and grab a hymnal.
Turn to our first hymn, number 206.
Oh, say, but I'm glad.
Hymn number 206206.
Oh, say, but I'm glad.
206, we'll sing their starting on the first.
There is a song in my heart today,
something I never had.
Jesus has taken my sins away, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but I'm glad, oh, say, but
That's sad
Through the darkest dawn
Oh, the soldier sings
Oh, say but I'm glad
Come to Him with all your care, weary and worn and sad.
You too will sing as His love you share.
Oh.
with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for another opportunity to just
gather together freely to sing praises in your name. I pray Lord just as always
that you would have everything for the service be done decently and in order and
to just your magnification and glory. I pray that you would open our ears to the
message this evening and that you'd fill Pastor Oz with your spirit. These
things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Alright, for our next hymn, turn, if you would, to 215.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Hymn number 215.
215, they're on the first.
Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day.
They I will never forget.
I wonder in darkness away, Jesus, my Savior, I mend.
Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend,
he meant the need of my heart.
Shadows his spelling with joy, oh, I am telling you,
he made all the darkest depart.
Heaven came down and bore me.
were washed away, and my night was turned to day.
Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul.
Born of the Spirit, and with life from above,
into God's family divine,
So when it was paid, when as a sinner I paid,
Looked at the offer of gracing and property saving.
For sure, there in those mansions of mine And it's because of that wonderful day
When at the cross I believe
Bridge is eternal and plans seem to burn
We'll go through some announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand
and an usher will bring you one.
On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week,
Galatians chapter one, verse four.
Keep working at memorizing this chapter.
On the inside, on the left-hand side there,
you'll see our service times listed Sunday morning at 10.30,
Sunday evening at 4.30,
and our Wednesday evening Bible study through first Samuel,
of course, here at seven o'clock.
Our soul winning times are all listed there and those meet here at the church building.
I did see it's supposed to be 70 degrees this Saturday so if you want to come to a Saturday
soul winning time this is definitely the Saturday time to come too. Nursing home ministry is scheduled
there. Next up looks like Brother Eric after that Brother John. Our year to date statistics are
Also, please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed, our expecting lady of the church.
One announcement that's not in the bulletin. I did get the financials completed with the help
of evangelist fur and I sent everyone their end of year tithing statements. So if you gave to
Anchor Baptist Church through check or tithely or anything like that, you should have received a
statement today in your email. So check your email. And if you did not, please talk to me
this Friday, January 31st at 7 o'clock p.m. Pastor Stephen Anderson is preaching for us
from Faith forward Baptist Church. We're really excited to have him this weekend and our friend
Pastor Shelly is coming up and visiting us as well. Lots of people from Setfast Baptist Church
so it's going to be a great weekend here at Anchor Baptist Church. Definitely hope you could
at the evening service we're having our men's preaching night and following that is going to
be a potluck so please bring a dish to share for that. February 14th is our Sweethearts banquet
that's a Friday at seven o'clock p.m. April 19th Easter soul-winning marathon here in Oklahoma City
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sure Foundation Baptist Church
in Vancouver Washington
May 31st said fast is going to be joining us for a soul winning marathon in Durant, Oklahoma
So mark your calendars for that for sure
June 28th. We're going to enjoy the day as church family go into the tinker air show
August 27th through the 31st is the fire breathing Baptist Fellowship in Texas and
The Bahamas missions trip October 6th through the 11th make sure you're still working on getting your passports and tickets and all that for that trip
Online giving is there at that QR code and on the back is our prayer list. If you have any prayer requests, please do
Let me know by emailing that email address there. Be happy to add those for you
Let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer before we go to our third song
Lord, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for Anchor Baptist Church and the people that are here, for the King James Bible, for salvation, all the great blessings that you've given us, Lord.
I pray that we wouldn't take these things for granted or this time together that we have for granted, Lord. I pray that you please bless the service tonight.
I'm preaching fellowship, the singing. I also pray that you just answer our prayer requests this evening according to your will, Lord.
I just pray that you would just bless the family situation
that they're going through.
You know the needs there, Lord, and what needs to be done.
I just pray that you'd bless in that situation.
And we also pray for Ms. Desiree's daughter, Kendall,
who was recovering from a hospital trip last week.
Just pray that you just continue to bless her health,
that she would continue to have a positive recovery,
and that you just bless her, Lord.
We also pray for brother Theodore for his great uncle's health that you would just bless his body lord and help him to overcome his health challenges
We also pray for miss remi for her upcoming travel that she'd be safe lord and that you would just bless
The needs that she has in this situation according to your will lord. I just pray that you'd help her with her family
Overseas also pray for brother Cameron for his mother that she would be healed of her cancer that her heart would be softened to the gospel lord
Also again for Miss Remy Lord we do pray for her body to be healed of the tumor that she has
And we also pray for all the members of our church who have family members that are unsaved
Pray that those people would have their hearts softened
They would desire truth that they would get many opportunities to hear the gospel lord
We also pray for this upcoming weekend at anchor baptist church pray for travel safety for pastor anderson
And for all those who are coming out of town
I pray that we'd all be blessed by the preaching
of the word of God.
It would be strengthened in fellowship together
and unity here at this church.
And we ask all these things in Jesus Christ's name.
All right, this time we'll go to our third Psalm.
All right, for our third hymn this evening
in the white handout, turn to Psalm 149.
Psalm 149 in your White Hand out
We'll sing there right on the first
the offering plates are being passed, turn if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 24, 1 Samuel
chapter 24.
evening 1st Samuel chapter 24 the Bible reads and it came to pass when Saul was
returned from following the Philistines that it was told him saying, Behold David
is in the wilderness of Vangetti then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all
Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats and
he came to the sheep coats by the way
where it was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet, and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.
And the men of David said unto him, Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I would deliver thine enemy into thine hand,
that thou mayest do to him, as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily,
and it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.
And he said unto his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing until my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.
So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way.
And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself.
And David said to Saul, Wherefore hears thou men's words, saying, Behold, David seeketh
thy hurt?
Behold, this day thine eyes have seen.
how that the Lord had delivered thee today into my hand in the cave, and some bade me kill thee,
but mine I spared thee, and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the
For in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not.
Know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not
sinned against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it.
The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall
not be upon thee."
As saith the proverb of the ancients, wickedness proceeded from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon thee, after whom is the king of Israel come out.
After whom does thou pursue after a dead dog after a flea the Lord therefore be judge and judge between me and thee and
See and plead my cause and deliver me out of thine hand
And it came to pass when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul that Saul said
Is this thy voice, my son David, and Saul lifted up his voice and wept, and he said to David,
Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded the evil.
And thou hast showed this day, hath that thou hast dealt well with me, for as much as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not.
For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go away?
Therefore, the Lord reward thee good, for that thou hast done unto me this day, and now behold, I know well, that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.
