Welcome to Grace Church. It's good to have everybody here. I apologize for being late. I was not paying attention to my watch. Which I don't wear watch, but Um So, announcements: We've got our weekly prayer meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m.
in the fellowship hall. We're in a study on prayer. And then ladies' Bible studies begins tomorrow. And they're going to meet in the fellowship hall at 10 a.m. I think they're meeting every other week, and Lynn Nicholas is leading that.
that Bible study. There's daily, our daily bread devotionals out in the vestibule area outside here.
So help yourself. Um this Saturday the Our group of men is going to Alaska to be with Mark Ferris. And they're uh gonna be there eight to ten days doing construction up at his uh his uh house and facility where they uh take care of people. Um And am I missing the other announcements done?
Okay. Do we have any first-time visitors? Our first-time visitor, if you raise your hand, we'll get you a Packet of information.
Okay. Seeing none. was uh quite our hearts for prepare for worship. If y'all would. Please stand with me as I read our call to worship.
Seek the Lord and His strength. seek his presence continually. Amen. Please be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
And I'm going to mention our churches in California, our brothers and sisters there that are. desiring to meet and We'll uh probably seek some uh Persecution. In the uh coming weeks as they meet. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father.
Lord, it is good to be with your people today. It is good to be. in the presence of you and the Holy Spirit. Lord, we just thank you for the opportunity to come together. the fellowship to worship.
Praise you. And Lord, to be edified. Lord, we just pray that as the word unfolds today, it would Working our heart. Changes. Lord, that we would become more like Christ each day.
Lord, that you would Prick our hearts of sins that we have in our life that we have not confessed to. Lord, that you would bring those to our mind and help us. to turn from them, Lord. We pray for Wisdom. That we might have a right word for those in need of that word.
Lord, um We lift up Linda McCatherine to you. Nancy Malone, we just pray for healing. Yeah. Wanda Chilson. Lord, um Just minister to these ladies, their families.
And um Give them s security and you Give them peace. And um We do pray for healing, Father. Lord, we pray for our nation. I lift up Our nation, I lift up your church. I pray that we would.
Turn to you. We would work. repent we would um Seek your face. and turn our priorities to you, Lord. I pray for the leaders of our nation that you would.
Give them unity. that you would give them wisdom. Lord, and that um We would become one nation, one people. And uh Lord, that our nation would turn to you. Father in heaven, we are blessed to be able to meet together.
And um We are blessed to have fellowship together. Lord, just bless this day, bless this time of worship, and watch over and guide us, dear Jesus. And we praise you and thank you. Amen. We are pilgrims.
We are foreigners in a strange, in a dry, and barren land. Our home, our citizenship is in heaven. Not of this world. And we look forward to the day when Christ will come and make all things new. He will consummate all covenant blessings.
He will conform our lowly bodies to His glorious body. We long for that day. But in the meantime, we are pilgrims. But praise God that through this pilgrimage here on earth, We have a guide. We have a strong tower to which we may resort continually.
We have a covenant-keeping Lord. And this is the God that we worship today. Would you stand with me as we sing? Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. Guide me o'er the bridge of all the pilgrim through this barren land.
I am mean, but thou art mighty, hold me in thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open out this old fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and bounty biller Be all my journey through strong believer, strong believer, be thou still my strength and shield.
Be thou still my strength and shield when I tread the bird of Jordan, bid my anxious fears of sign. Bear me through the swelling currents, gladly sing for Cain and Sime.
Songs of praise and songs of praise as I will ever give to thee, I will ever give to thee. Like the river glorious is God's perfect peace, over all midfolds in its priming peace. Perfect, yet it flows and fuller every day, perfect yet it flows and deeper all the way. Stayed upon Jehovah, our hearts are fully blessed, finding as he promised perfect peace and rest hidden in the harm of his blessed hand, never focused. And far hope, never traitor stand.
Not a search of worry, not a blunt of care, not a blast of worry, touch the spirit there. Still, our hearts are fully blessed, finding as he promised, good friend peace and rest. Every joy or trial fall and from above, traced upon our guilt by the Son of God. We may trust Him fully all for us to do. They who trust Him holy find Him wholly true stand upon the hove once of wholly blessed finding as He promised perfect peace and rest.
Amen. You can be seated. We have a special guest here, two special guests here today. We're glad to have the Millers. Mike and Caroline.
