Now normally we see in Scripture
David given to us as a picture of Christ. He's the picture of
Christ the King, the picture of Christ the Shepherd. We saw
last Wednesday he's a picture of Christ our champion. But in
the first four verses of 1 Samuel 18, Jonathan is the picture of
Christ and David becomes a picture of the believer. And specifically
what we'll look at this morning is a picture of the love of Christ
for his people. Now, it's impossible in the course
of a lifetime to even begin to scratch the surface of the love
of Christ for his people. You know, I thought I was going
to have trouble covering the story of David and Goliath in
30 minutes in a lifetime. We'll never scratch the surface
of Christ's love for his people. I thought of a song, The Love
of God. In 1917, a man named Frederick
Lehman wrote the first two verses in the chorus of that song, The
Love of God. He began, The love of God is
greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell. It goes beyond
the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. And as if
to prove his point that the love of God extends to the furthest
lowest hell, in an insane asylum, the third verse of that song
was written. The man who was an inmate in
that insane asylum died, and when they were cleaning out his
room, written in pencil on the wall was what became the third
verse of that song. If we would think the ocean filled,
and were the sky a parchment made, were every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Apparently that man
had some moments of clarity, didn't he? So we're not going
to reach the depths at all of the love of Christ for his people,
but let's look at these first four verses and see if we can't
get a blessing from them. And it came to pass when he made
an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was
knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his
own soul. Now, Jonathan loved David so
strongly They loved him as his own soul. He loved him as much
as he loved himself. Now, human beings don't love
anything or anyone as much as we love ourselves. The greatest
love this flesh knows is self-love. And the Holy Spirit gives us
this example as a picture so we can have some understanding
of Christ's love for his people, how great it is by comparing
it to the self-love of the flesh. But if you look over in Ephesians
chapter 3, You'll see, and this is the way it is with every picture
of Christ in the scripture, comparing Jonathan's love for David falls
far short of what Christ's love for his people actually is. In
Ephesians 3, verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,
that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend. And that word comprehend doesn't
mean to fully understand. It means to lay hold of. to make
it yours, to take it into yourself and make it yours, to make it
your own by taking it into yourself, that you may be able to lay hold
of and take into yourself with all the saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge. I mean, we might think we know
something, but the love of Christ passes our knowledge that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God. And Jonathan loved David
as his own soul. And it says that Jonathan was
knit to David. The old timers say that they
had two bodies, but one soul. Their souls were knit together
so that they couldn't be separated. And that's what Christ has done
for his people. He has knit his people together
with him so that we cannot be separated from him. Christ loves
his people as his own body, because he's made us his body. He chose
us. He put us in his body as it pleased
him. Look over in Ephesians chapter
5. Christ loves his body, those whom he has chosen and made part
of his body. And this is the way a believer's
been told or a husband's been told to love his wife. In Ephesians
5 verse 28, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet
hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the
Lord the Church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh, just like Jonathan and David
became one." Now this is a great mystery. But I speak concerning
Christ and the church. And this is the way that Christ
loves the church as his own body, because we are his own body.
And if you think about it, it's really amazing that Jonathan
loved David like this. Because no one had more reason
to despise David than Jonathan did. Jonathan was the son of
the king. He was the rightful heir to the
throne. And no one would blame Jonathan for resenting David.
Because it was becoming obvious Jonathan wasn't the one that
was going to sit on the throne next. It was David. And Jonathan's
still not jealous of him. He loved him. And you know, you're
not jealous of someone that you truly love, are you? When good
things happen to them, you're not jealous of them. You love
them. And if you look back at our text
there in verse six, it wasn't that way with everyone. Saul
didn't feel this way about Jonathan. In verse 6 of 1 Samuel 18, it
came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter
of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel
singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabrets, with joy and
with instruments of music. And the women answered one another
as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David
his ten thousands. Boy, that grated against Saul.
He hated that. He was so jealous of David. But
not Jonathan. And Jonathan could have been
jealous of him. Seems like everybody forgot. Remember, Jonathan took
his armor bearer and just the two of them went out and slew
that whole army, the Philistine army, by themselves. Nobody sang
songs about Jonathan. But he's not jealous of David
because he loves him. And that genuine love is a picture
of Christ's love for his people. No one deserves to be hated by
God. more than man. We're rebellious,
we're sinful, we are ungrateful creatures who have declared war
on the creator and sustainer of our life. That's just how
stupid we are. Scripture calls us the children
of wrath. We're filled with wrath and that's
what we deserve is God's wrath. We try to throw God off of his
throne, yet God still loves his people and provided his son to
be the savior of his people. And God the Son, knowing full
well how men would treat him once they got their hands on
him, became a man anyway, and came to suffer and to die for
his people because he loves them." Now, I can understand how Jonathan
could love David. I mean, David's a pretty impressive
man. I can understand that. But I
will never be able to understand how God can love a sinner like
me. I never will be able to understand
it because there's nothing lovable in my nature. There's nothing
lovable in any of our nature. Our nature is wicked and hateful. The only explanation can be the
character of God. His love flows from His character
because of His goodwill and His sovereign pleasure. Because as
John tells us in 1 John 4, God is love. That's the only way
God can love a wretch like me, because he is love. It comes
from his character. It has nothing to do with mine.
