All right, let's open our Bibles
to the book of First Samuel, chapter 19. Now, the title of the message
this evening is Persecuted Yet Preserved. Persecuted Yet Preserved. And this passage concerning the
life of David, as he is being persecuted by King Saul is sort
of, and we might say it this way, in line with what Brother
Terry just read in Hebrews chapter 12, it's sort of like the biography
of every believer, in a sense, in one way or another. Because
it's a story of a person who lives in the grace of God under
the blood of Christ. who is persecuted by enemies,
persecuted by the world, yet preserved by God's power, by
God's grace and mercy in Christ. And that's our story. We see
King Saul here. You know the story of King Saul,
how he was the people's choice to be king of Israel. And yet
he was a disobedient man. In fact, if you read the first
part of 1 Samuel, won't find any reason in anything that is
said about King Saul that indicates that he or his family had any
interest in spiritual things at all. And you see some of the
effects of that in this passage here tonight. Saul was a disobedient
man, and therefore the Lord removed his spirit from him and told
him he was going to be taken off the throne and replaced by
his anointed one, King David. David the shepherd, David who
was empowered by God to slay Goliath on behalf of the Israelites. And of course, as we've seen,
David there is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. But King Saul
would not submit to God's revealed will in these matters. He wouldn't
accept God's judgment over his sin. He wouldn't take sides with
God against himself. That's the problem. And when
a sinner comes to see the glory of God's grace in Christ in conversion,
he'll take sides with God against himself. He'll realize that if
God gave us what we deserve, it would be eternal, eternal
damnation. And that our only hope is his
mercy and grace. That's why we cast ourselves
at his mercy. That's why we desire to be under
the blood of Christ. The Lord's Supper is all about
in memoriam unto him, this do ye in remembrance of me, because
he's our only hope, his blood for all the forgiveness of my
sins and his righteousness for my justification. But Saul wouldn't
submit. He wanted his way. He wanted
to keep the throne. He didn't want to give up to
David. So what's Saul doing here? He's fighting with God. It may
look like he's fighting with David. But he's fighting with
God, and that's the problem. You see, to fight with God is
always a losing battle. It's always a losing battle.
Because God works all things after the counsel of his own
will. And his way and his will will be done. And that's the
way it should be, because his way is the only right way and
the only good way and the only wise way. And that's what's good
for us. Saul is fighting a losing battle,
but the enemy, and this is what I want you to see tonight, the
enemy is sometimes used by God as test and trials for God's
children, for God's people, even our enemies. And you rest assured
that as much as the enemy persecutes the people of God, God is much
more ready and willing and able to preserve his children unto
the end. They'll always fail, ultimately.
Now, there may be times that it seems they went out, but they
don't. They don't. And we know that
by the testimony of God. We don't know it by feelings.
We don't know it by circumstance. We only know it because God says
it's true. And we know it so. And so, therefore,
persecution from the enemy, from the world, from the flesh, from
the devil, ought not surprise the people of God. Ought not
surprise us, should they? We ought to expect it. Now, sometimes
where that persecution comes from surprises us, doesn't it?
Some people that will persecute us that we never dreamed at one
point in time that they would be our persecutors. But it happens. But the persecution itself should
not surprise us. But here's the thing. The only
ones whom the enemy will defeat are those who never truly believe
the gospel. That's what John said back over
here. Let me just read this to you. In 1 John 2 and verse 19,
when he spoke of those who left the gospel, who at one time were
professing believers just like us, and then they left the gospel. And the indication in 1 John
is that they left it because they were being persecuted. And
he says in verse 19, they went out from us, but they were not
of us, for if they had been of us, true believers, true children
of God, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest, that they might be exposed, that
they were not all of us. And he doesn't stop there. He
says, but you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know
all things. And what that means is you have
an unction that's a power. That's the power of grace in
the heart given by the Holy Spirit. And when he says you know all
things, he's not saying you know it all. There's a lot of things
we don't know. But there are a lot of things we do know because
we've been taught of God. But what he's saying is you're
convinced of the truth of all things in God. You are convinced
of the truth of all things in Christ. And if you weren't convinced,
you go out to under persecution. Now, in 1 Samuel, chapter 19,
we just finished up where Jonathan interceded for David to stop
King Saul from killing David. Saul made an oath. He said that
he would, he swore by an oath that he wouldn't kill David.
