Now, in Psalm 52, we read our
heading there and it says, this is to the chief musician, Maskell,
a psalm of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul
and said unto him, David is come to the house of Himelech. Now, hold your place here and
let's go over to 1 Samuel 21. Now, David fled from Saul and
he came to the town of Nob and he came to Himalek and Himalek
gave him the sanctified shewbread. He gave him the holy shewbread
because David and his men were hungry. You remember Christ commended
him for that. Remember when they plucked the
ears of corn on the Sabbath, and he commended Ahimelech for
doing that. And he gave him Goliath's sword. He gave him Goliath's sword.
Now, we read here in verse 7, 1 Samuel 21.7, Now a certain
man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before
the Lord. And his name was Doeg and Edomite,
the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. Now, Doeg is
a type of Judas Iscariot. He's a type of false preachers. He's the head of the servants
of Saul, the chiefest of the servants of Saul. He's a type
of all people who are religious but who are antichrist. Antichrist. That's who he pictures here.
He was an Edomite. He was a descendant of Esau.
That one God hated. So Doeg here is a picture of
those that have not been chosen of God. But he was a proselyte,
professed to be a proselyte to the Jews' religion. He professed
to worship the true and living God. He was detained there, it
says, before the Lord because he was going through the outward
form of worship just like a true worshiper of God would. He was making sacrifices and
what have you. And he was the chiefest of the
herdmen to Saul, meaning, appropriately, he was over all the servants
and his job was to feed the asses. That was his job. We do read
of God laughing. And that's an appropriate job
for this man, for Doeg, because he pictures false preachers.
Now, 1 Samuel 22, look at verse 6. It says, And when Saul heard
that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, now
Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having a spear in his
hand, and all his servants were standing about him. Then Saul
said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites,
will the son of Jesse, talking about David, will he give every
one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of
thousands and captains of hundreds? that all of you have conspired
against Me, that there's none that showeth Me that My Son,
talking about Jonathan, hath made a league with the son of
Jesse, and there's none of you that's sorry for Me, or showeth
unto Me that My Son hath stirred up My servant against Me to lie
in wait, is that this day? He's basically saying, there's
going to be some great rewards, great rewards for you if you
If you obey me and you tell me about this secret league. There
was no secret league. He was just paranoid. That's
all it was. Now watch this now. Then answered.
Here's one. He heard about those fields and
those vineyards. He heard about being made captains
of thousands and captains of hundreds. Then answered Doeg
the Edomite which was set over the servants of Saul. He said,
I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob to Ahimelech, the son
of Itau, and he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him food,
and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Now Doeg is lying. He's lying. Ahimelech did not
inquire of the Lord for David. That was a special thing that
a priest did with the Urim and the Thummim, not for just anybody,
but for the king. That's what he's talking about
here. To inquire of the Lord for the king. So what Doeg is
accusing Halimelech and David of is treason. He's accusing
them of treason. He's lying. Part of what he said
was true. He gave him bread and he gave
him sword, but the other part was not true. Now let's read
on here verse 11. And then the king sent to call
Ahimelech the priest, the son of Hathub, and all his father's
house, the priests that were in Nod. And they came, all of
them, to the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou
son of Hathub. And he answered, Here I am, my
lord. And Saul said unto him, Why have
ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse? And thou
hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast inquired of God for
him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait as at this
day. Then Ahimelech answered the king,
and he said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David,
which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and
is honorable in thy house? Did I then begin to inquire of
God for him? Be it far from me. Let not the
king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all the house
of my father, for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less
or more. And the king said, Thou shalt
surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy father's house. And the
king said unto the footman that stood about him, Turn and slay
the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David.
Because they knew when he fled and did not show it unto me.
But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand
to fall upon the priests of the Lord. These were priests of the
Lord. They weren't going to slay the
priests of the Lord. These were God's preachers. And the king said to Doeg, turn
thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg the Edomite turned and
he fell upon the priest and he slew on that day four score and
five persons that did wear a linen ephod. He killed 85 of the Lord's
priests that day. And Nob, the city of priests,
smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children
and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the
sword. Some say there was 385 people
total that Doeg slew with a sword. And one of the sons of Himalek,
a son of Atub, named Abiathar, escaped, and he fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar,
I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he
would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of
all the persons of thy father's house. Now that wasn't specifically
true because this was the fulfillment of what God told Eli all those
years before that he was going to slay all the priests in his
house because he didn't discipline his sons. But David was, he mourned
over this And it says, he said, Abide thou with me, and fear
not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life. But with me
thou shalt be in safeguard. And so then David, in his state
of mourning, he penned Psalm 52 under the Spirit of God. Now
in verses 1 through 5, he speaks to Doeg. Doeg is a type of antichrist. Now, Antichrist is anyone who
is against Christ. It's anybody against Christ.
