1 Samuel chapter number 19. So we've been dealing now with this division that's risen up between David and Saul. And we finally come to the place now for some time, David's not known anything about Saul's hatred for him, his intent to kill him. And so he now has become aware. He's been told now what's going on, that Saul seeks his life. Saul's son is the one that told him that and got him aware of the situation. If you'll remember, kind of where we ended last time, and he's basically gone to him and he's gonna play the mediator. And he's going to try to bring them together. So he goes and tells David, he said, hide yourself and allow me to go and talk to my dad. I'm going to talk to him. I'm going to straighten this thing out. And with the best intentions, I think often many of us have done that. And we've gone to one party or another and tried to straighten it out. And I think that's Jonathan has a pure intent. We'll see it a little later on. There's some other things that is revealed about Jonathan's heart. I wondered if he was just trying to get positioned for a while, but I'm really convinced Jonathan really loved David. And Jonathan had a pure heart in him and he was doing the best that he could to try to help the situation. And he loved David. And I think he loved his daddy too. I think he loved God and he was stuck in a very difficult position between two people that you love. That's why it's kind of unfair. That's why we need to get hold of these things quickly. And we're dealing with unity and things in the church. We don't want it to spell out and start infecting everybody else. And that's what we've kind of dealt with that. We've had the accuser, the accusation, the accused, and we've dealt with the acquaintances some, his daughters, Jonathan, the servants are involved now with this thing. In the first verse of chapter 19, Saul speaks to Jonathan and his servants and that they should kill David. So now he's telling everybody, let's just go get him. And so it just infects so many people. And now because Saul refused to deal with this properly, you've got Jonathan stuck in the middle between two people trying to serve God the best that he can. And it's not fair to put people in positions like that because you don't want to get right with God. And that's not fair to do to people. I mean, you're going to answer for, you know, there's a whole lot of motivating factors that should get us to reconcile with our brother. There be any quarrel among you, you know, to forgive and all those things. But one of them should be is that we don't put people in positions where they have to choose between two people. That's not fair to put people in that kind of position. And so Jonathan's in a very difficult position. I don't know that I've done any different. I would hope I'd have done as good to try to be as faithful as Jonathan is. I feel like Jonathan is a good friend. He's been a good friend to David and we'll continue to see that as we move forward. So Saul says in verse number six, we kind of ended here last time, we looked at how Saul has become I'll use this word shady. Most of you know what I mean by that, but he's a liar. He's not genuine, right? He says, and for whatever reason, we got to remember something. I'm convinced that there's a possibility that maybe he meant this, but I don't know. Maybe he really was just trying to get him back closer so he could actually have another shot at killing him. I don't know. The Bible doesn't reveal to us why he does it, but he swears and he says to Jonathan, I'm not going to do nothing. I'm not going to hurt David. Everything's going to be fine. And maybe he meant that. I don't know. That's the thing about it. When we get in these situations and we're out of the will of God and we've been disobedient to God and to the point where God sent us an evil spirit and we've got an evil spirit about us, you certainly don't know yourself as well as you think that you do. That's why we need the Word of God to reveal in us so many things about us. And the Lord will do that faithfully, show you where you're at when you get in the scripture. So I don't know the answer to that, but I know he tells Jonathan that he's going to be okay with everything. And so what he wants to do, instead of dealing with anything biblically, he tries to just act like nothing ever happened, remember. So he comes back, and David's kind of okay with that. David comes back, to Saul's house, and it says they were restored, not to any kind of fellowship, but he comes back to his house, and they were together as they were before, is how the Bible puts it. And so David comes back, even after being told, for no reason at all, your dad's trying to kill you, my daddy's trying to kill you, for no reason at all, and he doesn't come back and demand anything from him, he's like, you know, that's fine, as long as he says he's not gonna kill me anymore, I guess I'll just come back. And so I kind of ended here as we look through Saul's kind of the attributes and his actions in this matter, in this schism. We are also looking at David's actions now, seeing that he is now involved in the conflict directly, knowing that somebody has an odd against him. So at first he behaved himself wisely. So I started out saying David is smart, right? David behaved himself wisely and that kept him out of a lot of trouble. And we talked about how if we'll just stay in the word of God and stay and follow God, that there's times that God will help us to escape the javelins, right? And so just stay true to the Lord. And there may be people out to get you you don't even know, enemies you don't even know about. And so just stay faithful to the Word of God and do what the Lord has you do. And God takes care of all those things. But now he becomes aware of it. Then he begins to act wisely with the information that he has also though. He doesn't just go AWOL here and start, you know, which I felt like he could, according to scriptures. He probably, you know, man to man probably could have handled Saul and the situation if he, if it came down to that. So, but he doesn't do that. He, we'll, we'll pick up our reading 1 Samuel chapter number 19. And let's start with verse number seven, okay? So Jonathan called David and he showed him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in his presence as in times past. And there was war again. And I don't know about you, but that sentence is used so many times just in the life of these men that no wonder we have scriptures that say, don't grow weary in well-doing. I don't know about you, Brother Reed, but I'd get tired of the battle. You mean to tell me, I just beat Goliath, I just battled another battle, I just went out and got all the four skins in order to get Michael, and beat all these Philistines, and then we come back. Then I find out my own familiar friend's trying to kill me. So now the man I loved and tried to be good to, he's the one out of the will of God got the evil spirit and I've just been trying to be good