But look at verse 8. Now, there are two things I want
you to see here. First of all, I want you to see how the wrath
of man, and when I'm talking about the wrath of man, I'm talking
about man's hatred, man's anger. against Christ, against his church,
against his people, that is pictured here in Saul's wrath and anger
against David. It's like the world's wrath and
anger against the Savior, against Christ. But here's the first
thing. The wrath of man will always
ultimately fail, no matter how it seems. God's people will be
preserved. Look at verse 8. He says, And
there was war again, and David went out, he went out to fight.
And he fought with the Philistines. Now, you know the Philistines.
They always were. They were like a thorn in Israel's
side. They were ungodly idolaters. And he said he slew them. David
slew them with a great slaughter. And they fled from him. David
and Israel constantly persecuted by an enemy outside of Israel. The Philistines. But God delivered
them and slew the enemy through David. And that's the issue,
see, here. We as believers are constantly
attacked. from the enemy outside the camp
of our fellowship in Christ, the world, the devil. But God
always delivers us when Satan attacks us from without. And
I always, one of my favorite verses, the Lord got a hold of
me with this when we were going through the book of Revelation.
Turn over to Revelation 12. And I want you to see how we
fight the enemy under these persecutions from the world and from the devil.
In verse 9, he's using this symbolic language, but he's talking about
very real things. This is no myth. This is no children's
story. This is not a horror movie or
a sci-fi flick. This is reality. And he starts
out in verse 9 there, he says, the great dragon was cast out.
Who is the great dragon? Well, he's that old serpent.
Where did that reach back to? All the way to Genesis chapter
3. when Satan in the form of a serpent
brought about the fall of man, ruined the human race in disobedience. And that old serpent called the
devil and called Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. And
that deception now, you've got to understand, that deception
is mainly his lies under his self-righteous false religion
that keeps a sinner from coming to Christ. Hiding the glory of
God you know if our gospel be hid 2nd Corinthians 4 3 if our
gospel be hid It's hid to them that are lost in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which walk believe
not And then he goes on to say, but we've seen the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ by the power of his spirit So he
deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into the earth and
his angels were cast out with him and And I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now has come salvation. This is speaking of
what Christ has accomplished on the cross. This is speaking
about the shedding of his precious blood as the full payment for
all our sins, which are charged to him so that he made an end
of it. And so now has come salvation.
Now has come strength and the kingdom of our God. That was
the establishment of the kingdom. And he says in the power of his
Christ, not the power of you. Not the power of me, not the
power of the church, is the power of Christ. He's able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto the Father by him. And for
the accuser of our brethren, that's Satan, he accuses us.
He's cast down. Would you accuse them before
our God day and night? He wouldn't let up. But look
at verse 11. Now listen to this very carefully.
He says, and they overcame him, this accuser. This persecution
from without, like the Philistines going after Israel, this devil
who accuses them, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Just plead the blood of Christ.
That's enough. The blood is enough. They overcame
Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Now, what is the word of their testimony? Christ is my hope. Christ is my forgiveness. Christ
is my all in all. Christ is my righteousness. Christ
is my wisdom, my holiness, my redemption. That's the word of
our testimony. It's not how great I am or how
much I've done or how much I plan to do. It's Christ and him alone. And he says, and they love not
their lives unto the death. Isn't that something? Remember,
when we are persecuted, Our God will preserve us and such persecution. Now, listen to this. Turn to
Matthew chapter five. Listen to the word of God. Don't
listen to your own conscience on this. Don't even listen to
your own heart. Don't listen to your friends
and your family and certainly don't listen to your critics.
I have found. That the worst thing I can do
as your pastor. Is listen to my critics. Because
you know what happens if I listen to my critics? That means you
have to listen to them too. Through me. Because I'll complain. And I'll murmur. Don't listen
to them. Listen to God's word here. And here's what he says.
The persecution that comes over righteousness, over the gospel,
over our identification and fellowship with Christ, and with one another,
gives evidence of several things. Number one, that we're blessed
of God. Look at Matthew 5 and verse 10. He says, blessed are
they which are persecuted. That sounds like I was listening
to Ron's message last Sunday morning, great message, and he
used the term oxymoron. And I said, well, somebody out
there might think that's a dishwashing detergent or something, but that's
not what it is. You know what an oxymoron is?
