Father in heaven, we ask this morning that you would open the word of God to us in a rich measure. Lord, may you not just open the word up to us in terms of understanding, for we don't come here to go to school this morning. We come here to worship. We come here to understand and have our hearts lifted up in Jesus Christ. Lord, may you bring us low, and then may you lift us up. Lord, may you feed us the manna from heaven. May you feed us and nourish us, Lord, unto everlasting life. May you continue to put to death those things in our life that compete with Jesus Christ, our faith in Christ, and his care for us. May you continue to sanctify us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Excuse me. I invite you this morning to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 18 as we return after this Advent season to our study of 1 Samuel. It may seem like we never left since I made my Advent series kind of dovetail with it. 1 Samuel chapter 18, beginning with verse one. Please give your attention to the reading of God's word. Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the son of Jonathan, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. So Saul took him that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even his sword and his bow and his belt. So David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely. And Saul sent him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Now it had happened as they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced and said, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Then Saul was very angry, And the saying displeased him, and he said, they have ascribed to David ten thousands, to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? So saw I David from that day forevermore. And it happened on the next day. that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand at other times, but there was a spear in Saul's hand. And Saul cast the spear, for he said, I will pin David to the wall. But David escaped his presence twice. Now Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him. but had departed from Saul. Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and made him his captain over a thousand, and he went out and came in before the people. And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. Therefore when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them. Then Saul said to David, here is my older daughter Merib. I will give her to you as a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul thought, let my hand not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him. So David said to Saul, who am I and what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king? Excuse me. But it happened at that time when Merib, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel, the Mahoathite, as a wife. Now Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. So Saul said, I will give her to him. that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David a second time, you shall be my son-in-law today. And Saul commanded his servants, communicate with David secretly and say, look, the king has delighted in you and all his servants love you. Now therefore become the king's son-in-law. So Saul's servants spoke those words in the hearing of David, and David said, does it seem good to you, a light thing, to be a king's son-in-law, seeing I am poor and a lightly esteemed man? And the servants of Saul told him, saying, in this manner David spoke. Then Saul said, thus you shall say to David, the king does not desire any dowry, but 100 foreskins of the Philistines, to take vengeance on the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. So when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to become the king's son-in-law. Now the days had not expired, therefore David arose and went. He and his men and killed 200 men of the Philistines, and David, brought their foreskins and they gave them in full count to the king that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michael his daughter as a wife. Thus Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him. And Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul became David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war, and so it was whenever they went out that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed. And thus concludes the reading of God's word. Excuse me. When you think of polarizing figures, Who do you think of? A political figure with whom you'd strongly disagree? Or maybe someone with a personality that you find offensive? Has there ever been a more polarizing figure than Jesus Christ? Not Donald Trump. Jesus Christ. And he's not polarizing because of his personality or his politics. He's polarizing because of his identity as the son of God, God's anointed. You either love him or you hate him, but no one is neutral when it comes to the Christ of the Bible. Now somebody might have another Christ they've created in their heart someplace, but I'm talking about the real Christ of the Bible. Nobody is neutral. You either love him, you embrace him in faith, or you hate him. The conflict within the human race goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, when Adam rebelled against his covenant Lord by eating of the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was acting in rebellion against God. He was saying that, God, you are a liar, and this lying beast is one who speaks the truth, because this lying beast is saying, if you wanna be like God, if you wanna be wise like God, If you really want the really good stuff, you've got to rebel against him. You've got to do the very thing he forbids you from doing. It was an act of treason, an act of rebellion. And therefore, when Adam rebelled against the Lord in such a way, because he's the federal head of the entire human race, the entire order of