The Reformers used to, you know, specifically say the Pope was
Antichrist. Well, he indeed is Antichrist. He fits the description perfectly. Paul said he's the man of sin,
the son of perdition. This is a description of Antichrist
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God
or that is worshipped. So that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God showing himself that he is God. And that's what
the Pope does. That's what the Pope does. But
remember what the Apostle John told us. He said, little children,
it's the last time, as you've heard, that Antichrist shall
come, even so now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know
it is the last time. There are many Antichrists. Everybody who is against Christ
is Antichrist. There's multitudes in this world
who profess to believe on Christ, profess to preach Christ, profess
to follow Christ, but in reality, they're will-worshippers. They
worship the flesh, they worship the works of their hands, opposed
to Christ having all the glory. That's an anti-Christ. An anti-Christ. God's elect have
always been a remnant in every generation. When you compare
God's elect to the multitudes who claim to worship Christ,
who are actually anti-Christ, God's people are a remnant, a
very small remnant. Antichrists appear to prosper
in this world. They have the large buildings.
They have the large followings. They're very active all over
the world. They appear very prosperous.
But it's those Christ has made righteous that prosper. They
prosper now and they prosper forever. Those Christ has made
righteous, that remnant that are His. Now, for our divisions,
the Holy Spirit gives characteristics of Antichrist, and then secondly,
He gives comfort to all who believe on our Lord Jesus Christ in spirit
and in truth. So first of all, what are some
traits of Antichrist? What are some traits of those
who are Antichrist? Well, one, they boast in themselves. They boast in themselves. He
says in verse 1, Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty
man? Now what were the works that
Doeg boasted in? Well, Doeg obeyed King Saul,
he obeyed the king, and he killed 85 of God's unarmed priests. And he killed a whole city of
unarmed men and women and children and animals. Now it's easy for
you and me to see that that was an evil work. You can see that. I see that. That's an evil work.
But Doeg really thought he had done a good work. He really thought
he had done a good work. Doeg claimed to worship the true
God. He claimed to. He had an outward
form the same as true worshippers did. That's why he was at Nob. But he worshipped the God of
his imagination. He didn't worship the true God.
He worshipped only outwardly, not in the heart. He was spiritually
dead in his heart. Doeg lied on David. David's a
beautiful picture of Christ. Let me read you this back there
in 1st Psalm, in 21. Listen to who came to David.
Then came to David to Nob, no wait I'm sorry, chapter 22. David
departed thence, escaped to the cave of Dullam, and when his
brethren in all his father's house heard, they went down thither
to him. And everyone that was in distress,
that means having nowhere else to turn. Everybody that was in
distress, everyone that was in debt, everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain over
them and there were with him about 400 men. Beautiful picture
of Christ. But Doeg spoke against David. He spoke against David, and he
spoke against God's priests, his messengers. He spoke against
them. He killed the Lord's priests in obedience to King Saul. And King Saul is a type of the
devil. He's a type of the devil. So
Doeg's boast was that in obedience to God, if you were to talk to
Doeg, this is what he said, in obedience to God, Obedience to
the king. I slew treasonous men. Men who were enemies of our God
and our king. I slew them. Now he knew in his
heart that was a lie. They weren't treasonous. But
he had convinced himself this was a good work. But God says
Doeg there boasted in mischief. That means in evil works. God
calls it evil. He hated God, so he hated God's
priests. He hated God, so he hated God's
people. He hated God, so he slew God's
priests and God's preachers, because he couldn't get to God.
His motive was evil. He did what he did for self-promotion
because King Saul promised he'd get lands and he'd get promotion
to be captain over a thousand. He was looking for rewards. That's
why he did what he did. Brethren, a spiritually dead
religious man. He's spiritually dead, but he's
religious. These men really do think they
serve the true and living God. Really do. They boast in their
law keeping. They boast in their good works.