Our missionaries to Greece relatively new to the missionary list that Grace Church supports, but we are tickled to have them here today to share what the Lord has been doing.
So, Mike, Caroline, y'all come up and give us a report. Good to have you here this morning. I always love coming here to see you guys and especially to see Doug. Um because forty years ago Doug asks me Mike? Has anybody ever showed you how to receive Christ?
It was the thing day I met Doug. And that day, I became a born-again believer. And so Doug has a special place in my heart. I'm thankful. I don't put Doug above the Lord, but I'm glad the Lord used Doug in my life.
And so we are Mike and Caroline Miller. We serve in Athens, Greece. We partner with the first Greek Evangelical Church in Athens, which is a Reformed Presbyterian church.
So we are so grateful we get to help plant new Reformed Presbyterian churches for Greek people in Athens. The statistics are very, very low in Greece, much lower than you might expect, being a Greek Orthodox. Uh nation Actually about half of 1% of the population are considered evangelical believers. Put that in perspective, actually the nation of Iran has more evangelical believers than does Greece.
Okay. So we do have a small church plant in the northeast part of the city called Aya Parasketi. And one morning we come to church and we notice this young girl. And she keeps coming week after week. We come to find out that.
She, on her own, has Received Christ and just has developed this hunger and thirst for Him. She found out about our church online. She came and is just uh just watching her Her eyes fill up with tears as she comes to talk to us about the message at the end of the sermon, just like this hunger and thirst and desire to know more about Christ.
So we Prayed right away, Lord, what can we do? We want to encourage her or help her get plugged in and work on discipling her and growing her as she's so hungry. Yeah. Now, God's heart and God's mind was on Mary. Mine was not when He put this in my heart.
And I mean, I wanted her to grow, but I wasn't putting the two together. And so he put in my heart to start something called the Greek Language Fellowship. Greek is very hard to learn, especially when you're older like us. And also, it's expensive to learn. And so I wanted to offer something free and something slower because they go so fast in class and you just can't absorb it all.
And I noticed other missionaries struggling with it. And I said, well, I know enough at this point where I can teach level one to them with a textbook. We'll go through it. I basically facilitate it. I wouldn't call me a teacher necessarily.
But so we do the first hour and it's just us and there's no Greeks. It's weird, no Greeks learning Greek. But then the second hour. We bring in a native Greek speaker who can help us answer our questions with some pronunciation, some questions we had written down. And so the Lord puts in my heart.
Mary. Mary's a young 18-year-old girl, she and she is so excited. And so Mary, every week we met, actually twice a week we met, and we She would come. And a bunch of missionaries, well, there's about eight of us, I think, at the time, got to speak into Mary's life to help her grow. And God, it was amazing to watch God's care and love.
One more thing that came out of that Greek Language Fellowship is: I wanted missionaries to work together more and partner. And one of the missionary couples from another agency said, Can you go and teach refugees what you're doing for us, the same thing, because they need to learn Greek too. Because many of them are just stuck here in Athens.
So I was like, okay.
So every Thursday night, I go to the refugee center and I teach 30 refugees Greek. And I have to prepare my slides in five languages: Greek and English, and then French for the North Africans, Urdu for the Pakistanis, and Bengali for those from Bangladesh.
So the neat thing is, after that, too, we get to pray with them and start conversations in Christ. And so it's a blessing. It's been a blessing.
So, shortly after we moved to Athens, which was about two years ago, almost this month will be two years, and we noticed that there was a college right down the street from our apartment and our church. And we learned more about it. It's a small private school, mostly Greeks that go there. It's all in English because it's the American College of Greece, also known as Duri.
So we start praying about a ministry, maybe that what can we do to minister to this campus. And we asked you guys to pray starting June of last year.
So June of twenty nineteen, we start asking for just pray, see what the Lord might do here.
So we wait, we wait. And then January of this past year, two young college students from America Show up in our church. And so we're like. And they are students, they're study abroad students at this college.
So we're like, come over, we wanna talk to you. It's like, would you like to start Bible study?
So they come, and the next week, so we have circle four, and it grows to nine, goes to 13, and pretty soon we have contacts with 21 students from the campus. Just as a place for them, many of them are study abroad students from America. They're there just for like a semester.
Some are there longer. And Um we gave them a vision for the campus. It's like, yes, this is your little circle of encouragement. We're going to pray with you. We're going to study the Word together.
