We're going to be looking here in verse 37 and we're going to note by faith or who through faith suffered cruel deaths. Suffered cruel deaths. That's what is mentioned in the first part of this verse. And so let's read verse 37. We'll have some introductory comments and then we will get into the text itself. But in Hebrews 11 verse 37, it says, they, referring back unto those mentioned earlier, God's people, were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Now we read this first, and again, these verses are a record that the Holy Spirit gave unto the rider, who we believe is Paul. They gave unto him of the sufferings of his people by faith. We have recorded for us in the Scriptures the deaths of many of God's people as they walked by faith. Now, again, and we reiterate this, it's not something we seek to. It's not the death we desire. The death we desire is the death unto ourselves that we may live unto Christ. That's what God would have us to seek after. The terminology I've heard used is a martyr complex. God never gave that to anybody. That is a desire out of pride where people think that this is the greatest thing that can happen is that they would be martyred for the cause of Christ. Only if that's what God has in store for you. And He doesn't have that in store for all of His. And we know that as he spoke in John chapter 21 unto Peter, when he told Peter, you're going to be crucified. Again, and we use this a lot, it's very applicable to almost every facet of life. But he says to Peter, Peter points to John and says, what about John? And Jesus says, what is it to you if it's my will that he lives till I come again? You follow Me. So if it's My will for you to be crucified, you follow Me into that. And if it's My will for John to live until I come again, what difference does that make to you? And so we find here that this is not the death that God has recorded in His words that we are to suffer. We are to mortify our flesh and put on Jesus Christ. As Paul is saying in Galatians 2.20, we are to live for Him. And so we find, and I'm not going to turn and read it, but in Acts chapter 7, verses 54 through 60, we have the death of Stephen. In Acts 12, verses 1-4, one of the James brothers, not Jesse or Frank or those, but one of the apostles named James, was killed by Herod. And he sought to vex and persecute the church, and he imprisoned Peter and was going to kill him. But the Lord released him from prison after the prayers of his saints. If you have a copy, if you don't, I would encourage you to get one and read it. not have it be one of those coffee table books that just sits there. I would encourage you to get a copy of Fox's Book of Martyrs and to read over it. It's an excellent resource depicting the deaths of those who walked by faith down through the ages. and it tells in the very front of it about the Lord's First Church, that particular office of apostles. The only one of them who escaped cruel sufferings was John the Apostle, who was put into a cauldron, a boiling cauldron of liquid, and came out of it, as I remember, unscathed. And then he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, and he received the revelation of Jesus Christ there. But the rest were martyred for their stand and walk by faith. When the Apostle Paul was slain, it had been ordered by the Roman Emperor Nero, whichever you prefer, And his executioners took him. He was conversing and preaching. And they came to take him, and as they took him to the place where they were going to execute him, they said, Would you pray for us that we might believe? And he prayed for them. And as they got to the place where he would be executed, he told them that, You're going to be baptized at the door of my sepulchre. And according to history, they were. And we don't find in these things that, as you read here in Hebrews chapter 11, that they went kicking and screaming and begging for their lives. They followed the Lord by faith. They never sought to be delivered in the fashion of, well, I'll tell a little white lie and say what I'm saying isn't really true, or what I'm preaching, or that Jesus Christ really isn't the Savior, or that the church truce that I'm standing for, or re-baptize an individual because this church over here or that church over there, this denomination or that world's religious system does not have authority to baptize They never departed from those things, even if they said, well, I'll just say it and it'll be okay. They didn't agree to disagree with extreme falsehood. They stood for the truth. And this was their end. Now it wasn't all their end, or else you and I wouldn't be here today. Because we know the Bible tells us in the book of Romans that God hath preserved for Himself a remnant according to the election of grace. And that's not just salvation. He kept a remnant of His church according to His grace on down through this time and we are a product of that. And they walked by faith just as equally as others did. And so what was the difference between those who we previously read who subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness and obtained promises and stopped the mouths of lions and quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness remained strong, waxed valiant, turned to flight in the arms of the aliens, and those who were tortured and those who had trials of cruel mockings and those who were stoned and sawed asunder and tempted and were slain with the sword, What was the difference between those? It was the Lord. He saw fit for this one to be appointed this, and this one to be this way. And some of them experienced several deliverances and obtained promises, and then in the latter end of their life, after they had continued