Sometimes They're too dangerous to waste pity on. We're too busy scrambling to keep them from harming other loved ones. We're not feeding the tiger. If someone had stopped feeding Saul, you know, you read this, looking back at this, you see, boy, you know, in hindsight, if we just could have somehow. Gotten rid of this guy.
But God was using Saul To shake David. We can't complain, you can't challenge that, you have to accept it. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through 1 Samuel chapter 18. God's jealousy is not selfish. God's jealousy is on behalf of his people. He's protective of them.
Because when we think of jealousy, we always think of it in the negative, except when we become biblically literate. But a man who says, if I can't have you, no one can have you, that man is a monster, or a woman or anybody who thinks like that. Imagine, you know, you get a A car or something, and you find out you can't keep it, and you burn it up. If I can't have it, nobody's going to have it.
Well, if you're spiding the repo, man, that might be worth it. It would not. It would be a sin. Anyway. Saul is failing, David is succeeding, and Saul can't handle it.
And it says here in verse 8. And he said They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. That's all he heard. He blacked out after that. After he heard that, it's all remembered, nothing more about whatever they were singing, wearing, or doing.
All he could see was David, And this type of jealousy is born of being. Separated from God. The spirit of God departed from him, and an evil spirit began to dominate his life. The rhythm was ruined. It was that wicked brand of pride.
There is the pride that comes from satisfaction of a job well done. That's not an arrogant pride. That is not a I'm better than you. That pride is the evil pride. One that puts me over everyone else.
And uh This this brand of pride it took a cherub and made him the devil. starts out early in life. We see it now, we see it in little children. We see anger and wrath in little kids, little toddlers with their temper centers. It's cute, but it has to be dealt with.
It's uh The spurge said it's easier to step on a serpent's egg than the serpent. And it's true, nip it in the bud, we might say. He says, Now, what more can he have but the kingdom?
Well, because of his unchecked self-love. That harms again anything that dares to disagree with it. His soul pride, exalting himself above others.
Now, what more can he have but the kingdom?
Well, the kingdom is not yours. It was given to you, and you blew it. and you have served warnings about this repeatedly. But he felt entitled to the throne. And when you love yourself in excess, you feel entitled to everything.
You might say a person is a spoiled brat. They'll have to be a child to have that moniker tagged onto you. You can be 90 years old. I'd have never met a 90-year-old who's a spoiled brat. They just don't have the energy.
Yeah. Takes a lot of energy to be a spoiled brat. You gotta fuss at everything, you gotta make a list of things you don't like. and make everybody know it.
Well Saul, of course, siding against God. did not realize he's siding against God's champion. But it wouldn't matter if he did. Verse 9.
So Saul eyed David from that day forward. And there the drama music kicks in. The beginning of woes for David. I got my eye on him. And it's an evil eye.
Song of Solomon. CHAPTER eight. Love is as strong as death. Jealousy as cruel as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame.
You've ever been jealous of someone else, you know it's. It's not something I hope. It's something like, you know what? This is hurting me. I don't like this.
This is eating me up. I gotta stop being this way. I've got to learn to let things go. I'll live without it. I'll suffer without it.
It's better than being eaten from the inside by this gnawing rat. of jealousy, And uh It's it's not a I you know, I don't think any Christian should try to make anybody feel jealous, provoke them to jealousy. It it's not a virtue. David's reward for gallantry in the field of battle, for taking out the giant that no one else would take out. Was that people applauded him and now he's hated?
Proverbs 17, verse 15: he who justifies the wicked, listen to this. This is for those advocates of fools. He who justifies the wicked. And he who condemns the just Both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh. Abomination means you hate it.
That action is hated, and we need to serve the world notice because they don't have a cause.
So they invest themselves in man-made causes, and in so doing, They pass by the causes of God and they become advocates for sin. Even if it's a good thing, they could want to, you know, feed people that are hurting, and that's a good thing. But when it comes to point of blocking the gospel also, it can be a very bad thing. Paul experienced this. Um he preached And Elimus resisted the gospel, and Paul healed people there on the island.
And uh Yeah, he had to strike Elimus blind for a while for interfering with the gospel, he called him out. Didn't let it go unnoticed. Verse 10. And it happened on the next day. that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house.
So David played music with his hand, as at other times, but There was a spear in Saul's hand. Again, with the distressing spirit, from the man who now who once walked with God. and now turned his back On God. To the point of dark rebellion. It wasn't just, you know, I'm struggling with God, I'm upset.