They boast that it's for their God. It's for God. It's for the
Lord Jesus. It's for His glory, they say.
They boast that it's for their God. God's telling us here, but
it's really for the devil. That's serious. It's really for
the devil. And all the works are for self-promotion. They're for rewards. They're mercenary works is what
they are. And they boast too in rejecting
and persecuting God's true preachers and His true church. Here's boasting. Here's boasting
in evil. I'll give you a modern day version
of boasting in evil. This is a sign. I took a picture
of this. It's in Pennington. This is a
sign in front of a church. Listen to this. In this congregation,
this is boasting. Boasting in evil. In this congregation,
we believe love is love. Boasting in sodomy. Black lives
matter. Climate change is real. No human
being is illegal. Politics don't have any business
in God's church. We're not here to talk about
politics. We're here to talk about the gospel. All genders
and abilities are whole, holy, and good. And women have agency over their
bodies. That's on a church sign. That's
boasting in evil. That's what that is. That's exactly
what God is talking about here. Now secondly, from a depraved
heart, the mouth speaks a false gospel and slander against Christ
and against His people. From a depraved heart. They love
it and so they speak it. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Look here in verse 2. Thy tongue
diviseth mischiefs. It means your tongue plans and
purposes evils. Evils. Like a sharp razor working
deceitfully, craftily with much subtlety. Thou lovest from the
heart. Thou lovest evil more than good. and lying rather than to speak
righteousness. Thou lovest all devouring words,
O thou deceitful tongue. A deceitful tongue speaks from
a deceitful heart. God says false preachers and
false religionists, that's what we're talking about here, purposely
speak evils. Purposely speak evils. Here's
an example. God sent Jeremiah to declare,
we've been seeing this in Jeremiah, to declare what God was about
to do in chastening and uprooting and punishing the wicked in Israel.
When he got through preaching God's Word, Jeremiah 18.18 says
this is what the religious folks did. Then said they come, let
us devise devices against Jeremiah. For the law shall not perish
from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from
the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the
tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. See, Doag
went in with a sword and killed God's priests and killed God's
people. But false preachers use a tongue.
That's their sword. It's the tongue. against Stephen
in Acts 6 verse 12. They stirred up the people and
the elders and the scribes came upon him and they caught him
and they brought him to the council. And they set up false witnesses. This was devised. This was planned
and purposed. And they said this man ceaseth
not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place. and
the law. For we've heard him say that
this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall
change the customs which Moses delivered us. They always put,
they always defend Moses, the law, their works over Christ. Always. The spiritually dead
religious heart loves to speak evil. loves it. He loves to declare
that all men are not totally ruined in sin. All men are not
ruined in sin. There's some good in men. And
men have a free will. You see it on church signs, advertising,
boasting in their blasphemy. Free will, Baptist church. Boasting
in it. They love that message. They
love to hear it. They love to preach it. Rather
than the good word of God that declares every sinner died in
Adam. Every sinner ruined in Adam.
We're all ruined in Adam. And the only way we're saved
is not by our will. It's by God's sovereign will
in graciously choosing whom He will. And He chose whom He would
in the last Adam. the one who came forth perfect
and obeyed God. Men love to speak. This is what
the natural heart loves. The natural heart loves. We're
not, now listen, we're not talking about, when we try to talk to
men, you're not going to reason men into agreeing with you. I
don't care how well you can preach, I don't care how well you can
reason, you are not going to argue men into believing the
gospel. This is a heart problem. And
men love, they love to speak of man's works. They would rather
hear man's works preached than to hear that salvation is by
the finished work of Christ. Men talk about what they love. You get around folks and a new
couple, they're going to talk about one another. You listen
to one of them, they're talking about that new sweetheart. You
get around a mother and a father, they're going to talk about their
children. You get around grandparents, they're going to talk about their
grandchildren. People talk about what they love. God's people
love Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
We are determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
That is what we want to hear. He is our life. We love Him. But the wicked man loves to speak
of man's works. We have been going through these
precepts in the New Testament. And when I preach these precepts,
I have, I guess you'd call it a formula, but it's just a pattern
that I'm going to always, maybe not in this order, but I'm going
to always tell you that we can't be saved by doing these precepts.