creation changed. It had to change. When God showed up and he announced the curse, He introduced an entirely new world order. He made it clear that all men are born under the curse. All men, their labors are frustrated. No matter how hard you work, you deal with the frustration of the common curse. Women die, there's pain in terms of childbirth. We all live under this curse of death. We're reminded by it all the time. We're surrounded by death if we're sensitive to it. If you sense it, it's even in our own bodies. Our life upon this earth is but a breath, a vapor. It's short. And therefore, in the midst of announcing this curse, this new world order, God also announced the gospel. And he did so in an unusual way. First of all, he attacked the relationship that Eve and Satan had entered into, the serpent, and he broke it apart. They had this alliance between them. And he put enmity between Eve and the serpent. And then he went a step further and he put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And now he's saying that the entire human race is defined by two seeds. You either belong to the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent. And therefore you're not defined by the color of your skin. You're not defined by race or ethnicity or culture. Ultimately, you are defined spiritually by your spiritual identity and what seed to whom you belong. And then he went to this third stage. He says, from the seed of the woman, he, a promised redeemer, will come and crush the head of the serpent, Satan. In so doing, his heel will be bruised, and you have the imagery here of the crushing of the head and the idea of complete, total defeat. And how does this promised Redeemer do this? By his death, his righteousness, his death, his resurrection. Excuse me. That's the third stage of this conflict. You might wonder, what does this have to do with our story this morning in 1 Samuel chapter 18? Well, it has everything to do with 1 Samuel chapter 18. Because of the Davidic covenant. Because God comes to David and says, I'm gonna build your house. And this promised seed is gonna come through your line. The promised Savior, going back to Genesis 3.15, is gonna come through the line of David. And therefore, salvation is gonna come through your line. And David becomes an imperfect picture of this king who conquers and delivers us from our enemies. Therefore, the way that people respond to David and his ministry is very important in the context of 1 Samuel. Those who belong to the seed of the woman will embrace David as God's chosen instrument of salvation. And those who belong to the seed of the serpent, they might be in awe of David, but they are not gonna embrace him. In fact, they are gonna be his enemy. They're gonna oppose him and even seek to destroy him. In chapters 18 and 19, we have both responses to David highlighted in Jonathan, one who believes, and Saul, one who belongs to the seed of the serpent, who is David's enemy, both highlighted. Juxtaposition for us as we see this in high definition, you might say. Vivid narrative. Well, this morning we need to begin with Jonathan's response to David. He comes first. After David had finished speaking to Saul, the Bible says, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved David as his own soul. I remember reading this as a young boy and even hearing preachers refer to this and thinking, you know, that's quite a deal. Loving him as his own soul. The Hebrew word translated knit here, knitting of these two souls together, conveys the idea of two things being bound together, glued together, married together. And this raises a question. Is this something that Jonathan did? How'd this come about? How is it that the soul of Jonathan became so intimately bound and united to the soul of David? How'd that happen? Did Jonathan do that? Did David do that? The Holy Spirit did it. It's the working of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, that's an important question that we could pass over when we're reading such a text, but we shouldn't. It's important because it's a beautiful picture of what takes place when a sinner is united to Christ. Remember who David is? He's an image of Christ. He's a type of Christ. He's a picture of one to come, Jesus Christ. And therefore, as Jonathan's soul is knit to this type of Christ, to David, it gives us a picture here, an image of what happens under the new covenant when you are born of the Holy Spirit and your soul is united, knit to Christ. And what happens then as a result of this, knitting of your heart, knitting of you spiritually to Christ, this union with Christ, it's a great Old Testament narrative. that really informs our understanding of the new birth. In Romans chapter five, the Apostle Paul says that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And therefore, as you have been born of the Holy Spirit, first of all, what happens is your soul, you are united with Christ spiritually by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. As a result of that, you are born of the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit then begins to pour out the love of God in your heart. And what do you see here? Jonathan loved David as his own soul. When you are born of the Spirit and your soul is knit to Christ, yes, the first thing that happens is you come to a knowledge of your sin, you turn from your sin. But there's faith. There's faith. Jonathan is embracing David as God's chosen instrument of salvation, and therefore it's a picture of faith. But there's not faith without love. I'm not confusing the two, they're distinct. The Lord pulls out, as a result of being born of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit reorientates your desires, your affections. That's why you repent, because now you're offended by your sin. and you're delighting in God's law, even though you still struggle