Two things that are opposite, put together in logic, but they're
opposite. And that's what this would be.
You don't think of persecution as being a blessing. That sounds
like an oxymoron, but it's not. Not from God. Blessed are they
which are persecuted. Now, it's not just persecuted,
but it says for righteousness sake, that's not just for morality
or dedication or standing for a cause that's for Christ's sake.
That means they're standing with Christ, following Christ, serving
Christ. Resting in him and rejecting
everything else that would get in the way or that would rival
Christ. Calling it what it is, evil, wicked, dead works. And
they're persecuted for that. Just like Paul when he went into
several areas where the Jews persecuted him. Peter and James
and John, the martyrs. Just like every gospel preacher
who stands uncompromisingly for the truth will have to suffer
in some form or another. So blessed are they, he says,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven
belongs to them. And he says in verse 11, blessed
are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And here's what he says now.
Rejoice, be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven,
not the reward of merit, but the reward of grace. He says,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Now, we're
reading about one of those prophets. I know David was the king, but
he was also a prophet. The Lord used him as a prophet
to write many of the Psalms. And David's being persecuted
for righteousness sake. So that's that's first of all,
it's a blessing. But look at Romans chapter eight. Now, this persecution is also
an evidence And it's one of the main evidences in Scripture that
we're in fellowship with Christ and that we are the sons or children
of God. Look at Romans chapter 8. He
speaks of the spirit of liberty here, not the spirit of bondage.
And that spirit of liberty is the spirit of Christ. Look at
verse 15 of Romans 8. He says, For you have not received
the spirit of bondage. That's legalism. That's salvation
by works. that burdens people down, trying
to earn their way into God's favor, trying to earn their salvation
or their reward. He says, you haven't received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's an ungodly, legal
fear. But you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. And the spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are, we are the children of
God. And if children then heirs and
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him. that we may be also glorified
together. Suffering with him refers to
the persecutions that come for righteousness, the children of
God. Look at Philippians chapter 1.
I know this is a lot of scripture to turn to, but I want you to
see it. Let's become Bible students.
Let's do these sword drills here tonight. I told somebody, I said,
I'm going to kill you. You'd have to turn to scripture. Turn over here. I can't find
it now. I've been up here talking and bragging, can't find it.
That's what happens. All right. Look at Philippians
chapter 1. Look at verse 27. Now keep in
mind, now this is David. He's being persecuted by Philistines.
We're going to talk about him being persecuted by Saul. He
says, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel
of Christ. In other words, live a life that's consistent with
the gospel of God's grace and mercy. That whether I come and
see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel, and in nothing be terrified by your
adversaries. Which is to them, the fact that
they're your adversary, to them it's an evident token of perdition. That's eternal death. But to
you, it's an evident token of salvation. And that of God, not
of you. You see, if we come through this
thing, we know it's not of us, it's of God. So he says in verse
29, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only
to believe on him, faith is the gift of God, but also to suffer
for his sake. That persecution, that suffering
is a gift from God, having the same conflict which you saw in
me, and now here to be in me. One more, look at Hebrews chapter
12. This is the one that Brother Terry read. In this chapter,
he's talking about chastisement. Sometimes chastisement comes
in the form of persecution. And he just talked about a long
list of Old Testament believers, saints, sinners saved by the
grace of God who went through their lives being persecuted
for the gospel, the hall of faith, we call it. And here's what he
says in verse one. Wherefore, for this reason seen,
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight. That's everything that burden.
In other words, you're not going to run a race in a suit of armor. Don't
let it burden you down. And the sin which does so easily
beset us, that's doubt and unbelief. And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. We're in a race. It's a race
of grace. Now, how do we run it? Verse two, looking unto Jesus.
the author and finisher of our faith. Now, notice it didn't
say looking within. It doesn't say looking at the road or the
trail. It doesn't say looking at behind you at the obstacles.