And David swearing to Saul and Saul went home, but David and his men got them up
Unto the hold let's bow our heads for word of prayer father in heaven. We thank you for this day
We thank you for our pastor in our church, and we just ask that you'd fill our past with the Holy Spirit and as you
picking up the story in verse number one of 1 Samuel 24 the Bible says and it
came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines that it was
told him saying behold David is in the wilderness of Engeti then Saul took
3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the
rocks of
the wild goats. So even after God had sent the enemies, the Philistines to get Saul to
move on from David, you know, as soon as he's done with this distraction, his mind goes
right back to David because as we've just consistently seen with the character of Saul,
that he's just obsessed with attacking David and nothing else seems to matter to him. The
well being of his nation, his family, his son in law, nothing matters to him except for
and he just continues to make the same mistakes over and over.
It doesn't matter how God seems to punish him.
I mean, you would think that when you get invaded,
you'd start to like question, are you right with the Lord?
Am I doing things right as a leader?
But he just continues making the same mistakes over and over.
I'm gonna read a verse for you in Proverbs 26, 11.
The Bible says, as a dog returneth to his vomit,
so a fool returneth to his,
folly. And that really is the character of Saul. That doesn't matter what happens in his life. It
doesn't matter how God punishes him. It doesn't matter how obvious it is that God is on David's
side, that he's blessing David. Saul just goes right back to his vomit, if you will, right back
to his sins. And of course, us as Christians, we should be people that learn from our mistakes,
right? We should be people that we make a mistake, we get punished by God, and we actually take the
child, right? Children should be kids that when they get punished by their parents, they actually
take that chastisement to heart and desire to change, right? You don't want to be some stiff
neck child while your parents are always spanking you for the same things over and over and over
because your life is going to be a little bit of a nightmare, both for your parents
and for your backside, right? Because your parents don't want to just constantly be spanking you for
over and over and over again.
Now here's the thing, a good parent will do it though.
A good parent will just stay consistent
and keep getting you for the same mistakes
that you make over and over.
But you know, if you want to make your life easier,
change when your parents correct you.
And you know, a child that learns this at a young age grows up and when they get corrected
by God, when they hear preaching that corrects them, they actually take it to heart.
When they read the Bible and something's in the Word of God that changes their mind
about how they're living, they actually make the change.
They actually take these things to heart, not like Saul, who is a person that it doesn't
matter what God does to him, it doesn't matter the circumstances of his life, he continues
making the same mistakes till the bitter end.
Which is why his life ended in such a horrible way, where he's surrounded by the enemies
of God and eventually commits suicide, right?
The Bible talks about, you know, he being often reproved, hardened at his neck, shall
So, if you just continuously harden your neck against the word of God, against chastisement
in your life from authority, you know, eventually God's merciful for a while, you could get
away with stuff for a while, but eventually there's a day of reckoning, both carnally
with leaders in your life and also with God.
So, it's best for us just to change as soon as we know we're doing wrong.
Go to verse 3.
And he came to the sheep coats.
That's kind of like a pen or an enclosure for sheep.
Says he came to the sheep coats, by the way,
where was a cave and Saul went in to cover his feet
and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.
So you know, you think about this,
it seems kind of like a coincidence
that here in this big desert,
David is fleeing away from Saul Saul's man just happened to go exactly right where David is
But if you actually look up this area, this is how it is today
I assume it was like this, you know back at this time as well
But this area is basically an oasis in the middle of a barren desert. There's water
It's like very beautiful has lots of vegetation
And so you could see how both armies were kind of attracted to this area, right?
Because you need a place to rest.
You need a place to get water.
By the way, if you're ever being tracked by other people, don't go to the comfortable
nice areas because this is just where they go, right?
But that's kind of what happened here where they met up together and it talks about how
Saul went in to cover his feet.
which is just a euphemism for him going to use the bathroom,
which also it's kind of interesting how it says, how the Bible says that he covers his feet
because some people like to pretend like pants were just invented in the 1800s or something
like that or just in recent history, you know, pants didn't exist back then. Yet the Bible
says here that Saul covered his feet. You know, if he was wearing a dress, wouldn't he have to,
you know, pick his dress up in this situation? You could just imagine this if you want,
but no, he actually covered his feet. Why? Because he was wearing pants.
Pants have always existed.
OK, men wear pants.
They always have worn pants.
Now, of course, especially this time
they wore other garments on top of that, right?
So, or Saul has a robe in this story.
And in the end of the story, David
cuts off the skirt of his robe.
He's not wearing a skirt.
Skirt just means like the outer hanging portion
of that garment.
But he also is wearing pants.
Why?
Because he had to cover his feet.
Verse four says, and the men of David said unto him.
So David's warriors around him,
they want to give him some advice in this situation.
Notice what it says,
behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee.
Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall
seem good unto thee.
Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe prively."
So David's men, they're saying, hey, here it is.
Here's your chance.
Here's the day that God spoke to you about where you could just do whatever you want
to your enemy.
Here's the problem with that.
Where do we read in the Bible where God says hey, I'm gonna deliver Saul to you
I'm gonna deliver your enemy and you're just gonna be able to do whatever you want to him
Go ahead and just kill him go ahead and just take him prisoner that never happened
Right, but yet these people are trying to egg David on and giving him this advice
And really what this teaches us is the importance of knowing the Bible for yourself
Because in our lives there's always going to be people that want to give us advice about things.
That want to tell us how to live our lives, how to handle ourselves in certain situations.
And really what we have to go to as our primary source is the Word of God, right?
And we can't just trust someone that says, Lord, God, Bible, Jesus, you know, these spiritual terms.
Because these men here are saying, hey, God said that this was going to happen.
Only one problem with that, that never was said by the Lord.
Now go to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter number 17.
Acts chapter number 17, when you're there, look at verse 11.
The Bible says these were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind
and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so.
So notice here these Bereans as we know them, they're kind of congratulated for being a noble
people, more noble than those in Thessalonica.
Why?
Well, first of all, what they did is that they were ready to receive the Word of God,
right?
They received it with all readiness.
They wanted to hear the truth, right?
And that's the right attitude that we should have at church when we're reading our Bibles,
is that we should come to the Word of God and the preaching of the Word of God wanting
to hear it.
wanting to know what it says,
but not just listening to a preacher.
Also it says and searched the scriptures daily,
whether those things were so.
You know, I'm all for showing up to church
with a receptive heart.
With an attentive ear ready to hear what the preacher has to say ready to accept the the truth of the word of God
But you know, it's not just enough to listen to someone
Say something from the word of God or someone saying something spiritual
You actually have to search the scriptures daily the Bible says and you know
You will not be a person that's safe from being manipulated or safe from false doctrine unless you read the Bible
daily
Here's the thing, if you've read the Bible through cover to cover once in your life,
praise the Lord, that's great, that's more than a lot of Christians, but that shouldn't
be our standard, it's just better than the average Christian in this world.
To be honest, that's not really that high of a standard.
Right, we got a bunch of lame churches out there,
a bunch of liberal churches where pastors are getting up
in skinny jeans and glass pulpits and smoke shows
and girls dancing on the stage.
Like churches today aren't even real churches,
half of them.
So we're not gonna just compare ourselves
to the average life church Christian or something like that.
What we have to do is read the Bible daily.
Just because you've read it once does not mean that you're now safe from false doctrine and
Especially if you've never read the Bible through cover to cover boy, are you in danger of being manipulated boy?
Are you in danger of false prophets messing with your mind worldly philosophies entering your heart and messing with your mind?