with your own flesh. You're delighting in Christ, you love him. There's this reorientation that takes place. And that's what we see here as Jonathan's heart and his affections are reorientated. It's just a powerful illustration. The Spirit of God is the one who's doing this. You know, this is a love, and I hate to have to even address this, but this is a love that our world does not understand. When the world today reads the story of Jonathan and David, you know what conclusion they draw? This is a homosexual relationship. How sad is that? What a travesty. It goes to show that those who deny the Creator, those who suppress the knowledge of God, have no understanding of God's love, the character of God's love. They seek to pervert it, twist it. They don't understand it. You can't understand God's law apart from knowing the Lord. You have to have your heart knit to Christ. There has to be a reorientation. by the work of the Spirit actually come to a place where you comprehend God's kindness, his goodness. Believe me, I have tried to explain the love of God, the gospel to family members, to certain individuals in my life, and I realize that apart from the working of the Holy Spirit, my words, all they do is provoke. And usually at some point I get preacher quit preaching to me. Preacher quit preaching to me. That was one of the last things my father said to me last night. Quit preaching to me. So I'm keenly aware of this and I believe you are too. According to the world, the line between love and hate is a very thin line because the world has no real understanding of God's love. The world views love and hate as different expressions of our passion. Therefore, the line between them is very thin, but this is not true of God's love. God's love is much more than just passion that could potentially be manifest in one season of life as love and the next season of life as hate. God's love is demonstrated to us through his covenant faithfulness when we were still sinners at enmity with him. enemies of his, Christ died for us. Therefore the line between God's love for those who belong to Christ and his wrath for the reprobate miles apart. Why would Jonathan willingly forfeit his claim to Israel's throne? Why would any man in his right mind understanding what he has a right to in terms of an heir of the king. Why would any man forfeit his claim to the throne? Because that's exactly what Jonathan did. From an unbelieving perspective, it's foolish. It's foolishness, it's crazy. And that's why his father was so offended by his son's faith. In his eyes, it was utter stupidity, foolishness. He had no appreciation. He was offended by it. The royal robe that Jonathan wore was a robe he had received from his father. It indicated his place as the heir of Saul and heir to the throne. and therefore with Saul's passing, he would automatically inherit the throne. But we know that the prophet Samuel has already spoken God's word to Saul, and he's told Saul there'll be no dynasty in Saul's line. He's also told Saul, I've rejected you as Israel's king. Saul knows this, and therefore there's a contest going on right now. Saul is not gonna let go of the throne. Saul's in the process of building his kingdom, a kingdom that he hopes he will build and pass on to his son, and in his name will live forever. Think about it like this. The building of the Tower of Babel when we read in the scriptures is about what? That men might make a name for themselves. That their name might live on perpetuity. That they might be recognized as great in the eyes of other men. This is what's driving Saul. Saul is trying to create a Tower of Babel, his own kingdom, something that will live on after he's long gone. And Jonathan is not cooperating with him. He takes that royal robe, and now because of his love for David, and his confidence in David as God's chosen instrument of salvation, he gives that royal robe. He enters into a covenant, and he gives that royal robe to David. He doesn't just give him the robe, he gives him his sword, he gives him his bow, he gives him all of his military equipment. You can imagine that when David shows up wearing Jonathan's robe, having all of his military equipment, and Saul sees him. Saul knows what his son has done. Excuse me. It was very public. Even if it took place in private, the knowledge of this is public. Jonathan didn't hold back. He gave him everything. What we see in Jonathan is evidence of God's grace, only true faith created by the Holy Spirit makes us willing to be the lesser. Remember the words of John the Baptist, he must increase and I must decrease. The object of faith is always Jesus Christ, God's chosen instrument of salvation and not the individual. Faith will always cause you to look away from yourself and to, the anointed to Jesus Christ. That's why you have to be careful. I mean, I encourage you to examine yourself and confess your sins, and I believe in that, but you know what? You gotta be careful. Because you can become so morbidly introspective, and the object of faith is not you. And if you look inside of you, you better be surprised if you don't see something that's pretty cruddy. Because your sin nature is still with you. And if you're gonna find assurance of your salvation by looking deeply inside of yourself, becoming morbidly introspective, all you're gonna find is a whole lot of crud that still has to be dealt with, ultimately. True faith will look away from all that, you. True faith will look and find Jesus Christ will always be the object. Faith will always cause us to look to Christ as God's anointed and not ourselves and find refuge in Christ and not ultimately our own sanctification. By recognizing that David was God's provisional instrument of salvation, Jonathan was recognizing that David pointed to a better Savior and King, Jesus Christ. Acknowledging and trusting in Jesus Christ as