Alright, let's open our Bibles
now to 1 Samuel 18. The title of the message this
evening is, The Lord With Us. The Lord With Us. And I've taken
that title from 1 Samuel 18, where it speaks of the Lord being
with David. The Lord was with him. The Lord
was with David. Now there's no greater comfort
for the people of God than to know and be assured of this fact. The Lord is with us. There's
no greater words that can be spoken to a sinner. The Lord
is with you. The Lord is with me. The Lord
is with us. This is spoken of David in his
time of trial and persecution. Actually spoken of David twice
in this chapter. And what's strange about it is
it's even recognized by Saul, an unbeliever. As you know, verse
11, as we concluded with this portion last week, we see that
Saul had turned bitter and jealous and envious of David. And having
known, it was revealed to Saul by Samuel the prophet that he
was to be removed from the throne, that the spirit of the Lord was
taken away from him, and that another, one better than Saul,
better because of the grace of God, had been anointed to be
king. And Saul, I believe, saw this coming. You remember when
the women were applauding David over and above Saul, and Saul
became jealous, he said, what more can he get but my throne?
Saul's son had already recognized this, Jonathan, because his soul
was knit by God in grace and mercy to David, just like our
souls are knit to Christ by a power that's stronger and higher than
ourselves. We wouldn't do that on our own.
Jonathan wouldn't have either. No way Jonathan, the crown prince
of Israel, on his own volition, his own will would knit his soul
to a man like David who was going to take his place, take his father's
place, and thus take his place. That takes an act of grace. That's
an act in power of God, not in natural man. And that's how we're
knit to Christ. That's how we come to Him as
sinners seeking mercy, because God the Holy Spirit in sovereign
power works a work within our hearts and brings us in Like
the publican crying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. So Saul had
turned against David. Verse 11 says, Saul cast a javelin
at him, a spear, where he said, I will smite David even to the
wall with him. I'm going to pin him to the wall,
kill him. And David avoided out of his presence twice. This happened
twice. It happens again later on. You
see, it doesn't stop. And David yet, you know, somebody
said, well, David's a fool to go back. in the presence of Saul. But David knew who was in control.
And that's the way we're to be, too. I know it's tough and it's
hard. We can't do it of our own power.
We have no courage of our own. But we know who's in control.
And David did, too. And even Saul recognized that.
Look at verse 12. It says, And Saul was afraid
of David. Now, he should have been. This
man who was a mighty warrior who cast the spear twice at David
and missed twice, this one who didn't normally miss, he recognized
that something's going on that's not in his control. And he became
afraid of David, and he even recognized, look, because the
Lord was with him. Now, here's an unbeliever, a
disobedient rebel who recognized that the Lord was with David. And he saw that the Lord was
departed from himself, departed from Saul. Now, this Saul was
a tormented man. You can just imagine what he
was going through in his mindset, in his depression. But he wasn't
a dummy. He was a smart man. And he recognized
that the Lord was with David. He knew that if the law of physics
says, if I throw this spear at him twice, I'm going to hit him
at least once. But he knew there was a greater law. of greater
power, and he recognized that. But notice there it says, Saul
was afraid of David. We talked about that last week
where David behaved himself wisely, and that's what makes your enemies
fear you. That's what makes my enemies
fear me. When we behave ourselves, even
in against their accusations, their attempts to destroy us,
when we behave ourselves wisely, which means this, it means behave
yourself according to the Word of God. Because that's the only
way we can behave ourselves wisely. Then they become afraid. If we
react the way they want us to, in vengeance, in return, evil
for evil, then they say, I've got you now. Then you've proved
their point, you see. But Saul was afraid of David.
And his fear of David was the source of suspicion. Now he became
suspicious of David, every move David made. He was afraid that
things are occurring outside of his control. You see, when
we believe we're in control, we're not afraid. But when things
get out of control, we can't make it all go where we want
it to go and do what we want it to do. Then we become afraid.