to walk with the Lord, then they suffered a cruel death. Well, let's look, if you would, over to Hebrews chapter 2. I called it point 1, but it's kind of more along with the introduction, but for the order of my mind, we'll call it our first point. And we want to propose this question, as many people would probably say, well, what kind of God do you have then? Well, I have the only God. And He is a merciful and just and loving and righteous and compassionate and kind God. And folks would say, well, when you tell me that He saved people and then subjected them to cruel sufferings as this, how can you worship one such as this? And my response would be unto them, because He gave Himself for me. There is not one thing that Christ has not gone through that I will ever go through. You understand that? Do we understand and comprehend that Christ Himself has tasted every human experience there is? And in particular, we're going to read here, there's one thing that He tasted for me that I never ever will. And that is a death that was cursed. Now it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment, and if the Lord tarries from our human perspective, I may see death, you may see death, but it will not be a cursed death. Because of this, Hebrews 2 and verse 9, it says, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Christ Himself suffered. And He suffered things that not only the death on the cross that I will, but there are other things that He suffered. And there are things in this room that you have suffered that I haven't and vice versa, and yet Christ has suffered more than all of us together. You see, it's ironic to say the least, and it's really not ironic, it's more of a result of a sinful mind, that people would look at the Lord God and His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and they would say, you mean to tell me that God has planned and purposed and ordained for you to walk in this life? Yes, He has. And they would turn and they might say, how can you serve Him? And how can you do this? And how can you voluntarily, having been saved by God's grace, how can you voluntarily submit and serve Him and walk by faith? If this is what He would lead you to, you just, thy will be done. How can you do that? And my response again to them would be that he gave himself for me, and then I would ask them another question, and that question would be, how can you serve the God that you serve? Because all idols are a concoction of the sinful mind. There is no such person as Moloch, or Baal, or Ashtoreth. or Zeus or Jupiter or Mars or any of them. And the kids had to take a mythology unit. And we sat down and we explained to them that these really don't exist. And they understood that. But you think about it and how all of these false deities, that they have taken one attribute of God and we're going to give it to this guy. And one attribute from God and we're going to give it to this guy. And this attribute of God we're going to give it to this woman over here. And turn, if you would, over to 2 Kings 23. I fail to understand how anyone could worship a God who subjects them to such cruel things as are listed here in 2 Kings 23, when that God Himself has not partaken of it. What was it that Jesus was called in Hebrews 2 and verse 10? The captain of our salvation. And this is the old school captains, not the new age captains who sit back in the hut and send out soldiers like pawns. No, this was the captain who was leading the charge at the forefront of the battle. See, Christ has gone on before us. But in 2 Kings 23 we read, and this is a summarization of pretty much all of the false idols that there are. And that is Moloch, if you'll look here in 2 Kings 23 and in verse 10. And you'll see what Moloch did. It said, and he defiled Topheth. This is a revival under one of the kings of Judah. And we find here that under the revival he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moab. Do you understand that men, women, boys and girls conjured up a false god who then said, I want you to take your children and I want you to put them into a fire alive. And people worship that. We're still doing it today here in America. It's called pleasure or what I want. And then I don't want to get all political or anything but there's a whole tax paid department called Planned Parenthood that is funding all of that. And there's doctors and all the things that have done and that is nothing but the God of pleasure and convenience for me. That's it. And so when people look and they say, how can you serve a God that may or may not subject you unto this or has subjected His people unto it? We can always say, He already subjected Himself to it. unlike your God who has never subjected Himself to anything, but has always commanded you to give in to the lust and to do all these horrific things through the deceitfulness of sin, our God has saved us and delivered us and He has walked before us into the fact that He gave His only begotten Son." He's not a hypocrite, is He? He is a glorious Redeemer. Turn over to Philippians chapter 2 if you would. Again, Philippians chapter 2, and we look at these cruel deaths here in Hebrews chapter 11, and really in reality, I'm sure if we could, not that we are interested necessarily in it, but if we could ask them, I'm sure that those who were martyred, those who suffered these cruel deaths, I'm sure that they would say that They were honored to have suffered in the same way that Christ did. Under the cruel hands of wicked men. For the stand in their faith. Because again, there's only two things you can do. Either you're going to stand in faith, or you're going to crumble in unbelief. That's it. And not that I think that it's okay, but imagine