We failed in all these precepts so that we can't come to God
doing these precepts. And I'm going to always show
you that Christ is our perfection in those precepts. And then I'll
talk to you about the precepts, because then you'll be constrained
by the love of Christ and what He's done, and you won't boast
in what you've done. But these people speak, preach
those precepts, and they leave the person that's hearing it,
they leave them thinking, well, this is how I'm saved. This is
how I'm made righteous or this is how I contribute to my holiness.
They will shut them up in sin and shut them up to Christ. You
see, they leave it open-ended and men think this is how they're
saved. Men love with craftiness and
subtlety, they love to bring the law back in and make it necessary
for sanctification. craftily, subtlety. Our Lord said the days are coming
when if it was possible they'd deceive the very elect. We're
in those days. I really believe it. I really
believe it. They'll preach election. They'll
preach particular redemption, though I don't think they really
believe particular redemption. They'll preach irresistible grace. They'll preach perseverance of
the saints. They preach the fall, total ruin, but they're going
to bring the sinner back under the law to contribute to His
holiness. And by doing that, they disannul
everything else they said. They exalt man and abase Christ. And they love it. Rather than
declaring that Christ Jesus the Lord is the righteousness of
God and the holiness of God. God said this, none calleth for
justice, Isaiah 59, verse 4, none calleth for justice nor
any pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity, they speak
lies, they conceive mischief, they bring forth iniquity. You
think about a false gospel. Christ dies for everybody, they
say. How is that equitable if some
men perish and die in their sin. They bring forth iniquity. That's
not equal. And they say that it's the sinner
who makes it effectual. That doesn't equal what God's
Word said. They bring forth iniquity, not
just in their deeds, oh yes, in their deeds, but in the message
they speak. They don't plead for justice.
There's no righteousness in the message, how God can be just
and justify. They change the truth of God
into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the creator
who's blessed forever. Now in our psalm, God tells us
what the will worshipper is guilty of in verse 7. Lo, verse 7, Lo,
this is the man that made not God his strength. There's number
one. It's not Christ alone. but trusted
in the abundance of his riches in his many wonderful works. In planting churches, and making
converts, and casting out devils, and preaching in Christ's name,
many wonderful works, the abundance of the riches. and strengthen
himself in his wickedness, in his form of godliness, which
denies the power of God. He doesn't call it wickedness,
he calls it good. But God says he's strengthening
himself in his wickedness, in his wickedness. God shall destroy
all antichrist. Everybody who meets God, trusting
one thing they've done, just one thing they've done, they
are totally, completely antichrist. and they will, here's their end. Verse 5, God shall destroy thee
forever, he shall take thee away, pluck thee out of thy dwelling
place, root thee out of the land of the living, the righteous
also shall see and fear, you know, reverence God and shall
laugh at him. Psalm 2, it says, God sits in
the heavens and laughs. Christ said, I have had you in
derision. We are going to rejoice in the
judgment of God against such men. Now let me get to this. This is what I want to talk about. Comfort from God's people. Look
back there in verse 1. The goodness of God endureth
continually. The goodness of God endureth
continually. Antichrist religion does nothing
to hinder the salvation of the Lord toward God's people. Antichrist
religion does nothing to hinder God's salvation for His people.
The only reason God delays judgment in this world, judgment of antichrist
men and women, the only reason He delays it is because God has
a chosen people And God's goodness endures continually. He loves
mercy. He loves grace. He loves his people. He everlastingly
loves them. And it's God we glory. And God
said, let him that glories glory in this. He knows me who exercises
goodness and loving kindness in the earth. Let him rejoice
in me. God delays judgment because He
has a people who Christ perfected forever in this world. That never changes, brethren.
