You'll see that Saul hated David. He really,
really hated David. In our last look at David last
week, we saw that he behaved himself wisely. He behaved wisely,
like our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very wisdom of God. Four
times he said he behaved wisely. And Saul was afraid of David.
He said, remember that we said, you know, verse 12 of chapter
18 it said Saul was afraid of David because the Lord had departed
from him and because the Lord was with him he is afraid of
him because the Lord was with him and it was evident to everyone
that the Lord had given this young shepherd just a young shepherd
sent to see how his brothers are doing and take some food
for his brothers It's evident that the Lord had given this
young shepherd victory over this giant, Goliath. No one else would
even dare face the giant. And he went out there, not with
a sword, not with a spear. And that's what he said, the
Lord saveth not with sword and spear, but the battle is the
Lord's. And he whipped him with a rock. Killed him with a rock. And also
David behaved himself wisely in everything he did. Whatever
he did. Whether he was tending the sheep
at his father's. Whether he went to take up the
stuff for his brothers. Whatever position he held. When
he was a shepherd. When he was a boy. Whatever position
he took and whatever task he took. When he became a great
warrior. Whatever task it was. He was
accepted in the sight of all the people. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, in all of His work, in all of His positions, in all
of His power, in all of His glory, He's accepted in the sight of
all His people. But more important is that we
accepted in His sight, accepted in the sight of the Beloved.
And then the Song of the Women exposed Saul's jealousy. Remember
when they sang and said all sloths all slain his thousands, but
David is ten thousands It's all said what else can they have
but the kingdom? Exposed his jealousy his hatred for David,
but look at the last verse here of 18 look at the last verse
of chapter 18 and this shows us another thing about our Lord
Jesus Christ and David being a type of Christ and being a
son of David and Then the princes of the Philistine went forth,
and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved
himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, now listen
to this, so that his name was much set by. Now you look at
what it says there in the margin, set by, precious. That his name is precious. He
was set by, he was precious. Oh my! His name was precious. David himself, his name means
beloved, but he was so precious to the saints of God there. But let me tell you whose name
the Lord is precious to first. His name is precious to His Father
before it was precious to anybody else. Our Lord Jesus Christ was
daily His Father's delight. And the scriptures tells us that
God Himself joyed in the presence of His blessed Son. That He was
in the bosom of the Father. He is precious to the Father.
The Father said, this is my beloved Son. This is Him in whom my soul
delights. This is my righteous servant. And I tell you, not only is He
precious to the Father, but He's precious to us. Oh, how precious
He is to us. His name is as an ointment poured
forth. And we smell that blessed fragrance
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And His name is much set by all
the way through the Scriptures. He said, all the angels of God
shall bow down and worship Him. And it says this, beloved, that
God gave Him a name. Christ a name. That's above every
name. Every name that's ever been named
in this universe. God gave him a name That's above
every name that at the name of Jesus Christ Every knee's gonna
bow and every tongues gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Oh My he's gonna do that and
I tell you something beloved his name is much set by by us
ain't it? It's very precious to us. You
know what? When we talk to the Father, you
know whose name we use? The Lord Jesus Christ. When we
ask anything of the Father, who do we ask it? In whose name?
In His blessed Son's name, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we're
heavy hearted, who do we go to to help us that's touched with
the feelings of our infirmities? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's precious
to us in His Word. He's precious to us in our hearts.
