First Samuel 18. I don't know
how many more of these we will do. I'd sure like to look at the Cave of Adullam in chapter
22. Then Abigail and David. My, my. All of these stories. So many. But we've got to go
on. Quite a few books to look at. Quite a few stories. So I don't know. But anyway,
this is the story of David and Jonathan, entitled Christ, His
Lovers, Friends, and Foes. Did our Lord preach from this? Quite possibly. Quite possibly, it talks about
a covenant that was made. And all of salvation depends
on this covenant that our Lord made, God the Father and God
the Son, Holy Spirit made concerning us. Jonathan, in another story,
as you know, represents Christ. In this story, he represents
us. whose heart was knit to David after he heard his voice, after
he saw his glory, after David saved his life. But Jonathan,
as you know, represents our Lord when David fetched Mephibosheth. He said, I'm going to show you
kindness for Jonathan's sake. Will we look at that story? How
can we not? Read verses 1-4 with me. 1 Samuel
18. It came to pass when David had
made an end of speaking unto Saul that the soul of Jonathan... Jonathan's standing there watching.
He's looking at David. He saw what David did. And now
he's hearing his voice. And it says the soul of Jonathan
was knit, bound. with the soul of David. And Jonathan
loved him as his own soul, loved him as he loved himself. Saul took David that day and
wouldn't let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan
and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. Who loved him? Both. Jonathan stripped himself. The
robe that was upon him gave it to David, his garments, even
to his sword, to his bow, and to his girdle. This is the story
of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, our Conqueror,
our King, and his people. Jonathan's name means Jehovah
given, given to Jehovah. Didn't our Lord say, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me? He said, my sheep will
hear my voice and they will follow me. Jonathan was born of a sinful
father, wasn't he? His father didn't love David.
His father didn't know David. His father hated David. Well,
that was Jonathan's father. Well, why did Jonathan love David?
Why did Jonathan know who David was and bow and submit and love
David? Why? Because Jonathan is one
of God's elect. That's why. And he's given to,
he was given, Jonathan was given to David, like we're given to
Christ. Jonathan's going to plead with
David to show him kindness. and his acts. You're going to
plead with him forever. Plead with him to show him kindness
forever. And David is going to promise
Jonathan, and he's going to keep that promise. All right, Jonathan
is another story of a sinner who meets the Savior. He represents,
David represents Christ. And look at verse 1. It says,
It came to pass when David made an end of speaking unto Saul,
that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David.
Now Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Jonathan just saw or
just heard David say, Is there not a cause? And all of Israel
was standing before this giant, Goliath, afraid. The valley before
them, the valley of death. There's going to be bloodshed.
There's going to be death in that valley. And every one of
them, two of them, was afraid that they were going to die.
The strongest of men saw his frame. Was Jonathan afraid? Yes. Nobody could face this giant. Okay. Then all Israel, And if
somebody had told them before, if somebody said, we just sent
for a man, he's coming. Somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. We will face this. Did Jonathan
hear that? Saul didn't, but Jonathan may
have. So he's like everybody else, and he's afraid, and he's
facing death, and he's unable. He's unable. He can't face this
giant. He's afraid of being brought
into captivity or maybe even die. But God sent a man. And Jonathan saw his conquest. Jonathan saw what he did. saw his power, saw his strength,
saw his glory, heard his voice. David stood before all Israel. All Israel heard him say, Is
there not a cause? He looked around. He saw that. He looked around.
This is what Isaiah 59 says. He looked and saw that there
was no man. And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of
salvation, girded himself. David said, Thy servant will
go, and he said, and I will take his head off. David didn't sound like he was
the least bit discouraged. He sounded like he knew he was
not going to fail. That's a picture of Christ. Isaiah
wrote, He shall not fail or be discouraged. And all through
the Old Testament. is the story of someone's coming.
Someone's coming to do for us what we cannot do. To deliver
us, who are all our lifetime subject to the fear of death,
who's going to deliver us from sin, Satan, death, and hell. And all of God's people hear
this. All of God's people see His glory,
see His power, see what He's done. All of God's people. And
like Christ said, my sheep are going to hear my voice. They're
going to hear me. And they're going to fall in love with me.
Like Jonathan. So Jonathan is listening to him. He heard him say, Is there not
a cause? Let no man's heart fail him.
I will go. I'll take his head off. Jonathan
saw him do that. And now Jonathan's standing there
in admiration. He's looking at a man who's probably
the same age as him, okay? But he thinks, he's head and
shoulders above me. I'm weak. He's strong. I'm a
nothing. He's everything. I'm a failure. I'm a coward. He's strength.