The goodness of God endures continually. The self-righteous man's goodness
only endures until he dies and all his works die with him. Christ's
righteousness endures continually. He accomplished eternal redemption
for His people. He accomplished eternal righteousness
for His people. He is eternal righteousness for
His people. It never ends. If you don't have
anything to do with making it so, when you die you won't have
anything to do with ending it either. It's eternal, it's Christ. God said of His high priesthood,
He said, this man because he continueth ever, he continueth
ever hath an unchangeable priesthood. He's our sanctification who endures
continually. He has perfected what? Forever
them that are sanctified. God delays judgment on the wicked
because God's going to call to faith each and every one who
He chose, who Christ redeemed. He's going to call them to repentance
and faith in Christ Jesus. Every single one of them. God's
goodness endureth continually. The Lord's not slack concerning
His promise. Some men count slackness. They
said everything continues as it always has. No, it's the goodness
of God that continues. He's not slack concerning his
promises. Some men can't count slackness,
but his long-suffering to usward. Find out from the first part
of that 2 Peter who the usward are. He's right to God's elect,
to his chosen people, to his redeemed, to those sanctified
by Christ. He's long-suffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Not one drop of rain fell till God put Noah in that ark with
his family. Not one, not one, not one ball
of fire fell from heaven upon Sodom until God brought light
out of Sodom. And there's no judgment going
to fall on Antichrist as a whole in this world and this world
be destroyed until God's called out every one of his elect. That's
why he holds it in store. That's why he's holding it in
store right now. That's why Peter said a count
at the long suffering of God is salvation. Those God's called,
He's going to preserve every one of them. He's going to preserve
them. He's going to continue the work
in them and preserve them until the end. He's going to do it
through the preaching of the gospel. God's goodness endures continually
in that He never leaves Himself without a witness in this world. and His goodness endures continually
in that He nourishes His people and feeds His people and preserves
His people through the preaching of Christ in Him crucified. Christ said, my sheep hear my
voice and I know them. I know them. I know them intimately. I know them inwardly. I know
them in giving them a new heart. They hear my voice, they hear
my gospel being preached and through my gospel I know them
inwardly giving them a new heart and the result is they follow
me. They hear my voice and they follow
me and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. Paul said we're
confident. Confident in ourselves? Confident
in God's people? No. We're confident of this very
thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, God who's
begun a good work in you, shall perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. the goodness of God endureth
continually. As for man, Psalm 103, 15, As
for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so
he flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it, and it's gone,
and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children. What
about if the dough eggs of this world kill us? What if they burn
us at the stake? What about Ahimelech and all
those priests that dough egg killed? God says, they shall
not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, saith the Lord.
They didn't hurt Ahimelech. Not at all. They didn't hurt
him. When Doeg killed him, all he
did was separate Ahimelech from his sinful flesh. And the moment
he opened his eyes, conformed to the image of Christ, he said,
thank you Doeg, I appreciate it. He didn't hurt him. He didn't hurt him at all. In
fact, you know God in His sovereign goodness is using antichrist
inhabitants of this world to save his people from the devil?
Go to Revelation 12 and let me show you this. Revelation 12,
15. You can read the whole thing later, but let me read this to
you real quick. Revelation 12, 15. This is the
serpent who was waiting to devour the Son of Man as soon as the
woman brought Him forth, you know. But the Son of Man came
forth and accomplished God's purpose, redeemed His people
and went back to glory. Now watch this. Verse 15, Revelation
12, 15, and the serpent The devil cast out of his mouth water as
a flood after the woman, after Christ's church, his bride, that
he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth
helped the woman. The earth opened her mouth and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And they helped the woman. My
grandfather used to say, the leaves shade the fruit. You need
the leaves to shade the fruit. You need Antichrist. Why? They're
swallowing up the flood of the serpent's wickedness. Taking
it hook, line, and sinker. So brethren, don't fear the vainly
religious world. Don't envy the wicked. Don't
see their prosperity and their giant cathedrals and what they're
doing and don't envy them. David said, I envied them until
I went to the house of God and then I saw their end. I remembered
their end. The goodness of God endures continually. Therefore, verse 8, I'm like
a green olive tree in the house of God. Planted by Christ, watered
by Christ, kept alive and evergreen by Christ, made to produce good
fruit by Christ. I'm like a green olive tree.
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I trust in God's mercy
forever I will praise thee forever. Why? Because thou hast done it. Done what? All of it. All of
it. And I will wait on thy name for
it's good. Christ's name and everything
he is and everything he's done for his people is good. It's
good. It's good before thy saints.
How do you know if a preacher's been sanctified? I mean, yeah,
if a preacher's been sanctified by God. And our people have been
sanctified by God. How do you know it? They trust
in the mercy of God forever. They praise God in Christ forever
because the Lord has done everything in their salvation. They are
not waiting on rewards. They are not looking for rewards.
They are waiting on Christ, their inheritance. They are looking
for Christ, their inheritance. Christ is their heaven. That
is who they are looking for. Christ's name is the only name
that's good before God's name. That's how you know you're listening
to God's people and hearing God's people. I pray God sanctify us
and keep us in his house, nourished by his word, prospering and saved
from antichrist. Amen.