Alright, now let's return here
to 1 Samuel chapter 17. The title of the message tonight
is The Glory of Covenant Love. The Glory of Covenant Love. Covenant
love is the love of God for His people and their love to Him. It's a kind of love that we don't
know anything about by nature. We know nothing about this kind
of covenant love because it is a love from God and it is love
of God. It is displayed here in this
great relationship between David and King Saul's son Jonathan.
It is a beautiful love. It is a glorious love and it
is a gracious love for it is a gift from God. Modern man in
his perversion and His perverted mind tries to make this out to
be something dirty and filthy. But that just goes to show you
what man by nature really is. It is not anything, anything,
but divine love of God and His people to Him that's found fulfilled
in the person and work of Christ and given to His people by the
power of the Holy Spirit. And I want to show you that in
these verses. But to get the context, I want
you to look at verse 55 again, 1 Samuel 17. Now it says, And
when Saul saw David, this is King Saul, this is after David
had killed the giant Goliath. And Saul, the king, sitting there,
he saw David go forth against the Philistine. He said to Abner,
Abner was the captain of the host, the captain of the army.
Abner, he said, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As
thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire,
ask, thou whose son this stripling, this youth, that is what that
word means, who is this youth? And as David returned from the
slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him
before Saul with the head of the Philistine, the head of Goliath,
in his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son
art thou, thou young man? And David answered, he said,
I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite." Now scholars
differ over the reason that King Saul did not recognize David.
That seems a little weird to us too, doesn't it, as you look
at this. Why didn't he recognize him? David had been in Saul's
court. David was commanded to come and
play the harp, the lyre, for Saul to soothe his troubled mind
and conscience and soul. Saul was a man who was degenerating
in his mind. We know that. Why didn't Abner
recognize him? It could be that Abner had never
seen him. Abner was the general of the army, and I'm sure he
was a busy man. He didn't have time to sit around
while David played the harp. It could have been, some scholars
say, that this is a flashback, that this really took place before,
but that's not so, and we know that. He brought the head of
Goliath to Saul. It could have been the passage of time. We
know David went back and forth from King Saul's court to his
father's court. That's why Saul down here in
chapter 18 in verse 2 says, Saul took him that day and would let
him go no more home to his father's house. And it could have been
David wearing different clothing, had a different garb and a different
robe that Saul just didn't recognize him right off. Maybe David had
grown over this period of time. We don't know. But I know this,
I have a tendency to think of it this way, and I could be wrong
on this, but the truth that I'm going to preach from it is not
wrong. I believe this is a reflection of the degeneration of Saul's
mental state. And we see that really starting
from here on. In fact, later on in chapter
18, we're going to see where Saul flings a javelin at David,
meaning to kill him. And that's how bad it got. And
what we see in Saul, I believe here, is a picture of fallen
man in a state of spiritual insanity. Now, whether or not this is the
reason Saul didn't recognize him, I don't know. But I do know
this, the truth of the total depravity and spiritual deadness
of man by nature is so. You'd agree with that. Here's
man without spiritual life, without spiritual knowledge, not being
able to recognize the man who saved his throne, who saved his
people. Now, David was the Savior of
Israel. Now, we know ultimately it was
God, and David said that, but he used David. But here David
is a picture of Christ, who is the Savior of his people. And
we can certainly understand the spiritual application of this.
Man, by nature, does not recognize the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, by
nature, in his own degenerated, spiritually dead mind, does not
know Christ. When we see him, we don't know
him until by revelation, by powerful revelation of the Holy Spirit,
we are shown a vision of the glory of the Messiah, the glory
of the one who saved us at Calvary. So this is pictured by David
who had saved Israel by the power of God. But now David identifies
himself in verse 58. He says, I am the son of thy
servant Jesse the Bethlehemite. That's certainly a picture of
our Savior who was the root of Jesse, the branch of Jesse, the
one who is the greater son of David who was born in Bethlehem. And so there is an identification
here of David which pictures Christ's identification to His
people. When our Savior came into the
world, He came unto His own, the scripture says in John chapter
1 and verse 11, and He began to identify Himself, but man
by nature didn't and would not recognize Him as Messiah, the
Son of the living God. There were a few who recognized
Him, but they did so by revelation of the Spirit. He's the greater
son of David. He's the Savior of Israel, His
people, spiritual Israel, which includes God's elect all over
the world. And that point is made in Saul's
attitude towards David. And then we come to chapter 18,
and we're introduced again to King Saul's son, Jonathan. Now,
this is not the first time that Jonathan appears. He appeared
earlier in the book of 1 Samuel. But here's Jonathan. Who is Jonathan? He's the crown prince of Israel. That's who he is. He's the son
of Saul. You know what his name means?