He's precious to our faith. He's precious to us in every
way. And I tell you, we need Him and
we want Him and we plead our... There's power in that blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you know what else
he said about his name? His name is a strong tower. His name is a strong tower. And
the righteous run into it and are safe. Where do we hide in Christ? Look what it says. Here's the
first verse of chapter 19. What a verse of scripture. Saul
spake to Jonathan his son and to all of his servants that they
should kill David. Now what's the cause for him
to want to kill David? What a contrast from the last
verse of chapter 18 when it says his name is but set by and then
the first verse of chapter 19 is Jonathan I want every one
of you fellas, when you see David, I want you to kill him. I want
you to kill him. And I tell you what, those who
knew, and David the beloved, but those who knew the Lord Jesus
Christ and know Christ. He said in John 13, 1 that the
Lord Jesus Christ after the feast of the Passover knew that his
hour was come. that it was time that he should
depart out of this world and return unto the Father. Having
loved his own, he loved him to the end. And the next verse says,
then, when he says, my hour has come. Then, after loving his
own, the scripture says that Satan, the devil, put it into
Judas' heart to betray the Son of God. Now why would he do that? Why would he sell him for 30
pieces of silver? Why would men go about to kill
the Son of God? Why did they plot and manipulate
and work to kill the Son of God? And I tell you, Saul has such
a hatred for David. And I tell you what, when his
name is mentioned, when our Lord Jesus Christ's name is mentioned,
the enemy always manifests itself. The serpent hates the seed of
the woman. Always has and always will. The
revelation it says when that woman was brought forth, that
old dragon, the serpent, stood there to devour it. But he couldn't. And I tell you that seed, it
is quickly revealed. And I tell you when our Lord
Jesus Christ, when He was first born, When he was first born,
this is how much hated our Lord Jesus was. Because they said
he that's born King of the Jews is born. Inherent, afraid of
his own kingdom, afraid of his own throne. He sent a bunch of
soldiers down there to find everybody around that area that's under
two years old, male children, and kill every single one of
them. How would you like to be sent out with the mission of
killing two-year-old children? And you know why he did that?
Hoping he had killed the Son of God. But you know what God
did to him? God said he sent his Son down
into Egypt. Oh, listen. Our Lord hated him
as an infant. And I tell you, let me show you
something over here in Acts chapter 4. Let's look at this in Acts
chapter 4. You know, people say, well, you
know, and it's obvious that people hate Christ. There's just no
doubt about it. They use his name as a byword.
They'll disrespect Christ and revere Mary. They'll disrespect
Christ and revere Moses and the law. But look what it said here,
you know it said in verse 12, look what it said here about
our master. Neither is there salvation and any other, no other
name. For there's none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now what happened
was these fellows began to preach and God blessed them and people
were saved and people were healed and things were done. And all
of a sudden and then the council says down here in verse 16, look
what he says. What shall we do with these men?
For that indeed an honorable miracle hath been done by them
is manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem. We can't deny that.
But now listen to this, that is spread no further among the
people, that this thing stops right here, that is spread no
further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that
they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Don't you mention
Jesus Christ around here again. Don't you mention the Lord's
name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at
all nor teach in the name of Jesus Christ. You think he wasn't
hated? You think he wasn't despised?
And that was after his ascension. Still hated and still despised.
And oh my how they despised that name which was much said by And
I'll tell you something that Saul, he plotted to have David
killed by the Philistines. You remember he told David, he
says, you go down there. He said, you don't have to have
a dowry. And he said, I know I won't have to kill him. I'll
let all the Philistines do it. He said, you go down and kill
me a hundred Philistines and bring their force against him.
They said, well, the Philistines will kill him. Well, David come
back just a little while after a hundred Philistines was dead. How many times did they plot
to get our Master, to get our Lord Jesus Christ? How many times
did they do it? And oh listen, I'll tell you
what, David became and he became more esteemed in the people's
eyes. And that's the way it is with
our Lord Jesus Christ. The more the leaders hated him
and persecuted him and went after him, the more the people sought
him out. The more the common people heard
of Gladly. They said they must indeed know this is the Christ
or they wouldn't be trying to kill him. But oh my, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh how they plotted against him. You remember they sent people
after him and said, these people who know not the law, they're
deceived. Well they go after this man. And after our Lord
ascended to glory, the more his witnesses were persecuted,
the more the apostles were persecuted, the more the saints of God were
persecuted. but the more they were persecuted
the more the gospel prospered and the scripture says that they
were scattered abroad scattered abroad out of Jerusalem and whenever
we're preaching the word testifying that Jesus is the Christ and
I mean God makes even the wrath of man to praise him but look
how Jonathan treats him There's a people there's a people no
matter what anybody thinks about our master. There's the people
that love him Did Jonathan saw son in verse 2? Delighted much
in David. That's the first thing he delighted
much in day. Oh my Oh Delight much in David
There is much to be delighted of in our David, isn't there?
