Okay, let's turn back to 1 Samuel,
chapter 23. 1 Samuel, chapter 23. Now, as I said last time, this
chapter can be divided into three parts. The first part I've already
dealt with, chapter 23, verses 1 through 12, which dealt with
the subject of how salvation is all of grace. That's where
we saw David go into this place called Keilah, and he delivered
by the power of God these people who then turned on him. And as
I said last time when we were studying that, were you surprised
when you read that they turned on him and were going to give
him up to Saul? Of course, God took David out
of that place before Saul could get his hands on him. But it's
an amazing thing how David came down and delivered this people
from the Philistines, and yet they turned on him. So what we
see there is a picture, a picture of grace, because that's what
our Lord did. He delivered by His work on the
cross, by His blood, by His death, He delivered a people who were
undeserving and unworthy of Him. Because what are we by nature?
What are we on our own? of our own wills. We turn on
Him. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. And if we know the Lord and we
trust Him and love Him and love His Word, it's only by God's
grace that we do. So don't look down on the people
of Keilah too much because that's a great picture of the depravity
and the sin of even the people whom Christ redeems. So what
do we learn from that? Salvation is all of grace. No part of it, at any time, in
any stage, to any degree, is conditioned on the sinner. And
that's what we need. That's the kind of salvation
we need. I'm going to tell you something. I believe this with
all my heart, that if God were to leave me on my own one second
and say, now Bill, in all of eternity, this one second is
up to you, that I would sink into a devil's hell. That's what
I believe. I mean, I believe we're saved
by grace, we're preserved and kept by grace, and we'll enter
glory by grace. And it's all the time. I don't
believe in heaven we'll be able to say, now I deserve it. Now I've earned it. Because in
heaven, if you want to see a picture of that, read Revelation 5 sometime,
when he said no man in heaven and no man in earth was worthy
to open the book, the book of God's ways and God's purpose.
And remember, John said, I wept. He said, but then there was one
who was found worthy, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb,
worthy as the Lamb. That's Christ. He'll always be
the only one who's worthy to be worshipped. So that's what
we saw in the first part. Now, here in the second part
begins at verse 13. And it'll go through verse 23.
And this portion here, I believe, speaks of the fellowship That
fellowship in the Lord is all of grace. I've entitled the message,
The Fellowship of God's Grace. Fellowship. You say, is that
important? Well, it's vital. It's a product
of God's grace in redemption. It's a product of God's grace
in regeneration, the new birth. Because when we're born again,
we're born into a kingdom. And that we're subjects of one
kingdom, not two. I know that denominationalism
pervades today, but that's because men don't know the truth, and
that's because of pride. Denominationalism is the result
of pride and self-righteousness. Somebody thinks they can say
it or do it better than somebody else, and they've got family
members and friends who will join the club. And that's what
happens. It's a club mentality. But you
see, this fellowship is one kingdom with one king. And it's not the
preacher. It's Christ who is the king.
And if you ever find a preacher who appoints you to Christ and
away from himself and get upset with you if you follow him and
not Christ, then you've got a man of God. Now that's right. And if you've got one who wants
a following, get away from him. That's what I'm saying. When you're born of the Spirit,
You're born as a citizen. You're born into citizenship.
Into a heavenly city. And we're citizens of the same
city. Heavenly Jerusalem. And then
when you're born, you're born into a family. And it's the family
of God. And it's not a social club. It's
not a club that revolves around a man. We're going to see a great
contrast in these verses here. And I hope that the Lord will
make it real to our hearts. But this is the fellowship. And
that fellowship is all of grace. We see a great example of that.
And then next time I'll deal with the last few verses. That's
the preservation. That's all of grace. And we'll
see that. But let's look tonight at the fellowship of grace. The
fellowship of God's grace. And understand that that fellowship
is all of grace. Now that's illustrated. The fellowship
of God's grace is illustrated in David and Jonathan. And you
remember we've studied Jonathan before. Look at verse 13, it
says, Then David and his men, which were about six hundred,
now you remember it was four hundred when he first came to
the cave of Dullam, but now it had grown. So there is some growth
here. Now he has six hundred. Incidentally,
somebody made a statement that the Bible is not true because
how could David hide with six hundred men and Saul not find
him? Well, you better go visit these
caves if that's your problem because they They could probably
hide thousands, and these were deep chasms. It's like Mammoth
Cave, that kind of thing, you know. Saul brought 3,000 men
in later on. But don't let things like that
get you, even bring a question in your mind. But they were hiding
in this cave. So 600 arose and departed out
of Keilah, and went with us wherever they could go. And it was told
Saul that David was escaped from Keilah and he forbear to go forth. So Saul was going after him.
