So go ahead and turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 24, if you would, please. 1 Samuel chapter 24. I want us to read the whole chapter together, and then I hope to show you the gospel found in this story. The title of tonight's message is The King Who Spares. The King Who Spares. Chapter 24, verse 1, And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he, Saul, came to the sheep coats by the way, and there was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet." Now, if you want to know what that means, you can ask me after service. It's pretty interesting. but I won't go into it now. Saul went in to cover his feet, and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And the men of David said unto him, behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee, behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose and he cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. That's an interesting verse. He was justified if he had killed him, but he felt bad about cutting off part of his robe. And he said unto his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David also rose afterward and went out of the cave. And he cried after Saul, saying, my Lord, the King. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. And David said to Saul, wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, behold, David seeketh thy hurt? Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee today into mine hand in the cave, and some bade me kill thee, but mine eyes spared thee. And I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand, for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and I'm not sinned against thee, yet thou hunnest my soul to take it. The Lord judged between me and thee, and the Lord avenged me of thee, but my hand shall not be upon thee. And saith the proverb of the ancients, wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon thee. After whom is the King of Israel come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea? "'The Lord therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, "'and see, and plead my cause, "'and deliver me out of thine hand.' And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, "'Is this thy voice, my son David?' And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And he said to David, "'Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil. And thou hast showed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me, for as much as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not. For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee good, for thou hast done unto me this day. And now behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king and the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand. Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord that thou will not cut off my seed after me and that thou will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swear unto Saul and Saul went home But David and his men gapped them up unto the hold." That's an amazing story. This chapter is full of instruction to the believer, but more importantly, it gives us a beautiful illustration of the gospel of God's grace and mercy to you and I. And we see it in the revelation that Jesus Christ is the King of kings who spares. He's a King who spares. What a remarkable display of grace by David toward his relentless enemy, Saul. For several weeks now, as we've looked at these previous chapters, we've seen that Saul has been in hot pursuit. He's out to kill David. It's the only thing on his mind. You know, an enemy is defined as one who is actively opposed or hostile towards someone or something. And Saul was certainly that to David. And what a picture we have here of what Christ does for us. That's the amazing thing about the scripture, especially the Old Testament scriptures, is that we see the Lord Jesus Christ in picture and type. This whole book is about how God has saved wretches like you and I. If God give us eyes to see, it's in every chapter, it's in every story. In the scriptures, the word enemies are commonly thought to be sin and Satan and death and the world, and they are, they are. But only one to whom God has revealed their wickedness and their wretchedness as sinners consider themselves to be the worst enemies of Christ. And I've said it before, and you think about this, You know it so that if we were asked to imagine in our minds the most hideous, repulsive, disgusting, appalling thing, we would come up with some pretty horrific and abominable things. But we ourselves wouldn't be on that list. We should be at the top of that list. Why? Because in the eyes of God, now this is what God says, from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there's no soundness in us. Nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. I almost gag a little bit just thinking about a putrefying sore. that have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isaiah 1.6. How repulsive is an oozing soul that has not been doctored? And outside of Christ, friends, that is exactly what we are by nature in God's eyes. And the child of God will not find that offensive. They know it to be so. And that's something that God has revealed to them. You're not gonna, Gladly