them permission to do it. That was the only reason.
But when he did that, what did he say? He said, take me and
let these go free. That's what he did. Why did he
suffer this way? Let's go back over to Hebrews
2 and see this again. Why did he suffer this way? Hebrews
2.17 says, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, for
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted. He's able to succor
them that are tempted. David's suffering is how God's
making David a merciful and a faithful king over political Israel. That's
what's taking place here. He's being made by experience
to be faithful and merciful. Well, Christ was not only suffering
to be consecrated a merciful and faithful king over God's
elect Israel, but also a faithful and merciful high priest. for
his people. That's what he accomplished.
He reconciled his people to God by being made sin for us. God
was in Christ, reconciling his people unto himself, not imputing
our trespasses to us. Why not? For he made him sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He was reconciling his people to God. That's what
he accomplished, being a faithful high priest to God, in mercy
to his people. And not only that, but now because
he has suffered and he has depended on God and he's been in our flesh
and he knows what that is to suffer in our flesh and to be
touched with the feeling of our infirmity and to be strengthened
from God. He's a faithful and merciful
high priest in things pertaining to God in his dealings with us
in this world. Look over at Hebrews 5 and look
at verse 1. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. That's
what Christ was doing. He's the gift and sacrifice he
offered to God for the sins of his people. But also, who can
have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way. That's you and me, his people. for that he himself also is accomplished
with infirmity. Now it might appear to carnal
sight that God was against David because of all his suffering.
And that's how it appeared to the natural eye concerning Christ.
But God ordained everything David suffered because it pictured
Christ who God ordained everything he suffered. Everything that
he went through. Sinners think that Christ was
crucified on the cross out of helplessness. It was ordained
of God. It was exactly what God would have to happen. And it's
how Christ honored God's justice and justified his people. Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. It was our
griefs and sorrows he was bearing. He knows our griefs and sorrows
now because he's borne the cause of our griefs and our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
It didn't appear to man naturally, carnally, that that's what he
was doing for his people. He was just smitten, afflicted
of God, we thought. But he was wounded for our transgressions. It was for us that he was wounded
for his people. He was bruised for our iniquities. That's why he was being bruised. The chastisement of our peace
was on him. and by his stripes were healed.
He accomplished it. And now, our king, David's being
made a king, he's being made a merciful and faithful king.
Christ, our king, is also our faithful and merciful high priest,
and as a man who is God, seated at the right hand of God, is
working everything coming to pass in this world. He was in
David's day, he's doing it now. And he's doing it so that in
our suffering, He's doing for us what He experienced as the
God-man from the Father, and He's faithful and He's merciful
to us to teach us through these things, to keep us looking to
Him and trusting Him as our only righteousness, our only holiness,
our only wisdom, our only salvation, and at the same time, to grow
us to be more like Him through the things we're suffering. Now,
let's see how the Lord did this with David. Let's look at David
now as a sinner saved by grace. Now David in himself is a sinner
like every other child of God that God saves. Now, at this
time, he's weak. He's fearful. He's doubting.
We know that because Jonathan comes to him and says, fear not. And we would be too, wouldn't
we? I mean, he's got 3,000 soldiers after him. And Saul's got a target
on him. And he's coming after him. He's
out here just abiding wherever he can in this mountain. I mean,
try to enter into that. We're sitting here in a nice,
comfortable place. And we're going to go home and
sleep in a nice, comfortable bed. What if the king of the
land had greatest army in the land and you were the target
and they're coming after you to kill you. We'd be fearful. We'd be totally cast down. And we see the life of a believer
in David. When you look at David, you think
about this. The Lord sent Samuel to David
and God had chosen him and he sent Samuel and he declared to
him he's going to be the king. He anointed And shortly after
that, David conquers the giant. He conquers Goliath. And that's
what the Lord does for us. He comes to you. He makes you
know he's chosen you. He makes you know that he regenerates
you and he gives you the faith to trust him. And he makes you
see you're more than conquerors through Christ who loved us.
And then just not long after that, when Saul rose up against
David, David leans to his own understanding, walks in the strength
of his hand, leaves Samuel the prophet, leaves the word, and
starts trying to work things out, and made a real mess of
things, and got himself into some serious, serious problems. Until the Lord came and brought
him down, brought him to the end of himself, renewed repentance,
granted him repentance, and renewed faith in him, strengthened faith
in him, and brought him to wait on the Lord. And then what happened? He went down to Keilah, defended
his brethren, conquered the enemy. Again, conquering the enemy.
