Alright, let's open our Bibles
back to 1 Samuel chapter 24 that Bill read for us. And I have
entitled this message, Godly and Legal Repentance. Godly and
Legal Repentance. Of course, the Bible has a lot
to say about the subject of repentance. You know, if you read the scriptures
and follow the pattern and the revelation that God gives, you
have to understand that faith and repentance come together.
I know sometimes theologians argue over whether which comes
first. And I would say, I mean, you
know, my view of it is that faith comes first because anything
before faith is not, it's legal. And I'll show you what I mean
by that, but they come together. I can't remember which old preacher
says it's like it's two sides of a piece of paper. You can't
split them apart, you know. It's got both sides. So you can't
have faith without repentance and repentance without faith.
And then you'd see that the goal of faith is to bring sinners
to repentance. You cannot turn to Christ without
turning away from self and turning away from sin. And that's what
repentance is all about. We also know in the scriptures
that repentance, just like faith, is the gift of God. It doesn't
come natural to a sinner. It doesn't come by his own volition,
his own decision, or his own will. It's a gift of God. It's
a gift of God's grace. It's a part of the working of
the Holy Spirit in us in the new birth. Just as faith is an
evidence of spiritual life, repentance also is an evidence of spiritual
life. And again, they come together.
And so we're going to talk about this. Now, in the book of 2 Peter,
you don't have to turn there, but Peter made that statement.
He said that God's not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3, 9, and we know he's
talking about his elect people there. The us-ward there that
Peter mentioned up in that verse, they're going to come to repentance
because Christ died on the cross to redeem his people from their
sins, and they must have life. And someone made the analogy
of just like physical life, the evidence of physical life is
breathing, breathing the air in and out. And the evidence
of spiritual life begins with faith and repentance. Again,
you could say breathing spiritual air in and breathing out. So
that's what we're going to talk about. Well, here in this passage,
1 Samuel 24, we see David. David, he's in En Gedi, the wilderness
of En Gedi with his men, 600 men. He's holed up in a cave. He's being chased by Saul, King
Saul, the disobedient king whom God has announced that he will
be deposed. And the Spirit of the Lord departed
from Saul because of his disobedience, his rebellion, his selfishness,
and his disregard of anything that God revealed and commanded. Saul had no regard for the promises
of God, he had no regard for the covenant of God, and he had
no regard for the gospel. He had no regard for the promise
of the coming Messiah. And so God deposed him. But he's
not taken off the throne yet. What God says he's going to do,
he does in his time and in his way. And David was the anointed
king. He was going to be put on the
throne, but he wasn't there yet. And here he is in En-Gedi, hiding
in a cave with his men. Saul finds out he's there, and
he comes after him. And Saul goes into a cave to
rest, to cover his feet, to relieve himself, takes off his robe,
and he falls asleep. And David comes in there, and
he has an opportunity to kill Saul, but he doesn't do it. His
men urged him to do it. They said, go get your enemy
and kill him and your problems will be over. Now, that's the
natural way of thinking, isn't it? But David knew better. Now, David acted wisely here. Now, David didn't always act
wisely, but he did here by the Spirit of God. And instead of
going in and killing Saul, he cut off a corner or a piece of
his royal robe. And then we see, look at verse
5. This is after David did that, it says in verse 5, and it came
to pass afterward, after David did this, that David's heart
smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. Now that's
an example of godly repentance there. That is the continual
repentance. We repent of dead works and idolatry
when we first come to Christ, but a believer's life is a life
of continual repentance, godly sorrow over sin. And the way
the scripture describes it is it's the heart smoting. His heart
smoting. He was deeply moved. Hit. That's what smite means. Hit
his conscience. Hit his feelings. It reached
to the inner man. And David truly was sorry for
what he did. Well, why was he sorry for doing
that? Because he believed that he had disrespected the office
of king by doing what he did. He knew that God was going to
remove Saul and put David on the throne, but God hadn't done
it yet. David knew that he couldn't do
it by his own means, his own methods. That's why he didn't
kill him. And he repented that he had disrespected the office
of king. And that was godly sorrow over
sin. His heart smote him. He was convicted
in his conscience because he felt that he'd done injury to
the king. And he even goes so far, he calls
Saul the Lord's anointed. Look at verse 6. He says, he
said unto his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto
my master. Now again, David was God's anointed. Saul, the spirit of the Lord
departed from Saul. And Saul was going to be removed,
but he was still on the throne at this time. And David knew
that this had to be done in God's way, in God's time, so he said,
the Lord forbid that I disrespected this office of king. He didn't
respect Saul as a man, but he respected the office of king.