to it. You know David's thinking these things, he's gotta be, he's a man. And he comes back and then here we go again. So now I get out of that mess and then now another battle. And can I just say something? Don't grow weary in that. It's going to be battles and wars till we get home. We're dealing with people, and that purpose you were talking about, Cyrus, this morning, we've got to set our hearts into knowing that not to, well, I can't believe that there's a battle going on in the church. Well, there's, I mean, tell me which church you could go to where there's not going to be battles. The only churches that are not battling are probably not really churches either, and they're not doing nothing for God. It means the enemy's not fighting against them, right? So anyhow, so we can't get discouraged at those things. We just got to realize and know when these battles come, this is what we signed up for. This is just what the Christian life is. It's a life of fighting and war. He's chosen you to be a sitter. They sold you, right? And so be strong in the grace. Therefore, as I said, I charge thee therefore before God, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And so why do you need to be strong if you're not gonna fight? See, so we're gonna be battles and wars constantly. And it gets weary. I don't know about you. It's like, man, I'd like to just have a few months of no fighting, please. No battles, no problems. Let's just shout it out for Jesus. But the reality is, folks, we're involved in the work of the Lord and there's gonna be a warfare and a battle until Jesus comes and puts all the enemies under his feet. He said to his son when he sat on his right hand, he said, sit down on my right hand till I make thine enemies thine footstool. And so there's still a process going on in that, but there's coming a day where there'll be no more wars and fighting and battles. And so all we can do is just through hope, patiently await these promises for that glad land that you and I are going to, where there'll be no fighting and wars and rumors and backbiting. It'll just be peace and joy everlasting. So don't get weary along the journey. This is part of it, you know. I've had people, I've had jobs before, and they say, well, if you don't like it, quit. You ever had a job like that? You may not. experience that much, but you get out in the real world you'll experience that and you go complaining to your boss, well I really don't like having to be here at this time. Well quit. Right? What are we going to do, quit? We're just gonna keep fighting. Just keep battling, okay? So David comes up, he gets through all this, and then we come to this blessed scripture, and there was war again. So that's why I'm preaching these messages, because I'm not foolish enough not to know that somewhere down the road in our future, there's a war coming again. Right? And I don't know about you and I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't want to be the one. I want to be the one that's in the will of God, that's doing things biblically and trying to make peace and trying to love and trying to help others. I don't want to be the one. I don't want to be the Saul in this situation. But if I don't stay in this scripture, I could be. Just stay in the word of God. So there was war again. So David, in verse number eight, David went out and he did what God called him to do. The war came, David went to fight. It finally comes to a place his men have to say, David, you gotta quit going with us, you're gonna get killed out here. He was a fighting man. And not because he was just a man full of flesh and fighting in that sense so that he could be the great champion. He was fighting for the Lord, wasn't he, and for God's people. And there was an enemy coming. Do you realize at any time these enemies overtook them what they would do to their wives and their children in this day? Can I say something? If we don't fight, do you realize what the enemy's gonna do to your wife and your children? You think he's gonna, you think if you just quit, sir, and you don't take your family to church anymore, and you don't fight the battles, and you don't fight for righteousness and holiness, and try to keep your family going straight and doing right, do you think if you just set it out that the devil's just gonna say, okay, I got him, and just gonna leave y'all alone? Because at the end of the day, he's really not after you. Now he wants you and he wants to get through to you so he can get to your children. So if you quit fighting, you're handing your children over to the enemy. And I don't know about you, but I've seen what the world does to young people. And I don't want to give these young people up to the world to watch them ravage them and destroy them and use them and leave them laying over here on the street in 30 degree weather when I pass these men, my wife and I pass these men where they slept all night out here by this gas station out here on the corner. I wouldn't let my dog sleep out there last night. But that's what the world does when they're done with you. When the world's done making a drunk out of you, they're gonna leave you out here on the front steps of the porch to have fun. The only place you can find some shelter getting out of the rain is at God's house. And they'll leave you laying out in the cold. When the world's done with you young people, if any of you wanna run to the world, when they're done with you, we'll find you one day laying out on the streets, I can promise you that. But you go by and ask any of them. I'll tell you one group of people that won't do you that way, and that's God's church. If you ain't got nothing, know what we'll do, we'll feed you. If something happens, you know what we'll do, we'll take up an offering, we'll help you, we'll help pay your bills, we'll feed your family, we'll do anything we can to keep you from falling. Right? The world ain't that way. Now, We gotta keep fighting. And I know it's discouraging. I get tired of fighting just as much as you do. But I'll tell you, the alternative is much worse. So when I get weary of having to fight and my children are getting pulled into the world, I'm just getting tired. I don't know about you, but it gets weary fighting and arguing with teenagers. I just don't do it. I just start hitting people. That's how I parent. No, it's a battle trying to keep your kids going in the right direction. Good kids. God's blessed me with good children. They've given me very little problem, Brother Ray. But there's a constant pull at young people for the world. I don't care who they are. I don't care what church you raise them in. I don't care what denomination they are. I don't care who you are. There's a pull and an attraction, something coming at your children to pull them out from under your protection. And it's a constant battle to have to keep them within the walls of your home. Not just physically, but spiritually speaking. So, we're gonna keep fighting. Because if we don't, what's the