I mean, I know people that I know I know I know I know are saved and I they're like
Hey watch this sermon by this Jewish rabbi, and I'm just like
You're I know this person saved like I have checked this person
But here they are sending me stuff from Jewish rabbis, and I'm just like this person doesn't read the Bible
This person does not read the Bible because look they're being deceived by an antichrist
Because what does the Bible say that if you deny the son you've denied the father, right?
The Bible says that if you deny that Jesus is a is the Christ you're a liar
You're an antichrist right the Bible says that the true Jews are those inwardly
Not those who've just circumcised the flesh.
Not those that are going and banging their heads
on the wall in Israel.
Not those with the curly cues coming down from their head.
Those aren't God's chosen people, right?
Those that have believed in Jesus Christ,
those are the true Jews.
Those are God's chosen people.
But again, how is someone going to know these things
if they're not reading the Bible?
And more so, reading the Bible daily.
There's a lot of crazy ideas in this world.
You know, how about the pre-trib rapture?
I mean, this is a doctrine that is nowhere in the Bible.
Like, you cannot just read the Bible and come away with the idea that Jesus could just come at any moment.
I mean, constantly the Bible is just telling you, like,
hey, don't let anyone deceive you by any means as that the day of Christ is at hand.
He's saying, look, there's got to be a great falling away first.
The man of sin has to be revealed first.
Here's all the signs that have to happen before that, right?
So there's all these scripture on it,
yet people just hear something spiritual from a preacher.
They just hear some preacher tell them that it's pre-trib
and they don't actually read the Bible for themselves
and so they have the wrong doctrine.
and you ought not to just, you know, take for granted, like, hey, I'm in a Baptist church,
I'm in a new IVB church, you know, I'm sure everything that's ever said is going to be 100%
accurate. Look, I hope you come here receptive, but I also hope that you check with what the Bible
actually says. And you know what, I want to be corrected by the Bible if I'm wrong.
I want to change, if I am preaching something wrong or believing something wrong,
I want to know what the Bible says.
You know, there's been things in my life that I've believed one way on,
and over time, reading the Scripture, I've changed my mind on.
And look, I believe I'm right on those things now, otherwise I wouldn't believe them,
but I'm sure all of us have done that, and you know what it comes from?
Reading the Word of God. Go to 2 Timothy 2.
2 Timothy 2.
2 Timothy 2, look at verse 15.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
A workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
We need to be studying, we need to be working
at understanding and rightly dividing the word of truth.
You know, comparing spiritual with spiritual.
Putting things in the right context.
Actually understanding the context of the stories that you're reading
and how that fits in with major doctrines of the Bible.
Not just taking things randomly out of context
and just saying like, oh, you know, just let's ignore Matthew 24 because that's to the Jews.
Right, that's like wrong division of Scripture.
Dispensationalism.
Saying like, oh, in the Old Testament people were saved different ways
than in the New Testament.
No, that's not the right way to divide Scripture.
The right way to divide Scripture is called Old Testament and New Testament.
Right? Law and New Testament, that's really the way to divide scripture, but keep reading it says in verse 16, it says,
But shun, profane and vain babblings. Why?
for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
It is important that we as a church believe the right doctrines.
Why? Because there's actual consequences for believing lies,
profane and vain babblings. Notice what happens.
It increases unto more ungodliness.
Bad doctrine leads to wickedness.
Bad doctrine leads to wickedness and here we kind of see this with David's men where they're saying, oh, yeah
God's delivering him to you. God wants you to do whatever you want to do to him
Except that would have been wicked for David to murder the Lord's anointed
But yet these men they would have been for that
They were ready to cheer David on as he killed Saul. That's what they wanted him to do
Right and that just shows that bad turn leads to wickedness, right? Just the doctrine that oh, yeah
You know as long as you love each other
you could sleep together.
Guess what that's gonna lead to?
A bunch of fornication.
Hey, just saying, oh yeah, you know, divorce,
if you've been abused, if you've been forsaken,
if there's all these bad things in your marriage,
you're allowed to get divorced,
you know that's gonna lead to adultery.
So, the doctrine that we preach is very, very important.
You know, church, it's great that we have events.
It's great that we have friends.
You know, it's great when churches grow and have nice facilities, but you know what?
All of that is worthless if they don't have the right doctrine.
I would never want to go to a church.
That was wishy-washy on the doctrine of salvation.
I'll take a strip mall church that believes in faith alone salvation from the King James
Bible eternal security any day then go into some stained glass building where they don't
know what they believe on salvation.
Why?
Because that's going to lead to wickedness, it's going to lead to people believing for
penny or sins preaching false doctrine and people actually going to hell.
That's what that false gospel does.
It sends people to hell.
and their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Phyletus.
So notice, false doctrine, it spreads.
False doctrine spreads, which is why he called out a couple names here
of whom is Hymenaeus and Phyletus.
This is why it's so important to keep preachers accountable
for men of God to call out the charlatans, the liars,
the false prophets of this world because their word eats as a canker.
And you could even see saved people get led away with the error of the wicked.
Second Peter talks about people falling from their own steadfastness.
They were steadfast.
They were good.
They were on the right path, but they're led away by the error of the wicked.
This is why preachers must call out bad pastors, wicked people, false prophets,
because real souls are hurt by them.
And look, people don't like that.
There's a lot of people that are offended
when a pastor calls someone out.
But you know what, that's a loving thing to do
for the people that listen to those liars.
And you know, if you don't wanna get called out,
well, don't go into the ministry if you're a scumbag.
Don't get behind the pulpit if you're going to be a liar.
Don't preach.
If you're going to preach, lies.
Otherwise, expect to get called out.
Expect to be here like hymenaeus and phyletis and get called out and have people warned
about you because your word is going to eat like a canker.
We cannot allow that.
Verse 18, notice what it says, who concerning the truth have aired.
We have to make sure that Christians are not turning from the truth that we're not listening to pastors that turn people from the truth.
Notice they had this specific false doctrine saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some.
So they were teaching this false doctrine that there is no resurrection, we're not going to be raised again, you know, at the end times, we're not going to get a new body and it was overthrowing the faith of some.
And, you know, the Bible talks about in 2 Peter chapter 2 that it's really the wicked false prophets that caused the Word of God and Christianity to be despised and blasphemed.
It's not people preaching the truth, right?
Yeah, the wicked reprobates hate the truth, but you know what? It's the false prophets that make Christianity look bad.
go back to 1 Samuel 24, 1 Samuel 24.
So, you know, just remember as you're reading this,
that it's important to make sure
that if someone's giving you advice,
if someone's saying, oh, you know, didn't God say this?
Make sure that God actually said it.
Make sure that it's actually in the Bible.
And guess what?
If you get uncomfortable truth,
if you get, you know, hard rebuke from someone
or advice that hurts your feelings,
but it matches up with the Bible, then believe that, right?
Look at verse number four, it says,
And the men of David said unto him, Behold, the days of which the Lord said unto thee,
Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him, as it shall
seem good unto thee.
Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe."
So, you know, Saul is going to the bathroom here.
I assume he probably just hung up his robe somewhere or kind of tossed it aside or something
like that.
I can't really imagine that he's wearing it in this situation.
You know, I've never seen this cave.
I don't know how David's hiding if he's in some little, you know, hole or something
like that.