And he says, Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my
master. And he called him the Lord's anointed. Why would he
call Saul the Lord's anointed? Because Saul was still on the
throne. That's where he was. God had
not removed him. He said, "...to stretch forth
mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord."
So David was smitten in his conscience, in his heart, in his inner being,
over doing this thing. Well, this is an example of godly
repentance. It's an example of godly sorrow
over sin. It's an example of the power
of God's grace to bring his people into godly sorrow over sin and
the obedience of grace. And I want you to turn with me
in the New Testament to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Now, this is what
Paul deals with in this passage here. Now, when we speak of repentance,
faith and repentance, as I said, they go together. And you might
say it this way, faith and repentance are the initial graces of the
Spirit. How does a sinner come to Christ
initially? How did you first come to Christ?
By the power of God. You came to Him believing in
Him and repenting of self, repenting of your, the Bible says it twice,
dead works. You know what dead works are? That man's attempts to save himself
by his efforts at obedience. Those are dead works. First of
all, they come from a dead sinner. And secondly, they lead unto
death. The Bible calls them in Romans chapter 7, fruit unto
death. That's what it is. Sinners who
are trying to work their way into God's favor, who are trying
to earn their blessings from God by their works. That's dead
works. And when you come to Christ and
see what He accomplished on Calvary, putting away all our sins by
His precious blood, establishing the only righteousness by which
God can be just and justify a sinner like me, Then you'll see that
nothing you do or nothing you want to do or try to do or determine
to do can even compare to the obedience unto death of God the
Son incarnate. Can't even compare. In fact,
when Isaiah compared our righteousnesses to Christ, he called them filthy
rags, Isaiah chapter 64. And you know what that means.
That's how we stack up. We can't measure up. Christ did
it all. So we come to Him initially by
God-given faith, and we come repenting. But now faith doesn't
stop there. It continues. The life of a sinner
saved by grace is a life of believing. To whom coming, Peter said. To whom coming continually. Continually
believing. Continually struggling. That's
why we have a warfare, the flesh and the spirit. That's why we
have to fight unbelief that's still in us in the flesh. But
we believe, and we have to feed upon His Word, and we have to
have the fellowship of His people to encourage us. That's God's
means of preserving us. And we keep coming to Him. We
keep believing by His grace. And it's by His grace now. It's not by our power that we
keep on. I mean, we're saved by grace,
and we're preserved by grace. And we'll enter glory by grace.
And then the same thing with repentance. When we first come
to Christ, we come in repentance. And I believe, I won't turn there
tonight, because I turn to this scripture so often, I bet you
could probably quote it. Maybe I'll have somebody stand
up and quote it tonight. But you don't want me to? Okay. But it's Philippians chapter
3. where the Apostle Paul was going back over his past life,
before he was converted, as Saul of Tarsus. And he gives that
great definition, I believe one of the best definitions of a
Christian you'll find in Scripture, Philippians 3. He says, We are
the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice in
Christ Jesus. That word rejoice, remember what
it is? It means to boast in Christ Jesus. We do boast. And we do
brag. We boast about Christ, not ourselves. We brag on him. That's what preaching
the gospel is, just bragging on Christ and what he did. We
have confidence in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh.