your last act here on earth would be to be an unfaithful act before you go and meet the Lord. If you were to say, well, I recant everything just so they'd kill you a little quicker. The very last thing you do on this earth is an unfaithful act unto God. In Philippians 2 and in verse 5 it says, let this mind be in you, let this mentality, let this resolve. being you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death." And then it just kind of adds an adjective, if you would, here, even the death of the cross. So it wasn't an ordinary death. Christ did not die of natural causes. He died a very cruel and cursed death. And He did it and He went on before all before Him. Christ, in the mind of God, before the foundation was, because we are told that He is a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, in the mind of God, His sacrifice took place before all other sufferings. Before Abel's? Before any of them. Because it was from the foundation of the world. People say, what kind of a God do you serve? I serve one who went before me. Can you say that of yours? Can you say that of anything other than Jesus Christ? It cannot be said, can it? Look over to Romans 5. Some of these are familiar. We've used them recently and they're still applicable in this line of thought. But again, what kind of God is this who would subject His people? He saved them and He's going to give them eternal life and then He turns around and subjects them to this. He's the very best God there is. He's the only God there is. And if you had tasted of Him, and began to walk by faith, then you would have this same mentality that Christ did. And I would have that same mentality as Christ. You see, when we're not walking by faith, we're not willing to subject ourselves to the will of God, but when we walk by faith, we are willing to submit to anything that is in that ordained path that we have been called to walk in. In Romans 5, we find here in verse 6, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." God commendeth His love toward me while I was still a sinner that Christ died for me. So Christ has already gone on before me in this. His only begotten Son. I wouldn't give up any of my sons for the wicked men, women, boys, and girls in this world. And you wouldn't either. But Christ, the only begotten of the Father, was crucified for me. See, this is the God we serve. This is the God of those in Hebrews 11 who served. The Bible tells us in John 3, 16 and 17, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. What a contrast between Jehovah, the Lord, Elohim, the one true God, and the false gods that man has made up. I mean, even when you think about even one of the biggest religious, false religious systems in this world, and that is Islam, not even their grand prophet gave himself to them. And they talk about, oh, this will be pleasing to the prophet, and this, that, and the other, and all the malarkey and things that are said concerning him, and yet he didn't lay down his life. But Christ did, the Son of God, laid Himself down, sacrificed Himself, and bore my sins on Calvary's tree. And if you turn to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, and again, as we read these things and we look over them and we look at what the Scripture says as we come to this and we find here, and again, as we look at what took place, and again, how is it that you can subject and submit and worship and honor and glorify and propagate and preach this Christ unto others? How can you do that? How can I not do it? Romans 12.1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. What mercies? All of them. Particularly Calvary. That you present your bodies a living sacrifice. And that living sacrifice means I am willing to put my life into God's hands and resign it unto Him. That I am dying unto His will, that I am dead unto My will and alive unto His will. That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So again, how can we not? How can we not submit to God's Word, His will, which is going to be in agreement with His Word? Look over to Hebrews chapter 4. Again, as we said and we repeat it, there is nothing that you or I or us together collectively as the Lord's church will ever go through that Christ Himself has not gone through. And whatever you go through, I go through, or we collectively go through, Christ will be with us. Because He promised us that. And as we read in Hebrews 4 and in verse 14, 15, and 16, we find that Christ has been through this. He has led the way. He is the captain who has gone through. You see, it wasn't Moses who led the people through the Red Sea and through the wilderness. It was the Lord who did it. And it wasn't Joshua who led them in. It was the Lord who led them in. And in Hebrews 4, verse 14, it says, Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted, tested, tried, like as we are, yet without sin. in every point of your life, everything that Satan has thrown at you, that the world and the flesh has put before you to get you to turn or to walk away or to just turn just a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right hand, to go away from doing what God's Word says. And the same thing in my life, Christ already dealt with it. Only He did it without sin. Isn't that marvelous? I don't know how He did it. I bet He prayed a lot. I bet He prayed a lot more than I do. But think about that. All the sins that you did not yield unto temptation and all the sins that you did yield unto temptation, Christ has already tasted all of that temptation. And if you did succumb to temptation, we have an advocate with the Father, don't we? We have an advocate. And His blood cleanseth us from all unrighteousness. No, it says here, that