Would you turn with me to Matthew
chapter 12? I want to read the New Testament
account of what we're going to consider from 1 Samuel chapter
21. But let's read Matthew chapter
12 to open this. I found this to be so glorious
concerning the greatness of Christ. Let's begin reading in verse
1. At that time, Jesus went on the
Sabbath day through the corn. And his disciples were and hungered
and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. And but when
the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples
do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. And you know, that's true. That's
true. They should have prepared that
day's meal the day before, shouldn't they? That's true. The Sabbath
law forbid this. But he said unto them, have you
not read what David did when he was in hungered and they that
were with him? How he entered into the house
of God and did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him
to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the
priests. Or have you not read? You know,
I love the way the Lord says this. Have you not read? I mean,
yeah, they'd read it perhaps hundreds of times, but this is
kind of a dig. I like it too, don't you? Have you not read in the law
how that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane
the Sabbath and are blameless? But I say unto you that in this
place is one greater than the temple. But if you had known
what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned
the guiltless. For the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath
day. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful that
thy blessed son is Lord, even of the Sabbath day. And Lord,
we ask in Christ's blessed name that you will be pleased to enable
us to see and to rejoice in his utter Lordship. Lord, give us
the sense of all from your spirit at his person, where we're enabled
by your grace to sit at his feet and hear his word. Lord, we ask
that you would forgive us of our many sins and that you'd
cleanse us and cause your grace to reign in us. Lord, we ask
for your blessing and your grace and your mercy upon us for Christ's
sake. Lord, meet our need, meet our
needs physically, materially, meet our needs spiritually. Lord,
give us the grace truly to trust you to meet all of our needs
in Christ Jesus. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now would
you turn back to 1 Samuel chapter 21. Now the story here as we see the
Lord used to answer those who accused him of breaking the Sabbath
day. And this is a part of David's
life on the run. Now let's read these first seven
verses of 1 Samuel chapter 21. Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech
the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the
meeting of David and said unto him, why art thou alone and no
man with thee? And David said unto Ahimelech
the priest, the king hath commanded me a business. and hath said
unto me, let no man know anything of the business whereabout I
send thee, and what I've commanded thee, and I've appointed my servants
to such and such a place. Now, this wasn't true, was it?
Wasn't true. This didn't happen. But he was
saying it did. Now therefore, what is under
thy hand, give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or what
there is present. And the priest answered David
and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but this
is hallowed bread. It's for the priests, if the
young men have kept themselves, at least from women. And David
answered the priest and said, Of a truth, women have been kept
from us about these three days since I came out, and the vessels
of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common,
yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the
priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there
but the showbread that was taken from before the Lord, to put
hot bread into the day when it was taken away. Now a certain
man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before
the Lord." The Lord caused him to be there at this time. And
his name was Doeg and Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that
belonged to Saul. Now, we know that through this
event, I guess you'd say a tragic event took place. The Lord was
in control of it. A doe egg was retained by the
Lord. That's what he was there. He
witnessed all this. And he ended up telling Saul about all this
taking place. And 84 priests, including the
Himelech, lost their life because of this. They were all murdered.
And the entire town of Nob, where the tabernacle was, was destroyed
as a result of this taking place, what we read of just now. Now
Nob was north of Jerusalem and it's where the tabernacle was
kept and where the priests did their priestly work and Ahimelech
was the high priest at that time. And when David comes up to him,
he was afraid. The scripture says he was afraid.
Now, why was he afraid? Well, perhaps he was afraid because
he knew Saul was after David and he thought this might get
him in trouble. But I believe more than any other reason, Ahimelech
was a high priest. He knew Samuel and he knew that
God had anointed. David as king. He knew this was
the rightful king. I have no doubt about that because
of his association with Samuel, and he was afraid of David. He
knew this is God's king. This is God's anointed king.
What's he doing here? Look in verse 1, Then came David
to Nob, to Himimelech the priest. And Himilech was afraid at the
meeting of David, and said, Why art thou alone, and no man with
thee? Now, what's the king's son-in-law doing without his
royal entourage? What are you doing coming into
the tabernacle? Now evidently he didn't know
about the men that were with David at this time because he
actually came into the tabernacle where only the high priest could
come, but David came into the tabernacle. He said, what are
you doing here alone? And David said unto him, elect the priest.