And then he lists all those things that he used to have confidence
in. When he said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees,
circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin is touching
the law of Pharisee. All those, he said, I used to
have confidence in those things. But when I saw the glory of Christ
and Him crucified and risen again to put away my sins and to give
me a right standing before God, which I didn't deserve and didn't
earn, now I repent of all those things I used to think recommended
me to God. All those things I used to hold
dear and hold on to and boast of, I repent of that. He said
I counted all but lost. He said I counted but done. Now
that's initial repentance. Christ is everything now. That's
what He's saying. It's His blood and His righteousness,
not my pedigree, not my circumcision, not my works. It's what He accomplished
totally. That's faith and repentance coming
together, isn't it? But then our life begins to become
a life of continual repentance. And that's what David's exemplifying
there when he made that that when he sinned that sin, when
he sinned that sin and disrespected the office of king by cutting
off Saul's rope. Well, over here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 7, you know the church of Cohen's was a church with
a lot of problems, wasn't it? Well, what church is it? You
know why a church has a lot of problems? Because a church has
a lot of people. You notice now, the church isn't
a building. The church is made up of sinners saved by the grace
of God, called into the fold. And I'm part of the problem,
and you're part of the problem. And we just have to admit it.
That's why we have the problems we have. It's personalities.
Well, let's just put it what it is. It's not just folks making
mistakes, like they say. That's politically correct today,
but that's not what it is. It's sin. That's the problem. It's selfishness, isn't it? It's
my way or the highway. That's the kind of idea people
have. Who's in control? Well, the Church
of Corinth had a lot of problems, and you know their problems.
We won't go over all of them. But Paul wanted to promote repentance
among these believers. And I want to promote repentance
for myself and you as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Continual
repentance. But not a legal repentance. Now,
some people, I read one message on this that said, it went this
way, it said, true repentance and false repentance. Now let
me say this, the reason I entitled it that way is because legal
repentance is not false. It's real. And I'll show you
that when we look at Saul here in just a moment. But it's still
legal. Godly repentance is born of the
Spirit when a sinner has a saving view of himself and the glory
of Christ, and the holiness of God in Christ. Legal repentance
comes from the flesh. All right? It comes from the
flesh. And it's based on a fear of punishment, or on a shameness
over getting caught, all kinds of things we can talk about.
But Paul didn't want to promote legal repentance among these
believers. He wanted to promote godly repentance, godly sorrow. Listen to what he says in verse
8. Look at 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 8. Now, he'd written them
a letter. He wrote 1 Corinthians, and now
he's writing 2 Corinthians, and he says, For though I made you
sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent.
I believe what Paul is saying there is he's expressing his
own limitations. Because you see, when you write
a letter like Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, he had some pretty harsh things
to say. He was being like a stern father
to disobedient children. And you never know how that's
going to come out. And I'm sure he had that intrepidation that
we all have. Well, was I too harsh? You know,
I've had people say I'm mean and confrontational or harsh
and all that. And sometimes I wonder about that myself. You know,
I say, well, was I a little too harsh there? Maybe I was. I know
my children growing up, sometimes I was too harsh with them, sometimes
I was too easy with them. But either way, we're human,
you know. But Paul was expressing that.
And he says, look at verse 8, he says, For I perceive that
the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for
a season. Now I rejoice, now listen to
this, he says in verse 9, now I rejoice not that you were made
sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. Now that word
repentance in the New Testament, let me give you this, in the
Old Testament, the word repentance literally meant a change of direction. And it was an opposite change,
like if you were going south, you'd turn the opposite and go
north or vice versa. Or east, you go west. In other
words, it wasn't just a little veering off here and a little
veering off there. It was a total, direct, opposite change. And
you can think about that in salvation. Salvation by God's grace in Christ
is totally opposite of salvation by works. You can't have both. In other words, salvation by
works is not just another form of salvation. When Paul wrote
to the Galatian church, he said, I marvel that you're so soon
removed from the gospel unto another gospel, meaning another
of a different kind. In other words, this is not just
another denominational thing. This is not just Christians disagreeing.
This is totally, this is Cain and Abel. That's what this is. And so when a person repented,
they changed direction. They were going one way in the
way of work salvation, and God turned them around and brought
them the opposite way to Christ and salvation by grace. Now,
in the New Testament, the word for repentance means a change
of mind. But now, it's not just an intellectual
thing. This change of mind is a change
of heart. It's a change of direction. It's
a change of everything. It changes your thinking. changes
your motives, changes your obedience, not maybe outwardly now. Somebody said, well, I was baptized. I was immersed in the water.