But then when you go back to class, You're Greek. Classmate who is pretty much an atheist. They would say they're an atheist, an Orthodox atheist, grew up Orthodox, but. Don't believe in God.
So they just like latched onto this vision for the campus.
So we're very excited. We also plugged Mary into this group. We took a group to Corinth. It's about an hour away from Athens. And Mary was able to meet some of these young people and to encourage her and her walk.
But this was March 1st, and then everybody knows what happened in March.
So lockdown, all the American students head back to the States.
So just as quickly as they appeared, quickly they disappeared. But there is a remnant there, and we're not sure when more students will come or what college life is going to be like in the fall. But we do pray for that remnant that we will start meeting again in the fall and see, just pray for that ministry, that campus. Um what God might can do. On the campus.
And so we're here today just also to say thank you. We couldn't be there without your financial support and your prayer support.
So thank you. Thank you so much. And Mike and Caroline, thank you for your faithful work for the kingdom. And thank you for taking time out of your time back home to come and be with us today. I was telling the earlier service, it's so good to hear another perspective and to be reminded that God is at work outside of Kiberis County.
We see this little slice of the kingdom, but God's kingdom reaches far beyond. Broader than we oftentimes realize.
So it's good to hear that the Lord is at work on the other side of oceans.
So thank you for being here. Our New Testament. Reading this morning is going to be from Romans chapter 10, verses 5 through 15. This is a passage that reminds us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And not only is the gospel the power, God also ordains the means by which that power gets into people's lives.
God uses people like the Millers, like you, like me, to proclaim that gospel so that people are transformed, are converted, come to faith in Christ. Let's read about this: Romans 10, verses 5 through 15. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law: that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down.
or who will descend into the abyss? That is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim.
Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, You will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all.
bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without some one preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach. The good news. This is the word of the Lord. Let's take a moment this morning to confess that Jesus is Lord and that He is the only source of righteousness that any sinner can have.
We need His mercy. We need His pardon. We need His righteousness to become our righteousness because we break God's law every day. We are sinners, left to ourselves. We have no hope of salvation, but in Christ we have every hope of salvation.
Would you pray with me, church? Gracious God, we confess that we have longed too much for the comforts of this world. We have loved the gifts more than the giver. In your mercy, help us to see that all the things we pine for are shadows, but you are substance, that they are quicksands, but you are mountain. That they are shifting, but you are anchor.
We plead your forgiveness on the merits of Jesus Christ. Accept His worthiness for our unworthiness, His sinlessness for our transgressions. His fullness for our emptiness. His glory for our shame. His righteousness for our dead works.
His death for our life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Take just a moment to silently bow before the Lord and confess to Him your particular sins. Listen now to these words from Isaiah 53.
But Christ was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned every one to his own way. and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Our God delights to show mercy to his children. I'm going to ask Laura to come up and sing a song. I give you an opportunity to listen and meditate on these words as we think about the fact that nothing.
can snatch us out of the hand of our Redeemer. He will hold us fast. When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast when the tempter would prevail. He will hold me fast. I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path.
For my love is often cold. He must hold me fast. He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. For my Savior loves me so, he will hold me fast.
Those he saves are his delight. Christ will hold me fast. Precious in his holy sight, he will hold me fast. He'll not let my soul be lost. His promise as a last bought by him and such a cost, he will hold me fast.
He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he. Will hold me fast for my life, he bled, and I Christ will hold me fast just in. This has been satisfied. He will hold me fast, raised with him to endless life.
He will hold me fast till our faith is turned to side. When he comes at last, he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast. For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast Let's stand together in honor of God's word as we read it together this morning. I want to share something with you right quick. About the song that We just Heard done so beautifully.
But uh Yes. Past week, I had a man. Dear friend of mine. call me his wife's dying of cancer. He's a relatively young man.
And he shared with me that His wife, who I know very well. Uh was really being attacked. and that she was doubting her salvation. And I felt like it was just uh flat-out demonic attack. trying to make these days as miserable for her as as possible.
He asked me, Can you give me scripture, something to help her out? And we talked for a good while. gave him a lot of scripture to take back to her. Uh after we finished I was just lay down and fell asleep. And Cindy came in.
And she said uh I want you to listen to this song. And She played the song that Laura just sang so beautifully. And I lay there in my bed and I just wept. as I thought about my friend. And I said, send that to her.
Please send that to her right now. And so she sent it to her. And uh she sent us back uh A big smiley face. And what she was actually saying was this. It's not how much and how Strongly I can hold on to Jesus.