receive that apart from God's divine revelation, but you'll be the first to agree with God that that's so if the Lord has revealed himself and your depravity to you. Has God shown you that? When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. We're enemies. Enemies, we're such unrelenting, unmerciful enemies that God the Son had to die to put our sin away. You were, who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Wicked, wicked. There's none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh after God. We all fall short of the glory of God. All of us. Not everyone sees it, but God's people do because God's revealed it. And it was, friends, it was our sin, it was our iniquity, it was our wickedness that separated us from God and caused Him to hide His face from us. The Lord Jesus subdues His enemies and He makes them His footstool in one of two ways. They're either subdued by His mercy and His grace, or they're subdued by His judgment and justice. Some are won, not destroyed, won over by His mercy and grace. Christ conquers them by His mercy and grace to them. Every true child of God can say that. Well, it was His love for me and His mercy and grace to me that drew me to Him. He drew me with what? The cords of love. And then, And you know, before God's grace was bestowed upon us, were we not so full of self-will and unbelief and love of sin? We loved to sin. We loved to do wickedness. But by the Lord's grace, the saved sinner now bows willingly and we become broken and we fall grateful at Christ's feet. We don't want what we deserve because we know what we deserve. We want mercy and we want grace that we don't deserve. And we become his footstool in the sense that we gladly lie at his feet as Mary did in Luke chapter 10. Yet others will bow in judgment. It's a sad reality, but it's so. You know folks, I know folks, we all know folks who will be crushed, but they won't be converted. They'll bow unwillingly and rebelliously. They will be forced to acknowledge his kingship in the day of judgment. But it'd be too late. Be too late. I'm so thankful that the Lord remembered us in his mercy and grace and showed that mercy and grace to us. Now here in 1 Samuel chapter 24, the opportunity has now arisen for David to end Saul's relentless pursuit. He can put this all to a close right here. With one quick stab of the knife, David's problem with Saul could have been forever gone. But that would be nothing less than David taking matters into his own hands. Now there's a lesson here for us. David knew that God had chosen him, that God had made him king, and that one day he would occupy the throne, but it would be in God's good timing. This was not God's appointed time. And as a type of Christ, he shows mercy. He shows patient, he shows submission, he bows to the purpose and the providence of God. So the first thing we see is that mercy always prevails over vengeance. Instead of piercing the heart of Saul, his enemy, with his knife, David just cuts a corner off the end of Saul's robe. And David restrains himself knowing that Saul is still the Lord's anointed and that God's purpose and providence always prevails. Notice David's words to his men in verse six. He says, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master. I'm not gonna take his life. He's the Lord's anointed. And as wretched as Saul turned out to be, the Lord put him there. May we always remember that. Regardless of the state that this world is in. There's nothing new under the sun. It's always been wicked. It just seems to me it's more prevalent than in times past in my life, anyway. But that God is on the throne, that God is allowing these things for His people's good and for His own glory. That's hard to imagine sometimes, but it's no less true. He said, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. I want to read the words in Romans chapter 12, verse 19 to you. Listen to these words. Paul wrote, dearly beloved, avenge not yourself. but rather give place under wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Paul directly confronts our natural impulse to retaliate. It's just part of our nature when somebody does us wrong to want to get even. It just is. It's a very telltale sign of the depravity within us. I'll show them. You ever thought that? Well, maybe I'm the only one, but I kind of doubt it. By nature, we want to get even, but Paul here insists on the believer trusting in the Lord to administer correction and justice. Who are we to administer justice on anyone? I mean, really. Human revenge is tainted by pride, by anger, by partiality. You know, the Lord talked about getting the splinter out of our own eye in order to see clearly, or get the two before out of our own eye to see clearly, to get the splinter out of someone else's. God alone judges perfectly and righteously. Everything that we do is tainted by sin. We don't have any business trying to administer correction and justice to anyone. We've never had anything done to us that we ourselves haven't done to the Lord Jesus. And there in Romans 12, 19, those words that say give place unto wrath simply mean to step aside and trust God to handle any mistreatment that we might experience. God assures us in his word that no wrong will go