And the only cure for fear, remember I said last time, was to realize
by the grace of God that everything is most certainly outside of
our control, that that God is in control. It's not outside
of His control. He's still working all things
after the counsel of His own will. He's doing it right here
in 1 Samuel 18. And you know what? He's doing
it today. You all realize that? God right now is working all
things after the counsel of His own will. He's working all things
together for good to them that love God, who are the called
according to His purpose. So here's Saul. I thought about
this, you know, tyrants. They keep people in line with
fear. But you know, there's another
group that does the same thing. Preachers. False preachers are
good at it. They keep people in line with
fear. Get them to give because they're afraid not to. Get them
to do this because they're afraid not to. I remember down in Albany,
there was a fellow, they were getting ready to build a big
old, huge, whatever, family life center, gym or whatever. And
he was doing his best trying to get people to give money for
that. And here's what he told them. I remember this, he said
it on TV. He said, could you imagine standing before God at
judgment and you having to tell Him you didn't give as much as
you could have given? Now that's fear. Legal fear. That's not godly fear. Now there
is a godly fear. Which is trust and worship to
our Heavenly Father. But that legal fear, you see,
that's the kind of fear that Saul was under. Fear of punishment.
Fear of loss. Saul was afraid of David because
he recognized the Lord was with David and not with him. And this
was not spiritual insight that Saul's expressing here. I'll
tell you exactly what it was. It's pure human logic. It's the
only thing that makes sense, could make sense. I mean, here's
a warrior, a master warrior, threw the spear twice, didn't
hit him. It's only logical. There's something working here
outside my control. So it wasn't spiritual insight.
Listen, even unbelievers can see some true things just by
human logic. You see, if it had been spiritual
insight that caused Saul to see the Lord was with David, you
know what he would have done? He would have done the same thing
Jonathan did. He would have given him his mantle,
his sword, his girdle, and his shield and said, David, I'm not
the man. I've dropped the ball. I've sinned.
greatly against God, and I repent, and you're on the throne." That's
exactly what he's done. But you know, even unbelievers
can recognize truth by pure logic. Let me show you another example
of that. Go back to Genesis chapter 26. I can show you several in
the Scriptures, but I won't go into all of them tonight. But
look back at Genesis chapter 26. This is Isaac. Genesis chapter 26 and verse
24. This is Isaac going up to Beersheba. And it says in verse 24, it says,
And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, Genesis
26-24, I am the God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am
with thee, and I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my
servant Abraham's sake. And he built an altar, that's
Isaac building an altar there and called upon the name of the
Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants digged
a well. And then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzza,
one of the friends, and Phico, the chief captain of his army.
And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore why come you to me, seeing you
hate me, and have sent me away from you? And they said, We saw
certainly that the Lord was with thee. And we said, let's there
be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let's
make a covenant. They saw something about this
man, Isaac, and how things were coming together for him. They
said, well, we at least know the Lord's with him. We'd better
make a covenant with this fellow. That happened also in the life
of Joseph. We could go on. But you see, the Lord was with
him. The Lord was with Isaac. The
Lord was with David. What do we need above all things?
We need the Lord to be with us. Moses recognized this. You remember
when he said, when the Lord told him to go down to Egypt, bring
the people out, bring them over across the Red Sea and into the
wilderness to the Promised Land. Do you remember what Moses said
in chapter 33? He said, Lord, if you don't go
with us, let us not go up hence. I don't want to go if the Lord's
not with us. That's what Moses was saying. He recognized his
greatest need was the presence of the Lord. When we know the
presence of the Lord, when we're assured of it, there's no fear.
No fear from men. There's fear of God. The prophet
recognized this. Isaiah 41 and verse 10, Fear
thou not, for I am with thee, God said. Be not dismayed, for
I am thy God. Christ told His disciples In
the book of Luke, chapter 12, verse 32, listen to it. He said,
Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. He told Paul when he was about
to go down to Corinth. Corinth was an infamously sinful,
idolatrous city. Paul didn't know what he was
going to meet or get into or what was going to come against
him when he went down to Corinth, and he was afraid. And the Lord
told him, spoke to Paul, and he said, For I am with thee,
and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much
people in this city." You see, this is the source of
contemptment. That knowing that the Lord is
with us. That's why in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5, listen
to this. You know, this verse didn't used
to make sense to me. Because I wondered why he put
the two things together. He starts out, he says, Let your
conversation be without covetousness. And you know what covetousness
is, that's greed plus envy. That's what upsets the soul of
a person, the mind of a person, the heart. You've got to have
it, you've got to have more, and you can't get it off your
mind. That's lack of contentment. And
so he says, and be content with such things as you have. That's
hard to do, isn't it? And he says, for he saith, I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. You know what he's saying
there? Don't be covetousness. Be content
with what you have. Recognize that if the Lord is
with you, that's enough. He's enough. You want more, more,
more. I want more, more, more. But
God's with us. What more could we need if God's
with us? Realize that. Our Savior in His
humanity Just like it says David, the Lord was with David. In his
humanity, our Savior, when He walked on this earth, the Lord
was with Him. He had the full presence of the
Father and the Spirit without measure. How do you know that? Well, the Scripture says in Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 9, For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. So that if we're in Him, what
does the Scripture say in Colossians 2.10? It says, And ye are complete
in Him. completeness. Now, if that word
complete means this, it means you can't add anything to it.