All right. Well, repentance will bring that
about. But without the repentance, you'll
do it for the wrong reason. If you were baptized thinking
that baptism saved you or baptism washed your sins away, that's
legal repentance. But if you were baptized because
you looked to Christ for your salvation and for the cleansing
of your sins by His blood, you're confessing something there that's
true. That's godly repentance. You see the difference? And so
this repentance that Paul's talking about, he said, I'm not happy
that I just made you sorry. We can make people sorry for
a lot of different reasons. Isn't that right? You can make
a person sorry, you can beat them down, you can browbeat them,
you can tongue lash them. And you can make them sorry for
a lot of different reasons. But Paul says, I'm not happy
just because I made you sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. It brought about a change. This
sorrow. Now read on in verse 9. He says, For you were made
sorry after a godly manner. Or sorry literally, according
to God. In other words, this is godly
sorrow. And this sorrow is a gift from
God. It's a godly sorrow. And he says that you might receive
damage by us in nothing. Well, what does he mean by that?
Well, now let's put it this way. Let's say the church is having
problems like the Corinthian church with division. Dividing
over men. That's what division comes over.
Over men. I'm of Paul, I'm of Paulus. I'm
of Peter. We're of nobody. We just follow
Jesus. You know, we're not going to
follow anyone. You see, they divide. And some preacher comes
up here and he just lashes into you and just whips you with the
law and beats you down to where if you don't straighten up, you're
going to hell or you're going to lose your reward. And you
straighten up. And you get your act together.
Let me tell you what that preacher has done. He's done damage. He's done damage. And somebody
coming behind him preaching the gospel has to do damage control. He's done damage. You see, that's
what Paul's saying. I didn't want to just make you
sorry. I didn't want to just get you to straighten up and
fly right and act right and do this and that. But he said, I
wanted you to be sorry unto repentance with a godly sorrow. What's the
difference? Well, look on, verse 10. For
godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented
of." You know, when Christ spoke to the Pharisees, he made this
statement to them. I believe it's in Matthew 23.
You can check me out on that. He said this. He said, you are
missionary-minded in this sense. He said, you will encompass sea
and land to gain a convert. Remember he said that? And he
said, when you get that convert, you know what he said you've
got? You've made him two-fold more the child of hell than you
are. Now think about that. Here's a Pharisee going to a
Gentile land, a foreign land, and he goes in there and he sees
that these people, they are They are polygamous, they're cannibalistic,
they worship stone idols. And he says, you've got to stop
that, you've got to repent of that. And he says to them, he
says, now if you do that, if you do that, God will accept
you and you'll be righteous before him because you've done that. Now, what's he done? He just
created another legalist. If that fellow listens to him,
he says, well, I repent of that and I do all that, you see. You
know, that kind of repentance has to be repented of if you
ever come to see Christ. I used to think that kind of
repentance is what saved me. All I had to do is walk around
and say some things in front of the people and get in the
baptistry and I was okay. I had to repent of that when
I saw the glory of Christ. But Paul is saying, I want you
to be sorry with that sorry that worked as repentance to salvation
not to be repentant of. You don't have to repent of this
repentance because it's the gift of God. It honors God. When a sinner truly repents in
a godly manner, and so he says, and what is the difference? Let
me give it to you very simply, and it's this. You see, legal
repentance will motivate a sinner to find relief, to find peace
of conscience, to find rest, to find salvation somewhere,
somewhere in himself or in others or in his works, somewhere other
than the person and work of Christ. That's the bottom line. But godly
repentance, godly sorrow over sin, leaves you with no hope,
no peace, no rest, no salvation, no reward, but that which drives
you to Christ and Him crucified and risen again. That's the difference.
