[0:00] The book of 2 Samuel, going into the book of 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 1, 2 Samuel chapter 1 is where we will be at this evening as we are making our way through the scripture, honestly, just through the Bible. And it's exciting to me every time we turn the page and we get into a new book because that's just a journey in which we're going through. We started seven years ago now, Genesis 1-1 on Sunday nights. And we then over after a few years, we expanded that to Sunday night and Wednesday nights where we're just making our way through scripture. We started out together with one another, just doing it every Sunday night. And now that's Sunday night and Wednesday night, we just kind of keep everything streamlined. Honestly, I don't mind full transparency here.
[0:48] The reason we do that is for my mind's sake, right? It was just, it's difficult to preach three standalone messages every week, but it was really difficult for me to be preaching through the Old Testament here, through a book here, and then just have what they call a topical sermon because I'm not very topically minded anymore. So just for the sake of consistency, we decided to do it that way.
[1:13] Well, I say we, the Lord and I in the office made that decision because that helped us. I caught myself and I know I was wearing myself out, but I also knew that I was wearing the church out.
[1:25] And I look back on it and I have to offer apologies. There were times we were preaching through three different books every week. So on Sunday mornings, I might've been preaching through Romans. On Sunday nights, I was preaching through whatever book we were in the Old Testament. And then I know at one point we were preaching through the book of Psalms on Wednesdays, which is just a lot to absorb and we need to be students of the word, but we also really, I wanted to be focused on where we were at.
[1:52] So I get excited every time we get into a new portion of scripture because I have these files in the filing cabinet in my office. Every book of the Bible is in it. And that's something I learned from Adrian Rogers. He told pastors, yes, I don't keep digital files. I still keep paper files. I know you can say what you want to. My cloud is full, but my filing cabinet's not. Okay. I don't know what that means, but my filing cabinet, I can still put pieces of paper in there. And so I have all these files sitting in there and I'm excited when I can open up one, like I haven't preached but two or three sermons out of this entire book, because I know by the time we get done, we would have made our way all the way through it. Second Samuel is one of those. I can pull out in 17 years of ministry.
[2:37] I've probably only preached about four sermons out of second Samuel, standalone sermons. I've alluded to it, but just, I think there was four sermons in there in 17 years of ministry. So I'm very excited just to have this opportunity. It is just by way of introduction in the Hebrew text, first and second Samuel, one book. Okay. So it's just the writing of Samuel. It continues the theme very much so from first Samuel. So the theme is no different. Really. It's just that God is honoring and exalting the people who honor and exalt him. We see that running throughout first Samuel. We see it in particular with the comparison of individuals. If you remember, we have the comparison of Eli and Samuel. I'm reading again. Some of you are too, in your daily reading the early pages of first Samuel.
[3:27] And I find it amazing that you have a priest, you have a priest with sons and they're all serving, but then the word of God tells us in those days, the word of God was rare. No one was hearing a word from the Lord. And then young Samuel comes in, right? And Samuel hears a word from God and God affirms that word and brings it about. And it says, and the word of God returned once again to the people of God because God was speaking to Samuel. So you have this comparison between Samuel and Eli.
[3:51] And then we go on. We have the comparison between the king, the people want it and the king, God want it. You have King Saul and David. We see even in David and Goliath, it's not really a comparison between David and Goliath because we know that good will always conquer evil. So you cannot compare David and Goliath. But the comparison we see is that Saul is shaking and trembling and knowing not what to do. David walks up delivering provisions and he knows exactly what to do, right? He understands this is comparison. He's trusting in the Lord. Saul was trusting in his army. There's this comparison, which just resonates throughout that. David becomes the anointed. And yet we enter into a 10 year wilderness period, if you will, that goes throughout that.
[4:33] We see at the end of first Samuel, that wilderness period comes to an end just as David had assumed it would. And just as God had declared it would, God declared to Saul that he and his sons would die on the battlefield the same day. Those things come about as they're fighting the Philistines at Mount Goboa. And that's where we kind of transition into second Samuel. Second Samuel doesn't focus so much on the kingdom and the monarchy and the rule because we know who God's anointed king is.