It's in spite of my character. And you know, Jonathan's love
for David had a beginning. It began when he met David, when
he saw David fight, when he heard the things that David said and
he got to know David, he became to love him. I'm glad God's love
is not that way. God didn't begin to love me after
he knew me. Because if that was the case,
it never would have happened. Matter of fact, he did know me in eternity past
and loved me anyway, loved me in spite of myself. God's love
doesn't have a beginning or an ending. God's love is eternal. He said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love, eternal love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. Look over in Proverbs chapter
8. Proverbs chapter 8 tells a story
of before human time began when nothing had been created yet
at all, only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed.
In verse 30, at this time in eternity past when there was
nothing but God, then I was by him, as one brought up with him,
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,
rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights
were with the sons of men. He loved his people so much,
he delighted in them. And he delighted in the thought
of them before they were ever created. Because he loved them. He loved them with an everlasting,
unchangeable, eternal love. And that's the picture of Jonathan's
love for David. Well, look back in our text in
chapter 2, or verse 2. And Saul took him that day, and
he let him go no more home to his father's house. Now, I don't
want to make more of this verse than what's here. Saul just knew
a good soldier when he saw one. He just knew a talented man when
he saw one. He's just going to make use of
his talents and so forth. And as, you know, a human king,
that's wise. But when God saves a person, you have a new citizenship. You've been translated from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. You
don't live in your father Adam's house anymore. Now, unfortunately,
we visit pretty frequently, don't we? But you don't live there
anymore. You've got a new citizenship and you've got a new citizenship
because of the love of Christ, because he gave himself for you.
And one day you won't visit Adam's house anymore. You'll live in
the dwelling place prepared by Christ himself for you in glory
to be with him where he is because of his love for you. Now Saul's
love and his affection, whatever you want to call Saul's feeling
for David, is very, very fickle. In a short time, Saul is going
to try to kill David. He's going to try to kill him.
He's going to try to have him killed. And when that doesn't work, he
sends David out of his sight because he hates him so much
he cannot stand the sight of him. I mean, he just went from
love to hate in a moment. And that's human love, except
for, you know, loving ourselves, that's human love. But God's
love is not that way. Never confuse love, true love,
with what human emotion. Human emotion is not love. What
God has is love. And His love is immutable. Having
loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them until
the end. Look at Psalm 89. God's love
is immutable. It's unchangeable. It doesn't
vary in degree. It doesn't have a beginning.
It doesn't end. It's immutable. In Psalm 89, verse 33. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have
I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed
shall endure forever, and his throne is the sons before me.
It should be established forever as the moon and as the faithful
witness in heaven. God's love is immutable. It's unchangeable. It will never
change. Once the Father, once the Son,
once the Holy Spirit has set his affection upon you, it never
changes. Well, verse 3 back in our text.
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him
as his own soul. Now Jonathan's love for David
is mentioned first. Now we know David loved Jonathan
too, but Jonathan's love for David is mentioned first because
Jonathan's love is the picture of Christ here. And we love Christ
too, don't we? Every believer here can say that
honestly from your heart. I love him. But it's always because
he first loved me. And the text says he loved him
as his own soul. Now that's very interesting.
You'll notice the pronouns there are not clearly defined. He loved
him as his own soul. Now my high school English teacher,
I think I thought of my high school English teacher, Dr. Westerfield,
she would have had red marks all over this sentence if I had
written that in a paper and turned it in to her, because these pronouns
are not clearly defined. And that happened to me frequently,
but the Holy Spirit does not make a grammatical error here
at all. I think it's, I know it's written this way on purpose.
Does this mean that Jonathan loved David as his own soul?
Or does it mean that David loved Jonathan as his own soul? Yes,
that's exactly what it means. It means both. Their love for
one another was intertwined. And just like I said a minute
ago, I can honestly tell you, I love the Lord Jesus Christ
as my own soul. I love him as my life because
he is my life. But it's in response to his love
for me because he gave me a new heart that loves him and desires
him, desires to worship him. And this is the way that Jonathan
and David loved each other. They were just so knit together.