And that's what Paul's talking about here. Look at verse 10.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance and salvation, not to be repented
of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Any sorrow over
sin that does not drive you to Christ and Him alone. His blood and His righteousness
alone for all salvation. My friend, that's the kind of
sorrow that works death. Because there's only life in
Christ. There's no life outside of Christ. There's no forgiveness of sins
except by His blood. And any repentance that leads
you to do anything other than to rest in Christ and find peace
in Him, anything, it may cause you to join a church. I had a
fellow tell me one time, he said, well, when I get about 40 years
old, I'm going to straighten up and join a church and then
I'll be okay. Well, my friend, if that's your
hope, that's the kind of sorrow that works death. There are people
who go through traumatic experiences in life. They get cancer, or
they get heart disease, or they survive a car wreck, or a plane
wreck, or something. And what do they do? They start
going to church. But they're still not resting
in Christ. They're still not glorying in the cross. That's
the sorrow that works death. They may lose a loved one, a
child, or someone, a wife, or a husband. Those sad things. Sorrowful things. But if that's
the kind of sorrow you have, and it does not drive you by
the Spirit of God to rest in Christ and Him crucified and
risen. It's legal repentance. That's exactly what it is. Godly sorrow has to be encouraged
by the Word of God, not by the Word of men. Turn back over here
to 1 Samuel, verse 24. Look at verse 4. Here's David
in that cave, and he finds Saul there asleep. It says, The men
of David said unto him, verse 4, Behold, the day of which the
Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into
thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good
unto thee. The Lord never said that to David. He never said,
I'm going to deliver Saul into your hands, and you can do with
him what you want. Now, he did say, I'm going to take Saul off
the throne and I'm going to put you on the throne, David. But
it's going to be God's way and God's time. He never said, I'm
giving him to you, David, now you do what you want with him.
That's their interpretation of it. But you see, godly sorrow,
godly repentance is not based on the word of men. Now, the
logical mind, the fleshly mind would say, well, it seems right
to me, let's go get him. But you see, David knew what
God said. David was following God. So godly repentance doesn't
go on the word of men. It goes on the word of God. And
then all who are born of God, born again by the Holy Spirit,
they have the conviction that brings sinners to repentance.
What does he convict us of? Of sin. Of who we are by nature. Of the best that we can do that
is vanity. That we have no righteousness
of our own, and by nature don't have it, and by practice we can't
get it. And everything we do is contaminated
with sin. Even now, that's why we still
have godly sorrow over sin. Even as a saved sinner, everything
I do is still contaminated with sin. Still misses the mark. I
only find the mark in Christ. He convinces us of righteousness,
not in me, but in Christ. who dwells in glory, who is my
intercessor and my mediator, the man Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ
the righteous, who is my advocate, because I'm a sinner. And I'll
tell you what, I still need Him as advocate just as much now
as when this whole thing began. And you know what? The biggest
part of growth and grace and knowledge is you'll see that
more and more. You'll see your need more and more of Christ.
And you'll see your sinfulness even more. That's real growth,
isn't it? But now sometimes the flesh takes
hold, doesn't it? Now here, David, his heart smote
him, it says. Godly repentance. But you know
there was a time in David's life where it took about a year for
his heart to smite him. Remember, we'll read about that
when we get to 2 Samuel, when he committed adultery with Bathsheba,
when he had Uriah killed. David's heart didn't smite him
then until Nathan the prophet came to him and pointed the finger
and said, thou art the man. And then as a result of that,
by the Spirit of God came Psalm 51, against thee and thee only
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. So what does that
tell us? I'll tell you what it tells us. It says we're still
sinners and this godly sorrow over sin has to be encouraged
in us by the Word of God. It still didn't come natural.
Paul had to write the Corinthian believers, hit that letter to
inspire them to godly songs. But God did use it. Now, over
here in 1 Samuel 24, what happens here is David appeals to Saul
by appealing to the Lord's judgment between them. Look here. He says
in verse 9, David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's
words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy herds? You see, Saul
was operating on men's words, not God's words. If he was operating
on God's words, he'd have done what Jonathan did. He'd taken
off that mantle and his sword and his girdle and he handed
them to David and said, you're God's anointed, you're king,
and I like it that way. That's what Jonathan said. Jonathan
didn't say, well, now, if that's the way it's got to be, then
all right, here it is. No, he said, I love it that way. That's
what godly repentance is. He didn't want it that way. And
he was listening to men. And so David said in verse 10,
Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered
thee today into mine hand in the cave. Some bade me kill thee,
but mine eyes spared thee. And I said, I will not put forth
mine hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. And
then David showed him the piece of the robe. He says in verse
11, Moreover, my father, see ye, see ye, see the skirt of
thy robe in my hand. When that I cut off the skirt
of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou, and see that
there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned
against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it." Now, David
wasn't saying, now Saul, look at me, I'm sinlessly perfect.