Much to be delighted of in our Lord Jesus Christ. Much to enjoy
in our Lord Jesus Christ. But he did two things. Jonathan
did two things. He warned David and he interceded
for David. The first thing he said to David
was, Saul my father seeks to kill you. He left his father's
presence and went to David and said, my father is going to kill
you. He wants to kill you, David.
How would you like somebody to come up and say the king is after
your head and he's going to kill you? Going to kill you. So take heed and you go someplace
and you hide. Now here's the difference between
him and our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ never hid.
He never hid. When they come out after him,
after when he was in the garden against him with over 500 people,
with swords and staves and lanterns and sticks, and they said, who? He stood up and said, who are
you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. He wasn't afraid of them. He
didn't hide from them. They fell backwards. He said, he got up
again. Who are you looking for? Jesus of Nazareth. I told you
that I'm He. And he said this, he said, I'll
tell you one thing, if you get me, all these got to go free.
And that tells us about the gospel of substitution. Christ said,
if you take me, you can't have them. That's what God the Father
said. If I take my son, then I'll have
to let the rest of them go. Because my son has so much worth,
and so much merit, and so much power, and so much preciousness,
and so much virtue, that he has the ability to save all that
he died for, and stood good for. And all my Father seeks to kill
thee. Oh, listen, and he said I tell you what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna stand by my father I'm gonna stand by my father
and I'm gonna tell you what he tells me and whatever I see That's
what I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna tell you He said I'm
gonna commune with my father And listen to how he describes
David he intercedes for David now look here in verse 4 and
5 he intercedes for David And Jonathan spake good of David. That's the first thing about
it. He spake good of David. Oh, even Joseph Arimathea and
Nicodemus both, when they were with the council and they was
taking counsel to trap our Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus said,
it's not lawful for us to accuse a man. It's not lawful for us
to take that man. Joseph said it's not right to
do this. So they stood up for him. And
I tell you the first thing he did is speak good of David. Oh,
I tell you one thing we cannot do. We can't speak of our master
high enough and good enough. That's one of the most frustrating
things about being a believer and being a preacher. You've
got all this stuff in your heart. You got all this stuff in your
mind. You got all these emotions inside you. And you know what
Christ is to you and what He means to you and how He is in
your heart, how He is in your mind, how He is in your emotions.
And we want to tell Him, we want to express from in here what
He is to us personally. And yet, beloved, we see Him
in such a glorious way that we don't have the ability to take
what's in here and make it, I just can't do it. But you don't know. You don't know what He is to
you. How good do you speak of Christ? Oh, we speak good of
Him. We speak highly of Him. We exalt
Him. How good is our Lord? He said,
listen, that rich young ruler said, Oh, good master. He said,
why are you calling me good? He said, there ain't nobody good
but God. And what he told that fellow
is, is if you call me good, you have to acknowledge that I'm
God. That's what he said. Oh, I'm
either God or I'm just a good man. There ain't no middle ground.
But oh, listen, David spake good of David. And here's the first
thing he said. Let not the king sin against
his servant. Oh my, don't sin against God.
Don't sin against Christ. Don't sin against His anointed.
Don't sin against Him. And oh my, how we sinned against
our Lord Jesus Christ so much. But oh Lord save us. Thank God
He saved us. And look what He says here now.