God's chosen instrument of salvation can be very, very disruptive. This was certainly true for Jonathan. He gave up his future plans, his position as an heir to Israel's throne. It also affected his identity because now he saw himself as a servant to David. as opposed to one who possessed David. Instead of one who would ultimately command David as his master, he saw himself as a servant to David. How can I serve you? Completely different. In the second verse we read, Saul took David that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore. In contrast to Jonathan who sees himself as belonging to God's anointed, Saul tries to take possession of David. He doesn't want David to go home, he wants to exercise his authority and control over David. Even though David still may be fairly young, Saul sees him as his own possession and he's gonna use David to build his kingdom. There are a lot of people that want to use Jesus Christ for their own earthly advantage. Think of the whole prosperity doctrine, the whole new apostolic movement. It's really how do we use God? How do we use Jesus Christ to somehow, what was the whole prayer of Jabez about? Extending your boundaries. How do we use the Lord? How do we use Christ to build my kingdom upon this earth? That's what Saul's trying to do. We have all kinds of Sauls. We have a whole Saul theology today. It's been with us for a long time. Look at verse five. So David went wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely, and Saul sent him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Regardless of his age, David behaved wisely. Why did he behave so wisely? It's the Holy Spirit that worked within him. filling him with the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and therefore it becomes evident to everybody that God's spirit is with him. He is God's chosen instrument of salvation. It wasn't a one-time thing with Goliath. It's a continual thing, and therefore it becomes evident to everybody that this is God's instrument of salvation. And I believe that's true in large part with Jesus Christ, even today. Certainly in the Western world, Our whole timeline has been organized around the birth and the life of Jesus Christ. There's a knowledge there, there's a recognition that Jesus Christ is different from any other man that's ever walked in the face of the earth. People might suppress it, but they know it's true. And so it was with David here. All Israel has fallen in love with this guy. Because what? It's so obvious he's God's instrument of salvation. What other man has died and rose again? It wasn't even debated in the first century. It was just accepted because there was an empty tomb. There was no body to be found. He met with people. People saw him. There was no contest in the first century about whether or not the resurrection of Christ was a reality. It was accepted that it happened. People knew this man was different from every other man. He's God's chosen instrument of salvation. And people still know it today when they're confronted with it from the scriptures. Excuse me. Well, you know what really creates the problems? It's country western music. It's right. Because what's country western music like? It's always, the good stuff tells a good story, right? And women have taken over country western music, so that's happened way back in 1 Samuel. Because the women come out of the cities, they got the tambourines, they've got their banjos, their guitars, whatever they are, and they're singing, Saul has killed his thousands, David's a lot better. Tens of thousands, I should have spared you. I'm not much of a singer, but I have to, it's hard for me to constrain myself, because this is very interesting, isn't it? The music really, really got him in trouble. The women come out from the cities with instruments, spontaneously singing one to another, and Saul observes all this, and this little punk kid The women are ascribing to him that he has killed tens of thousands, and Saul has only killed thousands. Folk music, country western music, whatever you wanna call it, you know what I'm talking about. And from that point, Saul said, what more can he have but the kingdom? What more can he have but the kingdom? Saul knew. God's spirit was on this man, and he had left Saul, and Saul knew it. And he despised him. At the very next day, an evil spirit comes upon him and torments him. And David is ministering to him. See, he sees David is useful. He has a spear in hand, he can't control his wicked heart. He's so provoked, he tries to kill David twice and put him against the wall. But to no avail, David escapes, why? Because he's so quick? He does lots of burpees? No. It's the Spirit of God, that's the message here. It's the Spirit, it's the Spirit. Salvation comes from the Lord. And David is God's chosen instrument. And the more that Saul presses him, the more that Saul opposes him, the more we see that God is David's shield. And the more that David becomes exalted in the eyes of the people. I mean, Saul's dishonest. He tells David, I'm gonna give you my oldest daughter. All you gotta do is go out and fight valiantly for him. And he's hoping these Philistines, I don't have to put my hand against them, the Philistines will do my work for me. They will kill David. Well, David behaves more wisely than all of his other servants. And David always prevails. Why? It's the spirit of God. And David always comes out looking really good. Who's ever fighting under his control, his command. Things just, because he's the, he's the type of Christ. He's the type of Christ. So he gives his daughter to a different guy. Adriel, the Mahothite. Well, then he learns that, hey, Michael, my daughter, really is in love with this David guy. You know, a normal father with a sound mind, this is not Saul. And yet it is. Saul represents not Hitlers, not the crazies. Saul represents everybody who's of the seed of the serpent, because this is how they relate to Christ. They're willing to take their daughter, and David is humble enough. I don't deserve to be the son-in-law of the king. I'm a poor family. I come from a family with very little esteem, The servants have to talk him and coax him into this. Hey, no dowry, don't worry about a dowry. All he wants is 100 foreskins of the Philistines. And if you don't know what foreskins are, you can go home and ask your parents. 