He was simply saying, I am not intending to kill you. That's
all he's simply saying. David was a sinner saved by grace,
just like you and me who are saved. But he said, just simply
saying, I'm not intending to kill you. And so he says in verse
12, the Lord judged between me and thee, and the Lord avenged
me of thee, but mine hand shall not be upon thee. What David
is saying when he says, the Lord judged between me and thee, he's
simply saying, let's settle it all by the Word of God. And that's
the only way that you're going to find the Lord judging between
his people today. Settle it all by the Word of
God, where there are differences, where there's animosity, where
there are differing opinions, let it be settled by the Word
of God. And I'm going to tell you who's
in the wrong every time. The one who will avoid the Word
of God. Like Saul. If a man has a matter
against another man, or a woman against another woman, or whatever,
against a preacher, an elder, against a member, if that person
refuses to do things the way God says to do them in His Word,
he's in the wrong. Period. Don't listen to another
word he or she says. And that's what David's saying
here. And look at verse 13. He says, And as saith the proverb
of the ancients, wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, but mine hand
shall not be upon thee. I am not intending to kill you.
So verse 14, After whom is the king of Israel come out? After
whom dost thou pursue? And listen to David's words here,
and these are genuine. This is not just, as one fellow
down south said, putting on the dog. Just trying to see who can
outdo another. He says, now what are you really
coming out to do? And David says, after a dead
dog, after a flea. David recognized in the grand
scheme of things, I'm just a dead dog and a flea. I don't deserve
anything I have. I haven't earned anything I've
got. If God said, David, you're mine anointed, I'm going to put
you on the throne, that's God's business. It had nothing to do
with my valor, my goodness, or my honor. I'm a dead dog. I'm a flea. How can God be just
and justify the ungodly? That's who he says. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, dead dogs and fleas. Publicans
and sinners. That's the kind of people that
he comes to save. The Pharisees criticized him
for eating with them. Having any conversation with
them. That's the kind of people he saves. The righteous don't
need salvation. The whole don't need a physician.
So only God can take a dead dog and make him a live dog. A live sheep. Take a little insignificant
flea and turn him into a sinner saved by the grace of God. That
takes the blood of Christ. That takes the righteousness
of Christ, the grace of God. Nothing else can do it. And so
he says in verse 15, The Lord therefore be judge, and judge
between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver
me out of thy hand. The Lord plead my cause. Isn't
that our life, brothers and sisters in Christ? Isn't that the way
it is with a sinner saved? The Lord pleading our cause. And what is our cause? His glory. That's why He's our continual
advocate. If the Lord ever stops pleading
your cause, you're a goner. But He will never stop. He ever
liveth, the scripture said in Hebrews chapter 7, to make intercession
for us. He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. That means this, as long as He's
alive, He'll stand to make intercession for us. He'll be my advocate.
Boom! Jesus Christ is the righteous,
and he'll plead my cause. I don't have to plead it. He'll
plead it for me. Well, look at what's happened.
Verse 16, And it came to pass, when David had made an end of
speaking these words unto Saul. And Saul said, Is this thy voice,
my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice,
and he wept. Now, Saul was sorry. But let
me show you something about his repentance, and then I'll quit.
This is legal repentance. He said to David, thou art more
righteous than I. Now, did you notice what he said
there? It's Saul's not saying I'm unrighteous. He's just simply
saying, David, I'm not as righteous as you. And I'll tell you something,
that is the language of legalism. These degrees of sin, you see,
that people see. I'm talking about as their relationship
with God. I can't look at you and say,
you're more righteous than I, or I'm more righteous than you,
or what. There's none of us righteous
in ourselves. And I can say this to every believing
sinner tonight. You and I are equally righteous
before God. Equally. Because our righteousness
is Christ. And it's been imputed to us.