He's honor. He's glory. That's my king. That's my savior. That's my lord. And I want to follow him from
now on. Isn't that what happens to us? We hear the gospel. All of God's people. And Jonathan
didn't say, I've decided to let Him be my Savior. No. That's
after the fact. Like Isaiah 43, I have saved,
I have declared, I have, I have, I have. Now you know who I am. So all of God's people, all of
God's elect, they hear Christ's voice, they see His glory, and
they love Him, and they're knit to Him forever. You know, 1 Corinthians 16.22
says this, Paul ends his letter by saying this, If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, let him go to
hell, let him be a curse. How could anyone not love the
Lord Jesus Christ? How could anyone not love God?
How could anyone not love His glory and His honor, His good,
His honorable, His glorious Christ, like David? How could anybody
not love David? He was humble, he was meek, he
was lowly, yet he was honorable. It goes on to talk about David
behaved himself wisely. Everything he did, he did it
unto the Lord. He did it for the people. He
loved Israel. He did everything he did for his brethren. He came
to them. They didn't want him. He came
to them. He came to bless them. He came to feed them. He came
to fight their battles for them. And his brethren didn't love
him. Why? Because we're evil by nature,
that's why. You're evil. God has to put this
love in us. This woodlawn place over here,
that some of you went to, had on its sign one time, it had,
Fall in Love with Jesus. You don't fall in love. You don't
make yourself fall in love with Jesus. God breaks down the enmity
in you. God breaks your heart over the
fact you don't love Him. God sheds abroad in the heart
the love for Him. You love His honor. Those people
don't love God's glory and honor. They really don't. They don't
love God's sovereignty. They talk about man's will. You
don't love God's sovereignty if you talk about free will.
No, you don't. You don't love Christ's glory
if you talk about how you accepted Him. How could you? You weren't saved
by Him if you talk about how you let Him be Lord of your life.
No, He didn't save you. You accepted some pitiful Jesus,
let Him into your heart. You're just as lost as you were
before that. All Israel who saw what David
did said, He hath slain ten thousands. All Israel loved him. He's the
one. We're all a bunch of nobodies
and nothing but scared and cowards. If he hadn't come, we'd be dead.
Right? To a man. Except Saul and those
that hated him. And you remember they came back
and said, David has slain his 10,000. Saul his 1,000. And Saul
said, hmm, they've ascribed to David more than me. Well, why
shouldn't they? You're standing back there doing
nothing. If He hadn't fought this battle for you, you'd be
dead, Saul. And you will be soon. And Saul said, what can he have
more than my kingdom? That's man. That's religious
man. He will not give God all the glory. All the glory. There's the difference. Oh, Jonathan saw his glory, saw
his honor. You know, what did David look
like standing there before Saul? Turn with me to Isaiah
63. Isaiah 63. Turn there with me. What did David look like? Now
he had just taken, he slew him with one little stomp. He said,
I'm going to take his head off. It won't take much. David said, he's going down.
I'm going to bring him down at my feet. And then I'm going to
take his head off. And I'm going to bring his head
and show you. That's exactly what happened.
Was David covered in blood? Yes, he was. His garments were
red with Saul's blood. If you don't cut a man's head
off, I'm not getting blood on me. All right, look at Isaiah
63. Who is this? That's what Saul
said. Who is this stripling? He's no
stripling. that cometh from Eden with dyed
garments from Basra, glorious in his apparels, traveling in
the greatness of his strength. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to say, Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and
thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vessels? I have trodden
the wine-press alone, alone, the people that was none with
me. I have tread them in my anger,
that is God's enemy, trampled them in my fury, and their blood
shall be sprinkled upon my garment. I will stain all my raiment.
The day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of my redeeming.
I've come to redeem my people. I've come to save my people by
my own precious blood. Nobody was with me. I did this
alone. And I looked, verse 5, there
was none to help. I wondered, there was none to
uphold. Therefore, my arm brought salvation unto me. My fury upheld
me. I'll tread down the people in
my anger, make them drunk in my fury. I'll bring down their
strength to earth. So David's standing there with
blood all over his garment. And I believe he's holding Goliath's
head in his hands. And Jonathan is just like the
Queen of Sheba when they saw Solomon's glory. There's no more
spirit left in him. Jonathan thought, I thought I
was a man. I'm a worm. Right there's a man. And that's my Lord and my King
and my Savior and I'm going to follow Him from now on. He's going to be king. He went
on later, we'll look at that, I think, chapter 23, where he
said, you're going to be king and I'm going to be right beside
you. They made a covenant. Look at verse, back in our text. Now, Saul, verse 2, took David
and let him go no more home to his house. Saul represents religious
man, you know. Remember Saul started prophesying
and people said, is Saul about to prophesy? Huh. Change of heart? Look, look, he's a changed man.