But however he did it, I believe that he did it.
You know, he cut off the skirt of Saul's robe and verse five it says, and it came to
because he had cut off Saul's skirt.
So notice David was such a loyal person
that even though we could look at this
and just from our own human reasoning,
we could say like Saul deserves this,
Saul deserves a lot more than this.
Yet David knew that it was wrong for him
to rebel against the king, to attack him in any way.
And even though he didn't hurt his body,
just him cutting off his robe, it smote his heart.
right? He had a tender heart towards this situation. His heart was smitten, verse 6 says,
and he said unto his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master.
The Lord's anointed to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.
You know, he just comes to this understanding where he just says, look, it doesn't matter
what Saul has done.
It doesn't matter if he's right with God or wrong with God.
He is still the Lord's anointed.
He's still the king.
He's still my master.
He's still an authority.
And so I should not raise my hand against him.
I should not be the one to rebel against him.
No, this actually has to be left to God.
Right?
And there are certain things where the responsibility to correct an action is God.
or a proper authority that God has ordained, right?
But David is not in a position,
he's not an authority here to sit and judge Saul,
to bring vengeance upon Saul, to put Saul to death.
That is not his area of leadership or authority,
and that would have been wicked for him to do.
And, you know, for us in our lives, we have to remember that we should not take vengeance
upon ourselves, right?
We should not go recompense evil for evil.
We should not step out of our realm of authority and try to correct issues with other authorities
that we're under, right?
I mean, some people get this idea that, oh, if you don't like your pastor anymore, then
you should, you know, gather together and rebel against him and kick your pastor out
and stuff like that.
You know, that's not something that you see in the Bible.
The Bible teaches submission to authority, and even when your authority is wicked, like Saul, David, when he actually started going against him, his heart was smitten because he was a righteous man.
But those that are rebellious, the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, it's a wicked person that wants to rebel.
It's a wicked person that has no problem rebelling against their boss.
against their government, a wife against her husband,
you know, church members against their pastor.
It's a wicked person that wants to do something like that.
Did I have you go to Proverbs 20?
Go to Proverbs chapter 20, if you haven't turned there.
Proverbs chapter 20, look at verse 22.
Say not thou, I will recompense evil.
But wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.
Do not recompense evil in your life.
This is how human nature is, right?
You say something mean to me, I say something mean to you, right?
You hit me, I hit you.
You flip me off in traffic, I flip you off in traffic, right?
This is what people do, this is what human nature is.
But the Bible is saying, look, don't recompense evil.
Don't stoop down to that level don't try to put yourself in some sort of position where you have to feel like you have to
Right every wrong, right? You don't have to correct every dumb thing you hear
You don't have to correct every mistake someone makes you don't have to correct every sin that someone sins against you
You know you could just choose to take the higher road like David and just suffer yourself to be defrauded and just not
Recompense that evil notice what it says, but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee
Whose job was it to judge King Saul was God's job and God has done this in the past, right?
Where he sends the preacher to go rebuke Saul now who has the authority to rebuke Saul?
How about the one that God told him to do that?
Because here's the thing, people will read this chapter and then they'll get this weird idea that you can never correct issues, right?
You can never call out sin. You can never preach against wickedness because David didn't go after Saul.
David didn't put forth his hand against the Lord's anointed.
But look, a proper authority can recompense evil and should recompense evil.
You see, who's going to recompense evil on Saul is God.
God's gonna make sure that it's done right and God's gonna pay him exactly what he deserves and he died a horrific death
I mean, how would you like to be surrounded about about by a bunch of barbaric Philistines that are probably getting ready to abuse you and
Torture you and mock you and then your life has ended by committing suicide
I mean, that's a pretty sad way to go, right?
But you know what it was it was the judgment of God against Saul because Saul just he blew up his life
He started good, he was humble, he loved God, he became prideful and rebellious and self-willed and he became a wicked person.
Now here's the thing, he didn't lose his salvation, he went to heaven, but he was punished greatly.
God wants wrath, God wants justice, God wants vengeance done through proper channels.
Now go to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter number 12.
David here was not the proper channel.
David here was not an authority to judge Saul,
so it would have been wrong for him to kill him.
Now, here's the thing.
There are times where it is proper to execute wrath,
to have vengeance,
and one of the ways that God does this
is through God himself acting supernaturally.
Look at Romans 12 that says this in verse 19.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves.
But rather give place unto wrath for it is written
Vengeance is mine. I will repay sayeth the Lord
Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him
If he thirsts, give him drink.
For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
So look, if it's someone that you really have no authority
to correct, you have no authority to, you know,
deal with them in any type of way,
the Bible says, look, just give place under wrath.
Don't recompense evil for evil.
Don't avenge yourself.
That's God's job.
You go ahead and just love your enemies, right?
You go ahead and feed your enemies,
bless them, take care of them.
And notice how it says that it gives place unto wrath.
It makes me think of stories like Korah,
Dathan, and a Byron where imagine if Moses had just
taken it upon himself to avenge himself for them
talking bad about him and them questioning him
as a leader and his authority.
I mean, what could Moses have done really to him?
Punch him in the face, kill him with a sword, right?
But when God executed wrath, what did he do?
He opened up the earth and dropped them alive into hell.
Right? So when it's God's job to judge, when he's going to take care of it, he's going to do a much better job than any of us can, right?
You know, David here, what would he have done, killed Saul real quick?
Honestly, he got a worse punishment from God than if he would have just been put out of his misery right there.
And look, it's not that I'm rejoicing that he had a worse punishment, but it's just the truth.
He did have a worse punishment.
You know, how about the Egyptians?
How about Pharaoh, you know, the Red Sea opening up
and just enclosing Pharaoh and his armies
and drowning them in the depths of the Red Sea?
There's no man that could exact that kind of vengeance.
There's none of us that could, you know,
pour out that much wrath on a human being.
I mean, God, when he avenges, it's nasty.
It's gnarly.
He's gonna make sure that it's a brutal judgment.
The plagues of Egypt right no man could do that the wrath of God
How about in the end times the wrath of God that God pours out in this world look when he takes vengeance
He's gonna make sure that he does it the way he sees fit
And it's gonna be better than any way that we want to and look you know
This is just preaching right now, but look I've been in situations in my life where I wanted to take vengeance
I don't know if anyone of you had but look when I have sodomites coming to my house for a year
plus
Talking about my children, talking about my wife and the things they want to do to my wife and kids.
Coming to my house at all hours of the night.
You better believe that the human flesh inside of me wanted to take vengeance.
But you know what? Anything that I would have done to them is nothing in comparison to the eternity that they will spend in hell.
And all the disgusting ways that God punishes them in this earth too, with their AIDS and STDs and suicide rates.
I mean, these sodomites have a disgusting, pathetic, horrible life anyways.
I mean, I remember they posted something on Thanksgiving where they had an un-thanksgiving party.
And it's like, here we are Christians, like, thankful to God, spending time with friends and family, eating great food.
They were sitting there lamenting over the fact that the Indians still don't have the land.
eating Native American food, and they went around talking about how unthankful they are for everything.
It's like, it's interesting how the Bible says in Romans 1 that you're not thankful,
and here you are in Thanksgiving, literally posting about your un-thanksgiving party.