alternative? Would any of y'all like to see Cam this morning at a Skinner concert, half drunk, screaming over there with his hands up? Would you like to see that? Because that's the alternative if we quit fighting. So you know what we're going to do? We're going to put our big boy britches on, and we're going to get up the loins of our mind, and we're just going to keep fighting. And I'm sorry if you quit and you give out. I understand it. I've had the same feelings also. But I hate that for you. But you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to keep fighting. That's all I know to do. And that's all David know to do. I mean, we can sit and whine and cry and say, well, I'm just so tired of the battle. But that ain't going to help because the enemy's still coming. Whether you cry about it, whether you whine about it, whether you stay at home, it don't make no difference. The enemy's still coming, and he's still going to come for your family if you quit. So I'd rather meet him out front and start the fight on my terms and meet him with the gospel with you. I'm not gonna wait at home, let him get the first punt. My daddy always tried to teach me that and said, well, you don't get in trouble if they hit you first. I said, well, you're half lost once they hit you first. I'm gonna calculate whether he's serious or not and I'm gonna hit him first when his mouth's open. Now, come on now, I know that's flesh, but I'm saying spiritually speaking, why do we just sit by and let the devil bring the fight to us? We need to take the fight to him. Keep preaching, keep going on with our armor and follow the word of God and take the battle to him. I'm tired of him coming out to our children and us trying to play defense and trying to protect them. Let's take the battle to him, let's drive them away, son. I'm tired of watching the devil ravage our young people in this community. He's got their minds, he's got their bodies, he's got their spirit, he's got everything about them. And their parents have quit fighting to try to see some righteousness raw in the soul of their children. Parents don't take their children to church anymore. Lost people used to demand that. My daddy demanded that we go with my mother to church. Now, it didn't help much, because all I saw laying there was a hypocrite. Now, I can't do nothing about that, but I can tell you this much, even lost people used to have a desire in their heart to see their young people get right with God. Even lost men. Now in our day, they'll do everything they can to try to keep them from us crazy Christians that just believe there's a God in the heaven that created everything. We're crazy. We're in bad shape, but you know what me and you can do? They may give up on their kids. We don't have to quit them. You know what I'm going to do? It may not bother them, and they may yell at us, and they may say all kinds of stuff to us, and they may have given up on their children and seeing their children in heaven. They may not care because they don't believe there's a hell anymore. They may not be concerned about it. They may not care at all about the gospel. But I can tell you one group of people that don't have to quit, in spite of them that don't care about that, we can have a love forum and take the gospel to them and keep battling for them. You realize the battles that are gone through to see that we get the gospel to them. We're going to have to keep fighting for the soul of the nation, for the soul of our churches, and for the soul of our community, or we're going to lose it. Got to keep fighting. So I don't know about you, but there's just a little something in my soul until God calls me home, I'm just gonna keep fighting. I am not gonna let the devil knock me out. I'm not gonna let some backslidden church member who don't even know if they're saved or not, and they don't have enough God about them to treat me like a Christian, and they've got hatred from my imagination. I'm not gonna let them knock me out. I'm gonna keep on fighting for God. So that's what I'm gonna do. And I wanna encourage you to do the same. Just set your faith like a flame and just go towards Calvary and just keep going for God and don't let nobody knock you out this bad. No situation, no person, nothing is gonna separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And so that's how I'm gonna face this world. That's right. So David just does what David always does, just kept fighting. Now if any man probably had a time to say, you know what, I'm gonna sit this one out, why don't you go, son? You deserve it. And he'd have been justified in that, as far as I'm concerned. All the crooked deals has been pulled already. So, but he don't. David's a man after God's heart, see? So he's not gonna let somebody who's wicked and quit God, basically, cause him to err. You know what he's going to do? He's just going to keep doing what he knows is right. You know what's right for him to do? He was the captain over 1,000. He put him as captain. His job was to go out there and fight and go in before the people and go out before the people and come in before the people. His job was to get out there in front of them people and lead them people on the battle. And that's what he was going to do and spy of some backslidden king, if he's even saved. So now let's continue to look now. So David goes out and fights with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from him. And verse number nine says, the evil spirit from the Lord that was upon Saul as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand and David played with his hand. So he's come back. After being made aware that Saul's trying to kill him, he comes back. Nothing's been said, nothing's been made right. We're just gonna, you know, act like nothing ever happened. And Saul goes right away from a meeting where he says, nothing's ever gonna happen. I promise you, I'm done with this matter. David's safe, don't worry about it. Turns right back around in a matter of days. After David wins another battle for him, You know what he does? Turns right back around, tries to kill him again. Now we discuss why? Because he never got right with God. So regardless of what he knew himself or what he intended to do, it's just never gonna work. God knows things about your heart. He knows stuff about you you don't know. I've heard a lot of people say, well, why didn't I get saved back then when I repeated all them prayers? Why didn't I get saved till I was this age? And what happened to all them other times? Because I felt like I was genuine then. You didn't know your heart like God did, see. I didn't realize that when I come to find out, every time I got on an altar and asked God to save me, all I was wanting to do was save me from the repercussions of what I had done. But I didn't know that. At the time, I was fairly genuine in what I was saying. But God continued to faithfully deal with me and expose my heart and bring me to a place where I could repent and acknowledge the truth. So thank God for that. So now we've got another situation where he comes to a meeting, he promises he's not gonna do anything, he has no character, Saul doesn't. Now, what I don't know is, was he this kind of person before? That I don't know. But I do know this, Saul has no problems with breaking oaths. His word means nothing. Saul has no problem. Let's just look at it. Okay, 1 Samuel, we're gonna have to go ahead. 