Is how strongly Jesus holds on to me. And I just um I wanted that song sung. I asked Eugene, so I'm going to be preaching on persecution this morning, and I said, could Laura possibly sing that for us? And they agreed to do that. Laura, thank you so much.
Uh Millers. Uh praise God for you guys. I thank you for your faithfulness to Jesus. and for you taking the gospel to the four corners of the earth. And we pray for you.
I pray for you every day. And we will continue to do that. You keep on keeping on. And keep on lifting up Jesus like you have. If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me if you would.
Uh 1 Samuel chapter 18, I'm going to read verse 13 through 16 and As we get into the passage, we'll go all the way through thirty.
So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people, and David had success in all his undertakings. For the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he said He stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David.
For he went out. and came in before them. Would you bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer? Heavenly Father, we are dealing with a difficult but very real challenge in the true Christian life. That challenge is persecution.
We, the church in America, have been spared this difficulty for about 25 decades. But that is quickly changing. Father, we could avoid this by compromise and accommodation. But you don't honor that kind of spiritual weakness. You have called your people to be tender-hearted but tough.
You've called us to fight the good fight, to finish the course. and to keep the faith. We pray that you'd put steel in our backbone. that we might stand strongly against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Heavenly Father, we pray specifically this morning for Our brothers pastors in California.
We have heard that they're going to send the government in to stop their services this morning. We pray for John MacArthur. and those that have made the decision to obey God rather than men. And pray, Father, that you would be with them in great Great power. that ye would encourage them If this kind of persecution does go on today, we pray, Father, that you would use it.
for your glory. Help us to not fear criticism or lies or attacks on our character. May we remember what Paul said in Philippians: for it is given unto you on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him. but also to suffer for his sake. Lord Paul believed that suffering for Christ was a part of his calling.
He didn't run from it. He ran to it. He believed that his persecution would bring honor to God. May that truth blossom in our hearts. And may we say with Peter, we rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for Christ.
We love you, Lord. Please help us to fight the good fight. For it is in the holy In precious name of Jesus, that we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
R. C. Sproll went to a seminary where they had both conservative and liberal professors. He was in one particular theology class, and the professor asked him to give his opinion on the doctrine of sin. And R.
C. Sproll said this. Seen as a transgression of God's law. It is missing the mark. It is coming short of God's glory.
It is stepping over God's boundaries. It is the filthy condition of the human heart that alienates mankind from a holy God. And after he said that, the professor mocked his remarks. The professor laughed at his definition. The professor criticized what he had to say.
And said that's way too biblicized. and just mocked him as being a radical in the faith. R. C. Sproll said he walked out of that classroom.
Feeling beaten down like a dog, and he walked across the hall to the office of his favorite professor, Dr. John Gertner. And when John Gertzner saw the longness of his face, he said, What's wrong, son? RC told him what had just happened in the class. And John Gertzner stood up and he held his hand out to him and he said, Shake my hand, for I want to congratulate you, son, for you are a blessed man.
And R.C. said, what are you talking about? And he said, Jesus said, This: Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
And R. C. said, I don't feel blessed. And he said, in fact, I feel about as low as I've ever felt in my life. I feel beaten down and abused.
And John Gertzner said to him, that's okay. Said, you have put yourself in a position. to be more like Jesus. than perhaps you've ever been in your life. Persecution is part of the Christian experience.
And if you think that you can love the Lord God with all your heart, and that you can serve Him with fervency and not be persecuted, then you are sadly mistaken. 2 Timothy 3.12 says that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It is inevitable that persecution will occur. Because on this earth, there are two worlds that are fighting. The world, the flesh, and the devil will do everything it can to bring destruction to the kingdom of God.
The world will entice you, the flesh will inflame you, and the devil will deceive you. The story that we are looking at today is a classic biblical example of ungodly persecution. Saul is jealous of David. and he wants to ruin his name. and he wants to take his life.
Now, as we dig in this story, we need to remember that Some people are treated terribly and roughly. because they deserve it. They deliberately disobey God. They deliberately do what they want to do. And the consequences of sin are they get treated badly.
That's their fault. But there are other times when an innocent Christian suffers persecution. And he suffers it for righteousness' sake. You might have heard the phrase, it takes two to tango. What does that mean?
Well, that's the idea. If there's an altercation, then both parties have to share part of the blame.