And David abode in the wilderness in strongholds and remained in
a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. Now that's where they
went to from Keilah, the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him
every day. But now listen to this. But God
delivered him not into his hand. God would not deliver. David
into Saul's hand. The Lord protected and he preserved
David. The Lord was with David and not
Saul. God delivered him not into his
hands. And you think about that, I think
about the contrast of that. You know, back over there a while
back, Saul made the statement when he heard that David went
to Keilah, look at verse seven. It says, And it was told Saul
that David was come to Keilah, and Saul said, God hath delivered
him into mine hand. That's Saul's perspective. Saul
says, I've got him now. I've got him now. That gotcha
mentality, you see, that unbelievers have. They're just looking to
get God's people. Saul said, No, God said, God
delivered him not into his hands. God's hand of grace and power
was upon David. And God meant and intended to
fulfill His purpose. The purpose that He started out
all the way from before the foundation of the world, He's going to fulfill
that through David no matter what. And that's so. Now some
people call that fatalism. But that's not what it is. It's
the fact that God is sovereignly in control of all things. And
I know people today don't like to hear about predestination
unless you let them do the predestinating. And I know people say, well,
I can't understand it, so I'll deny it. Well, don't deny what
you can understand, because you're going to deny this whole book,
really, if that's the way you're going to go. Todd's in control. And here he puts him in this
wilderness of Zipf. Zipf is not a comfortable, easy
place to be. It's a rough area. It's a wilderness.
But God guided and protected David through here, but it wasn't
a comfortable and easy way. Now, I know that's what we want
as we go through the wilderness of this world. We want everything
comfortable. We want everything easy. But it's not going to be
that way. And especially for David, especially
as a type of Christ, this was essential in David's life for
God's work. Listen, he became a man after
God's own heart as a shepherd in the field. But you know how
he became a king? Right here in the wilderness.
And I think about our Lord. David's a great picture of Christ
there. Our Lord. Now, in his nature as God, he
was always in control, Lord of lords and king. But as mediator,
as the mediator of his people, he had to first go through the
wilderness of this world as God-man in order to be exalted and given
a name which is above every name. The mediatorial kinship of Christ. He had to go through the wilderness
of temptation. He had to go through the wilderness
of opposition. He had to go through the wilderness
of suffering. And ultimately, he had to go
through the wilderness of the cross to pay for the sins of
his sheep and establish righteousness for his people in order that
he might die, be buried, and raised again the third day and
exalted on high. So it wasn't an easy road for
our Savior. And in this type, we see that
pictured in David here. Look at verse 16, it says, And
Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the wood,
and strengthened his hand in God. Let's read the next two
verses. It says, And he said unto him,
now here's what Jonathan said, Fear not, for the hand of Saul,
my father, shall not find thee. And thou shalt be king over Israel,
and I shall be next unto thee, and that also Saul my father
knoweth. And they too made a covenant
before the Lord, and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went
to his house." Now there's a picture, there's an illustration, an example
of the glorious fellowship of God's grace between these two
men, David and Jonathan. And I want you to notice some
things about this. You know, Jonathan, we've talked about
this before. Turn back to 1 Samuel 18. Jonathan's
love for, and submission to and fellowship with David is really
an amazing example of the sovereign grace and mercy of God. It is,
isn't it? Because as we said before, if
there is anybody who had a reason, we think about man's reasoning
now, if there is anybody who had a reason to despise David
and to hate And to help his daddy kill him, it would be Jonathan.
He was the prince of Israel. In other words, if Saul remained
king until his death, it would fall to Jonathan to be the king
of Israel. And yet God had already revealed
through the prophet Samuel, that is God's word, that Saul was
going to be taken off the throne. That David was God's anointed,
not Jonathan, but another family, a family of the tribe of Judah
would have a son. an offspring, and he would be
made the king of Israel. And Jonathan submitted to that.