1 Samuel chapter number 22. Turn to 1 Samuel 22. So, I'm gonna get ahead of myself a little bit here, but I think it's important. Because what it shows us is the downfall of a person that will not listen to God. And any of us that get to a place where God puts his finger on something in our life and we refuse to obey it, We're gonna head down the same paths of life. Now, I don't know if it's gonna go the same way, but at any point where God tells you to deal with something in your life and you tell God no, and you refuse to obey the word of God, there's no telling what your future might look like. It may look similar to this. I wonder if you could have gone back when he was hiding from the position to begin with, humble Saul, when he was small in his own sight. I wonder if he would have thought that by his actions, that he would have caused the death of so many people in his family. Because if you'll remember now, the ones that died with him at the end of this book, the ones that died with Saul, it's not all that Saul's problems that he caused. As we go through the chapter, we're gonna see a lot of people lose their lives over his actions. And because of his selfishness and his pride and his refusal to obey the word of God. There's another instance where he has a Himalayan killed, has him murdered. So you're in chapter 22, I'm not. You knew that, you didn't see me walk over here. Now, okay, so let me get to where I wanna mentioned something here. Most of you know the story of what is happening. He's in pursuit of David. I know we're skipping forward just a little bit. I'm going to try to do this quickly. Let's just show you something here. But you remember Doeg the Edomite, which was said over the servants of Saul in verse number 9. It's 1 Samuel 22, verse number 9. You see Doeg. Okay, so he is the one that tells Saul what happened when David received Goliath's sword. And so he's telling Saul in verse number 10, he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him victuals and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. So the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitab, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob, and they came, all of them, to the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahithah. And he answered, Here I am, my lord. And Saul said, Why have ye conspired against me, thou, and the son of Jesse? And that thou has given him bread and a sword, and has inquired of God for him, and he should rise up against me to lie in wait as this day. So Hamlet answers the king and said, and who is so faithful among all the servants of David, which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honorable in thy house. He's honest with him. And he said, I'm going to tell you why, because you don't have a better friend than David. You may not recognize it. And I'm telling you something, people get in bad shape. When they get in these kind of positions, it's like they lose all discernment whatsoever. And they're not able to see that sometimes they lash out and they attack their best friends and the worst enemy, the person causing all of the problem is right next to them. They can't see clearly. I'm telling you, you need God when you get in these situations. You need the Spirit of God to give you wisdom and discernment how to understand things, how to act, how to operate. You've got to see things clearly, things that you can't in your natural eye be able to know and see. God's got to give you wisdom. He can't see that his best friend is David. Saul doesn't have a greater attribute apart from God, a greater acquaintance apart from God than David. But that's who he attacks. And it surrounds himself by people that are willing to attack an innocent man at his word. That ought to let me know them people can't be trusted. You know why? Because if they fall in love with somebody else, they'll do it for them to kill me. So if you'll disobey the Bible at my word to do some things you... So, but he can't see that. All he's blinded by is his love for his kingdom. And he feels like David's gonna get in the way of that. And he wants to establish this thing. And apart from God, somehow he thinks he's gonna be successful, I guess. And so he can't see it. So Emilek tells him, says, David's your best friend. David's been good. You don't have a more faithful servant in all your house. Who is more faithful than David? So he goes on down through there, and, did I then begin to inquire of God for him, be it far from me, let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father, for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, him elect thou, and all thy father's house. And the king said unto the footman that stood by, Turn and slay the priest of the Lord. Verse number 17. Because their hand also is with David. Do you see the blind rage of this man? He doesn't care who he kills. This is what bitterness will do to you. It doesn't matter how to achieve the end of the destruction of that person. We've gotta find some way to destroy them. And anybody gets in my way, I'm gonna destroy them too. You better stay far away from somebody like that. Don't league up with somebody who's so blinded by rage that by whatever means necessary they're going to end someone else's, you know, reputation or whatever. Don't get behind people like that. God's never in that. God has no problem dealing with men, right? So I'd rather God humble me. Okay, so he turned to Doag and said, turn thou and fall upon the priest. And he fell upon the priest and slew that day four scourge and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And now to see the priest from over the edge of the sword. Now listen to this. Men and women, children and sucklings. The edge of the sword. So Saul tells his servants, now remember in Joshua, Joshua has made a pact not to kill the Gibeonites. Joshua's made a pact with them. They've sworn before the Lord. They will do them no harm. These people are not supposed to be touched. There has been a pact made and an agreement made, a covenant made before God that they will be safe. He don't care. He doesn't care who he hurts. He's blinded. He doesn't care that somebody's made an oath before God. He's gonna kill everybody. Now remember why he's doing this. He's doing this because he imagined David's gonna take his kingdom. That's what we're dealing with today. So now you've got an entire city that's gonna be destroyed because of his hatred, not because David's there and he thinks he's gonna get David, because he's gonna kill a man and his family and his children, sucklings, little babies, he's