[5:02] It is here that we begin to see not only that God anointed David, he was going to use him, he's going to bless him. And as some say, it's almost like a mountain peak, right? That as long as David's walking faithfully, faithfully, faithfully, God's blessing. Then there comes this one point. We all know what it is, this one point where David just disobeys. And the trajectory of his life from that point on is downward. We see the turmoil of the home. We see the disruption of all the kingdom. We see all those things that go on, right? We see all these problems that arise, but that is at one point, it's so discouraging, but it's also encouraging because we're not looking for a perfect man.
[5:46] We're looking for the one that's pointing to the perfect man and the perfect man that we will find is Jesus Christ. It would be so easy to open up scripture and find God's anointed and see them fail and say, see, this is why I can't follow him. But what we see is the faithfulness of God to his purposes, his plans. And we see that God is true to his word. The Davidic covenant that we find that is entered into here, that God enters into a covenant with David, the Davidic covenant, right?
[6:13] It is the seed. We're chasing a seed all throughout scripture. And I know this is a long introduction, but it bears repeating. We're chasing a seed all through scripture. We're looking for that seed. We're not looking for seeds, plural. We're looking for seed, singular, which will be the offspring.
[6:29] And we're mentioning that seed is mentioned the first time in Genesis three, this, what they call the proto evangelium, the first mention of the evangelism, the good news, right? It is that the seed of a woman would crush the head of the serpent and the serpent will bruise his heel. That's a proto evangelium.
[6:44] That's the first mention, the seed, singular of a woman. God never says that man would crush the head of the serpent. He says, a man will crush the head of a serpent. You're not going to crush the head of a serpent on your own. You're not going to do it because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. But you on your own are not greater than he that is in the world. This is our desperate need, right? We need the seed of a woman to crush the head of the serpent. And then we keep going on and we read the Abrahamic covenant, right? And so there's the Adamic covenant. You get to the covenant of Abraham and he says, in your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So many people misinterpret that and misread that. And they think that Israel, the nation of Israel will be a blessing to the nations and they are. But the promise was that the seed of Abraham would bless the nations.
[7:37] That seed is Jesus Christ. And we just keep going on. We keep going on. We get to the covenant made with David and the promise made to David is that there will not fail to be a seed of David setting upon the throne and that the seed of David would build the temple. I know we get into confusion here and I know some people, I'm not going to tell you that this is a big rock issue. This definitely is not a big rock issue with me. And if it wasn't Sunday night, I wouldn't even mention it because if we were filming, I didn't want anybody really to blast me on my filming, but when we start getting into the building of the temple, Solomon builds the temple, right? We're looking at things. We're going to really have to dig into this fact in second Samuel. I know God allows it and I know God provides for it.
[8:22] But when God made the promise to David that the seed of David would build the temple, the greater temple we're looking for is a temple that's made not with hands. It is the church that's built through Jesus Christ. It's not saying that it was sinful to build a temple, but if you look at the nation of Israel, when they took God out of the tabernacle and they put him in a temple, they put God in a permanent place, the nation began to rebel because we're always not looking. We're not looking at the present, what's happening presently in front of us, right? We're looking at what it's pointing to, who it's pointing to, and it's pointing to Jesus Christ. And we see all these things laid out for us in scripture. And we have to get to what we see in second Samuel chapter one before we can really see these things being fulfilled. And that is a new era dawning, a new era dawning in second Samuel chapter one. I'll read the entire chapter to you. And again, this is just a continuation of the 31st chapter of first Samuel, but really kind of brings it to a close, right? The account of Saul to a close.
[9:27] Now it came about after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites. Now this is what's amazing. If we do the math, if we do the days and start counting days back, when David went to fight the Amalekites, first Samuel chapter 30, he was three days from Ziklag, right? Ziklag is the city that they were in. He had a three-day journey. He encountered the Amalekites.