Well, that's true sometimes, but it's not always true. And I think of the time when it's most not true, and that is with Jesus Christ. Let me ask you something: was the cross Jesus' fought? No. Jesus was perfect.
Jesus was sinless. Jesus was righteous. He was perfectly holy. Jesus never did anything wrong. He always treated people better than he treated himself.
He always gave correct counsel. He was holy and righteous before his Father. And how did they treat him? They mocked him. They spit in his face.
They beat his face beyond recognition. And they nailed him to a cross. They took perfect love and perfect holiness and they nailed it. Two across. It doesn't always take two to tango.
And that Jesus, in every situation, was always innocent of sin and wrongdoing. David, in this case, was innocent. David had done nothing wrong. He had obeyed God. He had been courageous in battle.
And he had been loyal to his king. And yet the king Went all out. To put an end to his life, the king took a spear and threw it David. What was David doing? David was playing the harp for him, trying to relieve him from his depression.
And Saul tried to kill him. Roger Aylworth said this The most obvious thing David teaches us is this. Don't throw the spear back. but just concentrate on our duties. How easy would it have been for David to do this?
He had already proved himself to be a fearless warrior. When that spear went whizzing by, he could simply have seized it and hurled it right back at Saul. Saul would not have stood a chance. David could then have legitimately pleaded self-defense and stepped right into the kingship of Israel.
Furthermore, he could have justified the whole thing in his own mind by simply saying that this was the way in which God intended him to come to the throne. Retaliation is the way of the world. You throw a spear at me, and I'm going to throw it back at you. But the Christian is different. He is in the world, but he's not of it.
He is a citizen of a higher world and subscribes to a higher standard. The fact that we are not to retaliate when others throw spears at us does not mean we must do nothing at all. There is something for us to do when others make life miserable for us. We have to do what David did in verse 14. He behaved wisely in all of his ways.
In other words, David responded to the spears thrown by Saul by just going about his business. He did not go around talking about what Saul had done and defending himself. He knew that if he focused on doing what he was supposed to do, God would take care of his reputation. Five points that I want to share with you about persecution today. And the first one is the cause of persecution.
Look again at verse 13 through 15.
So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
Saul was scared to death that David was going to start a rebellion and take his throne.
So, what did Saul do? He demoted him from general to captain, and he gave him a lesser. Group of men to supervise. He dropped his squadron down to a thousand in number.
Now why was Saul so afraid? Saul remembered what he had done a few months back. Saul had disobeyed God. purposely, intentionally disobeyed God. God had told Saul to kill all the Amalekites and destroy all their possession.
Saul said, I'm not going to do it. And so, in the light of that, God sent Samuel, the prophet, to go and rebuke Saul. I think from that day on until the day that he died, that That thought What happened with Samuel was played in his mind like a videotape over and over and over again. That's all he could think about. What was it that Samuel said to him?
Samuel said this. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. And the Lord has ripped the kingdom of Israel from you, and given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. Saul could not get that word of God out of his mind. He knew that judgment was coming.
And here was the hero David standing right before him. David had killed the intimidator Goliath, and he had the respect of all the people in Israel.
So Saul tries a little scheme. to stop God's judgment on himself. He demotes David to captain, and he gives David less authority. How'd that work out for Saul?
Well, not too well. For the people just identified, the common people did, identified with David. Saul's own son, Jonathan, Love David. They became covenant brothers together. Saul's daughter, Michael, wanted to marry David and finally did.
And the people of Israel loved David. Saul could see the handwriting on the wall. This young man, David, was destined for the throne.
Now, this just shows us how rebellious Saul really is. For this would have been the perfect time for Saul to resign. And Saul could have got the people of Israel together and said, Look, I've got an announcement to make to you. I have been disobedient to the Lord, and the Lord has judged me and taken the throne from me. And he said that he would raise up a man after God's own heart to be the king of Israel.
And God has raised up David to do that.
So here's David. David, I'm giving the throne to you. May God be with you. You pray for me and I will pray for you, David. He could have done that.
And I believe that if he had done that, I believe the Lord may have spared his life and let him live a much longer life. But he didn't do that. He rebelled even further and fought hard. against God. He became jealous of David.
And then angry at David. and then fearful. It is amazing what fear will do. to a man's heart. How many men have killed people?