It says, how do you run it? Keep your eyes and your heart
and your mind by the grace of God focused upon Christ as the
one who started it all and the one who finishes it all. Isn't
that right? And so he says, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds." He
says, you've not yet suffered or resisted unto blood striving
against sin. And have you forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children? There you go. Children. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou rebuked of him. For
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth." So these persecutions for righteousness sake, what
David's going through back here against the Philistines and ultimately
against Saul. Go back there to 1 Samuel 19. All God's children, all who follow
Christ will suffer persecution. And such persecution comes from
living godly lives. That means walking by faith.
Paul said, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution. Now you might notice here that
the enemy, they're liars too. Back here in verse 8 it talks
about the Philistines came again to war. Back in chapter 17 when
Goliath came out to challenge Israel, You remember what he
said? He said, send out your champion,
send out the one to stand for you. And he said, if I defeat
him, you serve us. If he defeats me, the Philistines
will serve you. Well, they lied. You see, the
enemies are liars. That's the way persecution comes
in the form of sometimes. It's a lie. Satan's a liar. Christ
said that to the Pharisees. He's a liar from the beginning.
And when he tempts us to sin, he lies to us. Look at verse
nine now. It says in verse 9 of 1 Samuel
19, And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he
sat in his house with his javelin, his spear, in his hand. And David
played with his hand. David was playing the harp. Here's
this fellow. Here's King Saul in all of his
depression, all of his envy, his gall of bitterness. And he's
sitting there with a spear in his hand. And David's sitting
over there playing the harp, trying to calm him down. Can
you imagine? What a picture. Somebody said,
David, if you're smart, you'll get out of there and never come
back. Well, eventually, David did get out that it was under
the providence of God. But here he is doing what God
told him to do. He's being submissive and he
was constantly persecuted by this enemy here. So you might
say the enemy within might represent our flesh. You see, not only
are we persecuted from enemies outside, but the enemy within.
And that's the biggest persecutor. is our own sinful human nature,
our own sinful flesh. But look at verse 10. He says,
And Saul sought to smite David, even to the wall. In other words,
pin him to the wall with the spear, with the javelin. But
David slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin
into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night. Saul,
the king of Israel. Think about it. He lied, too.
He stated an oath. He said, I will not kill David.
But here he is right now. An evil spirit from the Lord.
God's judgment upon him. And he went after him again.
Saul under the control of the flesh. Under the control of his
sin. You see, Saul's under the control
of sin, the flesh, and he fails to keep his oath. Saul cannot
set himself free from sin's control. And you want to know something?
You can't either. And neither can I. You cannot
set yourself free. It takes a work of God the Son
to do that. That's why he said, if the Son
sets you free, you'll be free indeed. There's no liberty, there's
no freedom in anything within us or about us or from us. All
freedom comes from Christ. And we as believers, we're constantly
persecuted by this enemy within, but God delivers us and will
ultimately and eternally deliver us from the presence, the influence,
the urgings of indwelling sin. Look at verse 11. Now Saul also
sent messengers unto David's house to watch him, putting the
spies on him, and to slay him in the morning. They were going
to send messengers to watch him and to kill him. And Michael,
David's wife, told him, saying, If thou save not thy life tonight,
tomorrow thou shalt be slain. In other words, if you don't
run tonight, tomorrow you're going to be dead. That's Saul's
daughter. You see, God uses means to deliver
David here, and Michael loved David, but she never expresses
any faith in David's God. But that being the case, God
uses her even in her idolatry and deception. Look at verse
12. So Michael let David down through a window, and he went
and he fled and escaped. And Michael took an image. That
image you might have in your concordance there is called a
terrafim. You might be familiar with that,
because that was one of the things that Jacob's father-in-law kept
in his house. He kept a bunch of them, and
when Rachel left with him, she took them with her. And I don't
want to get into all that, but I'll tell you this. This is idolatry.
That's what it is. It's an image. It's called a
household god. And Michael took that image,
and she laid it in the bed and put a pill of goats there for
his bolster. In other words, put hair on top
of its head and covered it with a cloth. So here's this image
laying there, and it looks like the shape of a man. And what
does that tell us? Well, it certainly tells us something
about Michael, that she had no interest in David's God. I believe
it shows something about the state of Saul's household, something
of his failure as the spiritual leader of his people and his
kingdom. And then she lied. Look at verse 14. It says, And
when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He's sick.