gonna have them murdered because that man helped his friend David. Hamlet's friend. I don't know that you could get any sorrier than that. Now, God pays him back dearly, 2 Samuel chapter 21. God pays him back dearly. You know what God lets happen? God lets happen, they require of him, said, give us seven, not of Saul's sons, read that carefully. A lot of people say, Saul's seven sons. Seven sons of Saul. People, seven males that are born of Saul's family. We want seven to pay us back for what he did right here in this chapter. So Saul doesn't even know this, but his actions, his blind rage to kill another man with no cause is now gonna cause seven of his family members, innocent people, children that had nothing to do with this. David saves Mephibosheth because of a covenant that he made with him. So he wouldn't give him Mephibosheth. And he saves, so, but he gives him seven descendants, seven male descendants of Saul, he gives to the Gibeonites to murder. They hang them up in the city before all the people. God paid Saul back, seven innocent people died because he blindly tried to get you. Now, not just seven people of his own family, because he's shown that he don't care about his own family. Look what he does to Jonathan. Remember he goes and he attacks Jonathan here in a minute and he says, you are a child of your perverse mother. I don't really have a lot of use for a man that just boastfully loudly will bash his wife. God is not in none of that. Because I'd say if you really dug through it, she's probably the only thing holding the thing together. But a person, I'm not saying a woman can't, women can have some problems. Believe you me, I can imagine. I don't have to deal with that. I thank the Lord for that. But I don't know what it's like to live with a brawling woman and all those things. I'm sure it's difficult. I'm not making light of any of those kind of things. But I don't think God's in the business allowing us as men to just go out and bash our wife and talk about them like that. You're a child of your perverse mother. What's what he said about his own wife? So, I mean, this man has zero character. He'll attack family, he'll attack you, he'll attack innocent people in a city that had nothing to do, they didn't even know David was there. Do you see the destruction laid out before us over one simple little act of not getting something in your heart right with God? You see the destruction that's already been paved here? And you know what's sad is people will continue. They've heard this kind of preaching long before I was born. People will continue all their life and still stubbornly do this same thing. They won't forgive. They won't let things go. They won't get things out of their heart. They won't make things right with their brother. It's like they just, I don't know if you just don't believe it or you're so proud that you're going to wait on God to kill you and destroy your family to prove it to you. Is that what it's going to take? I wonder that with some people. Is that what it's going to take for God to shake you up a little bit? I mean, I don't know about you, but I don't want my children affected and have a fallout where they fall out of church and they don't have nothing for God. And we can blame these young people that they ran off to the world, but I'm going to tell you something, behind a lot of that, was a lot of parents that weren't right with God, and they didn't live right, and they didn't do right, and the kids saw the hypocrisy, and the fake, and the meanness, and they heard the stuff in the back little table talks, and then they saw you acting one way to somebody's face, and then they saw you go home to the table and bad-mouth them, and they got to where the point they had no confidence in anything you believe. Not wrong for them to leave, but I know a lot of them, and a lot of them probably had a good reason to run like the wind. So I don't know about you, but I don't wanna quit fighting. I don't wanna do something that's gonna allow, long after I'm gone, that my own children, my own family, my grandchildren even, are affected because of decisions that I made. See, this thing's bigger than whether or not you were right or wrong about somebody. Some people can't get past that, Chris. They will never get past the fact that they cannot prove that they were right about you. And it'll consume and they'll die miserable. But there's more to this than you being right about somebody else. There's children involved. There's young people involved. There's cities involved. There's churches involved. There is all kinds of things involved. So it is imperative that we quickly try to make things right with our brother, folks. It's right to do. Doing it for God because he forgave you how sorry you are should be enough reason. God shouldn't have to threaten our children He should just be able to say, man, as good as I've been to you and how I've forgiven you for all the mess you've done and you can't forgive him. That'll be enough for most of us. Come on now. He has not an ounce of proof to prove anything, not a single solitary proof of anything that David's done wrong. So what's going to happen next? Who's involved next? All right. So we look at his acquaintances that have been affected. We see the cities that have been destroyed. We see the tearing apart of a whole children in all. And we his oldest daughter almost using this game. And now Michael because she loved him, he uses her in the game. And then now Jonathan's also another pawn that he's going to use here before long. He's got a real hatred for Jonathan because, and if you'll see in these verses even with Himelech, he's so mad that anybody that would side with David, how could you side against my enemy? That's how selfish this man is. He'll hate you for befriending somebody. Well, I don't have no problem with David. David didn't do nothing wrong to me. That's basically what he said, right? David's a great guy. I'm not in the fight with either one of you. David's my friend. He's so blinded by that rape, he hated him just because he was friends with David. I'm telling you, some people are pitiful. So what's bad is this is coming from leadership. Can I say something to the preachers in here? If anybody in this world is expected to humble themselves and apologize and make things right and lead the way and living out this Bible, it's us men that are supposedly called of God to preach the Word of God. Because you make it awful hard for me to get up here and tell people to forgive when you hold stuff in your heart and get up and preach it, you won't live it. I kind of got my head tied like this. People laugh at us off the stage anymore because you've got preachers that won't do it. So if anybody ought to have the integrity to humble themselves and make things right, it ought to be a preacher. So Saul should have been the very one to first quickly make things right, and he never did do it. Destruction is following his way now. So we're going to go back to chapter 19. Now we're going to see what's happening now. So he comes back. Now David actually does realize that he's actually trying to kill him, and he tries to get him with the javelin again. Look down in chapter 19 and verse number 10. Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence. and he smote the javelin into the wall. David fled and escaped that night. Saul also sent messengers unto David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning. He's consumed by this. He's got messengers that are going to try to find some way they can get him. We got to make something stick, guys. I've gotten pretty deep into this thing with my hatred for him. I've got to find some way to make... Brother, Boy, if you get that way, I think you'd be best off to just delete the little bit of integrity you might have left. Well, so here comes Saul, sends his messengers down to go basically sit over David's house and wait for him to catch him Can I say something? And I hate to say this, but the reality is that there are people out there involved in your life every day that are waiting for you to do something that they can go tell somebody else. They're waiting for you to mess up so that they can say, see, I knew that I was right about them. There's people that are like that. And that's why it's imperative we gotta live right, because we're being watched by lost people, by saved people, and then wicked people. They got nothing better to do. And so, everybody okay? So what we're trying to learn here is what do I do when I get in a situation where I'm being attacked? What do I do when I feel like I need to attack, when I feel like I have something against somebody? Well, we've kind of covered that. We all know what we should kind of do on that side. So what do we do when we feel attacked? Well, obviously, continuing to walk as we know is walking the world. That's what David was doing. And then he becomes aware of things, and he's open to the very first meeting that happens. He says, okay, you go do it, and that'll be fine, and I'll just come back and act like nothing happened. I can forgive a man and just go on That's what he did. I got no problem forgiving him, but we'll just go on and pretend like it doesn't happen. Okay, so that's what they tried to do. Well, then he comes away on this verse and he's like, okay, now he's trying to kill me. I felt it go by my ear. He's really trying to kill me now. And so he flees out of his house, gets away from it, okay? Gets separation between him and the issue. And he goes in verse number 11, and now Saul, once again, after he just said he wasn't ever going to do nothing, turns right back around and breaks his own word, which he obviously doesn't care nothing about his word, and breaks that word and tries to kill himself again after he lured him in to play the evil spirit away. And then he goes and now he sends his messengers down there and tries to get somebody to find out some way that they can kill David. It's hard for me to imagine that somebody would hate me like this. Is that hard for you to imagine? It would be hard for me to imagine. I ain't done nothing to nobody. I mean, I could see some lost person getting mad because I preached something on sodomites or something like that. I mean, I could kind of see that. But I can't imagine any Christian. I mean, this is what David's got to be thinking. Why in the world? What have I done? He comes and says that here in just a minute. I can't imagine somebody having this. I can understand people not liking me, you know. I mean, there's all kinds of things that, you know, and I don't need any help. I don't need any help on that. He just dipped his head. So, but having this kind of hatred, I just, so, so we come down through here and now, We'll turn, well, I tell you what, let's do that tonight. Let me just keep going where I'm wanting to go. So we're gonna turn to the Psalm that reveals to us kind of what David's thinking in this process. And it will help us to see some things of how we can deal with things when we're under attack. And so now he's got people watching over his house and they want to slay him in the morning. And Michael, David's wife, told him saying, if thou save thy life tonight, tomorrow thou shall not be slain. So Michael let David down through a window and he went and fled and escaped. And Michael took an image and laid it in his bed and put a pill of goat's hair. I'm sorry, I laughed at this. I got the picture of some teenager sneaking out of their house or something. It seemed silly to me that they really bought that some goat's hair was laying there. I mean, I don't know. So, and it covered with a cloth. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, he is sick. And verse 15, Saul sent the messengers again to see David saying, bring him up to me in the bed that I may slay him. And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed with a pillow goat's hair for his bolster. And Saul said to Michael, why hast thou deceived me so and sent away mine enemy that he has escaped? And Michael answered and said, he said unto me, let me go. Why should I kill thee? Now, let me say something just real quick. I'm just going to take five more minutes and I'm going to let you go this morning because I want to get to that psalm. So can I say something? When you're involved in this situation, remember there's three parties that we're looking at. If we're on the end of being offended, what should we do? If we're being attacked with somebody have something against us, how do we respond? But what if we're caught in the middle? How do we respond? Right? All right, so here's a lady that's caught in the middle. All right, stay with me. So Michael, Saul's daughter, really loved David, right? That's how it came to be. When Saul heard that she loved him, she gave it away and tried to use him to get the Philistines to kill him, right? But she really does love him. That's what the Bible said. And so she tries to help him. When she sees the messengers and she figures out and finds it out, however she finds it out, that they're lying in wait to kill him, she lets David and tells him and says, hey, you need to get out of here. They're going to try to kill you in the morning. So you need to go tonight. So then Saul comes and they miss him the first time because they got tricked by the goat's hair and all somehow. And then they come back again and finally he said, now just bring him up in his bed then. I want him dead. I don't care what has to happen. I want him dead. So Saul says, bring him up to him in his sick bed. And then finally he figures it out that he's gone. And here's what he says to his daughter. Why did you take my enemy from me so that I could kill him? Why did you do this, right? And then her response is, well, I did that because David threatened to kill me. Now, did David threaten to kill her? Can anybody see in these scriptures that David said, if you don't let me? No. So she was just trying to save herself, right? So I'm not attacking the