Let's be turning to 1 Samuel
19. One of the many ways that David is
a picture of Christ for us is that he is the target of many
persecutions from Saul. Saul should be thankful for David's
coming. Saul should be rejoicing in David's
coming because of who David is a picture of. And so he should
delight in him, and he should receive his coming in the same
manner that we see Jonathan rejoicing in David. Jonathan loved David. He submitted all. to David. He stripped himself down and
yielded it all to David, seeing what God had done through this
man and would do. And we see this in scripture,
how this is a picture of Christ. Many like Saul, many Jews like
Saul, rejected Christ. And few Jews received him like
Jonathan received him. We're told in John chapter 1
that our Lord came unto his own, and his own received him not. But we're told that as many as
received him, God gave power to them to become, to be the
sons of God, even in them which believe on his name. And we're
told what that means. We're told that what that's saying
is that God gave them power to become sons, to believe. That's
why they believe. That's why their faith in Christ
was manifested. And he says in verse 13 of John
1, they were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. God gave them that life,
and that's why they believe and receive him. And someone would
argue, and I could see their point. Saul did. They would argue,
well, Jonathan really shouldn't have been too excited for David's
coming. And he should have sought the
death of David the way that Saul did, because David's coming meant
the death of Saul, and by extension, the death of Jonathan. But that really is a picture
of believers, isn't it? Because Christ, our King, means
the death of this old man of flesh. We take sides with Christ
against ourselves. We agree with God that we are
sinners worthy of death, worthy of the wrath of God, even as
our brother prayed this evening. That's our wages. We've earned
that death. But we believe him. We trust
him. We've been given an understanding
that our God saves us through Christ. We die to self. We die
to our own righteousness and confidence in what we've done,
trusting our Lord, that he is all. Now tonight, I want to look
with you, not as David, as a picture of Christ specifically. but as
one whom the Lord uses to teach his people of the salvation of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for
us, what he does for us in saving his people to the uttermost. And so we see in this passage,
as we see in all the scriptures, our Lord is teaching us of the
many blessings, the manifold blessings, all spiritual blessings
given to us in Christ. You know, God suffered David,
meaning God allowed David to experience manifold trials, manifold
persecutions, manifold temptations. He suffered it. He allowed it
in order that we might know and understand how that our God saves
his people and how he deals with us. He did this that we would
understand and see the blessings that our God gives to us in Christ. And while David was going through
those trials, our Lord was sustaining him. Our Lord was keeping him. Our Lord was bearing him up time
and time again so that we see in David all these many, many
examples of how the Lord deals with us, how the Lord saves us,
how the Lord is kind and gracious and benefits us for Christ's
sake. Paul affirms this truth over
in Romans chapter 15. And in Romans chapter 15 in verse
3 he begins, even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written,
the reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen on me. And he's
telling us, I bear them. I'm bearing the reproaches that
come against you in the flesh. They're coming against me. I'm
bearing all those reproaches. They fell on me. Our Lord bears
this for his people. And he's the one that's holding
us up. He's the one that is sustaining us and keeping us and keeping
our hearts. directed toward him, looking
to him, believing him, staying upon him. And he does this through
all our trials in order that we might learn these very truths,
seeing how that it's God which raises the dead, how it's God
that saves us, how it's God who delivers us, how it's God who
is all to the believer, and that we would be comforted by these
things, having this understanding that this is of the Lord. This
is God's hand doing this. This is for my good and for my
benefit. This is for my salvation and
the salvation of my brethren. And Paul continues in Romans
15 verse 4, saying, for whatsoever things were written aforetime,
just like we see here, as we'll see here, whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning. that we, through
patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope, that we would
have this hope, that our God is doing all this in grace and
mercy for us. And so in our text tonight, we'll
look at just one of the lessons, one of the lessons, one of these
examples where God uses Saul and Jonathan, and David, to reveal
some of the many redemption blessings which we've been given in Christ.