There he is laying there. He's sick. Well, Saul sent the
messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in
the bed that I may slay him. Bring the whole bed to me is
what he said. If he's that sick, just bring
the bed and I'll get him there. That's courage, isn't it? how
this is going about. But you see, he goes on, verse
16, he says, And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was
an image in the bed with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster.
And Saul said unto Michael, Why have you deceived me so, and
sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michael answered
Saul, He said unto me, Let me go, why should I kill thee? So
she lied again. So you notice how God sovereignly
You know, actually, you can think about it this way. He sovereignly
uses two of Saul's children to protect David. Jonathan, in a
good way, because Jonathan was devoted to David, and then Michael
overruling her lies and her deceit and her idolatry. And I'll tell
you what, God uses all for his purposes, believer and unbeliever. And when we consider Michael's
idolatry, remember this, that this is not the exception. Idolatry
is the very nature of fallen sinful man. True worship of God,
true faith in the true and living God, is a gift of God's grace. That's right. How did I turn
from my idols to serve the living God? It's by the power of God's
grace. But you can see all of this as
it goes along. Now, in the last part of this
chapter, here's the second thing I want you to see. And this is
a glorious truth. This is one of the foundational
truths that gives comfort to God's people. And here it is,
the wrath of man will always, ultimately, listen to this, praise
the Lord. The wrath of man will always,
ultimately, praise the Lord. Listen to what happened. Verse
18, David fled. He escaped and came to Samuel,
went to the prophet of God, went there for comfort. went there
for guidance. He went to Samuel, to Ramah.
Ramah is where they say that Samuel had a school of the prophets. And David told Samuel all that
Saul had done to him, and he and Samuel went and dwelt in
Naoth, or Nioth. And it was told Saul, saying,
Behold, David is at Nioth in Ramah. Now listen to what happens
here. Saul sent messengers to take
David. And when they saw the company
of the prophets prophesying, this is in Samuel's prophetic
school, and they saw the company of the prophets prophesying,
and Samuel standing as appointed over them, listen, the Spirit
of God was upon the messengers of Saul, those enemies who came
to persecute David, the Spirit of God was upon them, and they
also prophesied. Well, you say, well, what did
they say? When I listen to them, this word prophesy here is an
interesting word. It can be used in a lot of different
contexts. It can be talking about a true
prophet speaking the truth of the word of God, or it can be
used to speak of a false prophet speaking lies. But it can also
be used in the realm of praising God in song. And I believe that's
what's happening here. These fellows, these messengers
from Saul, They came in and they saw Samuel and all these prophets
singing praises, worshipping, praising God. They were there
for an unholy purpose, to slay David, to kill God's anointed
king. And what happens? The Spirit
of the living God comes over them sovereignly, powerfully,
and they begin praising the Lord too. They begin singing praises
to God. They didn't do it willingly.
They didn't have a heart to do it, but they were made to do
it. Just like in the end, every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so that David was
preserved, but look on, it gets better. Look at verse 22. Then
when he also to Ramah," that Saul went also to Ramah, he came
himself, and he came to a great well that is in Sheku, which
means tower, and he asked and said, where are Samuel and David?
And one said, Behold, they be at Nile and Ramah. And he went
there to Nile and Ramah, and the Spirit of God was upon him
also. And he went on and prophesied
until he came to Nile and Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes
also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and laid down
naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore, they say, is
Saul also among the prophets?" What happened? Can you imagine
that? He didn't come there to worship
God. He came there to kill David, to kill God's man, to kill God's... What happened? The Spirit of
the Lord sovereignly and powerfully grabbed hold of this rebel and
turned his tongue to praising the Lord. And he's stripping
off his clothes. Now, back then, when they said
stripped naked, that means they took off their outer garment.
It wouldn't be totally naked like we think of it today, but
he stripped off that outer garment. Well, you remember what Jonathan
did when he show his devotion to David, he took off his outer
garment. So in this prophesying that Saul was forced to do with
an unwilling tongue and an unwilling heart, he also was forced to
take off the outer garment, proving that his kingship of Israel was
over. And David was going to take up
the mantle. The wrath of man will always, ultimately, praise
the Lord. I want you to turn to Psalm 76. I want to read you this psalm.