was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. And so this Christ, these here who were cruelly murdered. And that's exactly what it is. It's murder. And again, Paul reiterated that. The things that had happened to him, he said they were for the falling out of the Gospel. You remember Joseph? What his brothers did to him? This is a constant lesson in our home. To the point that whenever the kids mistreat another one and they'll come crying to me, I always say, well, do you want me to sell your brother or sister to the Israelites? No, no, we don't. But they hated Joseph with a passion because of the favor that his father had bestowed upon him. And they took him and in their hearts they murdered him. And then they sold him. And then he was there in Potiphar's house. God had raised him up and I'm sure he was just content right there, fine, in Potiphar's house. And you know what? Potiphar's wife did a horrible thing and she lied about it. So Potiphar put him into prison. And then he interprets the dreams of the butler and the baker. And then the one, he's freed and he goes into Pharaoh's house and he forgets all about Joseph. And then Pharaoh has a dream but he can't remember any of it. And the butler says, hey, there's a guy in prison I remember about. And they call for Joseph and he interprets a dream. And Pharaoh says, you're gonna be second in charge. In fact, you're gonna be number one in charge, except for in the throne, that's it. I am committing everything into your hands. And God sees fit to send Joseph's, or Jacob sends, the Lord puts it on Jacob's heart to send Joseph's brothers into Egypt. And they go down there and Joseph recognizes them. And Joseph does some things, and he reveals himself later on to his brothers, and they send for Jacob, and Jacob comes, and then Jacob dies. And they say, oh, Joseph is going to have vengeance on us. Remember what Joseph said? Am I in the place of God? He says, now you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And so maybe, as Paul said, that the things that have happened to me, or the things that have happened to you, or the things that have happened to this church, have fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel. There Paul was, preaching. and those executioners came to crucify him, or to kill him, not crucify him, but to kill him, and they came and they heard him preaching, and they said, will you pray for us that we might believe? And they went and they still executed him, and then later on it said that they were saved and they were baptized outside of Sepulchre. They're saying, well, how could God do such a thing? People don't understand that for you and I, It is far greater to be with Christ. And many children of God forget that it is far greater to be with Christ. Paul said, I'm in a strait betwixt. To go depart and to be with Christ and to be here with you, it's better for you that I remain. But my desire is to be with Christ. The Bible says of Jesus in Acts 2 and verse 23 that they took Him and by wicked hands they crucified and slain Him. We are told in Isaiah 53 verses 10 and 11 that it pleased the Father to bruise Him. In John 8 and verse 29 that He did always those things that pleased the Father. please the Father to bruise Him. Well, if it pleased the Father to bruise His Son, if it pleased the Father to bruise the Master, and I am but the servant, and the servant is not greater than his Lord or Master, does it not stand to reason that it might please the Father to bruise me too? And maybe not all the way to death. Maybe I will be like that piece of fruit that has a bruise on several sides, but is still edible. And not one that has been crushed completely and is unedible. You see, this is all in the hands of God. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 18. Jeremiah chapter 18. And let's read here in verse 1, and you know, this is a Scripture that is often misapplied, or only applied in one case, but it is true in many cases, and that is that God is the potter and we are the clay. And that Scripture and that teaching, Paul used it and likened it as far as salvation, but here in the Old Testament, God dealt with His people, Israel. God is not just the potter who has power over the clay as far as choosing this one to salvation and not choosing this one unto salvation. He is the potter who has power over the clay to make this a vessel of honor and then to take that vessel of honor that He has saved by His mercy and His grace and to fashion it and to mar it and to wound it as He sees fit until it looks like His Son. In Jeremiah 18 verse 1 it says, The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he brought a work on the wheels. Verse 4, And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again. Another vessel it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, Did you see that? He's not talking to lost sinners. He's talking to the house of Israel, His people. "...cannot I do with you as this potter? Sayeth the Lord, Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O house of Israel." Didn't Jesus tell us that we are in His Father's hand and no man can pluck us out of His Father's hand? Well, I'm in your hand, Lord, so that means right here in Jeremiah 18.6, you can do with me just like that potter did to the clay. See, it's a vessel of mercy, and then after the vessel of mercy, there's a vessel of honor and a vessel of dishonor. And Lord, you can make me. as you see fit. You've already created me anew and made me a vessel of mercy, or I was before the foundation of the world, but you created me anew and now you are continuously fashioning me on your potter's wheel. We need to remember these things. as we walk in this life. Now let's turn to Hebrews 