And you can't take anything away from it. But let me ask you this
question. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. Now,
how can I know that the Lord is with me? That's what I want
to know. And that's really the essence
of this message. You know, David knew the Lord was with him. And
it was proven over and over and over again. But I want to put
it to you that if you're in Christ, if you're a true believer, if
you recognize your sins and your need of Christ, and that He's
your only hope, you too, I too, can be assured that He's with
us. Let me show you that. Verse 21 of Matthew 1, this is
the angel telling Joseph what the name of the Messiah will
be. And he says, And he shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now, this Jesus, that's Jehovah
our Savior, God our Savior, that's the completeness, He's the completeness
of salvation. And it says they're His people
from their sins. So what kind of people is He
going to save? Good people? No. He's going to save His people
from their sins. Sinners. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. Now, are you a sinner? Now, I'm
not talking about just saying, oh, I'm a sinner. Or just walking
around saying, well, I know I haven't done everything right. Or just
walking around saying, well, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm
not as bad a son. Because if that's your attitude,
you're still not a sinner in your mind. I'm talking about,
I can't remember which preacher used to say it during the conferences
here. He used to talk about, are you a dead dog sinner? A
dead dog sinner. I mean, I'm such a sinner that
I cannot, I don't deserve God's mercy and grace. I haven't earned
it. I'm the old wretched man that
I am. Sing amazing grace that saved
a what? A wretch like me. And people
sing it, but they don't really mean it. Are you a wretch? How
about that? Depraved. Now listen, here's
what I'm saying. Do you see that if God gave you
or me what we deserved at our best moment, we would perish
eternally? That's what we've earned. That's
what I'm talking about. You have no hope. You have no
hope. You have nothing to rely on,
nowhere to go but Christ and Him crucified and risen again.
That's who Jesus came to save. And he goes on. Now all this
was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophets saying, Behold a virgin Verse 23, a virgin shall
be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
his name Immanuel, which being interpreted as what? God with
us, the Lord with us. Is the Lord with me? Well, am
I a sinner with no hope of Christ? Now, if that's what you are,
if that's where you've been brought to, into the dust, Submit it
to the Lord as your only righteousness before God. As your only hope
of forgiveness by His blood alone. I guarantee you, the Lord is
with you. God with us. The Word became
flesh and tabernacled among us. And listen to me now, this Lord
with us, He is with us in every sense of the word with. I mean,
He's really with us. You know? I mean, we're with
each other tonight, but some of y'all may be a million miles
away. I talked about that Sunday. You really may not be with us.
You may be over somewhere else. You may be laying in a hammock
drinking coconut milk somewhere. Or you may be thinking about
vacation or something. So you're here bodily, but are
you with us? Well, the Lord's with us. He's
not thinking about something else. He has you on His mind
and on His heart. That's right. He always thinks
of His people. Everything He did as He walked
this earth, as He tabernacled among us, I mean, He was really
with us. He identified with us in our
name, in our nature, very man of very man, without sin. He
was with us in the Incarnation. He was with us as He walked this
earth under the law, which means that He took all the responsibility
of our duties and our debts to the law. All the responsibility
was laid upon Him. He is with us as our substitute,
for He was made sin, the Scripture says. Sin laid on Him, charged
to Him, and He suffered. He suffered like no other human
being ever suffered. He's God-man, you see. Suffered
in His soul hurt, sorrow, pain that we can't even describe.
And He was with us as He was on that cross because He was
dying for us, His people. The people He came to save, His
sheep, His church, God's elect. He was with us. And He took our
sins upon Himself and drank damnation dry and gave us in return His
righteousness. He's with us as the Lord our
righteousness. He's always with us. He said,
I'll never forsake you. I'll never leave you. We may
think that He has, but He hasn't. We may lose sight of it because
of our own self-pity and self-love and all that rot, but He's right
there. He'll never leave us. He said
that. And if He said it, you can bank on it. He's with us
as our shepherd, not only to die for us, He did, but also
to guide us and to herd us together. and keep us there in the fold.
He's with us as our guide. He's with us as our king. And
thank God he's with us as our advocate, pleading our cause,
ever living to make intercession for his people. He's able to
save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father by. I mean,
he's with us. The Lord was with David. If he
weren't with David, David would have been a dead man the moment
as he stood against Goliath. He really had been dead before
that, the moment He stood against the bear and the lion. He was
with Him. And the Lord is with His people.