And this is what the Lord does for us. Well, as soon as that
happened, what happens? He ends up back out in the wilderness.
And now he's fearful, and he's doubting, and he's troubled.
And it's going to take God coming and strengthening him, Christ
strengthening him in God. And this goes on in David's life
over and over and over until the day he died. That's our life. Seeing Christ, knowing we're
more than conquerors in him. And then some trouble comes. And we're back looking to ourselves,
fearful, doubting, in a mess. The Lord strengthens us. And
each time, he's growing you a little more. He's growing you a little
more, teaching you a little more. And sometimes there's some big
trouble he brings you into. And it's like when you was a
teenager and you had growing pains and you grew all of a sudden.
And he grows you a little more, a little quicker. But most of
the time, it's little by little as he's dealing with you. That's
the life of a believer. Now, he gonna often do this the
way that he did here. Christ is who's gonna come and
strengthen his children. He said, I never leave you, I
never forsake you. He walks amongst the candlesticks,
he comes and he strengthens his child. He is our strength. But he often does what he did
right here. He used an angel, he used a messenger.
He used Jonathan, a brother, a friend, to come and speak to
David, to strengthen him. Now let's look at Jonathan here.
He is an example of a believer who at this time is strengthened
by the Lord. Now think about Jonathan's life.
This is Saul's son. This is Saul's son, the man who's
trying to kill David. This is his son. Now as Saul's
son, that meant Jonathan was in line for the throne. When
Saul died, Jonathan was going to be the king, if not before. And Jonathan knew that. That
kind of reminds you of how when we wanted the power of the devil,
and we thought ourselves kings, and we thought we were going
to rule and reign throughout our life, and then the Lord makes
you hear the gospel, and He reveals Christ to you. You go back over
to 1 Samuel 18, look what happened. whenever Jonathan met David. 1 Samuel 18 verse 1, this is
after he had heard about David killing Goliath and David comes
into the king's court and he declares his name and it says
verse 1, it came to pass 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. Look at verse 3, then
Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own
soul. Now look at this, 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. When the Spirit of God comes
and reveals Christ and he knits your heart together with Christ
and makes you behold Christ is the King, That makes you stop
wanting to be the king. That makes you willing to be
stripped of that robe you thought entitled you to the throne and
all your weapons and all the way down to your girdle. He takes
everything. And you want Christ to have all
that honor and all that glory and all that praise. Later on, back over in 1 Samuel
20, I won't read it, but there's a couple of verses there where
Saul is tempting Jonathan. He told Jonathan, he said, he
said, as long as David lives, you're not going to be the king.
Your glory, you're not going to have this glory. He's saying,
so bring him to me so I can kill him. And the devil, that's how the
devil tempted and beguiled Eve in the garden. As God said, you
will be why? You will, you will. And that's
what He is telling Jonathan, if you betray David to me, you
can sit in his throne. Is that not the tempting of the
devil in every way that he tempts us? I will ascend to the throne
of the most high. He wants us to usurp the authority
of Christ our king. But Jonathan defended David.
And when he did, Saul became angry. And Saul threw a javelin
and tried to kill his own son. He hated Jonathan almost as much
as he did David because Jonathan submitted to David and was in
covenant with David. So in our text here, when Jonathan,
it says there in 1 Samuel 23, it says, and Jonathan saw a son
arose and went to David into the wood. This was risking Jonathan's
life. His father's the king. This was
risking his life to go to David. But the grace and love of God
in Christ, it'll make us go to Christ in the wilderness even
if we're rejected of men. That's what the Hebrew writer
said. Jesus also that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. That's
the picture of David. He's suffering out here. He saved
Kiela because of that. How many times does he save us?