We have His righteousness. So I can't say you're more righteous
than I, or I'm more righteous than you. We have one righteousness,
and that's Christ, who died on the cross and was buried and
rose again the third day. And that makes us equal. Now,
you may know some more things than I do. And you may do more
than I do. But what you know and what you
do is not your righteousness before God. Christ is. And that's
the thing. You may be an old stalwart elder
in the faith, and there may be some babes in Christ here, but
you're no more righteous than that babe because His righteousness
is your righteousness. It's Christ and Him crucified
and risen. Saul didn't see that. He had
no regard to that. He had no regard to that. And
so we know it's legal repentance because it speaks of this degrees
of righteousness which we don't have. We don't have. We're sinners. And without Christ, I'll tell
you what we are. We're all dead dogs and we're all fleas. Without
Christ, we're nothing. And so Saul goes on, he says,
For thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee
evil. Now legal repentance can recognize to some degree right
and wrong. But it's all based upon relationships
between men. What you give to me, what I give
to you, you see. What you've done to me and what
I've done to you. And so it goes on, verse 18, that thou hast dealt well with
me." Now, this is key with Saul. Remember, the generation that
Saul belongs to is the me generation. Everything that he has to do,
he judges everything. Spiritual, he judges everything
in salvation and relationship with God with how you treat me.
Remember when the Zephyrites came to him, he said, well, you
all done right with me. And nobody's feeling sorry for
me. It's me, me, me. I, me, my. And that's exactly
what he's doing in this repentance. That's legal repentance, right
there. You've dealt well with me. Well,
what he should have said is, you've done well by me, but I
didn't deserve it. In fact, he said, David, you
should have killed me, laying there, the way I acted. That's
all I deserve. I don't deserve to be treated
well by you or anybody. And that's the way it is when
God brings his children to repentance. God, I don't deserve the least
of your blessings. If you gave me what I deserve,
it would be eternal damnation. And that's based on my best.
But oh, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Oh, Lord, if
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? But Saul didn't
see that. He says, verse 18, for as much
as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou kilt'st
me not, it's all me, me, me. You see, not Christ, not the
glory of God. And verse 19, he says, for if
a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? Wherefore,
the Lord reward thee good that thou hast done unto me this day. Now, in these last verses, we
see that Saul's repentance is still centered on himself. Well,
godly repentance centers on Christ and the fact that what I have
in Him is a matter of pure, free, sovereign grace and mercy. And
that's it. But here in this last verse,
this proves there's a difference between knowing the truth and
loving the truth. Now, he says in verse 20, he
says, And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be
king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in
thine hand. Now that's true, and Saul knew it, but I'll tell
you the difference between Saul and Jonathan. Jonathan knew it,
and he loved it. Saul knew it, and he hated it.
You know, there's people who know some of the truth of God's
Word, but they don't like it. They hate it. That's why in 2
Thessalonians 2, I believe it's verse 9, he talks about those
who perish because they receive not the love of the truth. God's sovereign. I love it that
way. How about you? God's in control. Somebody says, well, that's so
we ought to be. We're just rope. No, sir. I love it that way,
because if he wasn't in control, we'd be goners for sure. And
so I know you're going to be, but Saul didn't like that when
I tell you how, you know, because this repentance that Saul goes
through here is only temporary. It didn't last. He did nothing
from here on to promote David as king. He did everything he
could, and later on he tries to kill David again. It didn't
last. Legal repentance is only temporary.
Now, there can be more than one moment of it, but it doesn't
last. And so he says in verse 21, "...swear
now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou will not cut
off my seed after me, and that thou will not destroy my name
out of my father's house." And David swearing to Saul. Saul
went home. But David, now he didn't go back
with Saul, David and his men gapped them under the hood. They
went back to the cave. You know why? Because he didn't
trust Saul. You see, even Saul, he acknowledged
that David was going to be king, but he didn't love it. And here,
he asked David to swear. Now, David had already made an
oath on this camp to Jonathan, that it was an oath of love.
Here, Saul is just expecting something in return. And that's
all he's doing. I don't want my name to be wiped
off of the face of the earth. I want somebody to remember Saul.
The oath that David took to Jonathan was simply to preserve Jonathan's
posterity. Not that everybody remembered
Jonathan's name, but that his descendants would be preserved
and kept sane. Saul wanted his name promoted.
That's legal repentance. I hope that's helped you to understand
that. All right.