He said, He has not sinned against thee. He's not done you wrong
in any way. He's never done you wrong. He's
never sinned against you. Never spoken an evil word against
you, Saul. Never said an unkind word against
you. He's not said a thing about you in a negative way. He's not
sinned against you. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, He said,
which of you convinces me of sin? And they called Him a sinner
one time. They told that man that he opened
his blind eyes and said, we know that this man is a sinner. Give
God the glory. He said, I don't know if he care
whether he's a sinner or not. I know this, that he opened my
eyes. That don't make no difference
to me. All I know is I was blind and now I see. And all he has sinned against
you. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, never, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Sinless man. Tom Norbert asked
me the other day, he asked me if I believed in the impeccability
of Christ. I said, of course I do. Now let
me tell you what that means. That means that the Lord Jesus
said it's impossible for him to sin. That's what it means,
don't you? Impeccability. But there are
some people that say he wasn't impeccable because as a man,
the temptations wouldn't have been real if he couldn't have
sinned. I'll tell you one thing. He was
God before he ever became a man. And when he became a man, he
was God and man in one person. And he didn't have any of Adam's
sin in him, so that makes him unable to sin. If he'd had our
blood in him, he couldn't have saved any of us. But he didn't
have any of Adam's blood in him. And because he didn't have any
of Adam's blood in him, he was conceived of the Holy Ghost of
a virgin. God conceived him. Could God
conceive a man who had the ability to sin? No, our Lord Jesus Christ could
not sin. It's impossible for Him to sin. If He could have sinned when
He's on this earth, He's still a man in glory. How do we know
He won't fall from there? So I'm telling you, that's why
He said, our Lord Jesus Christ, when He said He has not sinned
against thee, He never sinned against no man. He never sinned
against God. He never sinned against the law.
He never, every word he spoke, everything he did, every word
he took, every step he took, every breath he took, beloved,
it was sinless perfection from the day he was born. And he was
sinless perfection that enabled him to bear our sins on the cross. Only God could bear our sins.
And only man can die and God made Christ a body for one reason
to be a sacrifice for sin Huh? Bless his holy name. I speak
good of him. I want to exalt him and honor
him. Don't you? And oh, he's not sinned
against you and then look what else he says about him And down
in the last line of this verse, verse 4, And because his works
have been to thee very good. He's treated you very good. All of his works for you have
been very good. And how about our Lord's works? How good have they been for us? And he goes on he ain't through
he's interceding for David look what else he says that in verse
5 He said he risked his life He put his life in his hand He put he took he put his life
and he risked his life I And then look what he says, and he
slew that Philistine. And the Lord wrought a great
salvation for all of Israel. The Lord wrought out a great
salvation. You know who for who? Israel. His people. His elect people. Spiritual Israel. Oh, he did. He really did. Oh, my. I'm going to tell you something.
What a great salvation our Savior brought out for us. I'm going
to tell you something. Sin was a giant. Oh, what a giant
sin is. He slept. And I'm telling you,
I'm going to tell you something. Not one person, not one person
that's ever on the planet, on this face of this earth, Not
one person has ever put away one sin by their own effort.
Not one. I know you say that we say to
ourselves, Oh Lord, forgive me of that and help me not to do
that again. We don't want to sin. We don't
go out here and deliberately sin. Sin is a giant. Christ slew
it. But I tell you what, if we could
have put away one sin of our own, why did it say that Christ
appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself? Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from what? Their sin. Huh? Ain't you glad that he took it
away? He slew that awful big giant. And then here's another
giant. God's justice. Pulled out his
sword. You can't go free them girls
Sunday morning. Justice said, I can't let him
go. And mercy said, oh, let that
sinner go free. And oh there's that was a giant
and broken law all the Word of God that we had broke all the
broken law of God What a giant it was and Christ slew it and
he's the end of the law for righteousness To everybody that believes now
look what else it says now There in verse 5. He wrought this great
salvation for his people for all Israel and listen to this
now He said you saw it you saw it with your own eyes, and you
did rejoice in it And now they want to go, you
saw it, you rejoiced. And then he goes on to say, will
you shed innocent blood? Will you kill innocent blood? And that's why when Judas realized
what he'd done, he took that money down and threw it back
down at the priest. And he said, and this is what
he said, I betrayed innocent blood and went on himself. And when they brought our Lord
Jesus Christ before Pilate, Pilate asked them, said, why? What evil
have they done? What evil have they done? Would you? And they all hated
David without a cause. And that's what it said, to slay
David without a cause. And you know what they said about
our master? And that's what they said in Psalms. And then he himself
said, they hated me without a cause. They had no reason whatsoever
to hate me. Didn't do it. But look in verse
six now, and I'm going to hurry. I'm not going to take much longer.