It means the Lord has given. The Lord has given. And Jonathan
was already established in Israel as a great warrior in Israel. He was considered to be a man's
man, a great warrior, a great defender of his father's throne,
as did Saul, and all Israel looked upon him." And so, Jonathan,
as he was established as a great warrior in Israel, we need to
understand that Jonathan, just like King Saul, and just like
Abner, and just like all of Israel, right before this, they all cowered
in fear before Goliath and the Philistines. Somebody might say,
well, why didn't Jonathan step up and say, I'll go after him
and meet that fellow. Why didn't Abner step up and say it? Why
didn't David's mighty warrior brothers do that? His three older
brothers that, if you remember, that chided him for even coming
on the scene. Well, they were fearful. Which
pictures the fear of man by nature, that bondage of legal fear that
Satan keeps men, that fear of death that only Christ can deliver
us from by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the
dead. And so, Jonathan had established a reputation as a great warrior,
but just like the rest of them, just like his brethren in the
flesh, they all cowered before Goliath. But you see, after God's
victory by David, we see here how the grace of God worked in
the life and in the heart of Prince Jonathan. And it's described
this way, his soul was knit to the soul of David. So let's look
at that. Look at verse 1. It says, and
it came to pass. Chapter 18, verse 1. It came
to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul. Now, the
indication there is that Jonathan heard the conversation between
David and Saul that took place earlier when David spoke to Saul
and told him that it was the Lord God who had delivered Goliath
into his hands. And so he heard the conversation,
maybe two, when David came up and Saul didn't recognize him.
But it says after that happened, after he spoke to Saul, it says
that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David,
and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Now, you know, there
are a lot of parallels in this. You know, Jonathan, he was a
lot like David. They were about the same age.
I think Jonathan may have been five years older than David.
So they were both young men of courage and of great faith in
God, both men of action. But the best parallel that you'll
find between David and Jonathan as human beings is that they
were both sinners saved by the grace of God. And that was their
real connection. You know, that's what connects
us. It's not personality. Let me tell you something. What
connects the people of God? It's not family, fleshly family
relationships. It's not personality. I mean,
you know, you may find people in this conversation who like
their personality. You'll find some you don't. It's not common
likes and common dislikes. What knits us? And you know,
that knitting there now, that means it can't be pulled apart.
What knits us together? We're in the same boat. We're
in the same lifeboat. We're in the same ark. And that
ark is Christ. We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. And that's what knit David and
Jonathan together as human beings. As sinners saved by grace. So
there are a lot of likenesses, but there are a lot of differences
too. Jonathan, he was the firstborn son of a king. David, he was
the last-born son of a farmer. Jonathan, he was the crown prince
of Israel and next in line to the throne. But David was in
the eyes of men the last one who could have ever been considered
for the throne of Israel. You remember, his own daddy didn't
even invite him to the parade, to the party, when Samuel came
down to pick the Lord's anointment. If your own daddy won't put you
up there, you think what the other people would do. But you
see, Jonathan was convinced by God. And this is an amazing thing. Now this is grace. How do we
know the grace of God was operative in Jonathan's life? Well, think
about it. If anybody in that kingdom had
reason to hate and despise and be jealous of David, it was Prince
Jonathan. Isn't that right? Next, you know,
King Saul lost the throne. Jonathan didn't. King Saul disobeyed
God. Jonathan didn't. But here he
is next in line, and he was convinced that David was God's choice for
king, and he submitted to that. Now, that took grace. That takes
grace. And I'll show you why here in
just a moment. But Jonathan, he was a warrior. He was a brave
man. He was highly respected. He was
loved of the people. When his daddy vowed a rash vow
which would have eventually, you can read about this in 1
Samuel 14. King Saul vowed a rash vow that
legally would have ended up in Jonathan's death. But Saul refused
to kill him because he was afraid of the people. The people loved
Jonathan. The people would have gladly set Jonathan on the throne.