Because they were afraid that that particular person was going to expose their sin. Jeffrey Epstein. Provided young teenage girls for sexual exploitation, and some of the most powerful men in the world. took advantage of that. and involve themselves in this horrible sinfulness.
Epstein was finally put in jail. Not long after he was put in jail, they found him dead. They told us at first that it was a suicide. Nobody believed that. And as they began to check things out, they saw that it probably could not have been a suicide, that it was indeed murder.
He had to die. Why?
So that powerful men would not be exposed. The cause of Saul's persecution of David. Is jealousy. Anger. And fear.
And brothers and sisters, if you're going through a time of persecution, you can rest assured that those are probably the causes: either jealousy, anger. or fear. Second thing I want to see is the deceitfulness of the intimidator. Look at verse 17 through 18. Then Saul said to David, Here is my elder daughter Merib.
I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul thought, Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him. And David said to Saul, Who am I, and who are my relatives, my father's clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?
Now, if you love the Lord and your conscience is clear, then you can be transparent, can't you? Everybody knows that no one's perfect, so no one expects everybody to be perfect. But if your conscience is clear, then you don't have to worry about somebody exposing who you are or what's going on in your heart. That's exactly what's wrong with Saul at this point in time. He wants to kill David, but he doesn't want anybody to know.
that he wants to kill David.
So he decides to send David out into combat. Against a ferocious battalion of Philistines. Saul said to himself, I will provide my daughter for David. If he'll go out and fight this great battle for the Lord and kill these Philistines. Saul was thinking, I'll send him out in this battle.
And I won't have to worry about giving him my daughter because David will get killed in this battle, and I won't have to worry about him anymore. Folks, this is the very height of hypocrisy.
Now, Christians, here is where we need to be careful. For in this situation David is the victim. His heart is right before God. And the deceitful conspiracy is against him. He felt how horrible this was.
He felt how wrong this was. It was just penetrating him. But yet Twenty-five years later, What does he do? He commits adultery of Bathsheba. And in order to keep his sin from being exposed, He kills her husband.
Uriah the Hittite. One of the most loyal men In his whole army. A mighty man of valor. And what does he do? He sends him out into a senseless battle, hoping that he'll be killed.
And he was killed. Wow. What a warning for us as God's children. We need to remember in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, where Paul said, Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
So David went out and he did battle against the Philistines, and he won, and he was totally unharmed. And he came back to receive Saul's daughter, Merib, to be his wife. But when he came back, his king, Saul, reneged. And he said, No, you're not taking her. And he gave his daughter to a man named Adriel, a Meholothite.
Wow. Why did Saul do that? I think he did it to provoke a reaction out of David. I think he did it because if David had been ugly and he had. Cursed Saul, and he had rebelled against him.
And just tried to fight against him, then Saul could have said, This is self-defense, and he could have taken David's life. David did not do that. He took the injustice as if he deserved the injustice. And that just made him greater in the eyes of the people of Israel. Folks, God's people are known more for their reactions than they are for their actions.
Saul is not helping his own cause here. He's digging his own grave. All right, point three. The perseverance of the persecutor. Look at verse 20 through 21.
Now, Saul's daughter Michael loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought, Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore, Saul said to David a second time, You shall now be my son-in-law. Saul would not give up.
So when he found out that Michael loved David, he said, I can use this to my advantage. And this is what I'll do. I will use her, I'll get David into the family. He'll marry her, and then he'll get comfortable. And then, when he lets down his guard, I will take his life.
Do you see what he's doing? He's using his own daughter as a trap. as a snare. He's using her as nothing but fish bait. He doesn't care that her husband is going to die.
and that she's going to be brokenhearted. It doesn't bother him at all that one day she's going to be standing before the grave of her husband, weeping like crazy, with a broken heart. Because if he does this, he's going to get his way.
Some of you parents have watched your children. child or children. go through a a very har a heart-rending time. Maybe they've had their heart broken. And you've just wanted to jump in and help.
You've wanted to do something. Even wanted to stand in their place. You've wanted to take their pain. You know what that feels like. You love your child, and the last thing that you want is to see your child going through a time of hurt, disappointment.
and heartbrokenness. But here's Saul. and he's purposely breaking the heart of his own daughter. in order that he might get his own way. What goes around comes around.
And it was Paul who said, Be not deceived, for God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, That shall he also reap. All this anger and jealousy and fear that is being poured out on David. gonna be poured out on Saul's own head. The fourth thing that I see is the response of the persecuted. Verse 25 through 27.
