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🎵Piano music plays🎵 🎵Piano music plays🎵 Alright, good evening everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all make our way inside and find a seat. Grab a song book, open that song book to song number 183, Oh How I Love Jesus. Let's all stand for our first song, song 183, Oh How I Love Jesus. 🎵Piano music plays🎵 All of us standing and singing nice and strong on to the Lord tonight. That song, Oh How I Love Jesus, song 183 all together on that first. 🎵There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing it's worth. It sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth. Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. It tells me of my Savior's love, who died to set me free. It tells me of His precious blood, the sinners perfectly. Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. It tells me what my Father hath in store for every day, and though I tread a darksome path, He'll sunshine all the way. Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. All right, all together on that first, on that last verse, verse number four of song number 183, Oh how I love Jesus, let's finish nice and strong all together. It tells of one whose loving heart can fill my deepest love, who in each sorrow bears a part that none can bear below. Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. Amen, let's open our service with the word of prayer. Father, thank you, God, Lord, for loving us, God, for the great love that you bestowed upon us, Lord, by sending your Son, Jesus Christ, God, down the cross for us, Lord. Thank you for that free gift of salvation, Lord. I pray, God, that you would bless the service tonight, Lord, every aspect of it, God. I pray, Pastor, with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as He preaches to us, God. I pray, Lord, also that you would be with us, God, and the congregation, God, that we would apply that which we hear to our lives, God, and leave here differently than when we came in. We love you, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 66 at Calvary. Song 66 at Calvary. Everyone nice and strong all together. Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me He died. On Calvary, mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiply to me. There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary. By God's word at last my sin I learned, then I trembled at the Lord's turn till my guilty soul and glory turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiply to me. There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary. O the love that true salvation's planned, O the grace that brought it down to man, O the mighty gulf that God did stand at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiply to me. There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary. Now I've given to Jesus everything, now I gladly own Him as my King, now my raptured soul can only sing of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiply to me. There my burdens so found liberty at Calvary. All right, great singing. Thank you so much for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be 248, Now I Belong to Jesus, song number 248. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Of course, our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock and we are starting the book of 2 Samuel tonight. And so hope to see you for every chapter until we're done with this book. You see the so many times and teams, the list of expecting mothers. We can add my wife to the list now. And so I announced that we're going to be having, well, she's going to be having the baby. I'm just going to be there for more support, amen. But congratulations to my wife. No, I'm just kidding. All right. Important reminders are at the bottom. You can look at the church announcements there. We have the Samaria missions trip going to Barstow on Saturday, September 24th. If you have any questions, you can see brother Ulysses Hernandez and there is a sign-up sheet on the usher station if you want to sign up to be a part of that. Our five-year anniversary is this Sunday. We have to move it because I'm going to be preaching out of town at Holdfast and so that will be this Sunday. We're going to have burgers, amen. Brother Jose is going to be grilling burgers for after the service Sunday morning. And so I hope to see you there as we celebrate five wonderful years. Men's prayer night is coming up on Friday, September 30th. And then the fall program begins on Sunday, October 2nd. We'll have an insert in the bulletin this coming Sunday of everything that we're going to be having for those six weeks leading up to the annual Thanksgiving banquet. And then you see there the typical announcements there at the bottom. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet there. We're going to go over that briefly and then brother Maury is going to come on up and pray over these needs here. Of course, pray for the church corporately, for God's favor, for the soloing, the soloing teams, the missions and protection of our church. For a church van, pray for spiritual numerical growth and for more laborers and new people. Of course, we're entering in the fall season. And so, of course, going into the fall program, Lord willing, we'll just see a lot of new people come to church, get integrated, get saved, get baptized and get involved in the church. And so pray to that end. You see the leadership there, of course. The church families, a lot of needs of just individuals in our families who are not saved if you can keep them in prayer. And then if you have any additional prayer requests, you can put that at the bottom. I do want to make one last announcement regarding my friend, Brother Charlie Chim. He actually woke up and so he was in the hospital in a coma for quite some time, but he's awake. I've heard that he's able to respond and kind of talk to his family a little bit. I'm not sure to what extent, but I know that he's awake and so that's great news. And so thank you for praying and please continue to pray for him to make a full recovery and make it back home. You see the additional prayer requests. If you have an additional one that you'd like to be mentioned or placed on the bulletin for the following week, please make sure you put that at the bottom and we'll make sure it gets on the bulletin for the following week. All right? Brother Maury, come on up and we'll pray with these needs. Please bow your heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be able to come to church. And Lord, we just thank you for our church and our pastor and the fellowship that we have here. Thank you for all the blessings that you've given us. Lord, I just want to pray for the different ministries. More specifically, the Soul Winning Ministry. Lord, I pray that you bless the soul winners and the team leaders as well as they go out and lead people to the Lord and teach people how to lead people to the Lord, Lord. And Lord, I just also want to pray for the Samaria Mission Strip as we're going to be going out there. And Lord, I just pray that many people can get saved and we can plant many seeds. Thank you for our five years of our church being here. And Lord, I just pray that we continue doing more great work for you for the next five as well, Lord. And as we just keep going. Lord, I just also want to pray for the Fall Program as that's going to start shortly. I pray for all the people that's going to come. And Lord, we just pray that they can get saved and they can get acclimated to the Christian life, Lord. And Lord, I just want to also pray for protection for our families here. And Lord, I just want to pray that our church continues to grow and allow the families to continue to grow as well. I pray for all of the pregnant ladies and Lord, I pray that they have healthy deliveries. And Lord, I just also want to just thank you for the good news about Charlie Chimm. I just thank you for just the progress in his health. And Lord, I just pray for a full recovery. Lord, I pray that we're attentive to the word that Pastor Mia has prepared for us as we're going into this new book. And Lord, I just pray that we're attentive and that we're able to leave better than when we came. I pray in the simple name. Amen. All right, please open up your hymnals to song number 248. Song number 248, Now I Belong to Jesus. Song number 248, Now I Belong to Jesus. Song number 248. Everyone all together nice and strong. Jesus my Lord will love me forever From Him no power of evil can sever He gave His life to ransom my soul Now I belong to Him Now I belong to Him Now I belong to Jesus Jesus belongs to me Not for the years of time alone But for eternity Once I was lost in sin's degradation Jesus came down to bring me salvation Lifted me up from sorrow and shame Now I belong to Him Now I belong to Jesus Jesus belongs to me Not for the years of time alone But for eternity Joy floods my soul for Jesus has saved me Freed me from sin that long had enslaved me His precious blood He gave to redeem Now I belong to Him Now I belong to Jesus Jesus belongs to me Not for the years of time alone But for eternity And at this time the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in 2 Samuel chapter number 2. 