Submission. That's what it is. It's a fellowship
of submission. Don't let me get ahead of myself
here. Look here at 1 Samuel 18. Remember in verse 3? 1 Samuel
18. Listen to this. It says, Then
Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own
soul. And it said, and Jonathan stripped
himself of the robe that was upon him. That was the princely
robe. In other words, Jonathan was
admitting through taking off that outer garment that I'm not
going to be the king of Israel. You are David. And then he says,
it says, and he gave it to David and his garments, even to his
sword. That's the power of the king
and to his bow and to his girdle. All these things that represented
Jonathan's position. As the heir apparent, he took
off and he gave to David. And he said, God's already spoken,
David. And he not only said this, listen,
this submission, I want you to see something about this. This
submission, not only is Jonathan by doing this, now there wasn't
a big crowd here, there was just David and Jonathan. So it wasn't
for show. He wasn't just trying to impress people. But not only
did Jonathan say, God has spoken and I'm submitting to it, but
he's saying, I love it that way. Now, that's grace. I love it
that way. This is the way. I wouldn't have
it any other way. That's what he's saying. This is God's will. And so what we see is this fellowship.
Now, back over here in 1 Samuel 23, it says, Jonathan, verse
16, saw the Son of Rose and he went to David. Because you see,
this fellowship of grace was marked by his devotion and his
love and his trust in David to be the king that God appointed
him to be. And what a work of grace. This
fellowship was founded and grounded and maintained in David becoming
the king of Israel. You know, if David was going
to be defeated, you know Jonathan would have been in trouble. Because
Saul already knew that Jonathan had betrayed him, and Jonathan
was going with David. So David didn't make it. So Jonathan's
whole safety and prosperity and his family was conditioned on
one thing. David becoming king. And that's
the way it is with us in our salvation. Our whole prosperity,
spiritually and eternally, is conditioned on one thing. And
that is Christ who has been made our King. Him doing the work,
finishing the transgression, making an end of sin, bringing
in everlasting righteousness, all conditions of salvation were
placed on Christ and He fulfilled all those conditions as God-man. So this fellowship is founded
in the Lord. Look at 1 John. Turn over to
1 John with me. In the New Testament, it speaks
of our fellowship in Christ. Now listen now, our fellowship
with each other is founded in our fellowship in Christ. And
it's expressed in a mutual love and trust and honor to the Son
of God, not to each other. Now if our fellowship is founded
upon our mutual admiration of each other or any man, then it's
going to fail. It'll fail when the man fails,
or when the people fail. And we'll fail all the time.
So your fellowship cannot revolve around the man behind the pulpit.
It has to revolve around Christ, or it's not going to last. You
see what I'm saying? And that's what John is saying
here. Look at verse 3. He's speaking of eternal life
with the Father in Christ. And he says in verse 3, That
which we have seen, this is 1 John 1, verse 3. That which we have
seen and heard declare we unto you. There's a message, you see.
There's a message here. What's the message? It's the
gospel of God's grace that identifies and distinguishes the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. The way of grace. It shows me
what I am and who I am. A sinner who deserves nothing
but death and hell. And shows me that my only hope
is in salvation by God's grace through Christ. And so we declare
that unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us.
Now that comes through that message revealed to you by the Holy Spirit
in power and truly. Now here's what he said, I want
people to have fellowship with me and I want to have fellowship
with people. But it can't be a fellowship based on a lie.
It has to be based on the truth, the revelation you see, the message
of grace, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But
ultimately, here's where it is. Truly, our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now that's where
it's at. Right there. It's with the Father
and with the Son. It's by the power of the Spirit.
And He said, in these things write we unto you that your joy
may be full. So this is fellowship founded
in the Lord. Just like Jonathan's fellowship
was founded in David. And ultimately, Jonathan and
David's Spiritual fellowship was founded in the same Lord
the Lord of Glory, but now let's turn to Galatians chapter 6 It's
also a fellowship of the cross You see this fellowship is only
possible because the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and
Reconciled us unto God reconciled the Father unto us and us unto
God Because you see there's no fellowship with the Father without
the blood of the cross. There's no fellowship with the
Father without satisfaction, His justice, the soul that sinneth
must surely die. And you see, the only way that
we can have communion and union and fellowship with the Father
is by the body of Christ. And so it's a fellowship of the
cross. That means we don't have different views of the cross.