[9:47] We find that this man comes to David, we'll see him in just a minute, three days after he gets back. So anyway, so on the third day, if we do the math, David was winning his battle the same moment that Saul was losing his. Okay? It's just kind of pretty amazing when you start seeing things in the economy of God. Now it came about after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, that David remained two days in Ziklag. And on the third day, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn and dust on his head. And it came about when he came to David that he fell to the ground and prostrated himself. Then David said to him, from where do you come? And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel. David said to them, how did things go? Please tell me. And he said, the people have fled from the battle and also many of the people have fallen and are dead. And Saul and Jonathan, his son, are dead also. So David said to the young man who told him, how do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? The young man who told him said, by chance, I happened to be on Mount Geboa. And behold, Saul was leaning on his spear. And behold, the chariots and the horsemen pursued him closely. When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me.
[10:59] And I said, here I am. He said to me, who are you? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. Then he said to him, please stand beside me and kill me for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me. So I stood beside him and killed him because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet which was on his arm. And I have brought them here to my Lord. Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them. And so also did all the men who were with him. They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of the Lord and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
[11:39] David said to the young man who told him, where are you from? And he answered, I am the son of an alien and Amalekite. Then David said to him, how is it? You are not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed. And David called one of the young men and said, go cut him down. And he struck him and he died. And David said to him, your blood is on your head for your mouth has testified against you saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed. Then David chanted with this lament over Saul and Jonathan, his son. And he told them to teach, to teach the sons of Judah, the song of the bowl.
[12:11] Behold, it is written in the book of Jashar. Your beauty, O Israel is slain on your high places, how they have, how the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice and the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult. O mountains of Geboa, let not dew or rain be on you nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty has defiled or was defiled and the shield of Saul not anointed with oil.
[12:38] For the blood of the slain from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back and the sword of Saul did not return empty. Saul and Jonathan beloved and pleasant in their life and in their death. They were not parted. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? Jonathan is slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of a woman or love of women. How have the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished? 2 Samuel chapter 1, a new era dawning. The last part of that lament unfortunately has been used by many people to twist and distort the relationship that David and Jonathan shared. It was in no way an inappropriate relationship between two men. It was not something that would be inappropriate in all of scripture, but rather what David was referring to the fact that the kinship in which he had with Jonathan as a brother, not only were they brothers by marriage, but they were brothers in covenant. They'd entered into a covenant with one another. The concern and the kinship that they had was better than any wife he would ever have. It was better than any individual who could have ever loved him, and it was a wholesome brotherly love which he referred to. We need to say that on the first part. But we see a new era dawning. Just three things I want you to see in this passage by way of kind of transitioning out of the kingdom of Saul and into the kingdom of David. Now we know that one of
[14:13] Saul's sons will reign for a short time when David reigns in Hebron, and he is there reigning over the sons of Judah before he is eventually made king of all of the nation of Israel. But it is yet a transitional period. The first thing we see is a temptation of self-promotion. A temptation of self-promotion. It says, now it came about after the death of Saul. Saul has lost his battle while David was winning his. And it tells us that when David gets to Ziklag, on the third day there comes a man coming to him with his clothes torn. He is filthy and dirty, and he's in ragged apparel. And he comes up to David, and David asks him where he comes from. Now it does not escape my notice that this man is an Amalekite. And David has just defeated the Amalekites. And by the way, the Amalekites were the declared enemies of the people of God. So David's actions against the Amalekites were not inappropriate.
[15:08] They were appropriate because the whole reason for the continuation of the Amalekites was the fact that Saul had refused to fully obey the Lord God and had not rid the people of their enemies. This was God's judgment upon the Amalekites for the sins of the nation. This man and David's actions towards this man are not sinful because God is using David as an instrument of judgment. And we will see it in just a moment. But this man comes in and he runs up to David and he falls at his feet and he prostrates himself, which should all of a sudden catch our attention because he is doing homage to David as if he is king. David is the Lord's anointed and appointed, but he is not sitting upon the throne yet. And he falls before him and he bears what he thinks is good news. And he comes to him and David asks, how does it go with the nation of Israel? He says, well, I've just left the camp. The men have fled. Many have fallen. Saul and his son, Jonathan, he does not refer to the other two sons who died in the battle because Jonathan would have been the only one of greater interest to David. Saul and his son, Jonathan, have both died. And David asked a question, says, how do you know this for sure? Now we need to pay attention here because we have two other accounts of the death of Saul. We have two other accounts, one recorded that we just read, 1 Samuel 31. Again, in the Hebrew scripture, this would have been just the turning of the page, if you will. This would have been the very next chapter. And so we see in 1 Samuel 31, the record of Saul's death. We have it recorded for us again in 1 Chronicles chapter 10. And in both of those chapters, the record we have is that Saul is mortally wounded. And when he is mortally wounded, he realized he's going to be captured by the Philistines. And he turns to his armor bearer and he asked his armor bearer to put him out of his misery. And his armor bearer refuses to do it.