1. Chapter number 1. 2. Chapter number 2. 3. Chapter number 1. 4. Chapter number 1. 5. Chapter number 1. 6. Chapter number 1. 7. Chapter number 1. 8. Chapter number 1. 9. Chapter number 1. 10. Chapter number 1. 11. Chapter number 1. 12. Chapter number 1. 13. Chapter number 1. 14. Chapter number 1. 15. Chapter number 1. 16. Chapter number 1. 17. 5. Chapter number 1. 18. Chapter number 1. 19. 18. 3. Chapter number 1. 20. Chapter number 2. 22. 1. Chapter number 2. 23. Chapter number 2. 24. 1. run mechanic Phase- repair spent 5 Good evening we're in 2 Samuel chapter 1 and the Bible reads now it came to pass after the death of Saul when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and David had about two days in Ziklag. It came even to pass on the third day that behold a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent and earth upon his head and saw it was when he came to David that he fell to the earth and did obeisance. David said unto him from whence comest thou? and he said unto him out of the camp of Israel am I escaped. David said unto him how went the matter I pray thee tell me and he answered that the people are fled from the battle and many of the people are also are fallen and dead and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also and David said unto the young man that told him how now saw that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead and the young man that told him said as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa behold Saul leaned upon his spear and all the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him and when he looked behind him he saw me and called unto me and I answered here am I and he said unto me who art thou and I answered him I am in the metal kite. He said unto me again stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish has come upon me because my life is yet whole in me so I stood upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen and I took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and I brought them hither unto my Lord then David took hold on his clothes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and they mourned and wept and fasted until even for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword. David said unto the young man that told him when it sawed thou and he answered I am the son of a stranger and a mellow kite and David said unto him how is thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed and David called one of the young men and said go near and fall upon him and he smote him that he died and David said unto him thy blood be upon thy head for thy mouth has testified against thee saying I have slain the Lord's anointed and David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow behold it is written in the book of Jesher the beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places how art the mighty fallen tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Ascalon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph ye mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is violently cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oil from the blood of the slain from the fat of the mighty the bow of Jonathan turned not back and the sword of Saul returned not empty Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided they were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions ye daughters of Israel weep over Saul who clothed you in scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel how art the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle oh Jonathan thou was slain in thine high places I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant has thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women how are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished let's pray thank you heavenly father for your precious words dear God we thank you for every precious soul in this church we thank you for our pastor also and we ask that you please bless him this evening as he preaches your word onto us in Jesus name we pray amen amen okay we continue or should I say we're going to continue with the historical books here with the book of 2nd Samuel chapter 1 and we're looking here at some continuity between 1st and 2nd Samuel really goes right into the story of what we left off in chapter 31 with the death and desecration of Saul and then in chapter 1 it essentially just carries on from that particular story where David receives the news of Saul and Jonathan's death now this is a pretty important chapter and actually before I even mention that let me talk about first and foremost 1st Samuel as we know really a large portion of it is dedicated to talking about Saul and really it's to highlight you know the success story of Saul but also the fact that you know he became a really bad individual really bad believer a bad king and so there's a lot of principles that we learn from 1st Samuel but then 2nd Samuel really is about the reign of King David and it's gonna highlight essentially all the things that took place under his leadership under his rule and you know we're leaving off that era of Saul's reign and everything that took place under his leadership and now transitioning into the leadership of David for this particular book and of course that's what first that's what 2nd Samuel is all about because in 1st Kings is where David is about to pass off the scene and then hand off the throne to his son Solomon now this chapter is really important because you know for whatever reason you know a lot of atheists and people who are opponents of the Bible like to point to this particular chapter to try to highlight discrepancy so-called they'll often you know when they want to point out a so-called contradiction in the Bible or discrepancy they'll point to this particular chapter and and try to use that to discredit the Word of God to describe the Bible now here's the thing you know if they were sincere and they really wanted to know what the truth was you know obviously they would end up coming to the knowledge of the truth of the Bible and but the reality is this is that we know that there are no discrepancies in God's Word there's no errors you know it's it's it's perfect it's infallible it's inerrant it is the Word of God so we know as believers that the Bible is perfect there's no contradiction now that's not to say that there's gonna be times in our Christian life or even when you're fruit when you first get saved when you read the Bible you come across passages that seem to not necessarily fit the narrative of the Word of God right like other teachings of the Bible doctrines that are being taught and it's just like I don't understand this passage but here's the thing the Bible tells us that he that cometh to God must believe that he is and he is a reward of them that diligently seek him and the way we have to approach the Bible as believers is that we just got to approach it already believing even though you haven't read it from cover to cover from Genesis to Revelation we approached the Bible and already believed this is a divine supernatural book written by God God is the author of the book whom he used men to pen down but this is the Bible is supernatural it's a it's it's actually God's Word whether you've read it you know the whole thing or not that's what you have to believe and so when you come across passages that seem to contradict or there might be a discrepancy you know the the the right thing to do is just say well I'm just gonna believe this and I'll understand it one day and believe that there is no contradiction there's no error in the Bible it's just I'm not spiritually mature enough to figure out what's going on here and you'll find out that the more you read the Bible the longer you're Christian the more you meditate upon it the more the pieces of the puzzle start connecting and then you're like oh I get it now and you're kind of thankful like I'm glad I believed this years ago even though it didn't make sense to me back then because it's almost as if God is