11. Let's look at the text. That was the introduction. The body of the message is much shorter than the introduction. Don't worry. These are all sorts of deaths. We're prepared for them. The Lord knew all about it. just as he knew about Calvary. The Bible says that Calvary was, according to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, that was the divine perspective, and then you have the human perspective, that they with wicked hands crucified and slain the Lord of glory. So, yes, God predetermined it, and yes, man murdered Him. You say, well, if God determined it, then man's not accountable. Not so. Not so. We find here in Hebrews 11 verse 37, they were stoned, they were sawed asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword. They too were delivered by God's determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. They were with wicked hands, were slain and crucified, and by faith they walked with a firm resolve to do as their Savior commanded them. Their enemies coiled death and all the array of cruelty and terror, and yet boldly they met it and endured it by faith, knowing that death had been swallowed up in victory by their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I'm going to give you some references. First, let's turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 24. 2 Chronicles chapter 24. Here we find an individual by the name of Zachariah who was stoned. He was a priest in the Old Testament. And he rebuked God's people. They were in open sin and in open rebellion and he rebuked them for it and told them why the things that were going on were happening and they stoned him for it. And I imagine that pretty much the same thing would happen today, to a degree. No one likes being rebuked. I don't like it, you don't like it, nobody likes it. But we have to remember that it's God who's doing the rebuking, not the priest or the prophet or the preacher or the pastor or the Sunday school teacher or the mom or the dad or the brother or sister in Christ or the church member. It is the Lord. It is the Lord. That's part of His work. And in verse 20 it says, And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest. So, we know it was the Lord because the Spirit of God came upon Him. which stood above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God, why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it and require it. Isn't that something? Here is the king, and Zechariah's dad had done Jehoiada, I'm sorry, Joash. Jehoiada is the priest, and we have here Joash the king, and Jehoiada had done great kindness unto him. Jehoiada, he's off the scene now, and his son Zechariah comes on the scene, and the people of God are in sin, and the Spirit of God comes upon him just like Jehoiada before him. And he preaches unto the people, he says, listen, the reason we can't prosper is because we're not doing what God's Word says, we've forsaken Him. And one might think, well, Joash, listen to my dad. Well, guess what, Zechariah, he ain't listening to you. And He commanded him to be stoned. And he was so far into sin that he said, yeah, the Lord will look on this and He'll require it. Almost flippantly. Just, I don't care, God can do whatever He wants. You've got to be pretty far into sin to act that way and have that attitude. And you have to be pretty far in ascent to touch one of God's anointed, period, but especially in this fashion. There were those who were sawn asunder. It's common knowledge the prophet Isaiah was sawn and sundered by the command of Manasseh. You look up in Josephus, Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian. And during the time period in which Isaiah was a prophet, this is recorded that Manasseh barbarously slew all the righteous men that were among the Hebrews, nor would he spare the prophets, for every day slew some of them till Jerusalem was overflown with blood." You know, Isaiah wrote a little bit about when Christ would come and the blood would be up to the horse's bridle. Well, there was a little preview of that. in his time. And this saw in asunder was either a decapitation or it would be from the groin up, they would cut them just literally in half. These are cruel deaths. It's said that Isaiah, according to historians, he was sawed with a wood saw. Not a saw made out of wood, but one to cut wood. And he was sawed in half with it. And there are pictures from medieval times in the dark ages before then where they would torture people in that fashion. Yet Christ endured a far crueler death than that he was cursed of God. The Bible says that they were tempted. Some say it means burnt. Other renderings are assayed or examined by cruel and torturous deaths. When they examined someone, remember Christ? He was examined by scourging, wasn't He? So they would beat them to death. It is said that Timothy, the well-known minister of God in the New Testament, and I realize that this is referring back to the Old Testament, but Timothy was beaten so badly, there was a false worship procession going down the street, and he went out to meet them and to preach Christ and rebuke them of their sins, and they beat him with clubs so badly that two days later he died. Can you imagine if one of these Easter or Ishtar or Saturnalia Christmas festivals and they had a parade and we went out there and we began to preach Christ. And to warn them to flee from the wrath of God and to flee idolatry. And they began to beat us and two days later we expired. That is what happened to Timothy. That's it. Turn over if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 22. 