The king hath commanded me a business and has said unto me, let no
man know anything of the business. Whereabout I send thee and what
I've commanded thee. And I've appointed my servants
to such and such a place. Now this was a lot. This was
a lie. He was, is it okay that he told
the lie? No, no, this was a lie. He was trying to cover himself.
But you look at who he represents at this time. I know one who
the king did send him on a business. You remember his first words
were, I must be about my father's business. And in this, David
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. going about his father's business. Now look in verse three. Now
therefore, what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of
bread in my hand, or what there is present. I like the way David
does this. He doesn't ask. He says, give it to me. Give
it to me. Well, that's not polite. Well,
this is the King of Kings. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
make requests. He tells people what to do. He says, give me five loaves. Now, I think there's significance
to that. Do you remember how the Lord
fed the multitude with how many loaves? Five loaves. Five is always the number of
grace. If you look at the tabernacle, everything in the tabernacle
is fives. Fives represents the number of grace, like seven represents
the number of perfection. There's numerology in the scripture.
I don't understand it all, but who does? But it means something,
and the five is the number of grace. He says, you give me these
five loaves. Verse three, and the priest answered
David and said, there is no common bread under my hand, but there
is hallowed bread. Bread only for the priests. If
the young men have kept themselves at least from women, they had
to be kept from women. And David answered the priest
and said unto him, of a truth, women have been kept from us
about these three days since I came out. Now, think about
this. I came out three days, women
have been kept from us. And now these young men are holy
after I came out after these three days. When the Lord was
dead and came out three days later, you know what's true concerning
all of God's people? They're holy. They're holy. Every believer is holy. I love that. And what about this
being kept from women? Well, I don't have any doubt
that what this refers to is talking about being a chaste virgin to
Christ. Remember where Paul said, turn with me there, hold your
finger there, and turn to 2 Corinthians 11. He says in verse two, for I am
jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I've espoused you
to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, through his deceit,
so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity. And that
word is so important, the simplicity, the onlyness, the oneness, the
wholeness that is in Christ Jesus. Now, what is someone who is a
chaste virgin to Christ? They don't look outside the covenant.
They look for all of their hope, all of their salvation in the
covenant God made with Christ, the beautiful marriage covenant
between God and His church. And they look to Christ only. That's what the simplicity of
Christ is. I'm not relying on Christ and.
I'm relying on Christ only as everything in my salvation. Now,
these young men, They've been kept from women. And when I came
out after three days, David said, I don't know where that three
days came from, other than the fact that I don't even know what he's
talking about when he's talking about three days, but I know
what it points to. Christ coming out of the grave
after three days. And because of that, all of his
people are holy. I love that. Back to our text. Verse 5, And David answered the
priest and said unto him of a truth, Women have been kept from us
about these three days since I came out, and the vessels of
the young men are holy. And the bread is in a manner
common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in a vessel, we can
eat it. So the priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was
no bread there but the showbread that was taken from before the
Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. This
was the showbread for the priests only, Verse seven, now a certain
man of the servants of Saul, and this is what we're going
to consider next week, was there that day detained before the
Lord. I love that language, detained
before the Lord. Now this man was going to do
some horrible things. If you want to read in chapter 22, you
can read about what he did. But he was detained before the
Lord. This was all a part of the Lord's sovereign, glorious
purpose. And even though those men were
murdered, And you think, what a horrible thing. And it all
was occasioned because of David's lie. If David hadn't have told
this lie, this wouldn't have taken place, and these men wouldn't
have been murdered, and this entire city of Nob was wiped
out, and everybody was killed, even children. When Ahimelech died, it was a
horrible thing, but it was the best day of his life, wasn't
it? It really was the best day of his life. He entered into
the very presence of Christ through this. So we don't understand
when all the Lords do it, I realize that, but he does and we rest
in that, don't we? Now turn back to Matthew chapter
12 where the Lord uses this to vindicate, not that he needs
to be vindicated, he doesn't need to vindicate or prove himself
to anybody, but this is his answer to his critics in Matthew chapter
12. At that time, Jesus went on the
Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were and hungered
and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. Now, every Israelite
knows that on the Sabbath day, you're not to do any work at
all. And as a matter of fact, if you did, you were to be put
to death. That's how strong this commandment
is. You and I know that The point
behind the Sabbath is to teach us we don't work for salvation. We don't do any works at all.