And so Saul couldn't kill him even though he had made a vow
as king. And he wouldn't do it. So Jonathan was highly respected,
he was the crown prince of Israel, but he was a man who was given,
by God Almighty, spiritual understanding. The natural man would have not
done what Jonathan did. The natural man received not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They
are foolishness to him. Jonathan, naturally speaking,
as a sinful human being, without the grace of God, would have
obviously, and logically say, well, I'm the crown prince, I've
done all these things in Israel, are you going to put a shepherd
on the throne in place of me? But you see, he was a man of
spiritual understanding given him by God. As I said, the one
person who had reason to be jealous of David was Jonathan, and hated
him. But Jonathan was the one who had the most to fear from
David's success. Yet, the scripture says here,
his soul was knit to David. And not only that, it says he
loved David as his own soul. I love that language. As himself,
he loved David. Because what they had in common,
and what was it? A real relationship with the
Lord God. And I'll tell you, that's bigger
than any difference that we have between each other. That's it. Our relationship to Christ. And
that's what we need to see and recognize, isn't it? Now, before
David came along and did the work of salvation in defeating
Goliath, there's nothing in Scripture to indicate that Jonathan had
any interest in spiritual things. Nothing. But here, all of a sudden,
chapter 18, here it is. Here it is. The soul of Jonathan
was knit with the soul of David. Now, what was it that knit their
souls together? And I want you to notice something
here that's important. That term was-knit. Now, I'm
not going to give you a Hebrew grammar lesson tonight, but I
want you to notice something because this is important. Was-knit
is a passive verb. A passive verb. And what that
means is simply this. Jonathan in being knit to the
soul of David, Jonathan was passive in this process. In other words,
it's the difference between if we could say Jonathan knit himself
to the soul of David. That's not what it says, is it?
In other words, Jonathan was not the one doing the knitting.
Somebody else was. Jonathan was passive. He was
knit to David. He didn't do the knitting. He
was knit. Well, who do you suppose did the knitting here? I can
tell you exactly who did it. God did. And who knit us together? Not us. Somebody says, well,
I'm deciding to join the church. Well, let me tell you something.
If you truly joined the church, you were already knit to us before
you ever joined. Do you know that? We're knit
by the same thing. We're all sinners saved by the
grace of God. The same blood that washes me
clean from all my sins is the same blood that washes you clean
from all your sins. The same righteousness by which
I stand before God whole and complete and justified is the
same righteousness that you stand in. We're knit together. That's
right. So Jonathan was knit. Now, when
was he knit? It was after David saved Israel
with no help from men. You remember David saved Israel
by defeating Goliath? He didn't have any help from
man. Saul tried to help him, but you can't get any help from
the flesh, you see. Christ had no help from the flesh.
I know he was human flesh, but without sin. But you see, the
flesh will not kill sin. The flesh is sin, the scripture
says. And the flesh has no part in
this. Man's works have no part in it. You remember Saul tried
to give David his armor, and David put it on. He saw it's
not tested. Well, Goliath would obliterate
me in this kind of thing. You see, man's works have no
place in this. And listen, King Saul didn't
help him. Jonathan didn't help him. Jonathan, who was knit to
David, had no part in the battle, in the victory that David won.