You're being punished by God.
You can't even enjoy a nice meal. Your life sucks so bad, right?
So look, I'm not even going to take vengeance because your life is a punishment.
Every day you wake up, you look in the mirror and hate yourself for the disgusting beast that you are.
You have to live every day with your disgusting STDs.
You have to experience every Thanksgiving
eating the worst food ever,
just complaining about how terrible your life is.
I enjoy Thanksgiving with God's people.
I mean, we're at brother John's house eating great food.
Ladies just, you know, killing it in the kitchen.
Praise the Lord.
I'm enjoying life, right?
I'm not going to take vengeance on them
because their whole life is a punishment
and then hell's coming for them.
And so that's a lot worse than anything I can do.
to them. Go to Romans 13. So one way that vengeance is taken is through God, right?
We're not supposed to take vengeance. God can take vengeance. Now, who is another rightful group that can take
vengeance in this world? It's the government. It is the government. Look at Romans 13 verse 3.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power, do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.
For he is the minister of God, to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid.
For he beareth not the sword in vain.
For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
I remember one time when I was living in Idaho, there was this big protest by a bunch of leftists
at the Capitol building.
And they had signs saying like, you know, don't render evil for evil, don't take vengeance.
Love your enemies.
Right?
Jesus would love.
Never kill anyone.
Never put anyone to death.
Right?
But here's the thing.
You're right in the sense that it would be wrong for us to just go find a murderer and
kill him.
Right?
Find a rapist and kill him.
Find a sodomite and kill him.
That would be wicked.
That would be a sin.
We're not supposed to take vengeance upon ourselves.
But here's the thing.
So, what has he done?
He's instituted government and one of the roles of government, one of the most important
roles of government is the punishment of evildoers.
And the Bible says that those people are the ministers of God, meaning that they are doing
God's work, they are doing the service of God when they use the sword, when they execute
wrath.
And notice it says that they execute wrath, right?
So, when we live in a society, we can't just live in a society where murderers, rapists,
Just all these horrific, terrible crimes go unpunished
because we can't put it forth our hands against anyone.
We can't take vengeance.
We have to let God do it.
No, God said, okay, you don't take vengeance,
but here's how you're gonna do it.
It's called the proper channels of government.
And so look, none of those signs hold any water
because this is something that God ordained,
that God wants to be done.
Now, stay there, I'll read for you Ecclesiastes 8-11.
The Bible says, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
The Bible teaches that when wickedness is committed, it must be punished quickly, otherwise
you're going to embolden people to be more wicked.
from leftists and even from some Christians that, oh, the death penalty isn't effective.
It's such a stupid argument because you know what we need to do according to the Bible
is execute judgment against wickedness in a speedy manner and that's going to prevent
people from being lifted up in their sin and being emboldened in their sin to do more and
more wicked things.
This is why we need the death penalty.
The death penalty is a good biblical thing that Christians should be supporting.
and in common, in general,
Christians support the death penalty on a much higher level than other people.
And America still has the death penalty, praise the Lord,
but recently, a couple years ago,
I believe there was some executive order or something like that
that completely freeze the death penalty on a federal level.
But I want to read this for you.
President Donald Trump, his first day in office, signed this executive order. It's great.
Restoring the death penalty and protecting public safety.
That's a great executive order.
Let me read some of this for you.
He says,
By the authority vested in me as president,
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,
it is hereby ordered.
Section 1, Purpose.
Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing
those who would commit the most heinous crimes
and acts of lethal violence against American citizens.
Before, during, and after the founding of the United States, our cities, states, and
country have continuously relied upon capital punishment as the ultimate deterrent and
only proper punishment for the vile crimes.
I like his opinion here.
He's saying like, hey, these vile crimes, not only is it the best punishment, it's the
only fitting punishment.
Look, the only fitting punishment for capital crimes is the death penalty.
child traffickers, kidnappers, homosexuals.
The only proper punishment is the death penalty.
He said our founders knew well that only capital punishment
can bring justice and restore order in response
to such evil.
For this and other reasons, capital punishment continues to enjoy broad, popular support.
And I think people do support capital punishment.
I mean, everywhere I go, I see signs that says, like, kill your local pedophile, which that's too far, right?
We're not taking vengeance on our own hands.
We're not going to be the ones killing them, but we want the government to kill them lawfully.
We want the government to give them a trial, and if they're found guilty,
to give them the punishment that they deserve to put them to death.
At every turn, they seek to thwart the execution of lawfully imposed capital, or I'm sorry,
I skipped a part here.
He said, yet for too long, politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have
defied and subverted the laws of our country.
At every turn, they seek to thwart the execution of lawfully imposed capital sentences
and choose to enforce their personal beliefs rather than the law.
Hey, wouldn't it be nice if in America people stopped legislating their personal beliefs
and just legislated what the law of God said and the law of the Constitution?
That's what we need to get back to in America.
He said when President Biden took office in 2021, he allowed his Department of Justice
to issue a moratorium on federal executions in defiance of his duty to faithfully execute
the laws of the United States that provide for capital punishment.
And, on December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 most
vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on federal death row.
Remorseless criminals who brutalized young children.
strangled and drowned their victims and hunted strangers for sport.
What was President's Bidens? One of his last acts in office was to take pedophiles,
murderers, child kidnappers, and say, oh, we're going to commute your sentence.
We're not going to put you to death.
I mean, what a legacy for a piece of crap president.
Your last act is to support the most disgusting criminals in our country.
That's disgusting.
Anyone who likes Joe Biden is an absolute piece of crap.
And Trump here, who is not a perfect man,
no one's saying like Trump's a Baptist, Trump's a preacher,
Trump is just a worldly dude, okay?
And he's saying like, look, these are the most vile,
disgusting crimes imaginable.
And the only answer is death.
Look, our country needs to stop being so squeamish and weak and soft and take the pedophiles,
the rapists, the murderers and kill them.
These people do not deserve to live and we cannot live in a country that allows these
disgusting freaks to walk our streets.
He says he commuted their sentences even though the laws of our nation have always protected
victims.
by applying capital punishment to barbaric acts like theirs.
See, people who actually love victims,
people who actually love children that are abused by these people,
they want the pedophiles put to death.
They want the rapists put to death,
but only sick, depraved, God-hating people,
like many of the politicians in our country on the left,
you know, they want to support this stuff
because they're guilty of this stuff themselves oftentimes.
You know, don't think that politicians are squeaky clean.
I mean, have you ever heard of Epstein Island?
Right?
I mean, these people are a lot of sodomites themselves.
Judges who oppose capital punishment have likewise disregarded the law.
by falsely claiming that capital punishment is unconstitutional,
even though the Constitution explicitly acknowledges the legality of capital punishment.
I almost laugh reading that sentence because if you actually read about the revolutionary war
and the mentality that our founding fathers had, guys like General George Washington,
where he just gave a straight-up order that if anyone was fleeing in battle,
they should be shot in the back on the spot.
I mean, don't tell me that George Washington didn't think that some people were worthy of death.
He's saying, like, look, if you're even fleeing the battle, we're just going to kill you running away.
But George Washington would like pedophiles.
Okay, at George Washington would like rapists, but he didn't even like cowards.