This is, he was against God. And he's not. You know, just well, he's just drunk and he'll sober up. No, he's Drunk or not, he's like this all the time. It says he prophesied in the house.
Now that means he did singing. It was prophecy used in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. It was broad meanings you have to use the context to understand. David is here playing the harp, and And he's either singing The blues are country western. Because that's what you sing when you're down.
Vito yes. I don't know, is there a jolly country tune? I'm sure there is. I'm working nine to five to figure out what it is, but So David played music with his hand.
Okay, we gotta stop there. They're harping on this hand thing, as at other times. Oh, it's so cute. The operative word for this evening, cute, right? He played, why doesn't it say, and he played music with his harp?
That would have done it for everyone. I know. I am harping on this. Speaker. But there was a spear in Saul's hand.
What a contrast. One is singing songs of joy or ministering to the other one. The other one has got a weapon, and he's going to try to kill the music. David was really bad at playing the harp. And of course he was not.
Four times, four times we read about a spear in Saul's hand. Each time it's in relationship to David. What does that mean? Is it a symbol an emblem of his cowardice? of his hatred and paranoia.
Yeah, I think it is. We'll come across it in chapter 1. I'll give you the verses if you want to look it up later. Yeah. Um First Samuel nineteen nine twenty two six and twenty six eleven And at 2611, David steals the spear.
But he gives it back. Abishai wanted to give it back. You know, this just It's it's on my heart to give him the Spear through His heart. Verse 11, and Saul casts Now let me pause here.
Now I know I'm extremely funny. Sympathy laughs are not encouraged. It's hard though. We feel so sorry for you. If you just stopped telling jokes, we wouldn't have to do this.
Verse 11, and Saul cast a spear, for he said, I will pin David to the wall. But David escaped his presence. Twice Twice We gotta talk about this, David. This the spear in Saul's hand is not a coincidence. It's not a way you go.
I'm going to listen to some music. I'm bringing my spear with me. It's the wrong thing. You know, bring a tambourine. Or you know the Anything, little hand clickers.
Castinets or anything, but don't take a spear. If the musician is bad, you're the king, just tell him to leave. But don't throw it at him.
Well Uh of course, it's not a coincidence. He's seething with hatred. He's taking the spear 'cause he's like he's just I'm gonna kill that guy.
Someone evidently overheard him say, right when he was about to throw the spear, I'm going to pin him to the wall. Amen. stick the spear through him till he sticks to the wall. Kill him.
Now, David slew the giant Saul was afraid of. You think Saul would have said, you know, this guy might kill me back. But he's irrational. He's delusional. He is out of his mind.
And he does it twice. And David could have killed him. And David goes back. Why does David give him another shot? No, David, I'm out of here.
I don't care, king or not. Nobody's throwing a spear at me. I think it is because Word got around. We know David was brought into the palace to play music because Saul had this issue of depression, and everybody's thinking they're going to help him.
Some of them are pretending it's not there. Oh, come on. He wasn't really, you know. If he wanted to kill you, David, he would have killed you. Oh, he would have killed me if he could have killed me.
David, I think. believed he could help the madness of Saul, and he was wrong. What a lesson There are just some jobs that are too big for us. And what are the people, what are they thinking? Are they thinking, you know, that's they're excusing Saul?
How come somebody doesn't throw a net over this guy? Drag him out, lock him in a loony bin somewhere. Because he's getting away with it. Making people think that he's just, you know, I got this problem. I throw spears at people every now and then, but I come out of the blues.
Look, I'm going to give him my daughter to marry. Oh, that proves your saying. Anyway. Uh I have to say that there are some moody church growers. Who do this, they take a spear with them.
And they hurl their critical insults at others without justification, May it not be us? Whatever happened to Saul delighting in the smooth music, verse Samuel 16.
So David came to Saul and stood before him. We're going back now. And he loved him greatly, and he became his armour bearer. Yeah, because Saul was just soaking in the attention. And he didn't even know who David really was.
He's just, yeah, another servant. I love this guy. But it was all shallow. That's why when David goes out, he says to his general Abner, Who is this guy? Who's his father?
Well, we told you that. I mean, Abner couldn't say, We told you that. How did you forget? Because they knew how Saul was, and so they all just kicked into survival mode. We will Go along with Saul.