And I want to make this point now. And those are a lot of different
people. They have a different view of
who Christ is. They have a different view of what he actually accomplished
on the cross. Oh, no. Not this fellowship now. Now, you might have religious
clubs. And they might have one idea and another idea. But the
true fellowship that is of the grace of God. You see, Jonathan
knew exactly who David was. And he knew exactly what David
was going to do by the power of God. And that's the way it
is with the fellowship of grace. We know exactly who Jesus Christ
is and what he accomplished on Calvary. We don't have different
views of the atonement or different views of how God saves sinners.
You've got a different view of that and you don't have the view
of the fellowship of faith and the fellowship of grace. But
look here, Galatians 6, look at verse 14. This is the fellowship
of the cross. But God forbid, Paul writes,
that I should glory, now that word glory there is to have confidence
in. Sometimes it's translated boast,
and that's okay. Because we do boast. But what
are we boasting? Who do we boast in? We boast
in Christ. I can't remember which preacher
it was, but he said that preaching the gospel is a lot of this. Just getting up and bragging
on Christ. Just brag on Him. Because you can't ever get in
too much glory. And so he says that I should
glory, save, or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, he's not talking about the piece of wood. He's talking about
the finished work of Christ. He's talking about His blood.
If you're in here tonight and you have no hope for forgiveness
of all your sins, past, present, and future, but His blood alone,
then we're in fellowship together. That's our fellowship right there.
It's not going back here and eating. And sitting down and
talking. I know we use the term fellowship
for that, but that's not what it is. Here's what it is. Our
hearts are knit together in the person and the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's our fellowship. That's
what it's all about, you see. So where is your hope of forgiveness? I've got one hope, the blood
of Christ. We're in fellowship. If your hope For standing before
God, complete and perfect, is the imputed righteousness of
Christ, then we're knit together right there. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Now if you can sing that from your heart and really mean it,
we're in fellowship together. That's what knits us together.
And that can't be driven apart. And I'll tell you why it can't
be driven apart. Because you can't bring Christ off the throne.
You can't take him off the throne. You can't overturn what he accomplished
on Calvary. Now look at this passage in Galatians
6.14. He said, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world. Now what Paul is expressing in
that last statement is here, I was once in fellowship with
the world, but now I'm dead to the world. In other words, I'm
not in fellowship with the world anymore. The world is crucified
unto me. Their message, their motives,
Their ways are not mine now, as it concerns my salvation.
I'm not saying that I'm walking ten feet above everybody. And
I'm not saying we're to go off and live in a cave. I know David
was in a cave for a while, but God got him out of there. I'm
not saying that we're to walk around here like a bunch of holier-than-thou's.
We're not. My holiness is not in me, and
you can't see it in me. I don't care what anybody says.
My holiness is Christ. and him crucified and risen again.
My righteousness is Christ, you say. But see, that being so,
I'm not in fellowship with the world who's trying to establish
their own righteousness by their works. And so he says, I under
the world, the world has no fellowship with me in this message of grace.
Now look at verse 15. He says, for in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creation, a new creature. A man or a woman who has been
brought to Christ, in essence, in that way is a new creation,
been regenerated by the Spirit. In other words, it is not that
he is no longer a sinner, it is not that he now does anything
perfect or there is anything perfect in him, but it is now
he is resting in Christ. He is resting in Christ for his
whole salvation. He has no other hope. He seeks
to follow Christ because he has a new motive. It's not the motive
of Saul. You remember greed? You know,
come follow me, I'll give you lands, I'll make you captains
of thousands. No, it's because we love the
Lord. And we love him because he first loved us. It's the motive
of grace. See, that's new. Grace and gratitude
and love. And so he says, verse 16, now
look at this. And as many as walk according
to this rule, Now, that word rule, we get an English word
from that original word there. It's canon. C-A-N-O-N. And that doesn't mean a cannon
like you shoot a cannonball out of. That means a canon is a body
of truth. The canon of scripture. And so,
whoever walks according to this truth is what he's saying. What
truth? God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. Now, he says, peace be on them.