And you know what that pictures. Christ won the victory for us,
and we had no part in helping him win that victory. He walked
the winepress of God's wrath. How? Alone. He didn't ask for any help. We
couldn't help him. We were standing back in our
sin, cowering before the Goliath of Satan and the curse and sin,
just like Israel, just like Jonathan. But after David saved Israel
with no help from men, Jonathan loved him. And my friend, it's
the victory that David won over Goliath that I believe drew out
Jonathan's love for David. And that's the way it is with
our love to Christ. It's his victory on the cross
of Calvary to conquer all our sins. And to justify us, that
totally draws out our love to him. And I'll show you that in
just a moment. But Jonathan's love for David was the love of
a sinner for his Savior. Now that's what covenant love
is all about. We see the Savior's love for the sinner. And then
we see as a result, as the fruit of it, the sinner's love for
the Savior. And that's what Jonathan's love
was. It is a love adorned with thanksgiving and with praise
for his Savior. That's what it is. And this love
is based on salvation accomplished. Redemption accomplished. Now
let me show you, that turned over to 1 John 4. That's what
covenant love is all about. You see, this is God's covenant. Look at 1 John chapter 4. Look
at verse 7. Now, he says in verse 7 of 1
John 4, Beloved, let us love one another. The kind of love
there that John is talking about is the agape love. You've heard
that term. That's the Greek word, agape,
which means divine love. It's not just brotherly love
in the sense of the brotherhood of man. It's not just some kind
of love of common interest. It's not a sexual love at all.
It is totally a divine love, a covenant love, covenant of
grace. It's a love that comes from grace. And he says, let us love one
another, for love is where? Where are you going to find love?
Where am I going to find the kind of love I need to love you? And where are you going to find
the kind of love you need to love me? Despite all of our differences
and all of our disagreements. Where are we going to find that
kind of love? Here it is, for love is of God. It's not in you
by nature, it's not in me by nature. You see, that's why this
free will religion that is so rampant today is so ungodly. Man doesn't have this by nature.
This is of God. And he says, and everyone that
loveth, now listen to this one, everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. That's how I know Jonathan was
a sinner saved by grace. Everyone who loveth. Born of God. This love is the
result of the new birth. Just like that baby that comes
forth from the mother's womb in the physical birth, loves
its mother, bonds with its mother. That's a beautiful thing, isn't
it? Well, this love that we have for Christ and for one another
comes from spiritual birth, where we bond with Him. We're knit
to Him. He was already knitted to us
from everlasting before the foundation of the world. He told Jeremiah,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. And listen, it's an undeserved
love and it's an unearned love. Jonathan did not deserve David's
love. Now, if David deserved Jonathan's
love, David had done the work. David had the victory. David
saved Israel. Again, I know God did it through
him, but he's a type here of Christ. You see? I don't deserve
Christ's love for me, and you don't either. But He deserves
our love for Him. Isn't that right? He deserves
all our love for Him. Every ounce of love we can give
Him. But we don't deserve an ounce
of His love for us. Look at it. He says in verse
8, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now
listen, verse 9, In this was manifested the love of God toward
us. because that God sent His only
begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. You
see, the result of God's love is the life of His people. The
result of Christ coming into the world, which was the result
of God's love, you see, Christ didn't come and die on the cross
to get God to love us. Christ came into the world because
of the covenant love that God already had for us from the foundation
of the world. It was an expression of his love. Look at verse 10. Herein is love.
Not that we love God. In other words, the definition
and the origin of love does not begin with us. Because by nature,
we don't love God. And so it says, but that he loved
us. There's the origin. There's the
beginning of it. There's the cause. and sent his
Son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction, appeasing God,
law and justice satisfied, righteousness established, the blood of Christ
as payment for our sins. And so he says, Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought also to love one another. And so that
kind of love, go back to 1 Samuel 18, now that kind of love is
based on a work that's already accomplished. Not a work to be
done. You see, the gospel does not preach out, well, now, if
you do this, God will love you. No, sir. The work's already done. The victory's already accomplished.
David had already been down. He brought the head of the giant
to Saul. Christ has already been to the
cross. He's already made an end of sin and finished the transgression,
and He's already established everlasting righteousness for
us. And as the fruit of that, God sends His Spirit to inform
us of what took place and shed abroad that love in our hearts.
Romans 5, 6 says that. Christ died for the ungodly.
So this kind of love now, here's what this says, and I'm going
to tell you something, this is a convicting truth. This kind
of love says that it doesn't even consider the worthiness
of the object. Now, do we have that kind of
love that doesn't even consider the worthiness of the object?