Now, what do people do that love one another? Well, frequently
they enter into a covenant and a lot of times maybe it's even
unspoken, but you know, when two people are friends, it's
just understood. Now we've got a covenant. We're
friends. We love one another. I got your
back and you got mine. That's just understood, isn't
it? And when a man and a woman love one another, they enter
into a marriage contract. We read over there in Ephesians
5, they get married and they become one flesh. Now, they didn't
get married, but in a sense, that's what Jonathan and David
did. They entered into this covenant and they became one soul. One
soul and two bodies. And if you look over a couple
of pages in chapter 20, 1 Samuel, I'll show you this covenant.
that they entered into, and their covenant is a covenant of grace.
1 Samuel 20, verse 12, And Jonathan
said unto David, O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded my
father about to-morrow, any time, or the third day, and, behold,
if there be good toward David, and I then sin not unto thee,
and show it thee, the Lord do so, and much more to Jonathan.
But if it please my father to do the evil, Then I will show
it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace,
and the Lord be with thee, as he is being with my father. And
thou shalt not only, while I yet live, show me the kindness of
the Lord, that I die not, but also thou shalt not cut off the
kindness from my house for ever. No, not when the Lord hath cut
off the enemies of David, every one of them from the face of
the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying,
Let the Lord even require it, that the hand of David's enemies. Now, David entered into this
covenant with Jonathan, and he never had the opportunity to
take the throne and to spare Jonathan's life. Jonathan was
killed in battle. But I'll tell you, that covenant,
mighty important to old Mephibosheth, wasn't it? Mighty important. I don't know if Mephibosheth
was a baby or if he was not even born yet. I don't know where
Mephibosheth was at this time, but I'm telling you, this covenant
was mighty important to Mephibosheth, and he didn't know a thing about
it. Well, that's the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace
is a covenant made in eternity past between the Father and the
Son. And it was made before anything
existed. Before anything existed but God,
that's when that covenant was made. And the covenant of grace
is between the Father and the Son. The covenant of grace is
not between God and men. not between God and his elect.
The covenant of grace is the covenant between the father and
the son, and it concerns men. Just like David, he'd have a
covenant with Mephibosheth. He had a covenant with Jonathan.
He loved Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake. He showed mercy to Mephibosheth
for Jonathan's sake. The covenant was between David
and Jonathan, and it concerned Mephibosheth. Now covenant is
a contract. It's a promise. And the covenant
of God's grace is God's promise of eternal life to his people,
the people that he loved based upon the doing and the dying
of his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And that covenant is absolute. It cannot change. We just read
that in Psalm 89. God will not change that covenant. It's as sure as the sun and the
moon and our orbit around them and the moon's orbit around the
earth. It's as sure as those planets. Now, it's sure. It cannot
change any more than God can change. It's the promise made
by God who cannot lie. David said this covenant is ordered
in all things and sure. You can bank on it. It's sure
because it's not based on you and me. It's based upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's entirely on him. Christ
has fulfilled every requirement of this covenant. He said when
he came to earth, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And he did it all. And there
is nothing left for a sinner to do to ratify this covenant. You don't walk an aisle, you
don't pray the sinner's prayer, you don't even become baptized
to ratify the covenant. The covenant is ratified in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he said it's finished, it
was finished. That means there's nothing left
to do. The covenant is ratified entirely. The Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled the covenant and he lives to be the mediator of the
covenant. Look over in Isaiah 42. Not only,
actually, is Christ the mediator of the covenant, this covenant
is wrapped up so entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ that the
Father calls him the covenant. Christ is actually the covenant
itself. In Isaiah 42, verse 6, I the
Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and
will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles. Look over a few pages in chapter
49. Verse 8, Thus saith the Lord,
In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation
have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee, and give thee
for a covenant of the people. It's not just that he's going
to make a covenant with the people. I'm going to give thee for a
covenant of the people. to establish the earth, the cause
to inherit the desolate heritages, the Lord Jesus Christ is the
covenant of grace, completely. And you know, a believer can't
hear about that covenant often enough. Can't hear about the
love of Christ for his people, and you can't hear about this
covenant of grace often enough. Look back in 1 Samuel chapter
20, and I'll show you a good example of this. Now we ended reading a moment
ago in verse 16, look at verse 17. And Jonathan caused David
to swear again. Jonathan made David repeat the
covenant. Well, doesn't he trust him? Of
course he trusts him. He didn't make him repeat the
covenant because he didn't trust David. He made David repeat the
covenant because he loved him. Look at the rest of the verse.
Because he loved him, for he loved him as his own soul. Now,
a believer knows, based on the authority of God's Word, Christ
will never stop loving his people. I thought of the illustration
that Brother Henry used about the couple. They got married
and the man told the woman, he said, now, I swore from all his
wits, I love you. I don't have to say it again.