rewarding your faithfulness and your faith to believe the Bible regardless if it makes sense to you or not and so that's how the Christian life should be but a lot of these people who approached about these these textual critics they point to scriptures like this and say well this is a man's error you know this is a translation error or you know this is not really God's Word because if it was it wouldn't have this error in here and what I'm specifically referring to is the testimony of the Amalekite which is the first thing we're going to look at this evening here look at verse number one it says now it came to pass after the death of Saul when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and David had abode two days in Ziklag it came even to pass on the third day that behold a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent earth upon his head and so it was when he came to David that he fell to the earth and did obeisance now what's taking place here well if you remember David was supposed to or he wanted to fight with the Philistines against Israel the Philistines did not permit him to join the battle he ends up going back to Ziklag where his family and the families of his men were and he finds the city in disarray they have been taken captive by the Amalekites and David prays unto the Lord and he essentially asked should I go back to should I go and pursue them and and try to fight for the captives he does he recovers everyone it's a great battle great recovery and you know they slay the Amalekites and of course Israel is slain by the Philistines so Saul's losing this battle but David is winning this this one against the Amalekites well David returns back to Ziklag and three days later an Amalekite from the camp of Saul comes to him with his clothes rent and earth upon his head and what this is referring to is he's coming mournfully in the Bible we don't do this today obviously but in the Bible when someone was heartbroken or they had grief or sorrow the way they would physically express that is by tearing their garments apart tearing their clothes and then grabbing dirt and placing it upon their heads it was an outward signification of the grief that they're experiencing inwardly and so if you saw someone coming with earth upon their head and their clothes rent it's obviously they have bad news for you okay so this guy comes he makes obedience to David and he's coming to bear the bad news that Israel has lost and that Saul and Jonathan are dead now where is the discrepancy well as we read as well the hike read we see that the Amalekite is the one who claims to have slain Saul okay he says you know I went there and so I asked me to kill him because you know his life was still in him he knew basically that he was about to lose and so I slew him and he brought he brings to David the crown and the bracelet as proof that he's not only the one who slew him but you know I'm like on your side you understand so he's bringing the crown the bracelet as it as a as essentially as an award or a gift or an offering to David to say hey I'm on your side and I slew your enemy your adversary Saul now there's no discrepancy here but we obviously see that in chapter 31 at first Samuel the story is a lot different okay because in first Samuel chapter 31 you have saw you have saw falling upon his own sword because he was wounded of the archers he knew that he was gonna die he didn't want the Philistines to abuse his body which they did anyways and so what he did was he fell upon his own sword or first of all he actually asked his armor bearer to kill him his armor bearer refused to do so he falls upon his own sword then his armor bearer kills himself and then of course they're decapitated and all this other heinous crimes against their bodies are carried out but now you have this story of the simalik I claiming that he's the one who actually slew Saul and so people look at this and say well there's an error you know there's a discrepancy there's a contradiction you know whoever wrote this obviously wasn't paying attention because one chapter prior you have saw killing himself but here's the thing folks is that you know the Bible tells us that all scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction instruction and righteousness the Bible tells us that you know that no prophecy of the scripture is given of any private interpretation for the scripture came not an old time but the will of man while holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost right and we know the Bible to be perfect and without error it is God's Word so when we run into a story like this we can't just jump to a conclusion and say oh man this is a contradiction there this is an error oh man I'm gonna start questioning God's Word no we just need to study the Bible a little more okay now what is going on here well critics of the Bible who claim this is a contradiction don't seem to realize that people lie you know they don't seem to you know the kind like the way they do right you know people lie all the time which is exactly what the simalik height is doing he's lying about killing Saul because if he thinks it's gonna earn him brownie points with David he's like oh so I mean essentially what's taking place here Saul kills himself after Saul kills himself but before the Philistines come to take the bodies this a malachite shows up he looks left looks right no one's here oh he gets to make up his own narrative of what took place he takes the crown off of his head takes a bracelet off of his arm and he brings it to David now you know how do we know that took place well because of the fact that in chapter 31 it isn't an eyewitness of what took place with Saul the narrator of the Bible is the one telling us all the information of what took place with Saul okay what this guy's doing is just lying he thinks he's gonna earn brownie points with David he thinks he's gonna you know gain favor with the new king by slaying Saul and bringing the crown but obviously it's the exact opposite David is a righteous person he's a just man he's a man of honor and nobility so he's not gonna take it as oh man you know you did a great job once you become part of my kingdom he ends up killing this guy you know unknowingly that he did not kill Saul he just claimed to have killed them in order to gain favor with David so this is the way you have to interpret the Bible when you read things like this is that is it the narrator or is it a specific person speaking and one thing you have to remember is that as we're reading these particular books you have to understand that these are the historical books okay what are historical books is referring to Joshua judges Ruth you know you have first and second Samuel first and second Kings first and second Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah and Esther these are historical accounts of the history of Israel where although they're divinely inspired by God it's an account of all the events that took place throughout the important history of Israel in the Old Testament okay so obviously you know God is gonna highlight some individuals who lie they fabricate things they are bearing false witness people who are you know committing sins and marrying multiple wives and all these things and the problem with people is that sometimes they'll look to these particular books and look at an action of a righteous person committing a sin and say oh because that's in the Bible therefore it's permissible to do you know oh you have King David who's a man after God's own heart the sweet psalmist of Israel the picture of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament marrying a bunch of wives oh that means polygamy must be okay but no folks you know the historical books are there to just show us what people did and it's a great genre of the Bible because it's highlighting the fallibility of man who yeah they're saved some of them and they love God but they didn't made a lot of mistakes they created you know they did a lot of grievous things during their reign or during their lives and so it's there to admonish us and to teach us and obviously we want to learn the history of Israel and the history of the Kings but the most important aspect of it is the underlying principle behind it because there's so many spiritual principles that we can look in the New Testament that really sheds light on Old Testament stories understand so this particular guy is just the testimony he's bearing false witness he's lying about the whole thing but we know that first time 31 is the narrator speaking therefore we go with the narrator understand the Bible tells us let God be true