So we're only going to look at the first seven verses of this
chapter, but this is throughout this chapter, and Lord willing
we'll come back and see more of these examples, but we'll
look at the first seven verses. And in these first seven verses,
our Lord reveals five blessings, five blessings that he does in
grace for his people. And these blessings are pictured
in what Jonathan does for David. And this is what we'll see what
Jonathan does for David. And in seeing that, we see what
our Savior does for his people. We that believe him in grace. And so we're reading these verses
much like we read a parable. In a parable, we're not told
every detail. But we highlight, the Lord highlights
to us specific details about that parable that reveal a truth
to us, that reveal a gospel truth to us that the Lord would have
us to know and understand and see. And so tonight, by these
seven verses, like a parable, we'll see the spiritual truths
being taught to us. All right, so verse one, this
sets the understanding First of why we need a Savior. Why do we need a Savior? Why do we need God to save us
entirely? Why can't we save ourselves?
Why does God have to save us? Well, verse one, this is the
gospel reason, is that we're under the almighty wrath of God. Verse 1, and Saul spake to Jonathan
his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. Saul spoke to Jonathan and his
servants that they should kill David. Now, the truth, the eternal
truth, is that because of the fall of man, we are enmity against
the true and living God. By nature, we are enmity against
the true and living God. Paul tells us that in Romans
8. We are enmity. The carnal man
is enmity against God. And so we've earned eternal death. That's the wages of sin is death. We've earned that. We've earned
that separation from the true and living God because of our
sins, because we are unrighteous, because we do wickedly in this
flesh. And the scriptures reveal to
us what we're doing. The scriptures tell us that it
describes us in many scriptures. One, for example, in Romans 3,
verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. They are together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Our Lord teaches us through the
scriptures that we all are sinners. The scriptures, Galatians 3.22,
the scriptures hath concluded all understanding. that we might
hear, that we might receive the promise by faith. So our Lord
teaches us, he's shown us, we are sinners. The scriptures make
known to us our desperate case as sons and daughters of Adam,
saying in Romans 118, for the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. We deny the things of God in
the natural man, in this flesh. We deny the truth of God. We
don't hear that. And in Adam, we died in the garden. In him, we sinned and rebelled
against the true and living God. We became corrupt and went into
servitude, into bondage. to the evil one, to the devil,
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. And so we did that. Romans 5.12,
Paul tells us, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. And that's, quite simply, the
law of sin and death. We've all become guilty of sin
and therefore we must die. We must die. The soul that sinneth
it shall die. But our God, why does God tell
us this? He has a gracious purpose in
telling us this. Our God doesn't tell us this
just to to poke fun at us, he doesn't
do it. Just to shame us, just to dig at us, just to cut us,
just to hurt us, he doesn't do that. He has a gracious purpose
in making this known to us. What our God did for us before
we ever fell in Adam. Before that ever came to pass,
our God had already provided salvation, deliverance for His
people by putting us into the care of His Son. He already did
that. He already made provision for
His people so that His Son would come and He would disarm the
strong man. And he would go into his house
and take from his house the precious things which the Father had given
to him before the foundation of the world. Our Savior is the
one who came to deliver us from the evil one because we followed
his voice instead of the voice of God. And so we went into bondage
and servitude. And Christ Jesus is the Son given. He's the Son And His coming was
to deliver us from death and bondage, out of that body of
sin which we were in in Adam. His coming was to deliver us.
And these next verses, they typify in Jonathan what our Savior did,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in coming to save His people when He came
in the flesh. This is the deliverance, and
in this deliverance, all the blessings of God are given to
his people. They're all contained here in
what we see Jonathan do for David here. So let's look at verse
two now. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted
much in David. And Jonathan told David, saying,
Saul my father seeketh to kill thee. Now therefore, I pray thee,
take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret
place, and hide thyself. And so here we see Jonathan. He comes and he warns David,
whom he loves. He's warning David of his father's
wrath, which is against him. He's coming and he's warning
David and he tells him, David, go to the hiding place. Go to
that secret place, the hiding place, and hide yourself there
until the morning. Until the morning. And so this
is the first of our blessings which we see in the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ came in the flesh,
It revealed to us. It shows us. If we're looking,
if the Lord is gracious and makes us to see Christ, what we see
is there's a Savior because I cannot save myself. I cannot work a
righteousness for myself under the law of Moses. But if I didn't
know that and I just kept laboring away in my religion and laboring
away in my practices, laboring away in the Ten Commandments
or whatever it is that we think is our righteousness, we would
die under the wrath of God. We wouldn't save ourselves. We
wouldn't have what we seek after. So Christ coming declares all
our works are filthy rag righteousness. They do not make us acceptable
to the true and living God. It doesn't put away his wrath
from us. And so God is making known to
us that we cannot save ourselves. Paul said it this way, if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. There is no
reason for Christ to come. If we could save ourselves by
doing works, by practicing religion, following the Ten Commandments
as best we can, Take it as far as you want. If we could do something
to save ourselves, then what did Christ come for? Why did
he come? Why did he come in the flesh?