If it ever changes, I'll tell you. That's not the way to be. That's not a healthy marriage,
certainly. And a believer never gets tired of hearing. That God
loves us in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the most amazing thing
I've ever, I can't, I would never get tired of hearing that. Can
you ever get tired of hearing that God's own son loves you
so much he gave his life as a ransom for your soul to pay your sin
debt? You want to hear it again? I
mean, it's, it's, oh, it's life to our souls, what we feed upon.
I mean, just think about it in a human sense. I love my wife,
Janet. I mean to tell you, I adore that
woman. And I never get tired of telling
her, I love you. And I don't get tired of hearing
her tell me she loves me. I'm glad. I love my daughter,
Savannah. I mean more than you know, I
love you. I tell her every single day before
I go to work, she's getting up, you know, in her eyes and I tell
her, I love you, you know. She banks on it. I think you
like hearing it. She wouldn't like it, you know. If I didn't
tell her, she kind of expects it. Because girls love that stuff. The bride of Christ does too.
Oh, I love to hear it. We need to hear it. We need to
hear it. Well, what do you do for the
people that you love? You give them gifts. The best that you
have. And that's what Jonathan did for David. Look at verse
4. 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." Now David, you remember, he went
out there and killed Goliath. He looks like a shepherd. He
didn't wear the armor of a soldier. He wore a shepherd's garb. He
looked like a shepherd. Well, Jonathan knows David needs
to look like a prince. He's going to be in the king's
court. He needs to look like he belongs there, and one day
David's going to be king. Now he needs to look like a king,
not a shepherd, as he sits on that throne. So Jonathan gives
David his clothes, the clothes of a prince. A believer is a
child of God. God makes you look like one.
He dresses you in Christ's robe of righteousness. He dresses
you in his comeliness, which he put upon you, just like that
baby that was left to die in its own blood in Ezekiel 16.
He puts his comeliness upon you. He makes you look like a son
of God. And one day, and now you have that righteousness right
now, but one day, every child of God is going to awake in the
exact image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what's pictured
here in verse four. Jonathan gave David his robe.
Well, that's Christ's royal, spotless robe of righteousness
that he puts on you. It's not like he just he puts
it on you. You know, I put this coat on this morning. You know,
if I had an ink spot or something on the shirt, you couldn't see
it because it's covered with my coat. Christ's robe of righteousness
is not covering our sins. Christ's robe of righteousness
is not pasted on like Scott said. It's on you through and through. You've been washed through and
through in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've been made
righteous inside and out. Then he gave him all of his garments
from head to toe. That doesn't say so here in the
text, but since he gave him all his garments, I reckon he gave
David his shoes. David had shepherd's shoes, you
know, shoes you can wear to hike in or whatever. Not shoes that
you wear in the king's court. He gave him his shoes. In Ephesians
6, we read that believers have their feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Maybe he gave him his hat. You
know, David had a shepherd's hat. You know, I don't know what
kind of hat you wear in the king's court, but he gave him that kind
of hat. Well, believers, what do we have? The helmet of salvation. Then he says he gave David his
sword. Now, remember, David wouldn't take Saul's sword, would he?
But he took Jonathan's sword. Well, believers have a sword.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And he gave
David his bow. Spurgeon said that bow is a picture
of the arrows that the saints shoot into heaven, their prayers
flying up to the Father. He could be right. I don't get
in the habit of arguing with Charles Spurgeon. Then he gave
him his girdle. And that's in Ephesians 6, a
believer has a girdle. We're girdled about with the
truth. And all of Jonathan's clothes fit David perfectly. Saul's armor didn't fit David.
He wasn't comfortable in that because remember Saul's armor
was a picture of the strength of the flesh. He's not going
to go out to battle in that. He hadn't proved it. But Christ
is a perfect fit for every sinner. An absolutely perfect fit. A
tailored fit. Christ has tried and proven to
be exactly what the sinner needs. But now as we know, Christ is
so much better than the picture. So much better. Jonathan did
strip himself of his clothes and gave them to David, and that's
a wonderful picture of Christ. But now Jonathan didn't stay
naked, and he didn't take David Shepard's clothes and go around
the king's court dressed in Shepard's clothes. Jonathan went to his
closet and got out more princely clothes and put on himself. Christ
loves his people so much that for a time he stripped himself
of all of his glory as the Son of God. and took upon him the
form of a serpent. He dressed himself in the dust
of human flesh and appeared that way for all to see." Probably
nobody saw Jonathan stripped naked. We saw our Lord stripped
that way, stripped of His glory, stripped naked, emptied Himself
of everything. He gave us His righteousness
and He took our filthy, sinful, wretched rags of righteousness
into his body on the tree, and he died naked before man and
God, paying the penalty of the sin of his people. Only a vast, immeasurable love
could make God's Son do that for the likes of you and me. God make us a thankful Oh, we
ought to be a thankful people. You show forth the praises of
him who loved us and gave himself for us. All right. Lord bless
you.