We rest. That's the point. Now, the Pharisees
didn't understand that. They made a work, a law, a rule
out of not working. We're still going to keep the
Sabbath. We're going to make sure we don't do any works at all,
having no understanding of what the Sabbath represented. Verse
two. But when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do that which is not
lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. Now, a Pharisee, that's
the religion of the natural man. He can always spot others breaking
the law, can't he? He's got a quick eagle eye to
see what other people are doing. And he saw they're breaking the
law. And the thing is, they were as
far as they could understand. They should have prepared their
food on Friday for that Saturday. That's what the law says. But
here they are plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath day, and
they're breaking the law. And the Pharisees, of course,
could see this because a Pharisee can always see others breaking
the law. They never can see themselves
breaking the law, but they always have an eagle eye for others.
They can spot them quick. Verse three, I love this slam,
but he said unto them, have you not read? I just love that. You know, the Lord knew they
had read. They had read over and over again. They'd studied
the scriptures. They thought they had all the
loopholes figured out and all the yes they'd read. And the
Lord said, haven't you guys ever read this? I love that. Have you not read what David
did when he was hungered and they that were with him? How
he entered into the house of God. David went into the tabernacle. David's not a priest. He can't go into the tabernacle.
David could. David could. He went marching
right into the tabernacle. Now, if anybody else would have
done it, I have no doubt they would have been put to death.
But David, David represents the son of David. You see, David's
son was David's Lord. And he represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he comes in, and he doesn't say, would you please
give me five loaves? He said, give them to me. Give them to
me. And you know what? They were
given to him. You see, his commands are always obeyed. Don't you
love that? His commands are always obeyed. You see, he's the Lord. And he said to David, you give
me these five loaves of bread. He ate that which was not lawful
for him to eat. Verse four, he entered into the
house of God and did eat the show bread, which was not lawful
for him to eat. The Lord said that it was not lawful for him
to eat. The law forbid him to eat. And they were with him, but only
for the priests. And then he says again in verse
five, or have you not read? Of course they'd read, but I
love the Lord's sarcasm with these people. And that's all
you can call it, sarcasm. I love sarcasm when it's used
the right way. There's some kind of sarcasm
I hate when it's directed toward me, but any other kind I like. Have you not read in the law
how that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane
the Sabbath and are blameless? Now here's the reason behind
all of this. But I say unto you that in this
place is one greater than the temple. Oh, they were so impressed
with this temple. And he says, standing before
you right now is one infinitely greater than the temple. Verse seven, but if you had known,
here's your problem, you're ignorant. You're ignorant. If you had known
what this meaneth, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. You wouldn't have condemned the
guiltless. Now, turn back to Matthew chapter 9. Verse 9 of Matthew chapter 9,
And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew
sitting at the receipt of custom, And he saith unto him, Follow
me. Don't you want the Lord to say
that to you? I want his command to me, because his commands are
always kept. I want him to say to me, Follow me. And he said that to Matthew.
And if any other man would have said that, you reckon Matthew
would have got up and left his profession and gone and followed
him? Of course not. But this is the Lord speaking. When he
says, follow me, everybody he says it to, they follow. Let's
go on reading verse, follow me. And he arose and followed him,
verse 10. And it came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house,
Matthew's house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and
sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He
saith unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. Well, I need a physician, don't
you? I need the physician of souls, the great doctor of souls,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 13,
but go ye and learn what that meaneth. I'll have mercy. and not sacrifice. But what does
it mean? I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. I'll have mercy. and not sacrifice. And he says to these people who
condemned him for breaking the Sabbath, he said, if you would
have learned what that meant when I told you to, you wouldn't
have condemned me. You wouldn't have condemned the
guiltless. You didn't learn what that meant. Now, what does that
mean? Well, God saves by mercy and
not by a response to men's sacrifices. Men think, I need to sacrifice
this, I need to do this, I need to do that in order for God to
save me. And the Lord says, no. Salvation comes by the mercy
of God. It's not a response to something
you've done or given up. God does it because He's merciful. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. Thank God He has mercy. And salvation is by the mercy
of God. Now, mercy is the way we live. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Mercy is our doctrine. Salvation
by the mercy of God. Mercy is our practice. It better
be. If we're not merciful, all we
prove by that is we've never experienced the mercy of God.