He came in the flesh to show us, to teach us we have transgressed
the law of God, and we are worthy of eternal death. And we're under
the wrath of God right now in Adam, in ourselves, in our flesh.
We are under the wrath of God, and we'll suffer grievously for
it. but Christ came to warn us. And additionally, the second
thing we see in Christ coming is that He makes known to us
there is a hiding place. There's a hiding place. There
is salvation for the sinner. Yes, God's wrath is coming against
all wickedness, all sin, all unrighteousness, but there's
a hiding place. Go to the hiding place. Go to
the secret place and hide there till the morning that you shall
have a wonderful resurrection morning. and you shall awake
in the presence of our God. And so our Lord Jesus Christ,
he is the hiding place that the Father has provided for the deliverance
and salvation of his people to deliver us from the wrath of
God and to give us a blessed resurrection morning. Turn over
to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26, the end of the chapter
in verse 19. You'll know who this is speaking
here. Isaiah 26.19 Thy dead men shall
live, together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in the dust. For thy dew is as the dew of
herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. That's such a beautiful
picture of the resurrection day. You shall be as tender as a new
shoot. as beautiful and supple and tender
as a new young shoot on a beautiful morning with the dew glistening
on your skin. As a flower that rises out of
the ground, coming up from the ground which is death, it springs
forth and there's beauty. raised from the dead, because
your God has done that for you. This is what Christ has done
for his people in him. And he says, verse 20, come,
my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about
thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for
a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the
Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose
her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. But you, brethren,
you that have no righteousness, no confidence in his flesh, who
have heard of the provision that the Father has made for us in
his Son, you have a hiding place. Go to Him. Believe Him. Rest
in Him. Shut your doors about you, meaning
there's nothing hanging out, no additional things you're bringing.
You are trusting entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ to save
you to the uttermost, to deliver you from the wrath of God completely,
brethren. So that's the first blessing.
The second blessing we're taught here is that Christ, the Son
of God, He intercedes for the Father. He intercedes to the
Father for the Father to be gracious to those that the Father has
given Him, to deliver us from our sins, to be gracious to us.
And we see that in verse 3. Jonathan talking to David, he
says, and I will go out and stand beside my Father in the field
where thou art. I'll come to where you are, and
I will commune with my Father of thee, and what I see, that
I will tell thee. In this we see here not only
how he intercedes, but just how the Lord came to do that work
which we cannot do for ourselves. He came to the field where we
are and communed with the Father. Meaning he came and did not his
own works, but he came and did exactly what the Father sent
him to do for the good and the salvation of his people. And he tells us, when our Lord
came, he tells us what he sees. He said, this is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. In Christ we have a beautiful
resurrection morning ahead of us for Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake. While here as the servant of
God, he communed with his Father, faithfully doing the will of
the Father for our good, for our salvation, even unto death,
the death of the cross for his people. He went to the cross,
not for His own sins, but for the sins of His people, faithfully
to lay down His life according to the will of the Father for
our sins, to put them away from the face of our Father forever.
He satisfied God's holy justice. He satisfies the Father in His
righteousness, in His faithfulness, and delivers us from our sins.
He does that. And having accomplished that
redemption work which the Father sent him to do, the Father raised
him from the dead by him, so that by him all that believe
are justified from all things which he could not be justified
from under the law of Moses." Christ is the one who justifies
his people. He's our salvation. And Christ
ascended on high, where he is now seated at the right hand
of the Father, interceding for his beloved people. If any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. Now here's the third blessing.