[17:00] So Saul falls upon his own spear. He takes his own life. That is told us twice in scripture. The only thing that we have that says otherwise is here, this one man. And this one man tells a totally different story. So that scripture may be true, we have to come to the conclusion that this man is telling an out and out lie trying to win the favor of the now new king, David. He is on a great task of self-promotion. Because if you know that Saul has waged war with David for 10 years, and if you know that Saul has tried to kill David at least twice and pursued him a number of other times for 10 years, and if you know that David is also the anointed one from Samuel, and if you know that God has chosen David to be king, and many people did, if you remember that throughout the land, it was common knowledge, then don't you think it would be good news to show up and tell David that his bitter enemy has now fallen, and David, you sit on the throne. More than likely, this individual, because he brings proof, he brings a bracelet, and he brings a head covering. More than likely, what we have here is what we call a camp follower of the armies. After the battle was fought, he would go into the battlefield, and he would raid and plunder and try to make himself rich. And as he walked around the camp, all of a sudden, he stumbled upon a king. And stumbling upon a king, he plundered the body of the king, which, by the way, is defilement of the body in Jewish territory. He came upon the body of the king, and he took some of the belongings of the king, and he said, I know what I'll do. I'll have me a good position in the land of Israel for many years ahead. I know what I'll do. I'll go to David. Now, he's an Amalekite, and he knows where David is, because David's living in the land of the Amalekites.
[18:54] So he goes straightway to Ziklag, and he brings what he thinks is good news. And the good news is that your enemy is dead. But he could not, he could not reckon on what took place following that.
[19:12] Because, see, we tread on dangerous ground any time we come to a place of self-promotion. This man was seeking a position for himself. God had not appointed him. God had not anointed him.
[19:26] God had not declared him to do these things. He was tempted by self-promotion. And David looks around, tells the young man to fall upon him. And this man dies in his ambition of trying to gain a position for himself. And David makes this declaration, your blood be upon your own head, because by the words of your own mouth, you have testified to the reality that you have killed the Lord's anointed. You say, but he didn't do it. Well, you and I know that because we've read the story.
[20:01] We've read the account. We've seen the historical record of it. David wasn't there. David based his actions upon this man's testimony. And he testified to killing the Lord's anointed.
[20:14] And the whole reason he did it, the whole reason he would fabricate such a story, was because he was hoping to attain a position among the rulership of David's reign.
[20:25] Friend, listen to me. Anytime we try to pry our way into a position of self-promotion, there's always judgment that follows. So we see the temptation of self-promotion.
[20:38] The second thing we see is a testimony of a clear conscience. We leave that man behind, this alien who lived among the people of God, the Amalekites, who dwelt close enough to the people of God to know what God was doing.
[20:53] And he dwelt close enough to the people of God to know he wanted to have a greater part in it. We refer to him in the Exodus event as the mixed multitude. The mixed multitude always causes trouble.
[21:05] This man was a mixed multitude, right? I'm not saying mixed races. I'm saying he was a mixed multitude. You're either all the way in or you're all the way out. This man just wanted a self-promotion. And now we go to David and we see the testimony of a clear conscience.
[21:19] Because David has been in the wilderness 10 years. For 10 years, he's been on the run. For 10 years, he's lived in caves. He's lived in fields. He's moved from city to city.