Look, he's prophesied. That's religious man. Did Saul
love David? No. Did Saul love the people? No. Saul loved himself. He loved his glory, his honor.
Didn't he? Why did Saul want David? To use
him. What he could get out of him.
That's religion isn't it? Oh, how I love Jesus, people
say. Oh, how I love Jesus. And I just call on Him whenever
I need a new car, need a new house, need a new job, need this,
need that. I call on Him and He just, oh,
bless the Jesus. When Mindy was talking about
her dad, the Lord blessed him in many ways. When the Lord revealed
Himself to him, He said, God has done so much for me, if He
never does one more thing for me, I've done more than I deserve
at this moment. He never does anything more for
me. He's been so merciful, so gracious. What do we have? We have not
received. But man, you know, has religion and loves Jesus
and God and all for what he can get out of it. That's what our
Lord said. He turned them over. You follow me because you've
got your bellies filled. You follow me because of the miracles,
excitement, entertainment and all that. Jonathan loved David. Jonathan
loved David. He said, he loved his person. He saw his glory, his honor.
He saw, Jonathan loved David's salvation. Jonathan realized,
he just saved my life. He did. And that's us. And you know, if the Lord saves
you, that's what you'll say. We're not trying to make people
offended for a word, but people say, I got saved. You just don't
do that if somebody lays their life down for you and saves you.
You'll talk about, you'll say, this person saved me. That's
what you'll say. Jonathan said, David saved us.
That's what he said to his father. He testified before Saul. He said, David saved us. Why
don't you love David? He's the one that saved us. All right, in verse 4, now Jonathan,
now here's what happened. After hearing his voice, seeing
his power and glory and honor and salvation, Jonathan stripped
himself of the robe that was upon him. What kind of robe was
he wearing? Well, he's the son of a king. He's got some royal
robes on. He's somebody. He thought he
was somebody until he saw David. And that's man, and that's all
that we think we're somebody until we see Christ. And that's religion. Isaiah,
you know, said, all our righteousness are filthy rags. And David, or Jonathan, stripped
himself. Stripped himself. You know, this
stripping is a lifelong process our God does to us. He strips
us, humbles us, obeys us. When you see Christ, you'll strip
yourself of any covering, any facade, any, you know, the leaven
of insincerity and all that. You'll come naked before Him.
You say, I'm a nothing, a nobody. Cover me. Like Ruth, cover me. the robe that was upon him, and
gave it to David in his garments. He had, you know, the men wore,
the armor that they wore, they wore a girdle and so forth, and
everything hung on, and that's what it says here. It says his
sword, his bow and his girdle, everything hung on this leather
girdle and a scabbard for his sword and a knife and a bow and
all of that. What Jonathan is doing is completely
emptying himself, stripping himself and taking everything off that
he trusted in, everything that he thought was his strength,
his beauty, his honor. What he's saying is, I don't
need any of this. What good has it done me just
to cover my sin? It won't cover. And he's saying
to David, not my sword. It wasn't my sword
that killed my enemy. It's your sword. It's not my
bow. And nothing hangs on me or what
I do or what I have. Everything hangs on you, David.
And we come to Christ, like the psalm says, in my hand, no price
I bring. I have no strength. I have no
glory. I have no ability. I have no
defense. David is saying, You're my defense. You're my covering. You're my
Lord. You're my Savior. You're my everything
from here on out. I'm dependent on you from here
on out for everything. You're my king. That's what he
said. Will you have me? That's the only way God will
have anybody. So he stripped himself. And now he stands before
David with nothing. A nobody with nothing. No beauty,
no glory, no power, no security, no safety, no nothing. He can
never be safer. Never be safer. There was a story
I heard years ago, a missionary, maybe a David Brainerd, who was
a missionary to the American Indians. Died when he was 29
years old. Anyway, the story of an Indian
chief whom the Lord opened his heart, revealed the truth to
Christ. He came to the missionary in
his teepee and came to the missionary and he had his bow and arrow
in his hand. It's supposed to be a true story.