Those men in Kiela, You know why they were going to betray
David to Saul? Because they were fearful of
Saul. Saul had killed 85 priests and killed all the inhabitants
of Nob. If you were in their shoes, without
the grace of God, we would do the same thing. We do that every
day by not speaking as we ought to speak because we are fearful
of an employer or neighbor or friend or whatever. And David,
knowing that, led Saul away from him to save him. and how many
times does Christ continue in the face of our unbelief and
our doubt and our fear and our ingratitude and our unfaithfulness
continue to make intercession for us and continue to save us
in spite of us. And so here is David. He is out
there suffering a picture of Christ without the gate. And
you have here this Hebrew scripture, let us go forth unto him without
the count, bearing his reproach, for here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. Jonathan went to him. And that's
what a believer do, he'll go to Christ, he'll go to him, even
if it means rejection by everybody. And that's what Jonathan, so
we have a picture here of a believer strengthened by the Lord. He's
going out to David who is an example of a weak believer. Fearful
and doubting, fearful brother. One way Christ is going to strengthen
us when we're weak is using a brother who Christ has strengthened at
the time. And so verse 16, Jonathan saw a son arose and he went to
David into the wood and he strengthened his hand in God. Isn't that what
our Lord teaches us to do? That's exactly what He teaches.
He says in Isaiah 35.3, strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the
feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong,
fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance. Vengeance
belongs to Him. It doesn't belong to us. It belongs
to God. We go beyond where we're supposed
to go and go into vengeance. Vengeance belongs to Him. I believe
He's sovereign. He'll manage things. Even God with a recompense. He'll
come and save you. Our Lord said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. I want to strengthen your hand
in God. I want you to be strengthened in God by the Spirit of the Lord
through His gospel. He says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Tell her her sin has been pardoned. Her iniquity is pardoned. She's
received with the Lord's hand double for her sins. Jonathan
comes there and he didn't make David's burden greater. He didn't
speak about those 85 priests. You know that had to be on David's
heart. when you are in a place where David was at, David is
looking at every sin he has ever committed, every thought, every
wicked thought, every wicked deed. And the Lord is the Lord
is the devil is saying you can't be a child of God. You can't
possibly be a child of God. But Jonathan knows David has
been the Lord has dealt with David. And so he obeyed the Lord. He
came and he had compassion on him. He had mercy on him. He
strengthened him in the Lord. He's saying to him, the Lord's
the saving strength of his anointed, David. Turn from all this and
look to Christ. He's the saving strength of his
anointed. Do you know that? He's the saving
strength. You're his anointed. If you're
his, then he's the saving strength of his anointed. Isn't that what
we need? Isn't that what you need? It's
what I need. Put down our flesh with doubts
and fears and strengthen the inner man. God is our refuge
and our strength, a very present help in trouble. He's our refuge. He's our strength. He's present
with his people. We want somebody to be the president
who's got some experience. We want somebody to lead us who's
got some experience. experience comes through some
trouble. Jonathan didn't make David more
fearful by pointing him to Saul and those 3,000 soldiers. He
didn't come to say my dad is really angry at you and he's
going to kill you. He got 3,000 well trained men. I saw them out there working.
They're crack shots. They're going to shoot you with
their bows and they're good. Verse 17, he said to him, fear
not. For the hand of Saul my father
shall not find thee. How do you know this, Jonathan?
He had the promise of God. He had the word of God. And he
believes David is the Lord's. He believes David's the Lord.
Deuteronomy 31.6, this is what he's saying. To him, be strong
and of a good courage, and fear not, nor be afraid of them. For
the Lord thy God, he it is that does go with thee. He will not
fail thee, nor forsake thee. That's all my hope. That's all
my hope. I know the Lord is not going
to fail his people. He's going to protect his people.
And nobody's going to hurt them. Christ says to his child, fear
thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, I am thy God. I'm your God, he said. I'll strengthen
thee, I'll help thee, yeah, I'll uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. We sing that. Every word of that. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. That's
all we are, is the worm, Jacob. And we got plenty of reason to
be fearful if we're gonna look at ourselves and one another
and depend on our strength. A lot of reason to fear, nothing
but fear. But he says, fear not thou worm
Jacob, ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. That's what he's saying
to David. I've redeemed thee, the Lord
said. I called you by your name, you're mine. When you pass through
the waters, I'll be with you. I'm the Holy One of Israel, I'm
your Redeemer. I'll give men for you, I'll give
people for your life. I created you for my glory. I made you. Jonathan strengthened
David with God's immutable promise. He strengthened David also by
telling him, I'm in allegiance with you, David. He says here
in verse 17, thou shalt be king over Israel and I shall be next
unto thee. And that also saw my father knoweth. Jonathan reminded David of what
God promised. He reminded him, David, you shall
be the king of Israel. I'm reminding you right now,
Christ Jesus by his blood has made his people kings and priests
unto God. And you shall reign right now
with Christ in this earth. That's so, that's so of all his
people. By his blood. And Jonathan, as
he said this, he strengthened David by telling him he was for
David. He said, David, I'm here next
to you right now in the wilderness. I'm here with you in your weakness.
and when God puts you on the throne, I'll be next to you there.