[21:30] For 10 years, he's been pursued. For 10 years, he's been falsely accused. For 10 years, he has been declared to be the enemy of the nation of Israel. To be the enemy of Saul.
[21:41] For 10 years, he's been declared to be a rebel. He's been declared to be one who had murderous thoughts towards Saul. He's been declared to be the enemy of the people of God.
[21:51] For 10 years, these things have come against him. He knows what God has called him to do. He's had the opportunity twice to kill Saul, but has spared his life. For 10 years, he's been on the run.
[22:02] And the day finally comes when word is brought to him that Saul is dead. Now, I want to ask you. What would you do?
[22:15] That's what I ask myself. What if for 10 years, I had been wrongly accused? For 10 years, I had been wrongfully pursued.
[22:26] For 10 years, I lived in the fear of my own life. I've just seen my hometown, Ziklag. He shouldn't have been living there, but he was living there. Raised and burned with fire. Had to go fight a battle to get my children and my possession and my wife back.
[22:40] For 10 years, I've been everywhere but where I should have been. And all of a sudden, I hear that the very one who has hindered me from doing what God has called me to do is now dead. What would I do?
[22:52] Right. Right. But David rends his clothes. Puts dust on his head. And the Bible says that he mourns and he fasts.
[23:05] And all the men with him. See, the conscience of the individual is being revealed, not just in the difficult seasons, but in all seasons.
[23:21] Those that were with him, they mourn along with him. The Bible says he took hold of his clothes and he tore them and also did all the men who were with him. They mourned and they wept and they fasted.
[23:33] These are genuine demonstrations of grief. And they did it until evening because that's when the fast was to stop. So all day long, they didn't even deal with the man who brought them the news.
[23:44] They didn't do that until they had genuine demonstrations of grief. You say, well, sure, because his friend Jonathan has died. We'll get to that in just a moment here when we see the lament hymn that he composes there.
[23:59] But what I want you to notice is rather than rejoicing, he mourns. Why?
[24:10] Because this is the Lord's anointed. The anointing of God is more important than the position of man. He mourns for the death of Saul.
[24:22] He mourns for the death of Jonathan. He mourns, it says, for the people of Israel. He knows what this is causing them. He knows the distress of the fact that, yes, this man was my enemy.
[24:34] But look at the harm that is done to the nation. Now the Philistines will rejoice. Now the false gods will be exalted. Now the people of Israel will look belittled in the sight of their enemies.
[24:45] He has genuine grief over the reality that these events have taken place. This is a testimony of a clear conscience. Because if he had been harboring thoughts, if he had been harboring thoughts of taking his own vengeance, if he had been harboring thoughts of, oh, God, if only I could ever, if he had any of those things, it's one thing to harbor them and suppress them.
[25:08] It's a whole other thing to never have them. Here we begin to see the testimony of a man clearly, a man after God's own heart. Sure, he will fail. But the Bible tells us that God does not rejoice in the death of any man, not even the wicked, right?
[25:25] That God doesn't rejoice in the death of the wicked. As a matter of fact, the only place in Scripture that we find God rejoicing over the death of individuals is when he calls his people home.
[25:39] That he rejoices over the death of the saints who have called into his presence. And here we see David doing the same thing. Do we want to know, was he really honest when he was sparing the life of Saul, or was he just putting on a good show?
[25:55] Do we want to know, was this a genuine demonstration of concern, or a genuine commitment to the Lord's anointed, we know it when these things transpire, and David hears the reality that Saul and Jonathan are dead.
[26:06] Every hindrance, every obstacle has now been removed, and the very first thing that he does is grieve, and fast, and mourn, and weep. Because, see, the anointing of God is so much more important than the position of man.
[26:22] It is the testimony of a clear conscience. David stops. He doesn't rejoice. He doesn't rejoice. He doesn't celebrate.
[26:32] He doesn't even handle the issue of the man in front of him until he takes his time to properly grieve. Oh, we ought to learn that lesson, right? To have the conscience so clear that we would literally grieve over the death of our enemies.
[26:48] That our hearts would be so moved and so broken over those who oppose us, those who seek to displace us, those who seek to speak so evil of us, those who falsely accuse us.