and and and let men be liars and let God be true understand so it's like when you have two statements and it seemed to contradict okay is God one of the ones who is speaking then we go with God understand and so and not only that but the historical books is not necessarily a genre of books that we're supposed to use for systematic doctrine anyways you know obviously there's a lot of doctrine in the historical books but this is not something we use to teach about salvation per se or you know you know things pertaining to New Testament systematic teachings we're to go to the clear teachings of Scripture for those particular passages or those doctrines and use these as admonishments and instructions to help us to learn how to live life as Christians okay and so there is no discrepancy here we know that what took place in first Samuel 31 is actually what happened Saul killed himself not the Samalekite look at verse 6 it says and the young man told him and said told him said as I happened by chance upon Mount Goboah behold Saul leaned upon his spear and lo the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him and when he looked behind me or excuse me when he looked behind him he saw me and called unto me and I answered here am I and he said unto me who art thou and I answered him I am an Amalekite and he said unto me again stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguishes come upon me because my life is yet whole in me so I stood upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen and I took the crown that was upon his head and a bracelet that was on his arm and I brought them hither unto my Lord then David took hold on his clothes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and they mourned and wept and fasted until the even for Saul and for Jonathan the son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword so very tragic here of course this kind of shows you that David as much as Saul was an adversary unto him David actually still loves Saul you know he had some emotional ties to Saul of course he had emotional ties to Jonathan but he actually really loved Saul and we know that because at the latter end of the chapter he has this lamentation this song that he proclaims and it's a psalm or it's a lamentation that honors Saul okay it honors him it paints him in a very good light you know he's essentially showing that he was a noble man in times past he was a great man so the kind of shows you that David really loved Saul in spite of what Saul did unto him now what is it that we can learn from this particular Amalekite okay well one thing that we can learn is the fact that you know it's never right to do wrong to do right but also what we see here is that you know this guy is thinking oh I'm just gonna commit this grievous sin and lie you know and then no one's gonna find out about it I'm gonna come out winning on top but that's not necessarily what happened in fact it cost him his life right and so just be reminded that the little sin that you do today may cost through your life tomorrow right and don't think that just because oh man it's just a little sin or just a little thing or it's not that big of a deal no one's gonna know about it folks first of all God knows about it and if God wanted to you could expose you to everyone and you know you just never know what the consequences of those actions may be and in fact you think of the sin of fornication for example you know the Bible doesn't teach that the penalty for fornication is the death penalty you know we know that that that's what differentiates fornication from adultery adultery is a capital crime whereas fornication there's just different rules and different laws that we see in the Old Testament dealing with that but you know that didn't stop God for killing thousands of people when they committed the act of fornication because it's not up to just you know choose our you know punishment or choose our consequence that we're gonna suffer we just know there's a consequence and you shouldn't roll the dice on that like well this is a sin but it's not punishable by death and so I should be in the clear no I can cost you your life you know and this guy thought he was gonna be like on the right hand of David but instead you know he ended up getting slain by one of David's men it didn't work out for him at all look at verse 13 and David said unto the young man that told him once art thou and he answered I am the son of a stranger in Amalekite and David said unto him how was thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed now at that point I'm sure the guy's heart sunk right into his gut it's probably not what he wanted to hear and I mean if I was the Amalekite I'd say you know what I lied about the whole thing I just didn't work out the way I thought it was he killed himself you know what I mean because at this point you know David's not looking at him with with grace in his eyes okay verse 15 and David called one of the young men either Joab or Benaiah because those guys are some of the greatest gangsters in his in his posse and said go near and fall upon him and he smote him that he died and David said unto him thy blood be upon thy head for thy mouth have testified against thee saying I have slain the Lord's anointed now did he slay him unrighteously well here's the thing is that in David's mind from his perspective this is what the guy's claiming to have done and so he's issuing the punishment that was just because that's what he thought he did wouldn't have it wouldn't have been right even if he actually did it to allow him to live because it wasn't right for him to it wouldn't have been right for him to stretch forth his hand to touch the Lord's anointed and do that but David doesn't know you know we know because we're reading the Bible here but first Samuel hadn't even been written during this time so David's just going based upon information that's given to him he's thinking this guy is the one and in fact probably until the day he died he thought the Amalekite was the one who slew Saul okay now he knows you know was an Amalekite saved I don't know but if he was David's probably like hey I'm sorry that was your fault though you told me you killed him or whatever you know or Saul was just like hey I actually did it you know I'm actually the one who took my own life or whatever and David said unto him thy blood be upon thy head for thy mouth have testified against thee saying I have slain the Lord's anointed and so we see here that there wasn't a discrepancy this is just simply an example of someone who lied in the Bible and we need to go with the narrator's testimony okay and you know the Bible talks about the testimonies of the Lord and this could be described as stories that we see in the Bible that the Lord's testifying of or an actual testification of the Lord from a prophet or from his own mouth in the Bible either case if it's from God we go with what God said and we discard the testimony or the witnesses of others if they contradict God okay look at verse 17 and David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son pay attention to verse 18 it says and he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow behold that is written in the book of Jasher so a couple things that I want to mention regarding this particular verse number one is the use of the bow it's not referring to a bow and arrow he's not saying hey get all these kids to learn archery and learn how to fight in war because these people got to come into them or something the bow is referring to the harp because David is about to break out in song he's about to break out in the lamentation which in the Bible can often be an expression of grief or a song of grief understand you have the book of lamentations which is comes right after the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah is lamenting all the destruction that the Lord allowed upon Israel because of their disobedience but then there's also songs of lamentation songs of sorrow and hurt and heartbreak and grief which is exactly what this is talking about so when he says teach the children the use of the bow he's telling them teach them to learn this song you know because this song that he's gonna sing and he's declaring here he kind of wants all of Judah to know about this song how are the mighty fallen okay and it could be for two reasons one it could be because he wants to honor Saul but two he also wants to teach the children of Israel how the mighty are fallen understand like don't go down that path don't go down the path of Saul because you think it's like how are the mighty fallen well saw the book of 1st