We're supposed to believe that the founders of the Constitution would not support the death penalty.
What a joke.
These efforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment, defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes.
The government's most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.
This is the type of leadership we need.
And look, I'm not saying Donald Trump is a great guy.
I'm not someone that just, you know, out and supports everything that he does.
But this is a good thing.
Amen to this right here.
We need more death penalty in America, not less.
We need a righteous king to bring the wheel over the wicked of our nation.
And you know, we need the pedophiles and rapists and murderers running scared out of our country
instead of fleeing into our country from Mexico and all these hell holes in this world.
Disgusting violent criminals coming here because someone like Joe Biden is inviting them and letting them know, hey, your sentence will be commuted.
You know, you're safe here. You're welcome here.
I hope they're scared to come here, scared that they'll be put to death.
Now, go to if you would.
Galatians chapter number two, Galatians chapter two.
So, vengeance.
We don't take vengeance ourselves.
Who takes vengeance?
God takes vengeance.
We don't take vengeance ourselves.
Who takes vengeance?
The government takes vengeance, right?
Now, when it comes to more of a metaphorical sense
of attacking someone, putting forth your hand
against someone, being against someone, taking vengeance,
here's another group that's authorized to do this.
It's called preachers.
Let me show you that in Galatians two.
Because some people get this idea, hey, look at David and Saul.
See this means that you should never call out another preacher.
You should never attack another preacher, especially someone that's saved, right?
You could never call out a saved preacher.
Let's see if that's true in the Bible.
Galatians 2-11.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
For before that certain came of James, he did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Hey, if Peter starts acting like an idiot, he might get called out.
If he starts dissembling, if he starts saying, you know, before he was eating with the Gentiles,
he was on the New Testament program, but then he gets all scared of the Jews and repents
of that and goes the wrong direction, yeah, the apostle Paul might scream in your face
and tell you that you're to be blamed.
And that's not Paul, you know, taking vengeance or speaking out of turn or doing something
that's outside of the realm of his authority.
Look, a preacher of the Word of God must correct sin.
A preacher of the word of God must call out bad pastors, false prophets, wicked men,
and even saved pastors that are wicked.
That is the job of a pastor.
That is not taking vengeance.
That is a proper thing to do.
Go to 1st Timothy chapter 1, 1st Timothy chapter 1, because you know, I've heard this mentality
and I've even heard this mentality in the new IFB where someone will take a quote from
where he talks about, like, hey, you shouldn't use your pulpit as a whipping post.
And what he means by that is that you shouldn't use your pulpit to, like,
settle personal scores with people in the church,
or there's someone you don't like in the church,
and so you just start picking on them,
you start preaching things that are extra biblical,
and then some people will take that quote and be like,
So he's using his pulpit as a whipping post, or this pastor preached against another pastor,
he's got a bad spirit, he's using his, you know, pulpit as a whipping post.
That's not what Jack Hiles was saying.
And that's not what the Bible teaches, okay?
Even if Jack Hiles was saying that, the question is, what does the Bible say?
Does the Bible say preachers can never call out other preachers?
Does the Bible say preachers can never preach sermons
where maybe some of you in the room know what I'm talking about?
You know, if we had an issue in our church where people kept getting in fist fights in the parking lot and I used that silly example because it's not going to happen, right?
You know, brother Dan and brother Cameron, they're just fist fighting before every service.
And it's just getting out of hand. I mean, it's been weeks and weeks and it's not stopping.
You know, I might preach a sermon about fighting with your brethren.
And even if I didn't preach in say names, you might know who I'm talking about.
Oh, you're using your pulpit as a whipping post.
No, it's called being a pastor.
It's called setting the tone for the church.
It's saying, hey, we're going to correct issues.
We're going to correct problems.
We're going to correct bad attitudes.
We're going to correct bad doctrines.
This is what a preacher is supposed to do.
Okay?
So don't look at the story and say like,
oh, this must be preachers can't preach against anyone else.
That's a stupid take.
It's a bad take.
First Timothy 118.
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith in a good conscience,
which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus in Alexander.
whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
I mean, these people were being called out by name,
saying that they were blaspheming God,
saying that He's delivering those people unto Satan.
Sounds like it was pretty nasty of a situation.
Sounds like there's some drama there.
Sounds like Paul is calling someone out, but guess what? That's the job.
And guess what? It's within a pastor's right and authority to do that.
It's not like he's taking vengeance because he's in a rightful authority to do that.
See, David couldn't judge Saul because David was not in authority to do so.
Saul was David's master.
Saul was the top dog in that situation, right?
But later on, didn't David, you know, kick some butt?
Didn't David execute some judgment on people?
Yeah, because it was actually his authority to do that.
And so look, you know, I don't think that laymen should be getting up and preaching against saved pastors, right?
I mean, that's, that's inappropriate.
Now, please call out false prophets, all you want, that you have the green light for that.
You know, it would be kind of inappropriate for a layman to go to war against some saved, saved pastor.
And the Bible talks about not rebuking an elder, for sure, those are good attitudes to keep.
But you know, it's totally within a pastor's right.
to go to war with a pastor that's being wicked.
To go to war with a pastor that's preaching false doctrine,
that is one of the charges that we're supposed to do.
Go to third John, third John.
So Paul goes after Peter.
We know Peter's saved, okay?
Here's another situation where I think this guy
probably is saved, but yet still gets called out.
3 John 1 verse 9 says, I wrote unto the church, but deotrophies, there he's calling him out by name,
who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveeth us not.
So notice he's calling out this, probably saved persons since.
And he's some sort of leader, right? He seems to be the leader of the church.
We don't know if he's a pastor or just, you know, leading it at all.
But look at verse 10, he says, wherefore if I come, notice this, I will remember.
his deeds, which he doeth.
Prating against us with malicious words
and not content therewith,
neither doth he himself receive the brethren
and forbideth them that would
and casteth them out of the church.
Look, if I know of a person
who's causing division,
who's being envious,
who's causing people to hate their brothers in Christ,
I will remember their words.
Oh, if someone apologizes, sure, there's forgiveness.
There's no doubt about that, but there's a difference between forgiving someone and
ever trusting someone ever again, or ever being close to someone ever again, or ever
liking someone ever again.
Why?
Because I will remember their words, and you should remember their words, too.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 24, 1 Samuel 24.
You know, I say all that just to say this, don't look at 1 Samuel 24 and say like,
oh, okay, never deal with any issues, never deal with any sin, never pick any fights, right?
This is a situation where David is subordinate to his leader Saul,
and even though Saul is wicked, even though Saul is prideful,
David should not put forth his hand against the Lord's anointed.
Verse 7, so David stayed his servants with these words, he held them back.
suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went
on his way. You know that's good leadership right there, where David,
he's the one that's been wronged countless times. He's the one that probably
wanted to take care of Saul, yet he was withholding his followers from
doing wrong because he knew what was right. He knew that it would have been
wrong to go against him. Verse 8, David also rose afterward and went out of the
And when Saul looked behind him, notice David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed
himself.
Notice how David was extremely respectful, humble, obedient to Saul, even though Saul
did not deserve it.
That is a great example of humility here.
We ought to be able to respect and honor and be humble to the leaders in our lives, because
let's be honest, I don't think any leaders in our life have literally tried to kill us.