unpunished. He'll either execute judgment against the wrong, or through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, He'll forgive the wrong that was done against His elect. The believer's response to cruelty should reflect Christ, who when He was reviled, Scripture says, reviled not again. They took the Lord Jesus Christ, beating Him to where He was unrecognizable as a man, His visage, it says, was more marred than any before him or after him. He didn't even resemble a man, yet he didn't retaliate. So our first lesson from the text, we demonstrate the gospel when we forgive and when we show kindness and trust in God's wisdom, leaving all the judgment to God. Refusing to avenge ourselves, that's not a weakness. Somebody says, well, I'm not that weak. No, it's not a weakness. It's actually spiritual strength that flows from confidence. Confidence in God's holy justice or God's great compassion and forgiveness. It's trusting Him to do what's right. It's the claim that we must trust God more than our emotions. And we certainly should. So what is the gospel connection here? We ourselves deserve death for our sins. That's what we deserve. But God's judgment and vengeance does not fall on those who are in Christ. It fell on Him. He bore the punishment that we deserve. I hope that just never becomes cliche to us, that we just say, yeah, I know Jesus died for my sins, blah, blah, blah. He really did. Our sin was placed upon God the Son, and He paid the debt of that sin, the wages which are debt. And therefore, in the process, He gave us His perfect righteousness. That really happened. That really happened. The Lord didn't retaliate. We're called to mirror that same mercy to others. Mercy is powerful. It reflects the heart of God. And then the second thing we see here was is we trust in God's time and we must. We get so impatient. We do, don't we? We want it. We want it right now. That's right. David confronted Saul, holding the piece of his robe as evidence. And in verse 12, he says, may the Lord judge between me and you. You see that? May the Lord judge between me and you. I'm not gonna judge, David's saying. The Lord's gonna judge between me and you. David doesn't act out of fear or ambition. He waits on God's timing. to enact justice. He trusts in God to take care of the situation. God's time is always perfect. And David trusts him. Oh God, help us to trust your timing on everything. We get so impatient, we want something, we want it right now. But God enable us to wait on your timing. David said, the Lord avenged me of thee. He said, but my hand shall not be upon me. The Lord is going to deal with you, but not in my hand. I'm going to show you mercy, and I'm going to show you grace. I want to be more like that. I really do. God helped me to be. And this is teaching us something of righteous restraint. This is teaching us something of faith and trusting God's justice. This is submission to divine justice rather than personal vengeance. We must never ever take matters into our own hands. It's always disastrous when we do. We must trust God to make things right. And David knows and believes whatever believers should. God, the righteous judge, will deal with Saul's injustice. And we see that right here in this story. I know a believer who several years ago was unjustly afflicted by a religious man. And he asked this man to cease from his persecution, but he wouldn't. To make matters worse, this man's persecution upon this believer, he thought he was doing God a justice. You know, the scripture talks about that. There'll come a time when men will kill you and think they're doing God a favor. And that's the situation I'm talking about. You would not believe the things that the Lord did to that man. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. What sort of a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And that goes for us doing bad, and that goes for us doing good. So I want to have mercy and compassion and patience on folk. After all, that's what the Lord did for me. The Lord helped us to do that. We've got to learn What David learned, he displayed deep faith in God's timing, in God's providence, in God's sovereignty. You know, we declare God as sovereign. We love the doctrine of God's sovereignty. A lot of people will say they believe God's sovereign, but Their speech reveals that they don't believe He's sovereign at all. A sovereign God doesn't need our help to do anything. We don't let a sovereign God do anything, and a sovereign God doesn't want to do anything, and we don't give God our hearts. The fullness of the world and the fullness thereof is His, and everything that dwells therein is His. But we've got to learn what belongs to God. And judgment and vengeance are His. He said that. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. We must learn what belongs to man. What belongs to man? Obedience to this God. Mercy and trust in this sovereign God that works all things after the counsel of His own will. And the gospel connection here is that David's example points to Christ Himself. who when he was suffered threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously." Again, 1 Peter 2.23. He didn't revile not. He didn't threaten. He committed his situation and nobody ever suffered like our Lord did. Let me add something to that. Nobody ever suffered wrongly like our Lord did. You know, I don't know about you, but I hate to be accused of something I didn't do. What about our Lord? He lived life perfectly, and he was murdered, crucified as the worst criminal that ever lived. And here we see David's humility and restraint foreshadowing the ultimate king, the Lord Jesus Christ, who spares. The king who spares. This is the king who spares. David is such a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus. We're sinners. Christ is perfectly righteous. And what does he do? He treats us with mercy. He doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us what we don't deserve. He blesses us and He establishes His kingdom, not by force, but through love and mercy that's bestowed upon us. And again, the gospel connection is David's mercy to Saul points forward to Christ's mercy to us. When I read this story, I read it through a couple, three times yesterday or the day before trying to get you know, layout for an outline. And it was just amazing to me. And each time that I read it, I'm like, that's a picture of me. I am Saul. And what Saul was doing to David is what I've done to the Lord Jesus. And then when I see how David treated Saul here, I immediately thought about how the Lord treats us in mercy and grace and patience. What a God. What a God we have. Jesus Christ is the true King who spares sinners. He restores the broken. He reigns with justice and compassion. We didn't earn His mercy. It's given to us because of Christ and what Christ did for us. And the gospel calls us to recognize Jesus Christ is our true King who spares sinners. His righteousness covers our sins. His mercy transforms our hearts. And when we see Him as Lord by His grace, we learn to act in humility and grace toward others, even when it's undeserved. Well, they don't deserve forgiveness. They may not, neither did you. 1 Samuel chapter 24 teaches us a powerful gospel lessons. God's mercy surpasses human justice. David could have acted in vengeance, but he chose mercy. He trusted God. He showed humility. The Lord Jesus did the same for us. Did he not? He bore the judgment we deserved. He left judgment in the Father's hand. He reigns as the righteous, merciful King. So may we always remember these three great truths. Mercy is stronger than vengeance. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. And mercy is His too. If He decides to show vengeance, or if He decides to show mercy, it's His prerogative. God's timing, always perfect. God's always on time. His timing's always perfect. He does what's right when it's right. And thirdly, the righteous King reigns in humility and grace. My friends, as we finish our days as followers of Christ, may we continually ask ourselves, And I'm talking to me, first and foremost. Are we living as people who mirror the mercy of God? Sadly, I confess to you, I don't as I should. God's been so merciful and gracious to me. I ought to be that way to everyone. Everyone. Even those who use me, abuse me, God, help me. Do we trust our Lord to act in judgment or mercy even when we are justly wronged? Lord, help me to do so. Do we recognize Christ as the King who saves us from the punishment that we deserve? By God's grace, I do. You see, I know what I deserve. God's shown that to me. And you know, I don't feel like I've gotten any better. I think if anything, I'm more conscious of what I am. The older that I get, the more that I walk with the Lord. I sure don't believe that my sanctification is progressive. I don't think I'm getting better. It's hard to get better when you're perfect, right? We're perfect in Christ. Thank God for that. I just see a little, I get a little whiff of myself each, a little more each and every day. And it makes me even more thankful and more grateful that Christ did for me what He did. There'd be no hope for me if He didn't. He still supplies peace and salvation through His substitution. He's still in the mercy business. God's still in the mercy business. He hadn't closed up shop. He still provides mercy in Christ today. That's the only place you'll find mercy. There's no love for sinners apart from Christ. There's no mercy to sinners apart from the Lord Jesus. All the forgiveness that we receive from God is because of what Christ did for us. That's so elementary and yet so misunderstood. I don't know why men and women think that they've got to do something to be saved when they can do nothing to be saved. Huh? God's so clear about it in this book. We're saved by grace through faith. It's not of ourselves, not by works that any man should boast. Paul's just, he just reiterates that time and time again. And yet somehow, some way, man thinks, well, I got to do something. Yeah, you can't without me. You can do nothing. Our Lord said. Friends, he's the true king. Who spares his enemies and redeems his people? He Jesus Christ is the king who spares. And I don't think there's any chapter in the in the Book of God that. Demonstration displays that any better than this one does. I hope that you receive the blessing, woman, as I do. And I continue to pray, Lord, help me be more like David and help me to be more like Christ.