Let's begin here. You're not being merciful to
anybody if you don't tell them the truth. You don't tell them how God saves
by His mercy and not by works. Somebody that holds back there
and talks about being merciful, you're not merciful at all. Mercy
is telling the people the truth of how God saves sinners. And
it's being merciful to them, knowing how God's merciful to
you. You can't be harsh and judgmental and hold somebody under the law
if you've experienced God's mercy. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Now, the Lord says, if you had
any idea what that meant, you would not have condemned the
guiltless. Now, how is it that Christ was
guiltless when the Bible says, when God's law says, don't do
anything on the Sabbath? And they did it, and they were
guiltless. They were without fault. They
were without sin. How can that be? Now, turn back
to Matthew chapter 12. He says in verse 7, but if you
had known what this meaneth, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice,
you wouldn't have condemned the guiltless. For, here's the reason
behind all this, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. You know what he's saying when
he says that? I'm God. That's exactly what
he's saying. I am God. I'm not under the law
of the Sabbath. I'm over it. Don't you love that? He doesn't have any law over
his head. He's God. You say, but that would be wrong.
Listen, he's God. Whatever he does is right. And
he doesn't do it because it's right. It's right because he
does it. That's all it takes. If he does
it, it's right. And we bow because he is the
Lord of the Sabbath. He said, I'm Lord over all of
this. Such is the authority of Christ.
If he says it's right, it is right. And in your heart, you scream
out amen to that. You love that because you love
the Lordship, the authority, the absolute Lordship of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it glorious how he's Lord
of the Sabbath? They say, you're breaking the Sabbath. I'm the
Lord of the Sabbath. I don't have any law over my
head. Everything is underneath me, and I'm in absolute sovereign
control of everything. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He can do as He will on the Sabbath
day because He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He, like David,
can eat the showbread, which is only for the sons of Levi,
because of who He is. He's the greater David. He's David's son, and he's David's
Lord. Now, the Lordship of Christ.
You know, in recent years, there's been what's called the Lordship
controversy in certain circles. I don't know why that would ever
be even called a controversy, because it's not a controversy.
He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He's your Lord.
Whether you like it or not, Whether you know it or not, whether you
rejoice in it or not, He is your Lord and you are in His hands. I am in His hands. And He can
do with us whatever He's pleased to do, because He's the Lord. He's the Lord of the Sabbath.
Now, there are two kinds of people in this world. There's people
who love this, and there's people who hate it. There's really no
in-between. You can't be indifferent about
this. When you hear, you're in His hands, and He can do with
you whatever He's pleased to do, because He's the Lord. He's
in absolute sovereign control. Now, there's some people who
say, that's the only safe place I can think of. There isn't any
other safety but that. That's the only hope I have is
that I'm in His hands and He'll have mercy on me. I mean, He
can pass me by if He wants, but the only hope I have is that
He'll do something for me because He's the Lord. There are other
people who hate this. Everybody who doesn't love it
hates it when they hear it. It might be they've never heard
it and it hadn't come out yet, but as soon as they hear it,
if somebody doesn't love the Lordship of Christ, they hate the Lordship
of Christ. I, for one, love the Lordship of Christ. I love it
that He's the Lord of the Sabbath. I love it that He's the Lord
of all. I love what Peter said to Cornelius when he came, the
first gospel message to the Gentiles, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. Does anybody remember what he
said next in Acts chapter 10? He came preaching peace by Jesus
Christ. He is Lord over all. You want the believer says to
that? Hallelujah. Amen. He's the Lord of the Sabbath. Okay.