How can I know He's with me? Are you a product of the mercy
and grace of God? That's the issue. It's not, are
you good enough? Listen, that's the kind of people,
if you're good enough, He's not with you. Because you don't need
Him. But now, if you're a sinner like that publican seeking mercy,
He's with you. That's a product. We see David
here, a product of God's mercy and grace in Christ. And what's
the key to him being with David? What's the key to David's success,
rather? The Lord was with him. But now Saul hated him. And Saul
decided that he would get rid of David. But now Saul couldn't. You know, Saul, really, his argument
and his rebellion wasn't against David. It was against God. You
can go all the way back to 1 Samuel 15, where Samuel took him and
said, Saul, now you've disobeyed. The Lord has removed His Spirit
from you. He's taken the throne away from
you. Saul heard those words. He didn't want to hear that.
He didn't want to believe it. And he wanted to change it. He
would not submit to God. That's the problem with man.
Unbelief. rebelliousness, transgression. We will not submit to the sovereignty
of God. We will not submit to his way
of salvation. That's what he said about the
unbelieving Jews. They would not submit to the
righteousness of God in Christ because they were intent. They
were set in their minds on one thing, and that was establishing
their own righteousness before God. Romans chapter 10. You see,
unbelief is not just unbelief as we see it. It is declaring
war on God. Christ said the Holy Spirit will
convince the world of sin because they believe not on me. Unbelief
is the mother of all sin. I mean, it's rebellion. The carnal
mind's at enmity against God. So see, Saul's argument was against
God, but he couldn't get to God, so who's he going to get to?
God's man, David. Same way today. Men don't like
what God says in His Word. They don't like God's way of
salvation, but they can't get to God. Try it. Jump up. See if you can touch the sky.
You can't do it. So they can't get to God, so
who do they go after? God's people. That's why Christ
said, marvel not if the world hates you. They hated me before
they hated you, and the servant is no greater than his master.
They'll throw you out of their synagogues. But He said they'll
do that because they neither know me nor my Father. They hate
God. That's the problem. Everything
Saul does in this endeavor is to undo the power that protects
David, his issues with God. And man has always attempted
to frustrate the purpose of God and be his own master, have his
own way. He won't submit. But I'm going
to tell you something, until you're submitted to Christ in
the Gospel, until you're submitted to His righteousness imputed
as the only one you have, you're at war with God. And that's the
way it is. Here's Saul. He's a product of
the flesh. Look at verse 13. He says, Therefore
Saul removed him from him, removed David, and made him captain over
a thousand. And here's what's happening here. Now Saul tried to kill David
with a spear twice. Well, here's his second attempt
to kill David. He made him captain of a thousand. He was putting
him up in the army, hoping that he would be killed. And he, that
is David, went out and came in before the people. You see that?
And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord
was with him. Wherefore, when Saul saw that
he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him. But all
Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came
in before them." Now, what does that say twice? He went out and
came in before them. You know what that means? Literally,
it means David was not sneaking around behind closed doors trying
to promote his own agenda. Now, you can bank on it. I don't
care who they are, how long you've known them. When men or women
go against the Word of God and go behind closed doors and sneak
around and go behind people's backs and speak words without
just coming out up front, in front of everybody, you can be
assured the Lord is not with them. You see, Saul had to find
different ways. He had to finagle around to get
David killed. That's what he did. He had to
find ways, you know, he had to devise ways. It was a sneak attack. But David didn't do that in his
doings, in his duties, in what he did. He went in, he came in,
he went out before all the people. And he just simply said, I'm
open and above board. Whatever you want to know, I'll
tell you. I'm not trying to hide anything. But you watch the enemies
of God and the enemies of His people. Boy, I'll tell you what,
watch them work. Watch them. You know, just offhanded
comments, all behind closed doors, all sneaky and all that. And
when the Word of God is presented for them, it's rebelliousness.
It won't work. Well, Saul's plan failed. David
didn't die. Saul's not in control. God is. And what Saul did to bring an
end to David actually brought David the love of the people.
The people loved him even more. You know, in our Lord's earthly
walk, you see the same thing up until the time of the crucifixion.