Samuel shows us how the mighty fell understand the progression of Saul from being a righteous person to becoming a wicked King we see that transition throughout the book of 1st Samuel and so this is these are some of the reasons why and this is important because I mean I preached on this before I think for Joe's graduation the use of the bow just talk about the importance of teaching our children how to mourn understand and I'm not saying you know you got to teach your kids how to cry or something like that that's easy you know but I'm saying teach them how to mourn for the abominations in the land teach them how to mourn and be heartbroken over sin the sins of others you know the wickedness of this world lost souls going to hell we have to help our children tenderize their heart teach them the use of the bow to be to be grieved over these things you know and so I think that's a great principle but the second thing that I want you to notice here is that it says behold it is written in the book of Jasher okay now let's talk about the book of Jasher for a bit all right now the book of Jasher is only mentioned twice in the Bible you have it here in 2nd Samuel 1 18 and you also have it in Joshua 10 chapter chapter 10 verse 14 and in both instances it just says it is written in the book of Jasher and it's recording of course this particular lamentation but then in Joshua chapter 10 it's recording the event when the sun stood still and the moon was not removed until the children of Israel were able to avenge themselves is it not written in the book of Jasher okay now the reason I even want to bring this up is because of the fact that today in 2022 because of the internet you have a group of people some even Christians who want to make this claim that the book of Jasher is this esoteric book that was removed from the Bible you know I'm sure we've all heard this before it's like there's all kinds of books that are removed from the Bible how can you trust it there's over 40 books that have been taken out of the Bible the Apocrypha has been taken out and the book of Jasher is often coupled with like first Enoch and the book of Jubilee and the gospel according to Thomas and Maccabees and all this other nonsense and you know they'll say well I want to know what the book of Jasher says you know why isn't the book of Jasher in the Bible okay now let me just say this is that any person okay who has read the Bible who has put in the effort to read the Bible cover to cover has come across the passages like this and I guarantee you no one has been like oh man I don't even have the correct Bible no one's come to the conclusion like I don't have the book of Jasher it's like like they're just like bummed out that there's no book of Jasher right because I remember when I first read the Bible from cover to cover in 2007 I remember reading it and I and I saw this and I'm like Jasher and my first initial thought because my first initial thought was well maybe that's just the way Josh would that's how Joshua was called because in my mind is just like there's times in the Bible where a certain name will have different variations in the old testament but even from old testament to new there's like a variation you have you have Isaiah and then in the new testament is Zias okay and so that's what I thought initially it's like oh Jasher might be just referring to like Joshua maybe it's written in Joshua or something like that and when I read it in Joshua it's like oh it must be Joshua but then I was just like wait it can't be Joshua because if it's written in Joshua and this is in Joshua chapter 10 then it can't be Jasher can't be Joshua but in both instances I came to the conclusion of or should I say I never came to the conclusion of oh man my Bible is incomplete in both instances it's not like oh man it's just there's one book of Jasher that I just never got to read and my King James Bible is incomplete I never came to that conclusion and the reason why is because I have 66 books here okay but obviously as I grew in the Lord as I understood more of the Bible and Bible concepts and began to hear about these different groups who were claiming that books were taken out I'm like okay Jasher is probably a book that's outside of the Bible that's not canonized that's not authoritative and that's not inspired and that's basically the conclusion I came to you know 2012 2013 or whatever but here's the thing is that when the Bible talks about the book of Jasher it was a legitimate book okay now I'm sure people can find the book of Jasher you go on Amazon you can purchase your copy of book of Jasher but I guarantee you it's not the book of Jasher that the Bible's talking about okay and let me just say this because I come across people like this all the time social media is filled with people who want to find these extra biblical revelations and extra books of the Bible and Jasher and first Enoch they're filled with people like that okay but here's the thing most of the time I would say 90 percent of the time every individual who's looking for those particular books has never never actually read through the Bible not even once never okay not a single one can can actually say I've read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and now I'm trying to look for something new because let me say this once you read the Bible from cover to cover you know you don't need anything else because there's enough here okay not a single person out there would say all right I've read Genesis to Revelation and I'm still lacking here I need the book of Jasher in my life I need to know the spiritual truth because each and every one of us who's read through the Bible whether once or scores of times we know that there's enough information in here for us to chew on for the rest of eternity okay but these people you know it's just like they've never read through the Bible once but all of a sudden they want to find these other books first Enoch they want to find the book of Jasher and let me tell you why they want to do that okay the reason they want to you know uncover the book of Jasher and uncover those 40 books that were supposedly taken out from the Bible is because they don't believe in the Bible that's the only reason you see we believe in what's called the inspiration and preservation of God's word and so what is inspiration is the fact that God breathed the inspiration of the Bible he used holy men of God to write the words that we have in the word of God but we also believe that it's preserved from generation to generation and I'm not referring to the preservation of the textual critics that will say oh yeah it's preserved it's under some rock somewhere it exists somewhere in the middle east in some cave or whatever or in the dead sea or something like that it's somewhere out there God is preserved we just got to find it that's not what we believe about preservation preservation biblical preservation is the fact that God has preserved his word in the hands of believers in churches throughout history so that means believers have always had a copy of God's word always okay they've always had a copy of God's word you're like well I've heard of the dark ages and the catholic church did this and that and they had it in Latin folks were not catholics you know we were never part of the catholic church baptists are not part of the catholic church but I guarantee you even during that time there were churches that existed during that time who still had a copy of God's word you say well how do you know that because the Bible tells us that the Bible is preserved for all generations from this generation forever and the Bible also says that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God so folks if the Bible is telling us that we cannot survive spiritually without every word but then he just like hides it somewhere under the sand it would contradict what God says it's just like you know you can't survive without this book so go you better go look for it where is it I don't know it's some dune somewhere and so hundreds of years are passing and people don't have the word of God they don't have the word of God oh but it's preserved that's nonsense folks preservation of scripture is the fact that God has kept the Bible in the hands of believers throughout the generations okay and you know it wasn't in some glass you know casement where people could look at it it was in the hands of believers you know they would copy it they would I'm sure they would bring it to church the pastor would get up and read from the word of God and once you know once you use it because you know when you use your Bible for example if you use