God the Father is gracious to us. He hears that. He is gracious
to us for Christ's sake. When Jonathan interceded for
David, what did he do? He reminded Saul of all that
David had done in slaying Israel's foes. and defeating the foe and delivering
us from the mighty foe that we had. Picture there in the Philistine,
the giant Philistine, which is Goliath. Picturing our great
enemies that is too great for us. We can't save ourselves,
but our David came and he delivered us from our mighty foe that is
too strong for us. Let's look at 1 Samuel 19 verses
4 and 5. Jonathan spake good of David
unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin
against his servant, against David, because he hath not sinned
against thee, and because his works have been to thee very
good. For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine,
and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel. Thou sawest it, and didst rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin
against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause? Would
our God slay his own darling son, and then turn his wrath
against us? who trust and believe His Son,
that He is our righteousness? It would never be. God will never
shame His Son in that manner. What Christ did, He did for His
people successfully, to the uttermost, and He does not fail. And so the father, the scriptures
teach us that our God is propitiated by the death of his son, meaning
his wrath, which was against us for our sin, is put away. He's propitiated, he's satisfied
with the blood of Christ. When he sees the blood of his
son, he's well pleased. He's not angry with us. for whom
his son's blood was shed for. He's not angry with his people
anymore. Christ is a propitiation for
our sins. And his blood, his blood appeases
the wrath of God, our Father, toward us. Our Lord, when speaking
of When he was speaking to Israel
there in the Passover, in Exodus 12, 13, he said, this blood,
the blood shall be a token for you upon the houses where ye
are. And when I see the blood. I will pass over you, not when
I see your works, not when I see you trying your hardest, not
when I see you repenting from your sins, not when I see you
trying to do better, not when I see you praying to me when
I see the blood. That's what pleases the Father,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you
when I smite the land of Egypt. Christ Jesus is our hiding place. He pleases the Father well. He is well pleased with what
He did in sacrificing Himself, laying down His life to deliver
His people. Why he's speaking of David there
is because we're the body of Christ. What our Lord did, He
did for us. What He did, we did in Him. He's our righteousness. We sinned
in Adam, we're righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done
that for us, brethren. And so the Lord is satisfied
with him. T.E.C., God hath set forth his Son to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission, the forgiveness of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. He's done this. And God promises
to us that in Christ we shall not come into condemnation, but
are delivered from his wrath. Jonathan was successful. and
talking to his father for David. He was successful in his interposition
and in his intercession to his father for David. And we see
verse six, and Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan. And Saul swear, as the Lord liveth,
he shall not be slain. And that's the fourth blessing
that we see there. For Christ's sake, we have eternal
life in him. We shall never be cut off. We shall never lose our eternal
inheritance, that life we have in Christ. This is the will of
him that sent me, our Lord said, that everyone which seeth the
sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day. Now in verse 7, Jonathan
called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. And Jonathan
brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times
past. And so Saul's son, Jonathan,
brings David safely into the presence of his father, and the
father receives him. And that's the fifth blessing
that we see here is that that's how effectual Christ's death
is. He has reconciled us right now
in himself to the Father, so that the Father is well pleased
with us right now in his Son. We are adopted into the family
of God. We have fellowship with the true
and living God for Christ's sake, for His intercession for us,
for what He did in saving us with His own blood. Turn over
to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
18. And Christ is the head of the
body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, And you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." Just like we see
when Jonathan brought him to Saul, he was unblameable, unreprovable
in his sight. Even so, that's what our Savior,
that's what Jesus Christ has done for his people bringing
us into the presence of God and we are before the throne of God
right now faultless faultless in the Lord Jesus Christ and
accepted in him so that in our Lord we may come boldly to the
throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find help in time of
need. He's done that for us brethren.
So brethren, in this brief little account, we're just gonna stop
there tonight. We see five blessings of what
our Savior, the Son of God, has accomplished for his brethren. The first being the gracious
purpose of God in sending his Son to show us the wrath of God,
to show us our sin. We might know and understand
what we've done, what our wages are that are coming, but to show
us His gracious purpose in Christ, that He is our hiding place.
And to understand that He came in His flesh to intercede for
His people, as a servant of God, to fulfill all that the Father
gave Him to do. He did it perfectly. So that
now, third, our Father is well pleased with us for Christ's
sake. For this cause the Son of God was manifested, that He
might destroy the works of the devil. And then fourth, that
in Christ Jesus we have everlasting life in Him right now. The Father
promises, I'll never take that away from you. And then fifth,
being that we shall dwell in the presence of our God, and
He is well pleased with us forever, beginning right now. Psalm 23
6, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.