In fact, it's the opposite. This love considers the unworthiness
of the object. Is that right? That's the kind
of love this is. This is covenant love. Love for
Christ is because He has redeemed us. And when God the Holy Spirit
tells us of it in the preaching of the gospel, the greatness
and the glory of the person and finished work of Christ, that's
when He sheds it abroad in our hearts. And look at it in verse
1 again of chapter 18. It says, "...Jonathan loved Him
as his own soul." Jonathan loved Him as his own soul. The safety
and well-being of our souls is in the hands of the Lord. And
Jonathan loved him as himself. Paul wrote to the Corinthian
church, a church that was in turmoil, a church that was divided,
a church that was acting carnally. He said this in 1 Corinthians
16, 22, his last words in his first letter. He said, if any
man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha,
cursed of God. And then immediately he said,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with
you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. You see, if we're going
to love each other, you know what it's going to take? The
powerful grace of God. Because we're not going to do
it on our own. We're just not going to do it
on our own. It takes a powerful, sovereign working of grace. No man by nature loves the Lord
Jesus Christ. It takes a sovereign work of
God the Holy Spirit in the new birth that calls a sinner to
love Christ. In the book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 5, Paul wrote,
"...and hope, make it not a shame, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
Not only the Holy Spirit Himself, but that love that is shed abroad
in our hearts. So that if you love the Lord
Jesus Christ, with that covenant love that's pictured here between
David and Jonathan, you have to thank God. Now, that's right. We know that while in the body
of this death, this flesh, we're the old wretched men of Romans
7, aren't we? That's who we are. And our love,
even the love that God's given to us, is yet imperfect. Now,
it's not given by God as an imperfect grace, but when it passes through
this, Through me, it becomes contaminated with self-love.
Now, I don't know how all that works, but I just know it's so. Therefore, we have to know and
rest in this fact. It's not our love to Christ that
saves us or keeps us. It's His love for us. It wasn't
Jonathan's love for David that saved him from Goliath. It was
David's love for his nation. And that's the way it is with
our Savior. But He does love us. And if we're born of God,
we do love Him. That's covenant love. Somebody
says, well, it's pitiful love. Well, I don't know about that.
Now listen, it's not perfect yet enough. But it's a great
thing. How do we know we love Him? I'll
tell you how. First of all, we love His glory. John the Baptist expressed it
this way. He must increase. Now, here's Jonathan. Look back
here. It says here in verse 2, Saul took him that day, that
is David, and would let him go no more home to his father's
house. David would no more return to
his father's house. So he was a constant figure there
before Jonathan. He was right there in the house
of Saul. He didn't go back to the sheepfold.
His destiny was set by God to do the work not only of a shepherd
but a king. Now his sheep are his people,
you see, not real sheep. His sheep are his people now.
He's the anointed king of Israel. What a great picture of our Savior,
our great shepherd king. His sheep are his people. And
here David was brought into the house of Saul where Jonathan
had to see him all the time. Now, you'd think Jonathan would
say, well, I don't want him here. I don't want to look at him every
day. I don't want to see the one who's
going to take my glory and my throne and my honor. But what
did Jonathan do? Well, look at verse 3. It says,
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he, now the
he there refers to David, because he loved him as his own soul.
Here's a love covenant. Divine love, you see. There's
nothing dirty or filthy about this except in the minds of perverted
men. This is a grace matter. This
is a product of God. This is a picture of the love
of Christ for His church and His church for Christ. That's
what it is. But look at what happens now.
Remember what I said now. We love Him. We love His glory. He must increase. It says, "...and
Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and
gave it to David, and his garments even to his sword, and to his
bow, and to his girdle." Do you know what Jonathan is doing there?
He's simply looking at David, and he's saying, you're the king,
anointed by God. I'm not. He's saying the same
thing John the Baptist said. You've got to increase, David.