woman, but here's what I want to say. And we're going to see another instance of this, too. When you get caught in the middle between two parties, two people, two church, whatever the situation is, and you're kind of caught in the middle of the thing, honesty is just the best policy. You just cannot beat honesty. And she would have been a whole lot better off to just say, I let him go because he's my husband and I love him. And you're a nut job. That would have been much better to say. You're a looney tune, buddy. Instead, she's trying to save herself in the midst of the problem. This is what happens when we try to get selfish in the thing. We don't think things through. What happens to one lie? It creates another lie. It creates another lie. It creates another lie. Right? So just be honest. Why is that so important? Because now, if anything, she's actually giving fuel to those that may not know the situation to want to pursue David. Because if I was standing there and I didn't know the situation and all I kind of know is I'm a servant of the king and he's got an enemy, at least of what he said, that he's trying to kill and I'm on the outside and I just happened to overhear her say that David threatened to kill her. Well, now you got me on your side. What's that man doing threatening to kill his wife? That's the king's daughter. See, all she did at that point was create more problems for David. She should have just been honest. So when you get stuck in those positions and you don't know what to do, the best policy, I don't care what you think's going to happen, what will happen will be much worse if you lie. Say, well, I don't want to tell them this because it's going to hurt them. And if I tell them this, it's going to hurt them. And I just don't want to, I just don't like all this. I understand all that. But honestly, it's just the best policy. Look your friend in the face and say, you've got no right doing what you're doing. And I love you. And I'm still your friend, but you are wrong. And I'm not trying to take sides. I'm not trying to stir up problems, but you're wrong. And I don't want involved in this. You need to make this thing right or just leave me alone. Because I'm not going to be around when God drops a hammer on you. But instead she makes up a story and now, now he's got something he can feel justified in. He's threatened my daughter's life. See, I told you. All she was trying to do was help. I've never seen lying work out for anybody. Man, just tell the truth. I know you think, well, ultimately I kind of told the truth, but I may kind of lie in the story to help protect this. Man, listen, just put it out there, black and white, and let God sort it all out. Because I'm telling you, when you get into co-workers, and you get into these problems, you get into these situations, and you're actually trying to manipulate the situation for good intentions, you want to make it right, but you can't manipulate things into being right. It's got to be done God's way or it won't ever happen. So if that person don't repent and go face that person and they don't come together in Christian brotherly love and try to make things right, you're gonna create a bigger problem. I promise you, you'll make a bigger mess of the thing. Just be honest and be a faithful friend, right? And you're not gonna be able to manipulate it into working out in the end, because it's not gonna be a fairy tale until people get right with God. So, and you can't do that. So, now, let's... I got to be done. I just take so long to... So, let's just close this morning. Saul said unto Michael, verse number 18, excuse me. So, David fled and escaped. And he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Now, they just... So, We've already seen how wise David was, right? Even before he knew, now that he knows, and he's even willing to just make things right and just go on like nothing ever happened. He's been willing to do that. He's been willing to do whatever. And we see what happened in that situation. That didn't work out. He still tried to kill him. He's sending messengers to find him. He's still pursuing him. He's still after him. Then we come down and Michael's done what she's done. She's let him out. So now what is David's options? Christian, think about yourself. I'm gonna end it on this now, okay? You're the one that's been attacked. The meeting didn't work. The mediator tried to make it work and evidently he just turned right around and tried to kill everybody again. So what's your options now? Well, what does the Bible say? We try to get it right ourselves and forgive. We can't, what do we do? Go to your brother. We've been to that step, that didn't work, did it? So, that didn't work. So, which in reality, he ignored that, but he had the opportunity to go to him and say something. As far as I know, Saul never said anything to David about nothing. He just felt like he had a free pass to try to kill him and you know, whatever. So to my knowledge, he never did do right. But in my opinion, David has done all that he can do. His only option next is to go to God's man. Now, is that what David does? Does David try to go get an army to protect himself against it? No, he doesn't do that. Where does he go? He goes to the man of God. Young men especially, if God puts you in a pastorate somewhere, it's your responsibility when they come to you to handle the problem. One way or another, you handle it. When it comes to you, unless you want to rip your church apart, you handle it. And if it means telling somebody to leave, tell them to pack up and go. You gotta be the man. You just gotta be the one to handle it. That's the position God's put us in. Handle the problem. And when they come to you and you investigate it and you come to a conclusion, state that conclusion to everybody, let them know where it is, and handle the problem. Or it's gonna keep festering. Gonna keep festering. Okay? So he goes to God's man. Why does he go to God's man? Because he wants to handle this biblically. He wants God's man to make a decision and handle the problem, right? So what does Saul do? You would think Saul would say, you know what? That was a good idea. Maybe we should have gone to God's man together. Let him figure it out. No, he's following in hot pursuit, ready to kill him. So we'll end on that. So can I say something? When you've done all that you can do, You've gone to God, you got alone in your secret place, you behaved yourself wisely, you've done all that you can possibly do. You've had a meeting, maybe that didn't work, you've gone all those. And when you come to the step where you go to God's man, don't skip steps is what I'm trying to say. Don't then go and go out and start your own campaign and rally some troops to go over here and kill the other one. Don't do that, right? Stay in the steps of God and God will bless you for it. Now it may take time, but I promise you, God will come to your defense. So, look at what he did to David. How long did this drag on before