He had his bow and arrow in his hand. He said, Chief, give bow
and arrow to the Lord Jesus. And the missionary says, that's
good, but he doesn't need that. He went out, you know. He'd given
his, he'd given, oh he trusted in that bow and arrow for so
long, a big sacrifice. He went out, came back in a little
while later, and he took off that headdress. You know, all
those feathers? Feathering your cap, you know? Every one of those feathers represents
some conquest, something the chief had done to earn honor
and glory, you know? Eagles feathers, whatever. And
it was full of all these things that he had done, okay? And he
took that headdress off and said, Chief, give headdress to Lord
Jesus. And the missionary said, he doesn't
need that. He walked out. And he came back
in. He said, the chief hath no more
to give. The chief gives self to the Lord
Jesus. The missionary said, he'll take
that. You take that. When Jonathan's
heart was knit in him from then on, depending on him, trusting
him. It isn't that every believer,
really, when you hear the truth, when you hear Christ, you see
his glory, his honor. You become a nothing to nobody.
You strip yourself. You throw away, you cast away
like old Bartimaeus threw away that rag that he was wearing
and came to Christ to be covered, came to Christ to have his eyes
opened, came to Christ and he followed Christ from that day
forward. Like the woman who left her water
pot. Alright, now they're lovers. They're friends. And young people,
you know, I hesitate to bring this up, but you know that there's
been some people who try to make something unclean of this relationship
between David and Jonathan. Is that anger you? vile man is. A man doesn't know
anything about pure love. It says that over, later on it
says, when David mourned over Jonathan's death, he said, thy
love is passeth the love of women. And by that, he meant this is
an unnatural love. This is a love that God puts
in the hearts of his people for Christ, for one another, that
far surpasses the love, the natural love between a man and a wife,
between blood, kin, and all that. This is a love that God puts
in the heart of all of his people for Jesus Christ and for God. The man doesn't have it. The
man doesn't know anything about that. Man loves himself. Man loves sin. Man is a vile
creature. But when God puts His pure love
in him, in man, oh, he loves Christ as his own soul. And like Jonathan, from then
on, Jonathan asked David to show mercy to him and his half. And now their true love, true
love, true friends stick closer than a brother. We have a story,
I don't have time, I'm out of time. The story, four verses
suffice. But you go all through here,
read it for yourself. They meet in secret. David communes
with his friend Jonathan. He tells him all his mind, all
his heart. Jonathan tells him all his mind
and heart. They're friends. David... Our
Lord said, I call you friends because I tell you everything.
He's hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto his friend. They met in a secret place nobody
else knew about. He that dwelleth in the secret place
of the Most High. And they made this covenant. Who made the covenant? That's
why no type is perfect. And this is why people are so
confused. They try to make things fit. Don't try to make it fit. Who made the covenant concerning
us? It says Jonathan made a covenant
with David. Did he? He did, but no, no, no,
no. We weren't even around when the
covenant was made for us. The world wasn't even in existence
when God made the covenant concerning us. Before we were born, before
we've done any good or evil, let the purpose of God according
to the election might stand. God made this covenant. God the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit made this covenant concerning
us, His people. And in time, we find out about
it. Our Lord comes to us and tells
us about this covenant He made. Ordered in all things and sure.
The sure mercies of David. It's not a date. So, and then,
in the end, go there, 1 Samuel 23. 1 Samuel
23, I'm going to close with this. This is the end. This is right
before Jonathan, Saul, not too long
before they die. And look at that, 1 Samuel 23. And remember, Jonathan defended David's honor. Jonathan
went to his father and said, why do you hate David like this?
He fought our battles for him. He defended David's honor before
his own father. He loved David more than he loved
his father. didn't it? That's how you know. Our Lord said, if any man loved
father or mother more than me, not my son, especially a parent
who doesn't love our Lord. And he defended his honor and
he witnessed and testified of David's honor, didn't he? And
so does, so do God's people. And so finally, first Samuel
23, and I don't think they meet anymore after this, verse 16.
Jonathan, Saul's son, arose. Now David is in exile. David is outside the camp. He's been rejected
by Saul. Saul is seeking to kill him.
And David, where are you going to find him? Outside the camp. And so that's where Jonathan
went. David was down in that cave. And all the men that loved
David came to him. And that's another story. Well,
Jonathan came, verse 16, and went to David in the wood, and
strengthened his hand in God, and said unto him, Fear not,
for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee. Thou shalt
be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee. And my father
knows it. And they made a covenant. Satan knows he has but a short
time, doesn't he? Man doesn't know what his secret
thought is that he'd better live forever. But God's people know
that Christ reigns and rules over the armies of heaven and
among the heavens and the earth. Someday He's coming and every
eye will see Him and bewail Him. God's people will Shout hallelujah,
and our Lord's going to reign forever, and we're going to be
right beside Him. Forever. Why? Because of a covenant
that He made. It's already there. For Christ's
sake, no doubt.