Instead of Dealing with him. And now he is fully homicidal. Just as Samuel pointed out to God, if Saul finds out I go to anoint David, he's going to kill me. God says, Look, you know, you're going to take a heifer with you anyway to do this, is take it and do it like you always do it. Violently paranoid, that gaze, that scorn, and when he saw David, the sight of David, he hated the sight of him, and that's what's happening here.
David's playing away, singing, Saul's singing a little bit, and then he starts working himself into darkness. He's looking at David, and the evil is just coming on to him. And as I mentioned, there are many that are blind to it, and there's no help. And if somebody had stepped forward early on, wouldn't have this mess in David's life, but no one did. How did they behave?
Later, years later, Many of them died on battlefields. Others Just out of the picture, and we'll get to that in Chronicles. Anyway, verse 12.
Now Saul was afraid of David because Yahweh was with him, but had departed from Saul. And I think everybody knew this. That's why the historian is writing this centuries later. He's saying, God wasn't with this guy anymore. Everybody knew this.
But they made excuses. Three times in this chapter alone, we're told that Saul was afraid of David. You know, the kind of fear when you're afraid of something, you want to kill it before, you know, I don't know what that is, kill it, kind of a thing. This is the fear. He knew what it was.
In verses 12, 15, and 29, we will have it said that he was afraid of David. He was terrorized of the light. That God was going to bless this man. And no longer him. Because God was not putting up with him.
He felt God was entitled, and God was supposed to bless him nonetheless. And when he found out the Lord wasn't doing that, He moved under the protection of another. It says because the Lord was with him, and that's what he resented. It says but the Saul departed from Saul. You know We pity somebody.
When they lose their sight, They lose a limb. If they lose loved ones, You lose a job? The house? What about when a person loses their God? I think we believers pity them.
I think we know that's the Main thing.
Sometimes They're too dangerous to waste pity on. We're too busy scrambling to keep them from harming other loved ones. We're not feeding the tiger. If someone had stopped feeding us all, you know, you read this, looking back at this, you see, boy, you know, in hindsight, if we just could have somehow. Gotten rid of this guy.
But God was using Saul To shape David. We can't complain, you can't challenge that. You have to accept it. Verse 13: Therefore, Saul removed him from his presence and made him his captain of a thousand. And he went out and Came in before the people.
So now he moves from being a company commander to a battalion commander. Is more men under his authority? Saul's motive is: I just need to get him out of my sight. The look of him sickens me. And so this is how he does it: bitter resentment.
and made him captain over thousands. Still, no wife is a reward. Remember, the father was going to be tax-exempt, Jesse, to the man that killed the giant, so the people said. And Saul would give Mirab his daughter.
Well, David is still unmarried. Saul has not delivered. Why? Because he's that manipulative. We're going to get to that next session.
Verse 14. David behaved wisely in all his ways, and Yahweh was with him. Of course, a parallel. Jesus increased, as said before, in wisdom and stature. Verse 15.
Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, He was afraid of him. as the second mention of this fear of righteousness. You i a rational person would say God is with this guy. I'm going to be with this guy. An irrational person that is self-absorbed.
Who knows how to sneak past people, make them like him. There are people that liked Saul because they couldn't see this. And they dismiss things. You know, Saul threw a spirit the the harp player last night? And of course, the obvious question: how bad was the music?
How bad does it have to be to get a king to throw a spear at you? But the reality is, they probably excused it away. He's just having a bad night. Uh again, if he wanted to kill him, he would have. No, he wanted to kill him, he just couldn't.
So while David is blameless. The people begin to see that God's blessings are on him, but they don't see enough yet. First Timothy Chapter 5, Paul says to Timothy about the church, the people in the church that Timothy's pastoring. He says, and these things command that they may be blameless. You know, a lot of Christians don't, you know, under grace.
We're under commandments, too. We're still under the ten commandments, with the exception of the Sabbath. And I mean, because it's never been just because Christ died for my sins, it doesn't mean I can go out and murder people or steal from people. We have commandments, and we ought to try to be blameless, be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Pursue these virtues of righteousness.
David's popularity increased. And that further enraged Saul. How does that work, right? In a kingdom that is supposed to be under Yahweh.
Well, you look at some things that take place in some churches and you just scratch your head. There can't be a church who does that. Verse 16. But all Israel and Judah loved David, and Because he went out and came in before them. And so there it is.