Then Saul said, Thus shall you say to David, The king desires no bride price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged of the king's enemies.
Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. Before the time had expired, David arose and he went along with his men, killed 200 of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter, Michael, for a wife.
When David heard that Saul was willing to allow him to marry his daughter Michael, He responded in great humility. He said, I'm a poor man. I come from a poor family. I don't have the money nor the social class to be the husband of a king's daughter. And as soon as Saul heard that, it was like his mind clicked into another gear, and he said, Oh, this is great.
I will charge David a dowry for my daughter, and I'll make him go out and kill a hundred Philistines, and he will probably be killed in the battle against those hundred Philistines. What did David do? He went out to war against the Philistines and killed not 100, but he killed 200. And he brought their foreskins and laid them before Saul and said, I have done what you asked. It is not by coincidence that David responded by giving Saul twice as much as what he asked for.
Is this not what Jesus told us to do? with uh those who who are our enemies. Jesus said, first of all, that we are to turn the other cheek to our enemies. And that's exactly what David has been doing. He's been smitten by King Saul over and over and over again, and every time he gets right back up, refuses to retaliate, and turns the other cheek.
But Jesus also says to do this. Go the second mile. Do twice as much as you have to.
Now in Israel in that day of Jesus When a Roman soldier told a Jewish teenage boy to carry his pack. He had to carry it a mile. He didn't have to carry it a mile exactly. Didn't have to go one step further, but he was forced by law to carry it a mile. And so he would take the pack, he'd put it on his back.
It's very interesting in Jerusalem, they had mile markers that were set up just for this thing. And you would have to walk a mile when you came to the marker, then the uh the the boys carrying the pack would throw it off his back and let it land in the dust, and he'd walk off thoroughly disgusted. Jesus said, Don't do that, young men. He said, when they ask you to walk with them one mile, Go with them too. into a joy.
How often do you think Jesus did that? I bet Jesus did that over and over again. As a teenage boy, a soldier would say, Here, boy, get this and carry it on your back. And they'd walk a mile. Jesus would talk with him.
They get to the end of the mile, and the marker was right there. And the soldier said, You don't have to carry it anymore. This is all you have to do. And she said, no, let me carry it another mile for you. Let me carry it another mile, and Jesus would talk and witness to them.
as he walked, and he would do it with joy. David is doing the same thing. Saul asked for 100 foreskins. David gives him 200. He gives him twice as much as he asked for.
I think this is what's blowing Saul's mind. Saul tries to kill David, and what does David do? He takes the abuse, he absorbs the hurt. He responds in love. He turns the other cheek.
He goes a second mile. You know, when um God was being dishonored. David fought like a whirlwind. But when David was dishonored, Then David just took it. Richard Phillips said this.
This is why Saul was so unnerved by David. The Lord was with David and for David. It was for the same reason that the Roman Empire grew to fear and hold the early Christians in awe. Justin Martyr explained to the emperor in his first apology, You can kill but not hurt us. This is why savage official persecution of Christians in China not only has done nothing to slow the gospel spread, but has actually spurred the expansion of the church as people have witnessed the power of God to bless his people even against such affliction.
So it was that That the more Saul sought evil for David, the more he feared him. Why?
Because the promise of Psalm 121 was true for David, as it's true for all others who are owned by God through saving faith. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. Imagine trying to oppose a people who have God for their keeper.
Most precious to believers is the even greater promise that though the world may sometimes wrongfully hate us, as Saul envied and hated David, neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all of God's creation. will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The experience of seeking to harm a man bound in such unfailing love drove mad Saul into even deeper distress. And the same reality today should cause the opponents of Christ to fear the Lord. All right, fifthly, there's the purpose of persecution.
Verses 28 through 30. But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michael Saul's daughter loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David, so Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the commanders of the Philistines came out into battle. And as often as they came at David had more success than all the servants of Saul.
so that his name was highly esteemed. Why does God allow a wicked man like Saul? to persecute a godly man like David. He did it so that David would get tough.
so that David's faith would be stretched.
So that the people could see the power of God in David's life, so that David could be prepared. prepared to become the new king of Israel. How many do we have here today that enjoy persecution? Nobody. How many we have here today that like to get mocked and criticized?
Nobody. How many do we have here today that like to get their name just drug through the mud? and have lies told about you. Nobody. We hate that.