Here the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, they were all trying
to trap Him. They'd come to Him and they'd
try to ask Him questions, trying to trap Him, and they would have
their little clandestine meetings in closets and figure out what
they were going to do to get the people against Jesus of Nazareth,
but the people loved Him. The people followed Him, the
multitudes, you see. I know they didn't follow Him
for the right reasons. I know that. And I know that
after a while their hosannas turned to crucifying. But you
just see the providence of God and the power of God working
in our Lord's life to preserve Him in His humanity on this earth
until it was time. at the time that he was to be
crucified. And then he gave himself up willingly. He said, no man
takes my life from me. Look at verse 17. Saul said to
David, Behold, my elder daughter Miran. Now, Saul's about to give
his daughter away. You know, he made that promise
back when he was trying to find somebody to come up and kill
Goliath. He said, I'll give him my first daughter, my oldest
daughter to wed. So Saul said to David, Behold
my elder daughter, Merab, her will I give thee to wife. Only
be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. Now this
is Saul speaking. He says, For Saul said, Let not
mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be
upon him. Now you see what's going on there? Saul's words,
he starts out talking about, he says, I'm going to keep my
promise, David. I said, I'd give you my oldest
daughter, and here she is. So that's the first thing. He
said he's going to keep his promise. Secondly, he says, now be valiant
for me and fight the Lord's battles. What he does there, he mentions
the Lord's battles. That's the Lord. That's Jehovah. And you know what he's doing
here? The enemies of God know the way to get to the hearts
of God's people is to speak of the glory of God. You think about
that. Just talk about how much you're
going to glorify God. But what was in his heart? For
Saul, verse 17, let not mine hand be upon him, but let the
hand of the Philistines be upon him. I'll let the Philistines
get him. I can't kill him. The Lord's with him. So let the
Philistines do my dirty work for me. That was what was in
his heart. So here he was speaking of the
Lord's battles. Speaking of the glory of God.
You know, when Satan tempted our Lord, he used the same kind
of logic. Remember when he said, cast yourself down, for it's
written that he will not suffer thy foot to dash against the
ground? He said, in other words, in doing
this, you'll glorify God. You see, that's the way the enemies
are. They start talking about the glory of God, but what was
in his heart? You want to get the attention
of God's people, talk about the glory of God. That's right. But
what was in his heart? Let the Philistines do. He thought
to remove guilt by shifting the blame. Over in Psalm 55, verse
21, David wrote, the words of his mouth were smoother than
butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords. I believe he was describing Saul.
Look at verse 18. He says, And David said unto
Saul, Who am I? And what is my life, or my father's
family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king? This
was David's humility. And it was a real humility. He
wasn't just, as they say down south, putting on the dog. He
wasn't doing that. He knew nothing. He knew he had
nothing. And this is humanly speaking. David knew that he
came from a farmer's family, a poor family, nothing. that
would qualify him to marry a king's daughter? Well, you know, that's
what we are before God. Nothing. That's why we need Christ. We have nothing. We're not worthy. We're not qualified
to marry the king's son, are we? We're not. That's why we
need him. That's why he's everything. That's
why he has everything. But look at verse 19, that it
came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should
have been given to David, that she was given unto Agrab, the
Meholathite, to wife. So, what happened? Saul didn't
keep his promise. Shows his wickedness. He didn't
want his daughter to marry David. Nothing Saul did was working. But he still continued. You see
that? He still continued. Why? I'll
tell you why, because the natural man cannot change himself. He
can't do it. Cannot do it. No matter how hard
he tries, he cannot change. He's a rebel. He hates God. The only way the natural man
is going to change is by a supernatural act of a sovereign God in changing
him and making him willing to submit. And here Saul's life
is set now. His life is set. He is a man
with a purpose. You know, they always say you've
got to have a purpose in life. Well, Saul had a purpose. He
had a goal. What was his goal? He wanted
to dance on the grave of David. That was his goal. He wanted
to see David dead. It reminds me of another man
named Saul who had a purpose, who had a goal. His purpose and
goal was to wipe the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the face
of the earth, to get rid of every won every low life that bore
that name Christian. His name was Saul of Tarsus.