100 foreskins, well David's delighted by this. He goes out with his men, he gets 200 foreskins. Now the Bible doesn't tell us how they carried these foreskins, but it does tell us that they were presented to Saul and they were counted. So I'm assuming there's some kind of a bag that these things are in and David shows up and lays them out. Is there a job, the counter of foreskins? Somebody counted these things. Think about this. The Philistines were uncircumcised. David and his men kill him. And then they circumcise him. And then they bring back the proof of what they've done. And Saul, every time, what's the response? David behaved wisely and Saul feared him. And then at the end, he was continually opposed to David. He was his enemy. He was at war with him. Do you remember the quote I've made from Calvin so often? I'm not gonna quote it word for word exactly, but Calvin made the quote that either you acknowledge the authority of Jesus Christ and you submit to his authority, or you are at war with God. This has deeply impacted me. I love my father. I have a tremendous burden for my father. But I can see that my father is at war with God. And I'm not gonna compromise because of family loyalty. Jesus didn't come to bring peace to the world. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus said he came to divide father and son. And the dividing line is this. Where's your loyalty? Is it to your family at all cost? Is it to your child at all cost? When the truth needs to be spoken, where's your loyalty? Where is your faith? Is your faith really faith alone in Christ alone? Do you know where it is to find refuge in him? And do you really believe that that's your strength? And that's your protection? And that ultimately Christ is the only place you're gonna find life? Life. If my father were to die today and I had to go home and sell everything he owns, I hope he has enough to pay for his funeral and bury him. And yet he brags constantly about the motorcycle he owns or the boat he owns or whatever. You can have a dung heap. that's really small and not impressive, you might be impressed by it, or your dung heap can be really, really big, and the world might be really impressed with it. But I can assure you of this, God is not impressed with anything you create or build. This world might be impressed with something you build, but your dung heap is exactly that to God. It's built on a foundation of sin. And it's absolutely imperative that we come to terms with our sin and that we come to Jesus Christ, acknowledging his authority, trusting in Christ alone as the one who was condemned for your sin, and therefore by faith your sins are forgiven, and by faith you receive his imputed righteousness and God declares you just because of what Christ has done for you. It's all grace. It's all grace. Now when the Holy Spirit brings this kind of birth about whereby you are united to Christ and you turn to him in faith and you find refuge in him and trust The Holy Spirit reorientates your affections, your desires, your heart is knit to Christ, and you love him. And you will also love his body. And I've been a pastor long enough to know that God has some people that are harder to love than others. But you will love his body. and love overlooks a multitude of sin. And you'll learn to be gracious because you know what it is to receive grace. I feel really bad for people who claim to be Christians and they can't be gracious. If you're at war with your brother you're at war with Christ. If you can't be gracious with another sinner when you've received the grace of God, be careful. Remember what Jesus says after the Lord's Prayer. If you can't forgive, you won't be forgiven. We can write books about forgiveness and we can do all kinds of stuff, but the scriptures are pretty clear We've received God's grace. And we don't deserve it. Oh, may we learn what it is the Holy Spirit might work in our hearts, that we might find refuge in Jesus Christ by faith, but may we learn also to recognize his authority. And we have a real problem with that in the world we live in, don't we? recognize his authority and submit to his authority and not be war at him or with others who belong to his body. Let us pray. Father in heaven, as we come before you on this Lord's Day morning in preparation for coming to this table, we come to this table this morning as sinners, repentant sinners, believing sinners. Sinners assured of your kindness, your goodness, your grace. And therefore we come this morning as justified sinners, righteous in Christ. Help us to come in humility, but may we come in the confidence of faith, knowing that the righteousness of Christ makes the difference. And may we taste and see that you are good, May you strengthen our faith. May you continue to strengthen the bond between our hearts and the heart of Christ. Continue to unite us and strengthen that union between us and Christ. Lord, continue to create within us a heart that is sensitive to our sin, that is sensitive to your grace, that runs to Christ and finds refuge in him. May we be assured of the forgiveness of our sins and your kindness, we pray. May we be assured, Lord, that you long to lavish your love and affection for us as exemplified by this table, as you provide us with nourishment and food unto everlasting life. May we come and feast in faith, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.