Now we know Jonathan ended up dying, he wasn't there, but that
was his, he was encouraging David and he wasn't being doubtful
of David and making David hurt worse because of his condition. He was telling him, I believe
you and I believe what God's gonna do for you and I trust
what he's gonna do for you and you're my brother in Christ and
I'm with you. God helping me, I'm with you.
I'm with you. The Lord teaches us throughout
the scripture, he teaches us don't ever shut the door. Don't
ever build a wall or partition back up. But be there, be, I'll be next
to you. And he says, and even though
Saul, my father, knows about it, he wants to kill me because
of it. He said, I'm with you. For the Lord's sake, for His
honor, I'm with you. I'm with you. Then they renewed their covenant
with each other. He said in verse 18, and they
too made a covenant before the Lord. The Lord uses brethren to remind
one another that we too are in an everlasting covenant of grace
in Christ our King. It's the New Testament in His
blood. The New Testament in His blood. Ordered in all things
and sureness is all our salvation. And they made a covenant before
the Lord. And they parted, then they parted,
but this word was in their heart. This word was in their heart.
It says, David abode in the wood, Jonathan went to his house. I
can hear David watching Jonathan go away. And I've been here before. I've been here. Just when you
are so weak and you get a word from a brother that's faithful
and compassionate and merciful and for the sake of Christ, it strengthens you in the Lord. In the Lord, points you to the
Lord. And I can just hear David saying of Jonathan what Paul
said of Onesiphorus. The Lord give mercy to the house
of Onesiphorus. I can hear David say, Lord, give
mercy to Jonathan's house. For he oft refreshed me. He wasn't
ashamed of my chain. Why does the Lord strengthen
us? Why does he do that? To strengthen our brethren. That's why he does it. It's not
to be ministered to, it's to minister to them. To strengthen them. The Lord
said, Satan desired to sift you as wheat, Peter, but I prayed
for you that your faith fell not. That's why it didn't. And
he said, and when you're converted, after you've gone through this
trial, denied me three times, feared a maiden by fire more
than you fear God, and go out and leave the ministry and try
to apostatize, and once I've converted you back to me and
made you see that you're kept by my grace, you go strengthen
your brethren with it. With the same consolation you've
been consoled with, strengthen your brethren with it. I picture
David going back to his men. He'd been in those strongholds
and those mountains and that cave and I could see his men
down and they're weak and they're dejected and I could see him
going back to his men and pointing to that stronghold and saying,
men, as the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord's round about his people from henceforth
forevermore. Strengthening the Lord. by his
faithful friend. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and he delivers them. Years later,
he did the same thing. He'd experienced sin, mercy,
sin, mercy, sin, mercy, sin, mercy, and Solomon was weak. He said, be strong and of good
courage, and do fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God,
even my God, will be with thee. He won't fail thee. He won't
forsake thee till thou has finished all the work for the service
of the house of the Lord. That's how he strengthens him.
And here's what he said. He wrote this psalm, this song,
at the end of the whole thing when God finally put Saul down. I'll just give you a few verses
of it. But in 2 Samuel 22, 18, he said, he delivered me from
my strong enemy. This is what we're gonna say
in the end. He delivered me from my strong
enemy. from them that hated me, for they were too strong for
me. They prevented me in the day
of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He was my stay. God's my strength and power.
He makes my way perfect. Therefore, I give thanks to thee,
O Lord. Among the heathen, I'll sing
praises unto thy name. He's the tower of salvation for
his king. He shows mercy to his anointing
unto David and to his seed forevermore. I pray, I just pray God will,
that he will strengthen our hands in the Lord. I pray for that. I pray he'll
strengthen our hand in the Lord. Paul said, finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord. And in the power of his might. be strong in the grace that's
in Christ Jesus. That means he's going to be our
strength. Because we don't have any. We don't have any. He's going to teach us that.
He's going to teach us that. And we're going to rejoice in
him. And we're going to be When all the dust is settled,
his people are going to be stronger, looking to Christ, more united
in Christ, more faithful to Christ, more merciful to one another.
And it's going to be by him showing us how merciful he's been to
us in the face of everything we are. He never stops it, right
up to the end. And then we'll sing that song,
He Made Me Overcome. Amen.