Not only try to kill us, but try to kill us over and over and over and over and over again.
Yet even though Saul constantly was trying to kill David, he bows himself.
He humbles himself, he makes himself vulnerable to Saul where Saul could have even possibly
killed him in this situation, he was being obedient and respectful, but it's so funny how
David, a man after God's own heart, David, a man who's been wronged in so many ways,
he could submit to his bad leader, but then Christian wives can't submit to their husbands.
Men at work can't submit to a bad boss at work.
It's like, I'm pretty sure your husband hasn't tried to kill you multiple times
and your boss hasn't tried to kill you multiple times.
You know, can you at least respect your husband?
Can you at least respect your boss?
Can you at least respect the leaders
that you have in your life and be humble to them?
Because quite honestly, they're probably a lot more worthy of the respect than Saul was.
Yet David still gave that reverence.
You know, I appreciate it as a husband when my wife is respectful to me.
When my wife asks me, hey honey, do you mind if I ask if you help with this?
Not like, come do this.
I need help.
Why aren't you doing anything?
It's just like, hey honey, do you mind if I ask if you would help me in this area?
I just immediately want to say yes, just because of how nice she is.
how reverent she's being. It's just like I immediately just want to do what she's
asking me to do because she's asking me in such a nice way right. But it's like
you know you'll be a better idea ladies if you're upset with your husband is be
like hey honey would it be okay with you if we talked about some things that are
bothering me rather than like you did this and that you're gonna fix this we're
gonna talk about this issue right now. It's like that guy wants to run away in
the wilderness.
That guy wants to go face the bears and the cougars.
It's like, but I guarantee you, wives,
if you approach your husband and said like,
hey honey, is it okay if we talked about a couple of things
that have been bothering me?
You know, and you came in humility,
and if you came being reverent to him,
he probably would have your,
you would probably have his attention very quickly.
You probably have his ear harkened to you, and when you ask something from him, and again,
this goes the same thing with guys at work, being polite to your boss, being respectful
to him, calling him sir, giving him that honor that he deserves, you're going to go better
places in your work career than being like the rest of the world that just disrespects
their boss, and boy is that common, and it's crazy to me.
It is crazy to hear how men will talk about their bosses, but women do the same thing.
Women will trash their husbands online.
Women will talk crap about their husbands
to their girlfriends.
You know what, that is shameful behavior.
You should respect and honor your husband.
You know, here David respected and honored the king,
even though the king was a complete piece of crap.
All right. So you know what? Honor your husband because he's not that way. Honor your boss because chances are he's just an average normal dude.
And even if your boss is a piece of crap, even if he is throwward, the Bible says obey him anyways.
Right? Oh, the police officer was a jerk to you. Just do what he says. Just obey him. Just call him, sir. Don't mouth off to him.
That's a good way to get yourself in trouble or shot. You know, don't be a jerk to authority. Be humble.
Go to Proverbs chapter 17 Proverbs 17
I'm skipping some of this for sake of time.
But as you're turning there, first, Samuel 24.9 says,
and David said to Saul, wherefore hearest thou men's words?
Saying, behold, David seeketh, I heard.
I love the emotional intelligence of David here,
where, come on, David knows that this is Saul.
David knows that it's been Saul
that's been intent on killing him.
David knows that Saul has been the one losing his mind,
but notice how he kind of gives.
Saul and out to save face and not look like a fool and not look like a jerk
He's David saying like hey, why do you keep listening to all these wicked people that want you to come hurt me?
Why do you hear these men's words now? Let's be honest that wasn't the case right the evil spirit from the Lord was troubling Saul
Saul was being wicked. Saul was going after David.
But even though that was true, David didn't stay in there and say,
you did this, you did that, why are you coming after me?
He's saying, hey man, why are you listening to people perverting your mind on this issue?
Why are you listening to wicked people trying to trick you?
That is a good attitude to have.
And even when your leader is doing wrong.
Even when your leader is wrong about something or made a mistake about something.
You know, the right thing to do is to try to help them save face.
You know, if your boss makes a mistake at work, bosses are human.
I've seen bosses make mistakes, right?
The proper thing to do is not sit there and make fun of them or draw to their attention.
or try to blast it to the whole crew in a meeting or something like that, right?
You want to try to allow the boss to say face.
That's just the respectful thing to do.
That's the intelligent thing to do.
And if you want to be in good fellowship with your boss,
which I think you do, if you want time off, you want to raise,
if you want these things, you know,
you want to be making him look like an idiot.
And that's what David did here.
He made him, he gave him an out.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, you know
It's the loving thing to do to cover a trans transgression
Realize that we're all gonna sin we're all gonna do stupid things and it's not right just to bring to everyone's attention
Every mistake that someone makes there's not a Christian attitude. It's not a godly attitude
Notice what it says, but he that repeat of the matter separated the very friends
What do people do? They go and talk crap about their leader, right?
They go and gossip about their husband or their boss or their pastor or whatever and that is something that separates friends.
Go to verse 27 of Proverbs 19, flip the page, Proverbs 19.
Now here's the thing,
even though it wasn't really true that other men were
perverting Saul's mind and trying to get Saul to attack David, what David said is still true though.
And that's this, that you have to be careful who you're listening to.
Because that is a true statement that people can corrupt you corrupt your mind influence you to do wicked things
And so it is true that we shouldn't be listening to those individuals look at Proverbs 19 verse 27. It says
Cease my son
to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge, right?
So we should not be letting ourselves be influenced by people that aren't teaching the truth, right?
And that's not to say that we can't learn things from people who are unsaved. You absolutely can.
It's not to say that, you know, you can't read a book unless it's written by a saved author or anything like that.
But look, you should not allow people to teach you things contrary to the doctrine of the Bible.
and get let away with those things.
Start listening to those things.
You know, I'll give you an example.
A good author that I like, his name is Jaco Willink.
He wrote a couple of leadership books.
He's an ex-Navy seal.
He has like a leadership business.
And his books are great.
And he doesn't even know it,
but a lot of his books is just Bible.
And it's funny how a lot of times
when the world has figured something out
and they're really successful
and they have a lot of knowledge in an area,
how it just matches with what the Bible says.
But there's one thing that this leadership coach says
that is just so wrong.
And how I know it's wrong is from reading the Bible.
And he teaches, he says this, that it's always wrong to yell at people.
You should, as a leader, you should never, ever, ever yell.
And I'm just thinking of all the verses of Jesus yelling at people.
the Lord Jesus Christ yelling and rebuking the Pharisees and like I get
how there there's some wisdom to that right obviously you want to you know have
a soft answer turns away wrath there's some situations where that's true okay
but just to make a blanket statement to say like oh it's never right to yell at
anyone you know that's why you should read the Bible because I'm just thinking
of all the great men of God that yelled at people and I'm thinking like hey
they were pretty good leaders pretty sure Jesus is the greatest leader who's
and he's constantly preaching against people.
But that's just a small example.
You know, there's plenty of things like that,
there's plenty of people in this world
that want to turn you from the truth.
Whether it's something very minor like that,
or whether it's something major
like counseling you to get a divorce.