We started off with Jonathan loving David. And now all Israel and Judah love that. That means, you know, Saul's people and all the other tribes, Asher and Yeah. Dan, all the others, the people from those places, they loved him because character counts. Because it exerts influence.
So the preaching of the word is supposed to. Call out character on the listeners from the word. And it's supposed to Help us. The word is supposed to influence us. And then we're supposed to influence others.
Not directly, but just by being Blameless. That is a powerful influence. It is so powerful. That hell is completely devoted to getting us not to be blameless, to make us guilty. That's how important it is.
It is not a casual thing. What do I have to do to be loved?
Okay, well no, let's ask it this way. What do you have to do to really make people struggle to love you? Because good people are gonna try to love you. And some can't help it. They're going to love you anyway.
I would be more interested in knowing. What the Lord wants so that I can be blameless. That I can influence others in a good way. Um How do I influence others? You know, we say, What will people say of me when I die?
If I die. He's gone. Thought he'd never die. I would who would want that? Oh, your enemies, I mean, they're always going to have enemies of some sort.
If you're doing anything, you're going to make enemies. But I mean of the decent folks.
Well, in addition to Jonathan, Sane people had no problem loving this man, which is something, you know. It is something Jesus asked the disciples, who do men say that I am? And it was m much greater than When we ask, you know, what are people saying about us as a pastor? I really don't ask. I don't want, don't tell me unless it's good.
Don't worry, the Lord, when He wants me to hear something bad, He gets it to me. It's like, oh, great.
Now I gotta go work on that. Uh second Samuel chapter twenty three. These are three of the mighty men that love David. Mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem. that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David.
He said Jonathan wasn't the only one that loved him. This blameless, this influence that he had on others, this is years later. He's much older now. And yet these men are the king said, David said he wanted water from Bethlehem, his hometown. Let's go get it for him.
Who does that? The men who love David. Of King Hiram, who's the king of Tyre. And he built up Tyre. He was a very successful king.
truly a king. First Kings five for Hiram Had always loved David. I would like to be that guy.
Now, again, there are going to be people that won't love you because you didn't come to the kindergarten graduation of their second niece's uncle or something. Whatever. Uh Th those you just you know you have to parry those. But I mean the the people that The good decent folks. If they're having You're making it difficult to be loved.
Why? 2 Samuel 15, verse 21. This is one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Itai. is probably a Philistine. He was a Gittite from Gath.
Could have been a Jew, Not sure. But this is when Absalom has come. And David has fled Jerusalem. And as David is leaving, he is And the people are passing before him. Aetae and his troops Apparently a Tai was part of the bodyguard for David and uh the commander.
And as he comes by, David says, This isn't your fight. You go, you know, which is probably why you're also a Philistine, you can go, this is ours. And Itai says to David, But a teai Answered the king and said, As Yahweh lives, And as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life. even there also your servant will be. I will be with you in this life, no matter what's happening, and I'll be with you in heaven.
That Psalm, you know, goodness and mercy, follow me all the days, dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I'll be with you there. Absalom, your own son coming against you. Looks like you might lose this one. I'll be with you.
It is believed that Itai died in this battle. And it's believed because we don't read of him after this, we read of the other commanders. The forces, David divided his forces in three. Dittag received one, and we don't hear of him again. It is, you read that 2 Samuel 15, verse 21 in Atai's response to David, you're reminded of Ruth.
And her response to Naomi, because again, Ruth never met a woman. like Naomi. of such virtue Itai A man Who was a man of honor never met a man like David?
Okay, I can't be as noble and high as many of these characters in the scripture, but I'd be a lot better off. Trying. Than not trying. I'll be a lot better servant to God, trying to be like the high and noble servants of Scripture. rather than trying to ignore them.
I mean, once a Daniel comes into your life, you read the story of Daniel, you say, man, I couldn't be like Daniel. But I'm going to try to do what I can. What did Daniel do when he knew the death sentence was given to those when they outlawed his religion? He continued his religion. He just said, I don't care what they're doing.
I know what I gotta do. And he opens the doors in front of everybody and he prays. The nerves To serve God. David will prevail. He will come out of this nightmare.
Saul will not. And David will not come out alone. He's going to bring a lot of people into a life and a kingdom. Talked about this early in his. life that his influence on Israel as uh if it had not happened Uh would be a whole different Old Testament than what we have.
Um Uh Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com. Here, you can also listen to interviews with Pastor Rick to learn more about his life and ministry.
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