[26:58] Oh, I have a long way to go. I'll just be honest with you. That my heart would be moved with compassion over their death. That we would have such a concern for the eternal sake of the people of God, and such a concern for the eternal sake of the people that we interact with, that there would be a clear conscience.
[27:18] We see it exhibited in the New Testament where Paul says, I am innocent of all men's blood, for I have not failed to declare or proclaim the gospel. What an amazing thing, right?
[27:33] I always said that Paul, and I cannot say that it's original to me, and I cannot declare to you where I read it from because I've said it so many years ago, that Paul was such a strange individual.
[27:45] You couldn't do anything with him. If you let him live, he proclaimed the gospel. If you killed him, he said for me to die is gain. I'll be in the presence of Christ. If you beat him, he blessed you. If you mocked him, he prayed for you.
[27:59] They didn't know what to do with Paul. Why? Because he was a man of clear conscience. I'm innocent of all men's blood. We see here this testimony.
[28:11] The great testimony is in his natural reaction to the word he heard, not a fabrication in front of a public audience. But this leads us to the third and final thing, and it is the tribute of God's anointed.
[28:27] The tribute offered to God's anointed. David doesn't just mourn privately. He writes here a lament, a chant of lament.
[28:39] Lament is to mourn and to grieve over. And he writes this chant, not just for his personal benefit, but he declares that it should be taught to the people of Judah. That it is written in a book, a non-biblical book of Jeshur.
[28:54] We see that alluded to in other places in the Old Testament where laments and historical records were written. And it's kind of the record of God's people throughout history. And he wants this there.
[29:05] He wants to compose this lament. And I notice when I read this, we don't have to reread it, but it's astounding to me.
[29:16] Again, he is speaking about Saul and Jonathan. Saul has tried to pierce him through with a spear. Saul has taken thousands of men and pursued him across the wilderness.
[29:29] Saul has hunted him down like a dog. Saul has declared that he is his enemy. Saul has commissioned his killing. But these things have not transpired because of God's leading and God's guidance.
[29:43] But when Saul dies, David chants this lament and he pens it so that others may sing it too. He sets it to the bowl. He sets it to an instrumental music.
[29:54] He sets it to a tune that they can sing it and that they can memorize it. And it's the lasting record he wants of Saul and Jonathan. This is something that is very traditional among the nation of Israel.
[30:06] Something that is traditional with the ancient people. And that is this lament would be how you would remember them. This lament would be how you recalled their actions. One thing he does not do is speak of the failures of Saul.
[30:22] He does not remind the people of God of Saul's failures. History has it recorded for us in scripture but David doesn't record it for us in this song.
[30:32] As a matter of fact, he lifts up and he magnifies the bravery and the strength and the victories of Saul. He reminds the women of Israel that it was Saul who clothed them luxuriously.
[30:46] That it was Saul who set gold upon their clothing. That it was Saul who gave them such a prominent place. Why? Because Saul was God's anointed. He does not defame him.
[30:59] Rather, he declares how God has used him. Now he doesn't stretch the truth. He doesn't say things that weren't so.
[31:10] But he is very intentional in his song. Because this is how he wants the people to remember. He refers to Saul and Jonathan standing together in the battlefield.
[31:22] Now, we know that Saul and Jonathan didn't always see eye to eye. Now, we know that Jonathan went behind his dad's back. He gave word to David that David may flee.
[31:33] And we know that David and Jonathan had a pact and agreement together and made a covenant. That covenant made Saul mad. And Saul said some choice words to him that he shouldn't have said to him. Called him the son of a harlot.
[31:43] You're no son of mine. We understand that Saul and Jonathan did not see eye to eye. But we also know that Jonathan went to battle with his dad. And we know that David is speaking to the reality that they stood together and they fought together and they were together in their life and they were together in their death.
[32:00] Why? Because he doesn't spend time on the negatives and the failures. But rather, he reminds you this was somebody that God used for a time. And listen to me.
[32:11] In our day and time, it's so easy to pick out the failures of everyone around us. It's so easy to magnify the failures and the shortcomings of people in our conversations.