It's a short one. Here's Samuel, God's anointed
prophet. The Word of God, that's what
he represents. The Word of God is our refuge.
The Word of God is our guide. And the reason is because it
leads us to take refuge in Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, to
hide under his precious blood. for our safety and our preservation.
And here, David flees there for counsel, for comfort. And that's
why we flee to the Word of God, to Christ himself, as he's revealed
in the Word. And nobody can stop us. That's
true. They can kill the body, but they
can't stop us because the power of God is over us. But look at
Psalm 76. In Judah is God known, his name
is great in Israel. In Salem, also his tabernacle
and his dwelling place in Zion, that's his church in Christ there.
There break he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the
sword, and the battle. Thou art more glorious and excellent
than the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled,
they have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might
have found their hands. In thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both the chariot and the horse are cast into a deep sleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared,
and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou
didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven, the earth feared
and was still. When God arose to judgment to
save all the meek of the earth," the meek are the humble, the
contrite heart, "'surely the wrath of man shall praise thee,
and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.'" He either turns
it ultimately to praise him or he stops it altogether. Vow and
pay unto the Lord your God. Let all that be round about him
bring presence unto him that ought to be feared. He shall
cut off the spirit of princes. He is terrible to the kings of
the earth. Isn't that something? Think about
it. Think about what the scripture
says. Think about, for example, Joseph, whose brothers in their
wrath in their anger and in their envy and showed their wrath and
anger and envy towards their brother and selling him into
bondage down in Egypt. And think about how all that
ended up when they stood before him and here he is second in
command and they're fearing for their lives knowing that he's
going to take vengeance on him. And here's what he says in Genesis
15 verse 20. He said, you meant it for evil.
Thou thoughtest evil against me, but God meant it under good. to bring it to pass at this day
to save much people alive. You see, God caused their wrath
to ultimately praise Him. Turn to Acts chapter 2. The Jews displayed their hatred
for our Savior. The Gentiles displayed their
hatred for our Savior and for His apostles. They were persecuted. Paul and Barnabas ended up in
jail one time. What did they do? They sang praises
to the Lord, and you know what happened? A Philippian jailer
was saved. God caused the wrath of man to
praise him. God did that. You didn't do it. Paul didn't do it. Stephen preached
the gospel. They picked up stones to stone
him, and he looked up into the heavens. He said, God, lay not
this sin to their charge, and he was taken up into the Lord's
presence. The wrath of man was made to
praise him. And as a result of that, the gospel spread out to
the Gentile world. And more churches sprang up under
the preaching of the gospel than had ever been at that time in
history. The wrath of man was made to
praise the Lord. Look at Acts chapter 2. Here's
the ultimate, right here. This is the ultimate example. This is the ultimate place where
the wrath of man All men by nature, you and me, the Jews, the Gentiles,
the kings of the earth, everyone, fallen human nature represented
right there. Our wrath and our hatred by nature
for God's glory and God's Son was turned by God to ultimately
praise Him. Verse 22, ye men of Israel, hear
these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, among
you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in
the midst of you as you yourselves also know him being delivered
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. It was
no accident. It was he was the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He says you have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain our anger and our wrath
and our hatred. of God and His Son was turned
to praise the Lord. And so it says in verse 24, "...whom
God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holdeth of it." You see, God
turned that anger and wrath and hatred that we had for Him into
His glory because out of this death, out of the death of the
Son of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes the salvation
of much people, his people, his church, God's elect, his sheep. Out of that wrath that we aimed
against God and his son comes the forgiveness of sins by his
precious blood. That's what we're going to commemorate
tonight. Out of that wrath that we aimed against God and His
Son comes the righteousness of God by which God is enabled to
justify the ungodly and take us to glory and be received complete
before Him. Christ was made sin as our substitute. We didn't even know it. It was
our anger and our wrath that took over us. But God turned
that anger and wrath ultimately by his power into the praise
and glory of his grace in the salvation of sinners. Let me
just read you this in closing, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8. Paul said this, he said, we're
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed. A lot of things we don't understand,
but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you." God is always working the wrath of
man, even today. unto ultimately unto his praise
and his glory in the salvation of his people through Christ.
All right. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for this truth. We thank you for your gospel.