And he could not change himself, and the Bible says that he even
grew worse and worse and worse to achieve his unholy goal, to
get rid of Christians. And that went on, and it would
have gotten worse except for one thing, the power of God. in Christ, stopped him on the
Damascus road. You know what it caused him to
do? It caused him to act like Jonathan. He took off his sword
and gave it to the Lord. That's his power. He took off
his girdle and gave it to the Lord. That's his strength. He
had none. He took off his robe and gave it to the Lord. That
was his self-righteousness. And he recognized that all of
it was dumb in light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And he prayed, oh, that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection. Oh, that I might
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. What a change. It's not a natural change. It's
not human logic at all. It's the power of Christ. to
bring a sinner down into the dust. Look at verse 20 here. It says, And Michael, Saul's
daughter, loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing
pleased him. And Saul said, I will give him
her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of
the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David,
Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the one of the twain." In
other words, you're going to marry one of my daughters. Saul
saw another opportunity here to take advantage of another
avenue to get rid of David, make Michael a snare to him. Being
the king's son-in-law would have made David a more desirable target
for the Philistines. So put him up front. So look
at verse 22. Saul commanded his servants,
saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath
delight in thee, and all his servants love thee. Now therefore
be the king's son-in-law. So you see the man lying here
and conniving. Saul tells his servants to lie.
Flattering lips, that's what we've got here. Lying tongue,
you see. And so he says in verse 23, And
Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David
said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law,
seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed? Again, we see
David's humility. This should also be the thoughts
of our own hearts when we consider being called sons of God. Oh,
what manner of love that we should be called sons of God. We! Who? The most miserable,
undeserving wretches on this universe could be called sons
of God. Think about it. That's why they
were commanded to come without money, without price, and buy
milk, buy wine. It's a gift from God, you see,
just like David. And David says it. He said, how
can I be the king's son? I'm a poor man. And I'm lightly
esteemed, that is, as far as his pedigree. And so in verse
24 it says, And the servants of Saul told him, saying, On
this manner spoke David. And Saul said thus, Shall you
say to David, The king desireth not any dowry? And it was a custom,
if a man would marry the king's daughters, he would bring a dowry
of money and goods with him. Well, David had none. So Saul
says, Well, I don't desire a dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the
Philistines. Now, what a strange request.
Now, first of all, his goal was to get David killed. But he was
going to say, now, if you're going to go kill a hundred Philistines,
you're going to bring back proof, their foreskins. That's what
he asked for. And he says, this is what I desire,
not a dowry, no money or anything, just go kill a hundred Philistines,
bring their foreskins, to be avenged of the king's enemies.
But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
That was his goal. He wanted to kill him. Verse
26. He says, and when his servants
told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law,
and the days were not expired, not fulfilled. Imagine that. It pleased David to hear that.
I think about our Savior when he and the covenant of grace
agreed to do what the Father sent him to do, to die for his
people. And it was his pleasure to do
it. Not that he was sadistic or anything like that, enjoyed
pain or anything like that, but it was for the joy that was set
before him to glorify his Father in the salvation of his people.
What would he do for that joy? He'd go to the cross. He suffered
such contradiction, Hebrews 12 says, in order to attain that
goal. And he did it. Well, David knew
the Lord was with him. David knew he couldn't die. Because
the Lord was with him, and he was set to be king of Israel.
The Lord said to Samuel, you're going to be the king. And so
it says in verse 27, look what happens. Wherefore David arose
and went, he and his men, he had his army, and slew of the
Philistines, how many? Two hundred men. And David brought
their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king,
that he might be the king's son-in-law, and Saul gave him Michael his
daughter to wife. David saw double what he asked. Doesn't that remind you of our
Savior? That when He went to the cross, He gave us double
for all our sins, didn't it? He went against sin and Satan,
and He delivered double. His blood for our cleansing,
His righteousness for our justification. Here, David, he saw this as a
way to honor the king and fulfill the equivalent of a dowry. He
was a warrior, and he delivered double. And the way he did it
is the Lord was with him. And just like our Savior, when
he died for our sins, he did it to honor his Father and to
fulfill the equivalent of a redemption price. He paid it in full. Everything that I owe to the
justice and law of God, Christ paid in full and delivered double.
And not only did he pay the debt, That's the first part. He also
gave me a wealth untold. That's the double. You see? How did he do it? He's the Lord.
And in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body. Let's read
these last three verses and I'll quit. And Saul saw and knew that
the Lord was with David, and that Michael, Saul's daughter,
loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul
became David's enemy. Continue. That's what Envil gets
you. Then the princes of the Philistines went forth, and it
came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself
more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was
much set by." Now, if you look in your concordance, that term,
set by, means precious. David, because of all of his
accomplishments, the Lord being with him, was precious in the
sight of the people. And that certainly speaks of
our Savior, doesn't it? Bible says, unto you therefore
which believe, Christ is precious. But now unto them which be disobedient,
Saul. In our Lord's case, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the unbelievers, the stone which the builders
disallowed, the same has made the head of the corner." Can't
you see how David pictures our dear Savior in all this?