God's at peace with them and they're at peace with God in
Christ, the Prince of Peace. And mercy. God said, I'll be
merciful to whom I'll be merciful. God's been merciful to that person
who walks according to this rule. In other words, this walking
according to this rule is evidence of God's compassion and mercy
upon him and upon the Israel of God. That's spiritual Israel.
That's every believing sinner who's been brought, all who've
been brought to faith Christ so you see this is the fellowship
of the cross, you know Turn back to first Samuel 23 now when Christ
died on the cross He didn't die just for me He died for all his sheep All
his sheep. All right. I know people say
well he died for everybody that said no he died for his sheep
That's what he said If you don't argue with me, argue with him.
He said, I died for my sheep. I laid down my life for the sheep.
His church, he redeemed his church with his own precious blood.
And so when he died, he didn't die just for one individual sheep.
He died for all his sheep. And when he died, we all died
in him. One at the same time, not in
ourselves, but in him. When he was buried, we were buried.
When He arose again, we were together. Together with Christ.
That's what Ephesians says. Together with Him. That's what
Romans 6 says. Together with Him. Somebody said,
well, we may have been together then, but we can't stand each
other now. Well, my friend, that's not right. That's just not right. I'm not talking about everybody's
going to do everything to please you or please me, or I'll do
everything to please you. That has nothing to do with it.
It means that I recognize that our fellowship is more than what
these piddly little things that divide us and we argue about
all the time have anything to do with. It's a fellowship that
revolves around Christ. And our one goal is to see Him
glorified. To see sinners come to Him. Now
look back here at 1 Samuel 23. It's said here that, in verse
16, that Jonathan went to David and strengthened his hand in
God. What that means is that Jonathan
encouraged David and helped David to find strength in God, not
in himself. That's what that means. And David
needed to be reminded of that, just like we do. We need to be
reminded that God has not forsaken us, and He will not. We need
to be reminded that God will fulfill His promise to us. And
not only here to make David king, but also to redeem David from
his sins by sending ultimately the Messiah through the line
of Judah. That God is going to send His
Son. And that is why he is simply telling David here, David, wait
on the Lord. And David wrote that. Psalm 27,
14, wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen
thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. In Psalm 46, 1, he
says, God is our refuge, a very present help in time of trouble.
Look to God. Now, what exactly did Jonathan
say to David? I think this is interesting.
You know, these are the last recorded words in scripture of
Jonathan right here in verse 17. Look at it. He says, he says
this, he says, and he said to him, fear not. What's he talking
about? Talking about don't fear Saul.
Don't fear men. Now fear God. Worship God. Trust God. Run to God. But don't fear Saul. And he said,
how do you know he's talking about that? Well, he says it
this way. For the hand of Saul, my father shall not find thee,
and thou shalt be king over Israel. You see that? Jonathan was a
faithful friend. You know what a faithful friend
does? He directs his fellows, his friends to Christ. He directs
him to God in his word. See, the foundation of our confidence
and the fountain of His comfort, He strengthened His hand in God. Our fellowship and our strength
come from Christ and His Word. That's why He said in John chapter
15, Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, that is, in Christ.
No more can ye except you abide in me, He said. I am the vine,
you are the branches. Never forget that. I am the vine. He's the root, we're the fruit,
as one guy said, and that's right. We're the branches. He that abideth
in me, he said, and I in him, that the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Paul wrote in
Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might, not our own, put
on the whole armor of what? Of God, not of men, that you
may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And then
he lists that armor, all the working of God. Paul wrote in
Philippians 4.13, he said, I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. The whole point of our fellowship,
now listen to him, the whole stay of our fellowship is to
continually encourage one another by continually pointing each
other to Christ and His Word and not man. That's what it's
all about. That's what he talks about in
Hebrews chapter 10 when he says, forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. It's not just make sure you show
up to church so you can be counted or so that you can be a number
on the wall and outdo the other denominations. No, sir. It's
for the encouragement of brethren in the faith pointing each other
to Christ. Don't show up just to put everybody
down or each other down or to be a watchman over everybody's
lives or to put rules and regulations on everybody so that you can
make sure everybody's in line with you. Now, don't do that. He's simply saying show up, worship
God in Christ, point each other to Christ continually. He said
he was a humble friend here. This this is a fellowship of
humility. You see, as a humble, self-denying
friend, Jonathan delighted in the prospect of David being king.