I've got to decrease. That's what that symbolized,
his royal robes and his armor. He said, my glory is nothing. You must get the glory. That's
how we know Jonathan loved David. And my friend, this is a picture
of a sinner coming to his Savior in love. We love his glory. I want to ask you a question
in your heart of hearts. You don't have to answer out
loud. Do you love to hear Christ lifted up and exalted and glorified
as the Savior of His people. You see, that's how we know we
love Him. If I get up here tonight and
start building a memorial to a man, would you enjoy that?
Now, if you would, something's wrong. If I get up here and start
bragging on preachers, and let me tell you something, preachers
are just like Prince Jonathan. by nature, a prince, we love
to be bragged on. If I get up here and promote
a man, promote myself, my works, my accomplishments, would you
enjoy that? If that's what you would enjoy,
I mean, no matter how much you love me or think of me, but if
that's what you would enjoy in a worship service, there's something
wrong. That's right. We love to hear, I want to hear
him exalt. Rag on him. That's what Jonathan
was saying here. I'm not the king. Oh, I know
I'm King Saul's son, but David, you're God's man. You're the
anointed. And that's what we say of our
Savior. Secondly, if we love him, we
love his redemption for us. Why did Jonathan love David?
Because he was a Savior. And if we love Christ, we love
to hear about His shed blood and His righteousness imputed.
That's right. David fought with Goliath. Jonathan
saw it, and he heard all that was transpiring here, and his
soul was knit to David. Tell me more about it. I'm going
to tell you about David. I'm going to tell you about Christ. I'm going to tell you about His
cross. I want to tell you about His burial, His resurrection.
I want to tell you about His intercessory work. I want to
tell you about the glory of His person, God and man in one person. Even though I can't explain that
to you, I know it's so. It had to be so. I want to tell
you about His sinlessness. I want to tell you about His
powerful work to save this sinner from his sins and to give me
a perfect robe of righteousness whereby God could be just and
justify the ungodly. We love His redemption. And next, we love His Lordship.
You know why men fight sovereign grace? Because they don't love
Christ. That's right. I guarantee you,
Jonathan didn't do this of his own free will. Jonathan did it
because God brought him down and humbled him and showed him
the glory of the King. And what was needed? I'll tell
you what. I used to fight the sovereign
grace, the sovereignty of God. But I don't now. And the only
difference is, is God made me to differ. But I'll tell you
why I love it. Because I've seen a little bit
of this world in my 55 years. And I've seen enough of it, and
most of you all have too, to know if man was in control, we'd
already be dead. Wouldn't we? I love the fact
that my Savior's on the throne and He's in control. And He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. I wouldn't want
to have it any other way now. You put it in man's hand, it's
a mess. It's a failure. But you put it
in His hands. We don't put it in His hands,
it is in His hands. Then everything's fine. Everything's
going according to plan. We read the news and we get all
upset and all out of kilter, but it's all going according
to His sovereign will. And I'll tell you another thing,
we love His truth, the truth of His person, who He is, the
truth of His redemptive work, what He did, why He did it, where
He is now. You can't love Christ and not love the things that
identify Him and distinguish Him from idols and counterfeits. And then we love His people.
We love His people. We don't love them perfectly,
but we do love them. And we know our only hope is
to be with the people of God under the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace. Here, Jonathan and
David made a covenant because David loved Jonathan as his own
soul. God is a covenant God. Before
the foundation of the world, He made that covenant with His
Son, wherein He chose a people and gave them to His Son, put
all the responsibility of our salvation upon His Son, and sent
Him into the world to die. And that covenant was ratified
by the death of His Son on the cross as the testator. He called
it in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 20, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And this covenant is a covenant
of love between a sinner and his Savior. It takes place when
God the Holy Spirit reads the last will and testimony. And
you know what that is? That's the preaching of the gospel.
When we preach the gospel, we're reading the last will and testimony
of Jesus Christ, the testator, our Savior. And He brings us
to believe it. This covenant of love and friendship
is stronger than jealousy, it's stronger than envy, it's stronger
than ambition, it's stronger than personality. It is. Now, again, Jonathan was not
worthy of David's love. He didn't earn it. He trembled
before Goliath just like all Israel. But David deserved Jonathan's
love. Now, let me close with this.