And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swear,
as the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain. His intercession
was successful. And let me tell you what he did.
He pleaded the merits of David. He talked about what David, who
David was, what David accomplished, and what a blessed person David
was. And you know what is pleaded
for us in heaven? Not our marriage, not our worth.
When Christ pleads for us up there, He pleads His own marriage,
He pleads His own worth. When He intercedes for us, He
don't look down and say, boy, those folks, you know, He didn't
mean to do that. That just slipped out. He didn't
mean to act that way. And Father, I'll tell you, He
said, you know, listen, let it get by with it this time. No,
that's not the way it was. No, when our Lord Jesus Christ
intercedes for us, the only thing that's acceptable in heaven is
His worth, His merit. And that's what He pleads. And
because He said, we do something, our Lord Jesus Christ says, I
bought them, I paid for them. They're mine. Their sins are
already gone. They got my righteousness. And
when David said, when my foot and my well slipped, he said,
Thy mercy held me up. Oh, thank God that he pleads
his miracles. I tell you what, if he had to
plead my name, there would be no hope for me whatsoever. Be
no hope. And it was successful. This intercession
for him was only successful temporarily. Temporarily. But our Lord's intercession
is effectual eternally. In fact, when we get to glory,
we're going to see him as he was in his body when he left
this earth. We're going to know him by what
happened in his body. But here David, you know, Saul said, as the Lord liveth,
he shall not be slain. See how easy it is for wicked
men to use pious words. Oh, he said, as the Lord liveth.
And you know why he said that? He said, this will get Jonathan
off my back. This will get Jonathan to, you
know, use them for their necessary good. As the old saying goes,
they're an old dog that hunts with whoever's hunting. You know,
run with anybody. And that's the way he was. He
saved, used his old pie, says, the Lord liveth. Well, he didn't
have been that no more than anything. That's why the scripture says,
put no confidence in princes. And now let me hurry on here.
And it says, verse 7, Jonathan called David, And Jonathan showed
him all these things, everything that happened between him and
his father. What his father said, he wouldn't be slain. And Jonathan
brought David to Saul. And he was in his present as
in times past. And there was a war again. David
went out and slew them and they fled from him. I mean, David
was a mighty, mighty warrior. And Christ is going to one day,
every enemy that's against him, he's going to put them under
his feet. And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as
he sat in his house and with his javelin. Why in the world
would he be in his house sitting there with a spear in his hand?
Why would he be sitting in his house with a spear in his hand?
That would be like me and you sitting in a house 12 to 44,
just shooting around. Sitting around with a gun. Anybody better be careful around
me now. That's why John is just sitting
there with a javelin. He's got service everywhere.
Ain't nobody going to hurt the king. And he had that javelin
in him. And David played with his hand.
David played the harp. And that evil spirit from Saul
was upon the Lord. And look what it says in verse
10. Oh, how he, you know, the evil
restored David plain. And here's this warrior, this
one in hell, such high esteem of all the people, taking the
place of a servant to minister to this evil, evil man. And Saul
sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin. I'm
going to throw this thing so hard it's going to go right through
him and I'm going to pin him to the wall. But David, like our master, you
know, when they wanted to make him king, he just slipped away.