That was the honor that was his birthright because his father
was king, but no longer. And he delighted in that fact.
Now, who do you want to hear exalted when you come to church?
Who do you want to hear lifted up? You want this church to be
a memorial to somebody? Well, who do you want it to be
a memorial to? Now, think about it. Christ. Right? That's our fellowship
right there. Now again, if it's around a man,
when the man fails, it'll fail. When the man dies, it'll die.
And you'll have people scratching around all over the place trying
to keep that memorial alive, but it's going to die. It's destined
to die. If you want an eternal fellowship,
and you exalt Christ, like David, like Jonathan, who was glad that
David was going to be king. You know, that's almost unimaginable
to me, but I know with God all things are possible. Not only
did Jonathan submit, but he had a heart to submit. That's something,
isn't it? John the Baptist said, I must
decrease. He must increase. Oh, John the
Baptist, boy, you talk about somebody who had an opportunity
to have what they call a widespread ministry. If they had the internet
back then, it would have been johnthebaptist.com. But he didn't
want any part of that junk. He kept telling his disciples,
this is not about me. It's about Christ. And that's
who I'm for. I'm not your Savior. I'm not
the life. I can dunk you in the water,
but He can give you the Holy Spirit. He can baptize you with
the Holy Spirit. He can give you life. And I'm
not even fit to stoop down and untie His shoes. I didn't die
for you, Paul said. I'm not your Redeemer. It's not
by my blood. It's not by my reputation. It's
not by anything that I do. It's by Christ. And that's what
this fellowship is all about. And then Jonathan pointed at
him to God's word. He said, he said, Saul will not
find you and you shall be king over Israel. Now, how did Jonathan
know that? Because the word of God said it through the prophet
Samuel. That's how the word of God was revealed. If your fellowship
is not based on the word of God, it's a sham fellowship. And I'm
going to show you this in just a second, but when men form a
confederacy, and the confederacy revolves around a mere man who
is going against God's revealed word, I'm going to tell you something,
it's a confederacy of evil. I'll show you what I mean. Look
at verse 18. As a constant faithful friend, he renewed his his fellowship
of friendship with David. He said, and they too, verse
18, made a covenant before the Lord. What's happening here is
they're renewing the covenant that they'd already made. And
David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house. Now
let me quickly go into this. So what we see is a fellowship
of grace and truth, submission, humility, and Jonathan is a good
example of it. Now, here we have next a fellowship
of evil. And just as the fellowship of
grace and truth was illustrated by David and Jonathan, this fellowship
of evil is illustrated by Saul and these men and women called
the Ziphites, from Ziph. Look at it, verse 19, Then came
up to the Ziphites to Saul, to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David
hide himself with us in strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hekilah,
which is on the south of Jeshimon? Therefore, O King, come down
according to all thy desire." You see, this is not about what
God wants now. God has already determined and
said what he wanted, what he is going to do. David is going
to be king. But they said, King Saul, come down according to
all the desire of thy soul, to come down here, and our part
shall be to deliver David into the king's hand. So there you
have it. Now, these Zephites, descendants
from Judah, David's natural family, but they took side with Saul.
They had fellowship with Saul. They, Saul, you do what you want
and we'll follow you. But what God say, what did the
prophet Samuel say? Well, we don't care. Don't bring
that up. Saul, what do you want? Come
on, we're with you. That's the issue, isn't it? So,
they're not going by the word of God. And their fellowship
with Saul, I suspect, it doesn't say this, But it's probably based
on the same thing that Saul stated back in the prior chapter when
he bribed his men to follow him. I'll give you lands, I'll make
you captains of thousands. It's either that or self-preservation. What does modern false religion,
what does all false religion use to motivate people to do
what they want them to do? It's either fear of punishment
or promise of earned rewards, isn't it? Either you give or
God's going to take it out the back door in a pine box. That's
not giving. That's extortion. That's what
that is. Or if you work hard, you'll get
a better mansion, a bigger mansion in heaven than the fellow sitting
next to you. It doesn't work. That's not a
servant of God. That's a mercenary. That's what
that is. You're a hireling. I guarantee
you that is how Saul got these fellows. Our part shall be to
deliver him in the King's hand. Look at verse 21. And Saul said,
Blessed be ye of the Lord, for you have compassion on me. There is Saul's favorite word
again, me. Me, me, me. You see, this fellowship
here, this confederacy revolves around a man. Not Christ. Not God. And notice how Saul
measured the blessings of God. How you treat me, that's how
I'm going to measure whether or not you're blessed of God.