Whether it's something major, you know,
trying to get you on the modern perversions of the Bible,
trying to get you to believe repent of your sin salvation,
right, we need to make sure that we're listening to sources
that match the Bible.
Verse 10 of 1st Samuel 24.
Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord have delivered thee today into
mine hand in the cave, and some bade me kill thee, but mine eye spared thee, and I said
I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.
Moreover my Father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand, for in that I cut
off the skirt of thy robe and kill thee not.
Now know thou, and see, that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand."
And I have not sinned against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it."
You know, he's saying, look Saul, I could have killed you right here.
I could have ended this feud, but you know what? I didn't do that.
Why? Because I'm innocent here. I'm righteous. I don't want you dead.
I don't know why you're fighting this battle, right?
And sometimes it's sad when people are just picking stupid fights and it's just like, what are you doing?
Why are you blowing your life up? Why are you destroying yourself?
That's what Saul is doing here.
We see why David was able to restrain himself like this.
It says,
See, it's not like there shouldn't be any judgment done in this situation.
It's not like there shouldn't be any vengeance taking place in this story.
Oh, there should be.
But notice David's attitude, he's saying, God's going to have to do that.
I'm not going to put forth my hand against you.
That is God's job.
as saith the proverb of the ancients,
wickedness proceeded from the wicked,
but mine hand shall not be upon thee."
You know, that proverb is kind of saying like,
hey, two wrongs don't make a right.
Wicked people are gonna be wicked, right?
We're expecting wickedness from wicked people,
but you know what, that doesn't mean
that I myself am gonna be wicked.
Saul, you wanna attack me,
you wanna come against me and try to kill me,
or just apply this to your life.
Whatever people have done to you, people lying about you, people attacking you, slandering you,
stealing from you, whatever sins have been done against you, hey, that doesn't mean that you now
need to be wicked back. That doesn't mean you steal from them, that you rail against them,
right? Don't render railing for railing, evil for evil. No, realize that, hey, all right,
you're going to be wicked, you're going to be that way to me. Well, you know what? I'm not going to
If I'm in a position of authority to take care of it, I'm going to take care of it,
you know what? I'm not going to sin against you. Verse 16 says,
And it came to pass when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul,
that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept,
and he said to David, Notice thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good,
whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
And thou hast showed this day, how that thou hast dwelt with me, for as much as when the
Lord hath delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not.
For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away?
Wherefore the Lord reward thee good, for that thou hast done unto me this day.
And now behold, I know well, that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel
shall be established in thine hand.
Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and
David swearing to Saul and Saul went home, but David and his men got them up unto the whole.
We're gonna go to two more places and then we'll close. Go to 1 Peter 2 and Matthew chapter 5.
1 Peter 2 and Matthew chapter 5. You know, I don't think that Saul is just being a flatterer here.
I don't think that Saul's just saying this to save his skin.
Though we've seen obviously in times past
that Saul's been crazy and not being rational in his thinking.
I actually think that Saul's just having
a moment of clarity here.
For a brief moment, it doesn't last like nothing
lasts with King Saul, but he kind of has just
like this brief moment of clarity.
Where he realizes I've been attacking you. I've been trying to kill you
I've been coming after you yet. You had the opportunity to kill me and you didn't and you know what that made?
Saul realizes that thou art more righteous than I right so you could see
Righteousness from someone you your light shines in this world and amongst brethren when evil is done to you
When harm is done to you, when sin is done to you, and you don't recompense that,
when you take care of things the right way, when you let the proper authorities take care of that,
when you let God take care of those issues, and you don't have to answer again and fight every battle,
you could be like the Lord Jesus Christ who answered not at his accusations, right?
You know what that shows? That shows a righteous person.
And people can see that when you're going through all the attacks all the lies and you don't defend yourself in that way
You let God defend you you let the rightful authorities defend you
You know what that is a righteous person go to 1st Peter chapter 2
And of course who is David acting like here the most righteous man who's ever lived the Lord Jesus Christ verse 23
Who when he was reviled that's Jesus reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not
God in the flesh was spit upon, was mocked, had his beard ripped out, was buffeted by a bunch of sinners, and when he had those things done to him, he could have done it back to them, but he never did.
He could have cursed them, he could have killed them, but notice what he did.
righteously. He came to be the sacrificial lamb, and he said, you know what, God's going to judge
this situation, verse 24, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being
dead to sins.
should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed, right?
So Jesus had the attitude of not taking vengeance when he was on the cross, not answering again, not defending himself,
right?
He was allowing himself to be defrauded so much so that when he was being killed,
he even said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
I mean, that's an extreme level of humility and forgiveness and grace that he showed to those men and it's kind of like what David's doing here where he could have killed him.
We all would have read the story of a man like, yeah, it totally makes sense and totally see why he did that, but he spared him.
He had mercy on him.
And of course, not only did the Lord Jesus Christ model this in his life, but he also
explicitly taught us to be this way as Christians.
Matthew 5 verse 43, you have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thy enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
that ye might be the children, that ye may be the children of your father, which is in heaven.
For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them, which love you, what reward have ye?
Do not even the publicans the same.
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven, is perfect."
So notice when Saul saw David, loving him, even though he was an enemy, you know what
he said?
That's a righteous person, right?
And us in our lives, when we are wronged, when we are sinned against, when people come against us,
and we decide to love our enemies, when we decide not to avenge ourselves,
you know what, people are going to see that and realize, like, hey, that is a righteous person right there.
That is the attitude that we should have as ambassadors of Christ, is not just believing his words, but actually acting like him as well, and loving our enemies.
So you know, you're going to have, I guarantee you, you know, there's some sermons that may not be applicable to you, at least you don't feel like it.
you will have the opportunity to take vengeance because we're sinners,
we're going to stand against each other, people in this room are going to do wrong to each other,
and you're going to have the opportunity to hate your enemy, to revile, to speak badly back,
to get them back or whatever, or you're going to have the opportunity to love your enemies.
And only you get to decide what you do in that, but of course I would implore you Jesus would implore you to love your enemies
Let's pray Lord. Thank you for this story in the word of God. Thank you for just the vengeance that you pour out Lord
I pray that we would trust in your vengeance and the vengeance of proper authorities that we wouldn't take things into our own hands
That we'd have trust in you Lord
And I pray that you would just help us to have the maturity to love our enemies when people come against us personally
that we would pray for them, that we'd want good for them,
that we would do good for them,
and that we would just let you look upon it and judge.
We love you in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
All right, we'll turn to our last hymn for the evening.
If you'll grab your hymnals, turn to 224.
There shall be showers of blessing.
hymn 224. There shall be showers of blessing. We'll sing their starting on the first.
There shall be showers of blessing. This is the promise of love. There shall be seasons refreshing. Sit from the Savior above.
Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need.
Percy drops round us our falling, but for the showers we clean.
There shall be showers of blessing, precious reminding again.
Shower is a blessing, shower is a blessing we need, Percy drops round us are falling,
but for the showers we plead, there shall be showers of blessing, send them upon us
Come and now honor thy word.
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we keep.
Mercy drops round us are falling
But for the showers we clean
There shall be showers of blessing
Oh, that today they might fall.
Now as to God we're confessing, now that's on Jesus we call.
Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need.
Mercy drops round us, our falling, but for the shower.