[32:22] Sometimes the things we're teaching the people around us are what's so bad about people. Wouldn't it be good if we could teach the people around us what's so good about others? Nobody needs anybody to tell them how bad the church can be in their actions.
[32:36] We do a pretty good enough job of that on our own. But we need to remind the people around us how good we are. Right? Not because of who we are but because we're God's chosen.
[32:47] We're God's anointed. Say what we want to about Saul. I know he failed. But in this transitional time, this dawning of a new era, we again see the character of David. He is not just promoting himself.
[32:58] He will go to the sons of Judah. He will become their king. He will fulfill his God-given purposes. The plans of God will come about. But the one thing that he does that he wants to teach the people, the very people that will make him king is that what Saul did to you was good.
[33:14] Right? And it was good because he was the anointed of God. Friend, listen. We have the anointing in the blood of the Lamb.
[33:28] Whoever proclaims the name of Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. I'm not here to question people's salvation. I'm not here to judge people's salvation. I am here to call them to account because of their salvation.
[33:39] I will step on toes and I will call people to what I believe is genuine biblical Christianity. I don't want to make easy believism. I think we ought to be truthful with one another. We ought to encourage one another.
[33:51] We ought to admonish one another. Right? We ought to rebuke one another. Those are one another's in there too that we don't talk about. We ought to hold one another accountable. Those are all things that are there. It's right there along beside love one another.
[34:03] Right? But also know that if you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are covered with his anointed. And God is using you in a mighty way. God has a purpose and a plan for you to be here.
[34:14] You know how much greater it would be when the church would spend its time, its resources, and its energies proclaiming the excellencies of God's choosing rather than questioning God's choosing.
[34:27] David could have said, well, I'm glad he's out of the way. I'm really the one that should have been there. But he didn't. He taught the people this lament, this mourning song of grief to remind them that God did right when he chose Saul.
[34:46] Now, Saul wasn't the end game. Right? But God used him. He said, well, pastor, are you telling me that Saul's in heaven? No, I'm not saying that.
[34:58] We're not even talking about his eternal salvation. We can have that question at another time. I'm talking about his temporal usefulness, and God used him.
[35:10] God used him. And he used him for the good of his purposes. Don't get too carried away in that, because God used a bush, he used a donkey, and he used a rooster, too.
[35:24] For his purposes. But we ought to be thankful for the reality here that as the new era dawns, God has so positioned it to David.
[35:37] He will fail. Yes. He will mess up. Yes. There will be turmoil and confusion all around him. Yes. But we see the character of the man right at the beginning. We see him.
[35:49] Right? Remember Saul? He didn't even know where the prophet lived. And yet we have David. He is teaching the people to honor God's anointed.
[36:01] And we see it recorded for us in 2 Samuel 1. Let's pray. We'll be done. Lord, I thank you so much for this day. I thank you, oh God, for your word.
[36:14] And Lord, as you speak to us through the word, we understand. We see not just the character of man, but we see the character of God. So, Lord God, we ask that these attributes would be found in us. That we would not be those who are tempted to seek after self-promotion.
[36:29] Lord, that we would be content to your leading and your guiding. Lord, that we would not be those who cover up hidden grudges, but Lord, we would live with a clear conscience.
[36:44] Lord, that we would be those who honor those whom you use for your glory in spite of personal preferences. God, in short, help us to be people after your heart. Help us to be men and women after the heart of God to reflect the character of God among the people of God.
[37:01] Lord, we know that we have opportunities throughout the week. We have opportunities in our interactions with others. Lord, I pray that we walk in truth. We walk in love. Lord, that we would encourage the faith of the saints.
[37:12] We would challenge, Lord, those who proclaim you but live their lives opposite that declaration. Lord, help us to live it out in love and truth.
[37:23] Be with us as we get ready to leave here tonight. We pray that you would be glorified through our actions this week and honored in all that we say and all that we do and we ask it in Jesus' name.
[37:35] Amen. Thank you, God, so much. Amen.
[38:26] Amen. Amen.
[39:26] Amen. Amen.
[40:26] Amen.