it long if there's a particular Bible that you use for Bible reading or whatever and you just use it over and over again the paper gets worn out right it gets worn out starts tearing apart why because we're using it and so what happens when they would use it over and over again it would fall apart and what would they have to do they would have to copy it again copy it again and then pass it down from generation to generation well then how do you know then that some guy didn't tamper with it during the translation process this is how I know because God preserved it and for you to say that the Bible's been tampered with and that we don't have God's word is to say that man is more powerful than God that's basically what it means because if God promised to preserve his word that means he has the power to override man's mistakes when they're copying scriptures and passing it down from generation to generation you understand you know it's like oh no you know we can't trust man I know we can't trust man but we can trust God and you know man is imperfect however he is the tool that God uses to preserve the Bible yes to translate it or to make a copy of it to pass it down from generation to generation so these people who and by the way let me just say this if the book of Jasher still existed I'm talking about the one that the Bible's talking about okay if the book of Jasher still existed the people who wanted the book of Jasher if they got it would not believe it if the book of Jasher was part of canon and it was inspired and it was taken out and they miraculously found it and they inserted back in they would even read it they would actually not believe it not because they read it but just because they don't believe in God's word now Jasher the book of Jasher is not part of God's word I'm just using that to illustrate the fact that the problem is now these books that are taken out which I don't believe that the problem is that people approach the Bible with unbelief which is why they feel like they have to go outside of the Bible to look for something else but folks if they found that something else they still wouldn't believe it that's just the way it works the person who has the word of God and is still working to read through it from cover to cover but believes it's God's word they're on higher ground they're on a better place than the individual who doesn't believe the Bible in still looking for the book of Jasher first Enoch or whatever okay now look if you read these other apocryphal books you don't have to go very far in the books to see that they're just not inspired by God you say why because they're really stupid you know I'm currently reading through first Enoch right now and I don't want to go too deep into it because I want to go deep into it I'm not talking about the book I'm just saying what I've learned and the first chapter alone which is only a couple verses will show you right off the bat this is just not God's word there's no power it sounds really ridiculous it sounds really stupid I mean talk about discrepancies okay there's all types of contradictions discrepancies it's a wicked book but look the folks who the people who want to find the book of first Enoch and claim that it's God's word they've never even read it it's available on Amazon you can just purchase it and read it from cover to cover but I guarantee you the advocates of first Enoch have never read it they've never read it they've never actually cracked up you say where are they getting all this information from social media that's literally where they get it from folks I get people all the time on social media DMing me posts about contradictions in the bible and these but where are these books at and I'm just like facepalming emoji I just have it on save because I'm just like and I want to tell them like have you actually read the bible though well how could I read it if I can't trust it but yet you trust these these these social media gurus who have who know how to use they know how to use photoshop and you know they they make a three paragraphs you know casting doubt on God's word it's nonsense folks okay so what is the book of Jasher well I don't think it exists anymore but the book of Jasher is simply a book that records the history just events of the history of Israel here's another point that I want to make I just thought about I just remembered right now this isn't this is more proof let me give you some more proof that those who are advocates of Jasher and first Enoch and Maccabees and Jubilee and all that they've never read the bible cover to cover here's another proof to just prove to be honest shout out why aren't they looking for the book of chronicles or the book of kings you say what do you mean well when you read first and second chronicles first and second kings you read about a story of a king or an individual and it says you know are are there acts not written in the book of chronicles in the book of kings and when you go to those specific portions of the bible first and second chronicles first and second kings you find that no no that's not all written in there like the all that information is not there right that's because there's another book of chronicles that's not inspired where some scribe simply is recording the the the the minute details of the events that took place under that person's rule okay so when the bible talks about is it not written in the chronicles it's not referring to first and second chronicles as we have it in the bible what we have in the bible is a consolidated version of what's possibly written in an expanded version in these other books now mind you they're not inspired because god didn't approve that he didn't holy men of god did not speak they were not moved to write those words that are in those books but there's there probably were still legitimate books though like today there are legitimate books out there that are not inspired by god but the information is accurate of whatever history or you know whatever information they're putting now obviously there's bad books out there but there's books out there that you can read that have accurate information and in like manner the book of chronicles in the book of kings that are not bound in god's word they were not inspired by god but they still detailed with accuracy some a lot of the things that took place under that king's rule or whatever and an example that's what you see in the book of esther with artaxerxes when he can't sleep he asked for the book of chronicles to be brought out they read it to him he reads about mordecai delivering him and you don't find that in first and second chronicles it was just like a ledger a book that someone wrote where they're just dear diary and he was just like recording everything that took place that day you know this person tried to kill this person this took place you know and we can't have that in god's work because a lot of it's just irrelevant i mean first and second kings first and second chronicles is long enough to begin with right i mean there's parts of second chronicles when you're reading you're just reading names and names you're just like man this is this is oh it's profitable though it's profitable you're just kind of reading it so imagine that on top of every little minute detail of things that have no spiritual application whatsoever okay well i want to know why do you want to know if you never even read first and second chronicles because every prayer and look if it was really that important to find discover all these books they were taken out of the bible or they're not in the bible why isn't there a movement looking for the book of chronicles in the book of kings i'll tell you why because they've never read the bible and they don't even know it's there that's why they're trying to portray themselves as individuals who came to this conclusion that the bible's missing books and they came to that conclusion by actually reading the bible they're like oh i was reading the bible i know and then i saw a book of jasher i'm like oh man hey there's a conspiracy someone took out the book of jasher but that's a lie they saw it on facebook it's a lie they saw it on instagram they saw it on youtube they saw some q dude or whatever some q guy you know telling them you know you got to read this book because it has all these esoteric you know meanings for the end times and and this is the reason the church took it took these books out of the out of the king james bible and wrong they're not infallible portions of scripture they're not scripture at all okay you see the people who actually read the bible and came to the book of jasher and came to