He slipped away out of Saul's presence and the javelin stuck
in the wall. David fled that night and escaped.
Now let me hurry. I'll tell you what, I just, give
me about two minutes. Saul renders him evil for good. That's what he does. He was so
good to Saul, and Saul renders him evil for good. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Cause
the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And like him,
he made that, oh, he said, as the Lord liveth. Well, that didn't
last a day. That didn't last a day. The day
that David came back, Saul, Tried to kill him. Unsaved people make
resolutions. Oh, look. How high does the Lord
live? If they have good intentions,
but this like a dog returning to his vomit. He's going to go
back to it. And then let me hurry on here and tell you this. So
Saul's messenger in verse 11, they sent people to David's house
to slay him. When he gets up in the morning,
kill him. Kill him. And Michael, David's wife, she's
Saul's daughter, told him, saying, if you don't save your life tonight,
tomorrow morning, they're going to kill you. So Michael let David
down through a window, and he went, fled, and escaped. Now
let me say something about this. The house was surrounded, and
you know how she let him down? Through a window. Let me tell
you about two other windows in the scripture. Rahab, when they
was coming to make Jericho go down, they said, you hang a scarlet
thread out of your window and we'll know where you're at. Scarred thread goes through this
book. Take that scarred thread out your window. And everything
went down that day in Jericho but her and her household. And
then there was Paul in Damascus when he straightway began to
preach Jesus and preach that Jesus is the Christ. The Jews
hated him so much and tried to kill him that they had to let
him down out of Damascus in a basket. I don't mean to. Oh my. I tell you. Oh my. Now let me tell you this.
Then he goes up here and she puts a pillow down. She got something
laid under the blanket and whatever it was and put a pillow of some
gold's hair for a bolster. For a pillow that would bolster
the cloth up and make it look like somebody's sleeping with
it. She covered it with a cloth. And Saul sent messengers to take
David and she said he's sick. Now listen to this, you think
this man ain't wicked? Ain't awful like those Pharisees
was? They said it's alright for us
to kill Christ, alright for us to sell Christ, alright for us
to lie on Christ. But it's not lawful for us to
go into the temple and go in there where they're dealing at
with him because we got to stay holy for this Passover. But oh,
listen to what happened. And Saul sent the message again
to see David, saying, if he's sick enough and he can't get
out of bed, just bring him up to me, bring him in his bed and
everything up here. And while he's in his bed, I'll
kill him while he's in his bed. Now that's how wicked that man
was. If he's so sick he can't get out of bed, go get in the
bed and I'll bring him to me. And I'll kill him in his bed.
Now that's some hatred, ain't it? That's some hatred. Oh my. Oh my. But Michael lied. And then she said, you know,
she lied. She said, oh my. When the messenger will come
in, behold, verse 16, there is an image in the bed and they
were deceived. And they said, and Saul said unto Michael, why
have you deceived me so? Why have you deceived me so?
Now listen to this. my enemy that is escaped. David wasn't Saul's enemy. David
was not Saul's enemy. David was not Saul's enemy. Saul
was David's enemy. And there's a lot of enemies
against Christ. The only person that can save
them and yet they're against him. Oh, what had David done
to become his enemies? But I know this, when the heart
is filled with hate and envy and anger, it cannot see right. How sad! And she lied about this,
and I tell you, the Lord's people don't use deceit or trickery.
She should have just said, he's my husband? And I know you're
trying to kill him and I sent him away And cause I love him
and I don't want you killing him and I sent him away. That's
what she should have said But she lied she lied Oh my And I
tell you what They hated Saul hated David without a cause And
people hate Christ without a cause And I tell you what the same
Christ that men and women will not bow to now. They say that
Jesus loves everybody and died for everybody and that God loves
everybody. And I tell you what, they're
going to find out one of these days that he's not like they
think he is. And not like he says he is. Thank
God. And I tell you what a shock it's
going to be. What a shock it's going to be.