God... See, God doesn't execute judgment speedily. How long did it happen before God repaid him in Saul for what he did in 1 Samuel all the way to 2 Samuel chapter 21? It took a long time for him to execute judgment on that. God's a long-suffering God. So be mindful of that, be patient, and allow God's man, so he comes to God's man. Tell Saul, tell Samuel, excuse me, Samuel, mind you now, this is Samuel who knows everything about Saul already. He knows he's belligerent, he knows he won't obey the word of God, he knows everything that needs to be known about Saul. He knows God took the kingdom from him because Samuel's already anointed David. Samuel knows all of this stuff. So he comes to Samuel and Samuel tells him everything that Saul had purpose to do. And Samuel, it was told Saul, excuse me, David fled and escaped in verse 18. We're done with this. Okay, so he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naoth. Verse 19, it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naoth and Ramah. And Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then went he also, finally he gets the courage enough to try to do something himself. Saul's a coward is what Saul is. If he can't stab you in the back with a javelin, he tries to get several messengers to try to do it for him. And if he can't do that, he'll use the Philistines to try to do it. So now he's forced, he's got nobody left, he's forced to have to come out of hiding and try to do something himself. So he comes out and look at, we're going to end the chapter right here. He came to the great, it was in Sekou and he asked and said, where are Samuel and David? And one said, behold, they be at Naoth and Ramah. And verse 23, and he went thither to Naoth and Ramah and the spirit of God was upon him also. And he went on and prophesied until he came to Naoth and Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and laid down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore, they say, is Saul also among the prophets." And we're done with that. So what just happened? He goes to Samuel, tells Samuel the problem. David does. David and Samuel get together, and we don't have much. I don't know what all happened there. But they're together, and I'm assuming that they're that David is gonna be hidden among the prophets. I don't know because I wish we had more of an insight of what was going on with Samuel at this time, but he takes him in and he's gonna protect him. That's the best I can really come up with. That's what happens. So he sends messengers to try to go kill him anyway. And he sends those messengers and when those messengers get there, the spirit of God falls on them and they start preaching. The second group goes. You know what happens? The Spirit of God falls on them, and they start prophesying. You know what happens the third time? There's different messengers, the Spirit of God falls on them, they start prophesying. Wicked King Saul, who's as wicked as a dog's hind leg. Crooked, I usually say, the dog's hind leg. He's wicked. What happens to him? The Spirit of God falls on him, he starts preaching. And it makes me wonder, but there is times that wicked men can prophesy. But that's not the message. Here's what I think happened, because that threw me off a little bit. Because here's what you're gonna have to say. I mean, again, we have no knowledge of whether or not Saul was really saved and a saint of God. I kind of tend to think that he was. Because you'd have to say that the spirit of God came upon these lost men. I don't have really any other scriptures that could back that up. So here's what I'm thinking happened. Now here's what one commentator said. I'm gonna leave you with this. There's a lot of people that get caught up in the emotionalism of service. So you've got all of God's prophets together. You know what they're doing? They're studying the Scriptures. They had to memorize books, the entire books, not just little verses. They're memorizing Scripture. They're studying the Word of God. The scribes are also. There's all these things going on in a spiritual nature where these men are together and they are doing these things in the name of the Lord. And God is certainly among these prophets. And what seems to happen here is they're promising, as these men come along, they get caught up in the spirit and the emotionalism of all that's going on. And they start prophesying. Does it mean they're saved? Does it mean they're not saved? Does it mean they're spiritual? Does it mean they're not spiritual? They just get caught up in all the emotion of it. Now that's a pretty good explanation. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe when Saul gets down there and he gets among the great spiritual blessings of God's being poured out on his people and they get caught up in it also. Maybe that happened because I have seen that happen. I've seen wicked people get in good services and man, God moves and they're moved by it. They don't ever get right, but they're moved emotionally by the emotions of God moving among people. So here's what I think happened. I just think it was a divine protection of God. I think God caused that to happen to them to give David time to escape. That's the best of my estimation can come up with. So here once again, God has made provision to keep David safe because David followed the word of God. He didn't start a campaign. He didn't start terror. All he did, he tried to do right, and he went to God's man. He's following the biblical order of things, and God's blessing him for it. So here's what I'm gonna say. Come on, Brother Reed, Ms. Snow, Ms. Currier. When you're, extend your feet. When you're under attack, and you ask anybody that's really been under attack, If you'll just obey God and do what God said to do, I promise you, you may be hard to see, it may not happen in the time that you want it to and all this, but I promise you God will come to your aid. You just keep doing right. When you're under attack, you just keep doing right. I don't care where it's from. I don't care who's saying it. I don't care where they're from. None of that matters. I don't care how good you were to them. None of that. All that matters is, is that you do right. Keep doing right. God will bless you for it. Lord, we love you. Thank you for these great truths. I pray, Lord, you'd help me bring to my memory when I'm going through things that I could remember to just follow the biblical commands and walk in the light. So help me to do that. Help others that may be here this morning. Maybe some been under attack. We've all got an enemy that's attacking us. We've all got a Saul after us, one greater than he, really, that's after our families. And maybe we've been under attack lately, Lord. I just pray for those families as well, that you'd help all of us, please, Lord, to humble ourselves and to bring glory and honor to you through our lives. We love you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, if you need to come, we'll sing a verse and let you go.