other books where maybe parts of the bible that we didn't understand we just believed it by faith and we were never we never felt like we were lacking anything when we read the bible it's not like we read jasher and just like man i wish i had this i wonder what jasher would have said like how would have jasher rendered this and you look up like jasher today and you know it's like yeah jasher recorded what's said in joshua 1014 and second samuel 118 and it also records the portion of scripture it talks about janice and jamborees you know they say you know in second timothy now as janice and jamborees withstood moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concern in the faith they say yeah janice and jamborees is all over the book of jasher but folks we don't even need the book of jasher to know who janice and jamborees are i mean the bible expects you to have a little bit of intelligence to read it because when it says janice and jamborees even though those names are not mentioned in the bible in the old testament at all by process of elimination we would say well it's mentioning two individuals and apparently these two individuals withstood moses who are the individuals that withstood moses oh yeah that's right the the sorcerers the magicians so we come to the conclusion that janice and jamborees is referring to the magicians under pharaoh's rule who were sent to essentially mimic the same miracles that moses was performing but the names janice and jamborees don't even mean anything like it's just something that's revealed to us in the new testament it just puts a name to people that we read about who are in hell right now now we don't just refer to them as magicians and sorcerers now we just refer to them as janice and jamborees okay but they'll try to do this they'll try to locate portions of scripture that refer to something that may not be found in the bible and say well i know where it's at it's in the book of jasher okay but here's the thing sometimes and i i'm chasing a rabbit here but this is important sometimes the bible will word certain things and you know the bible talks about in james chapter five the scripture the scripture say it that the spirit lusts it to envy right and you're not going to find that portion of scripture in the bible but often what's taking place is that sometimes the bible will quote a principle that is found in the bible for example you know when we go out sowing we'll say god only says god only says you have to believe now that is true but you're not gonna find a portion of scripture that says you only have god says you only have to believe word for word we're essentially summarizing or talking about a principle that is found in the bible which is exactly what the book of uh james chapter five is doing when it says that okay out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water that's not a portion of scripture and it says as it is written that's found in the old testament but it's sometimes it's a conglomerate of different doctrines that you see being put into the text and it's still god's word understand but what these wicked individuals would do is say oh man because that's not found in the bible now we can say that the book of jasher teaches this okay and there is no book that does this more than the book of first enoch first enoch i mean we've heard of jude the book of jude claiming to have you know people have said that the book of jude was uh copied the book of first enoch but that's not the only thing they claim that was copied they say many portions of scripture in the gospels were copied you know using the book of enoch whatever which is false more on that later but the point that i'm trying to make here is that who cares what the book of jasher says who cares we already have everything we need to know and you know what happens to these people who are looking for the book of jasher first enoch is that they're ever learning and just never able to come to the island of the truth because it's not like it's hard to find these books anyways you go on amazon we have like the internet and if you're too cheap to buy the book they probably have a copy of it you can read on your computer but they're not going to do that they just want to have like a corner on the truth right that's what it is they want to have this corner of the truth and say oh yeah you fundamentalist you guys got it all wrong you kjv only people you guys got it all wrong the kjv is missing all these books and you guys are missing this and it's just like we're not missing anything you guys are missing something and it's like between your ears and again here's the thing is that the vast majority of them number one don't believe the bible they don't believe the bible they don't believe the bible is preserved and if they believe those other books are inspired and preserved and if they obtained it they still wouldn't read it and they still wouldn't believe that it's inspired and preserved they are gluttons for for for conspiracy theories is what it is obviously there's conspiracy theories that are legitimate but some people are gluttons for those things where everything is a conspiracy even the things in the bible are just conspiracies you know um yeah you know king james was a homosexual and it's missing all these books and you know the nephilim and you know and aliens and stuff which come from the book of enoch first enoch which is not written by enoch i really want to get into that but i'm not going to don't look at me like that you know like the nephilim i mean the book of enoch teaches you you name the heresy it probably teaches it i'm not i'm not exaggerating either i'm against exaggeration i preach on exaggeration it's it's filled with a lot of bad stuff where was i going with that anyways so and here's the thing like it says here in verse 18 behold it is written in the book of jasher so people see that i'm like man i really want to know what the book of jasher says well i'll save you the work verse 19 through 27 that's what it says so it's telling you that verses uh verses 19 excuse me through 27 is also found in the book of jasher so again guess what you don't need it anymore because you already have it right here yeah but what else does it have though it has a story in joshua chapter 10 verse 14 about the sun standing city you know about the story yeah i know about this all right you don't need anything why do you need an inferior book to tell you what the bible already says right because i want to know what else you could say well if there's anything else in that particular book that said something different than the bible then we just completely discard it because at the end of the day the authority the standard is the bible itself this is the authority this is the standard we essentially look at everything in light of the bible so when someone brings us a document oh contradicts the bible immediately discard it it's trash it's not god's word and if it lines up with the bible oh guess what we don't need it because the bible already says it and the bible is more enjoyable to read anyways because when you read documents and and and books that claim to be divinely inspired we have a high standard you understand what i'm saying by that you know when you eat a specific food that's high quality it's hard to go back to the low quality stuff that's why i don't go to mcdonald's anymore god really you guys are you guys like jasher huh when you yeah or how about our taco bell or del taco oh we got a bunch of first enoch and and jasher lovers here hey when you have you know brother jose's cooking the the meats that he smokes you know you're not really satisfied with the meat from del taco i hope you know because now you have this you have like something to compare it to so even if you believe that jasher and maccabees was legitimate go and try to read that after you've read this you'll be like this is this sucks this book sucks and you can't fool yourself if you're saved you're not going to enjoy it because this is the quality stuff this is the good stuff the king james is the good stuff okay it's god's work you'll quickly see that it's not inspired at all it it'll give you a headache okay and so i'll move on and get off of del taco and taco bell and i'll stop comparing it to jasher and maccabees and first enoch and the gospel according to thomas and all those wannabe spiritual foods all right so what what is the the the song here let's let's get let's let's get serious here amen verse 19 the beauty of israel slain upon the high places how are the mighty fallen look what he says in verse 20 it's pretty interesting he says tell it not in gath