Well, that's a real standard, isn't it? He speaks as if David
was afflicting him. When David had done nothing against
him, he even invokes the name of the Lord here. the one who
wouldn't obey God, didn't even care about God's word, and what
the Zephyrites did was evil on the side of the Lord, not compassion,
it was self-serving and disobedient. You see, when men use God as
their moral authority to go against God's clear, revealed word, what
are they doing? They are doing evil. If God is
to be glorified, let me tell you something, if God is to be
glorified, me has to die. That's right. Self has to die.
Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Die unto
self. If God is to be glorified, his
word has to be followed. David's going to be king. And
that's the way it is with our Savior. And then look at verse
22. Go, I pray you, prepare yet,
and know and see his place where his haunt is, that is where he
puts his foot. And who hath seen him there? For it is told me
that he dealeth very subtly." Now that was not true. That was
Saul's accusation. He was paranoid. "...And see
therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where
he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty,
and I will go with you, and it shall come to pass, if he be
in the land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands
of Judah." Now you notice what Saul is doing there? He did not
bring up any specific charge against David because he had
none. So what does he do? Well, he deals subtly. You've
got to watch him now. You've got to be careful, you
know, about him. He's lurking around, you know.
Well, what's he done to you, Saul? Well, just watch him. You'll hear it. You'll see it.
That's the kind of thing. That's the evil that Saul promotes.
That kind of thing. And the Ziphites, they seek to
find David, and they're deceived. And what a picture of the natural
man. What a confederacy. Well, let me conclude with this.
Turn to Isaiah 8. I'll just read just a few verses
of this. God warned against such confederacies in Isaiah chapter 8. And this
is when Isaiah was prophesying of the northern kingdom and their
confederacy. with the king of Assyria. And
he says in verse 13 of Isaiah 8, look at this, he says, Sanctify
the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let
him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary,
but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to
both the houses of Israel. And he says, for a djinn, and
for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem too. So not only
the northern kingdom, but the southern kingdom. And many among
them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be
taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
That means you keep to the word of God. This is the important
thing. And he says, and I will wait
upon the Lord and hide his face from the house of Jacob, and
I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel
from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. And when
they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar
spirits. Now, a familiar spirit in the Old Testament is a lying
spirit. It's almost like you'd say it
this way in modern language. It's a spirit who, it's a man
who says, well, I've got a word from God, but it's not a word
from God. It's almost like he has a familiarity
with God that you don't have and can't have unless you come
to him. And so it's a lying spirit. And he says, and unto wizards
that peep, That means they look at the signs. And he says, And
that mutter, that's their ramblings, should not a people seek unto
their God for the living, to the dead, to the law, and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word? It's
because there is no light in them. Now, why did he say that? Well, let me go right back up
here. Verse 9. He says, Associate yourselves, O ye people, and
you shall be broken in pieces. If you associate and fellowship
and form a confederacy, give ear, O ye of far countries, gird
yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces, gird yourselves,
and you shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it
shall come to nothing. Speak the word, and it shall
not stand, for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me
with a strong hand and instructed me. that I should not walk in
the way of this people, saying, Say ye not a confederacy to all
them to whom this people shall say a confederacy, neither fear
ye their fear, nor be afraid." What's he talking about? He's
talking about those who would form a confederacy with those
who will not stand with God in His Word. It's the same today.
Those who form their confederacies and their clubs and their Their
denominations or whatever, who do not stand with Christ and
His word and His grace, don't go with them. That's what he's
saying. He said they'll fall. They'll fall. It's a confederacy
of evil. But what we desire is the fellowship
of God's grace, like David and Jonathan had, like David and
his mighty men had. That's what we want. All right.
Let's sing hymn number two.