It tears us up on the inside. And it makes us just want to give up and throw in the towel. That's what it makes us want to do. But don't do that. For when you are going through a time of persecution, And you're going through that time for Christ's sake.
then this is the greatest time that you have for bringing glory to God. Peter said in In 1 Peter 4, verse 12, Beloved, think it not strange when these fiery trials come upon you as if some strange thing has happened to you, but rejoice. Had you been counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake? Stephen Lawson said this. Don't adjust your conscience.
to fit the culture. Don't Don't, don't adjust your conscience. to fit the culture. A church in America has never truly experienced a tough persecution. Oh, we've gotten the doors slammed in our face.
We've been called ugly names. We've had snarky remarks made about us. But in this country, at least up to this point, We have not been imprisoned. or had our head chopped off. for saying Jesus Christ is Lord.
Our primary goal In this life, is to glorify God. And one of the greatest ways that we do that is through the propagation of the gospel. But now, our culture demands that we focus not on God's goals, but on our goals. their goals. What are their goals in this culture that's rising up in America today?
Their goals are a Marxist agenda. It is you accepting. every form of perversion. It is abortion. It is uh um pa hatred for patriotism.
and shame for your ethnicity. If those are not our goals, then persecution is going to come. I'm seeing angry people at the mall wearing strange shirts in this last few weeks. It's a shirt called Bad Religion across the top of it. And then there's a picture of a cross.
with a big X where it's marked out. I tell you this because we need to prepare, brothers and sisters. Persecution is coming. and it's coming more quickly. than we can begin to imagine.
Suffering is part of our calling. And God help us to prepare for it. Philippians chapter 1, verse 29 says this. For it has been given to us on behalf of Christ not only to believe upon Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Not only are you called to salvation, But you are called to suffer.
For Christ's sake. And the reward for that calling is sweet Glorious fellowship. with Christ. This is what Paul meant. When he said, we come to know Jesus.
through the fellowship of his sufferings. David Peter. Paul and Jesus had a word for us. that are going through persecution. And this is the word.
Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice when you're going through persecution. Why?
Because Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ. is still on the throne. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we have seen today that the weapons of Christian warfare. are different than the worldly weapons of war. Instead of a steel sword, we have the Word of God. Instead of guns and tanks, We have prayer. Instead of direct frontal attacks, We are told to turn the other cheek, go the second mile.
Help us to realize that these are not passive weapons, but are godly principles. At the world. does not know how to handle. May we take seriously Paul's command to the church in Ephesians 6. When he said, Finally, brethren, put on the whole armor of God that you may stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, rulers of darkness in this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places. Lord, we throw ourselves on your mercy. We can't win this battle without total dependence on you. Give us strength. Toughness.
and fortitude. And may any persecution we go through be used for your glory. For it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Would you stand with me as we conclude our service and respond to the truth that we've heard this morning?
Uh When trials come, no longer fear, for in the pain our God draws near to fire of faith worth more than gold, and there is faithful. That's it. Told and there his faithfulness is told within the night. I know your peace, the breath of God brings strength to. And to each morning mercy flows as treasure.
Of the darkness grow as treasures of the darkness grow, I turn to wisdom not my own. For every battle you have known, my confidence will rest in you. Your love endures, your ways are good, your love endures, your ways are good when I am weary with the cost. I see the triumph of the cross.
So in its shadow, I Shall run till he completes the work begun. Till he completes the work begun one day all feet will be laid new. I'll see the hope you call me to, and in your kingdom paved with gold. I'll praise your faithfulness. I'll praise your faithfulness.
Thank you for coming and worshiping with us today. And um I think next Saturday is when our group is headed off to Alaska, Seeker. Steve Parkhill and Daryl Torrance. and Eric Schwimm and Richard Meyer. They're going to do work, a lot of construction work.
And I'm sure just opportunities will flourish for them to witnesses as well with their tongues.
So be praying for them. And how long are y'all going to be gone? Ten days? Ten days. Be lifting them up in prayer and you leave Saturday.
Is that right?
Alright. Um Just want to encourage you to be back on Wednesday night. We are doing a study on prayer. How many do we have here that are satisfied with your prayer life? Yeah.
Me neither. And this has been a huge encouragement to me. To pray and to just how to pray. And so I think Jay's teaching this week, so it'll be good, and just encourage you to be there with us. In closing, let me encourage you with these words.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you. as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice. And insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, That you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. And all God's children see it.
Amen.