Look at verse 4 again. Now, I want you to listen to this because
this will bless you. When Jonathan, it says, he stripped
himself of the robe, that's his outer garment that was upon him,
and he gave it to David, his garment, even to his sword and
to his bow and his girdle, When Jonathan gave David the robe
of his armor, he was saying, as I told you before, you'll
be the next king of Israel, not me. You'll increase, I'll decrease. You should be dressed and armed
as the crown prince. That's what he was saying. God's
hand is on you and these rightfully belong to you. That was Jonathan
making that statement with giving him his robe and his armor. So
Jonathan stripped himself of all that he has. and all that
he is, all his glory, all his strength." Now, you know, Jonathan
had two things going for him in the eyes of men. Now, listen
to this. He had two things going for him
in the eyes of men. Number one, his noble birth. He was the son of the king. Number
two, his mighty works. Read about it in 1 Samuel 13
and 14. He had those two things going
for him in the eyes of men. And I thought about this. What
did the unbelieving Jews boast of? Number one, their noble birth. We, the Abrahams' children. We're
sons of Abraham. Remember what John the Baptist
told him? He said, don't brag about that.
The axe will be laid to that root. And secondly, their works
of the law. And Christ destroyed them both. But let's talk about Jonathan's
noble birth. Jonathan, he was the son of a
fallen, disobedient king who was not in his right mind. What
does that remind you of? It reminds you of our birth in
Adam. Our fall and our birth in Adam. Adam was king. He was given dominion over the
world. He disobeyed God and he fell. And when he fell, he wasn't
in his right mind. You remember, they went and sewed
those fig leaf aprons and tried to hide from God. That's a man
not in his right mind. That's the fleshly mind. And
we're born of that king. We're like Jonathan. We're fallen
sinners. We're born spiritually dead.
We're disobedient. And by nature, we're not in our
right mind. That's right. And then his mighty
works. When Goliath came and challenged
Israel, where was Jonathan's mighty works then? He was back
there trembling with Saul and Abner and David's brethren and
all of them. In other words, it didn't help him. And just
like us, our works, our show nothing but our impotence to
save ourselves from the Goliaths of sin and Satan and the curse
of the law were totally helpless. So his noble birth didn't help
him, and his mighty works didn't help him. And we're in the same
boat. No matter who your daddy is,
you trace it all the way back to Adam, we're fallen, fallen,
disobedient. There's none righteous, no, not
one, none good. And none of our works can do
us any good, for by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified.
But here's what Jonathan did when his soul was knit to David. He gave all of that to David.
And David took them. And that's a picture of imputation. The sin that Jonathan incurred
and I incurred in the fall was imputed, charged, accounted to
Christ. And all my filth and my supposed
righteousness, all my sin was charged to Christ. He was made
sin for us. Christ who knew no sin. David
put it on and he bore it. Just like Christ bore our sins
in His own body to the tree. And here's Jonathan, he stands
bare naked before God. He wasn't completely naked. He
had an undergarment on, but as far as the royal robes, he was
bare naked with nothing to offer. He had nothing to offer David.
All he had was David. My friend, we stand bare naked
before Christ, and we have nothing to offer Him. All we have is
Christ. He's all we need. He's all we
need. We have His blood and His righteousness. You see, that's what He gives
us in return. His righteous robe. God put it
on us. God justified us in Him by His
Son. And let me read you one verse. 2 Samuel 23. That's the covenant
love. That's what brings it out. Verse
5. These are David's last words.
He says, although my house be not so with God, yet he hath
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, ensure,
for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he
make it not to grow. I tell you what David is saying
there. If I'm the only one in my household
he saves, it's ordered in all things, this is all my salvation.
That's what Jonathan was saying to David. This is all my salvation. I believe Jonathan was looking
forward. to the time of the Messiah that would come through the house
of Judah. And he's saying this is ordered in all things insure.
Christ must increase. I must decrease. This is all,
he's all my salvation and all my hope. No matter what my daddy
does. No matter what my children do.
And there's that covenant of love. Isn't it a glorious thing? Covenant of grace.