1 Samuel chapter 22. There are several examples of being killed with a sword. I'm not going to note them all. You can take your concordance and look up sword and find them. But here in 1 Samuel chapter 22, a priest of God is killed by King Saul. King Saul. The first king of Israel. orders a priest of God to be killed. You know why? Because he prayed to God when David asked him to. Isn't that something? Wait a minute! Because we've already studied how that in Daniel, Daniel got cast into a den of lions for praying to God when he was told not to, and God delivered him, but He didn't deliver Himalak, It's entirely up to the Lord what He does. That's the resolve we have to say and have in our hearts and in our minds and our beings that God, I'm going to leave all the results up to you. I'm going to faithfully serve you. Give me grace to do it. And if you see fit to deliver me from the sword or deliver me from the den of lions or deliver me from persecution or cruel mockings or whatever that there is, Or if you don't, so be it. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That has to be the result. Because we are in perilous times, and we are dealing with weak-kneed children of God at best, people who are unfaithful at best. We're dealing with those who are wishy-washy, who are non-committal about the Word of God. The Scriptures tell us here in 1 Samuel 22, I'm not going to read all of it. But I'd like you to notice here in verse 14. Well, verse 13, And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread and a sword, and hast inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me to lie in wait, as at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honorable in thine house? So Saul says, why did you give him a sword? And why did you pray for him? And you gave him bread? Or why did you inquire of God for him? And Ahimelech says, he's your most faithful servant. Why wouldn't I do it? And Saul's notice continues in verse 15. Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me. Let not the king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father. For thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. He says, I didn't know you were trying to kill him. I did the duty of a priest. Your faithful servant came to me, and I gave him bread, and I gave him a sword, and I prayed for him. And you know that sword? It was Goliath's sword that David had won in victory. So it really was David's, wasn't it? And then in verse 16, And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy father's house. And remember that, because God had other plans. And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn and slay the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew, and he fled and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. They knew better. But in the next verse, and the king said to Doag, Turn thou and fall upon the priests. And Doag, the Edomites, remember the Edomites? Those are the descendants of Esau. He turned and he fell upon the priests and slew on that day four score and five persons that did wear the linen ephod. Last time I checked, the score was twenty, so that's eighty-five people he killed one day. Eighty-five priests of God. Can you imagine that? Eighty-five people slain because they prayed unto God. One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. I told you God had other plans, didn't He? Saul said, I'm going to kill your whole house, but here it says one of them escaped. And Abba Athar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priest, and David said unto Abba Athar, I knew it. That day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me, fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me thou shalt be in safeguard. You know what David just told him? He said, those who seek your life seek Mine. You know what David is a type here of? The Lord Jesus Christ. He says, those who seek your life are really after Me. You come and abide with Me and I will safeguard you. Oh, and He does safeguard us, doesn't He? even if He sees fit that we should be slain with a sword, or sawn asunder, or tempted, or stoned to death. He safeguards us. And He carries us through that. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me. You see, death is but a shadow for you and I who are saved. Because Christ has borne the reality of it. So in closing, it is our duty who have been saved by grace through faith, not of works which we have done. It is our duty and responsibility because we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to walk in those good works by faith that He has ordained for us to walk in. And it is God to have that end, the end of that walk, be whatever He sees fit, whether it's a natural death, whether it's one of these martyrdom deaths. The secret things belong unto the Lord, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children to observe and to do and to keep. Deuteronomy 29.29. And that last quote there was my version of it. Not the King's English. We have to not worry about the end. Because when we're worried about what will happen if I serve God, He'll be glorified, and that's what we desire. Well, if I serve God, maybe this will happen, or maybe this will happen, or maybe that will happen, and maybe none of that will happen. Maybe none of that that you conjure up or I conjure up will happen. Maybe God will be glorified. In fact, I know He will. Isn't that why we're here? Isn't that what it says on our church sign outside in Ephesians 3.21? Let him be glory in the church through Christ Jesus, world without end. Amen? That's right. Isn't that the purpose of our existence and our new creation is to glorify God? And if God sees fit to glorify me with a hundred plus years on this earth, so be it. Or if He sees fit to cut me down in the prime of my life, which I think has already passed, so be it. As long as He's glorified.