publish it not in the streets of ascalon lest the daughters of the philistines rejoice lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph now this kind of shows you how noble david really is because he's saying like hey don't publicize this that he's slain don't publicize how he died don't publicize how they desecrated his body because we don't want like the enemies to find out about this and rejoice over it so he kind of wants to give saul as much honor as he possibly can which we obviously know like saul is a dishonorable guy right but in spite of that david's like don't publish it which the principle that we can learn there is that when someone sins and in this case obviously saul didn't get it right but to a certain extent he's he's he's right now because he's in heaven but if someone gets a sin right you know we don't want to just publicize it to everyone because the bible says that love covers a multitude of sins okay now obviously if you have an individual in our church who commits a grievous sin and they're just unrepentant then the bible commands us to publicize it and you know you know excommunicate that individual and kick them out and then say this person is involved in this you know therefore he's being kicked out she's being kicked out because of this particular grievous sin but if they got it right and they repented of it we don't want to publicize it because we want to save that person the shame of having to you know bear that embarrassment that shame of committing that grievous sin and this is what david's doing now obviously it didn't really work much because here we are thousands of years later knowing about saul's shame and just all the stupid stuff that he did but you know from david's part you know he did he's doing a good job he his heart's in the right place he's not trying to publicize his failure and he definitely doesn't want the the philistines the enemies of god to know it because the last people you want to know about some grievous sin are the enemies of god right because then at that point you know you cause the enemies of the lord to what to blaspheme which of course david ends up doing later on you know because of his grievous sin committing adultery and murder he caused the enemies of the lord to blaspheme but this is why he's saying you know don't tell it in gath don't publish it in the streets lest the daughters of the philistines rejoice lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph verse 21 he mountains of gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is villily cast away the shield of saul as though he had not been anointed with oil from the blood of the slain from the fat of the mighty the bow of jonathan turned on back and the sword of saul returned not empty saul and jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and you know what that is true there was times in saul's life where he was a pleasant lovely person he was a righteous man and that's exactly what he's highlighting them okay and let me say this you know we haven't had it yet and hopefully it doesn't happen for a long time but you know one day we're gonna have funerals because you know people die and stuff you know even in our church people are gonna die the longer we're around you know right now we're like weddings weddings weddings weddings after a while it's gonna be like weddings three funerals weddings one funeral because the longer you're just in a church the longer you you experience life with someone you know someone for a long time the more you start seeing death okay the older people get people die right well you know i've been a part of a couple funerals already many funerals actually at my old church and one of my responsibilities i oversaw the funeral aspect of of you know the process and everything of church and bringing the body in and everything i haven't done it a long time but i used to do it back then a lot because people just it's a large church people die and you know they would do that and one thing we would always tell that i learned from my father-in-law he would tell me this he said when you get because it was my it was my job to go to the grieving family and kind of explain what we're going to do you know the order of service how we're going to run the thing and he would tell him he goes he would say this make sure they ride out their uh i can't think of the word now what's the word i'm looking for when they come up and they give their you yeah like a eulogy make sure they ride it out he would say beforehand and turn it into you i'm like really that sounds kind of like insensitive you know and he and he told me he goes you have to do that because what happens is people come up and if they just speak from the heart it can be a disaster a huge disaster because you know people are emotional and then if their relationship wasn't right with this person during a certain time they might blurt that stuff out and dishonor dishonor the deceased you understand and they might regret it later okay so we would tell people like write this out so at least they have like and it's easier for them you know especially if they're crying they can just read off the page and then you know say what they need to say without like you know doing something crazy but we had instances i remember it was just one particular instance this lady in our church she passed away she was a great friend of my wife and i'm great church member she died of cancer and i remember her her her sons came up one of her sons came up and honestly he like dishonored her memory and and just you know i don't know if he did it i don't think he did it on purpose but because nothing was written he said a lot of bad stuff you know what i mean he like highlighted a lot of the bad stuff in her life and it's just and it's just because that's what was in his heart it's his mom he experienced those things with her but it's one of those things that we would say is an inappropriate to do at a funeral you understand because the funeral is meant to what honor the deceased right so he kind of dishonored her and you know when we have it here one day probably hopefully not anytime soon amen you know you guys are good right everyone healthy in here you know lord willing when we i shouldn't say lord when that happens when the time comes when we all go the way of earth you know the earth you know that we'll follow that protocol and have people write it out because we want to be like david where he's highlighting the good things about saul he was lovely he was pleasant in his life he's not going to say you know yeah and he went to the witch at endor and you guys remember when he killed all those priests too oh man that was pretty bad stinking saul you know i really knew him me and him were like really good friends to the point where he tried to kill me a couple times you know because that's legitimately what happened but something david doesn't want to highlight those things that would be inappropriate understand he's already dead it's it's over with verse 23 so he's highlighting the good things pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided they were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions you daughters of israel weep over saul who clothed you in scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel he's like remember the good things that he did do for you all right remember how good he was to you and the things that he did do for you verse 25 how are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle oh jonathan that was slain in thine high places now we would definitely understand that david was closer to jonathan than he was to saul he loved jonathan that was his his like best friend he's very close to him so obviously he's still speaking from a place of sincerity he says in verse 26 which is a passage that people also want to take out of context he says i am distressed for thee my brother very pleasant hast thou been unto me listen to this thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women now bible believing christians do not come to this conclusion only wicked god hating people do they'll claim that this is a perfect passage to prove that david and jonathan were fags or something it's just like what and why do they come to that conclusion well because they're perverts so any mention in the bible that even closely can be twisted to mean something perverse they see it as thus okay and you know they'll point to this and also point to where jonathan and david embrace and they kiss and in their minds some perverted is going on there whereas really what it is is probably just kissing them on the forehead i mean guys give guys hugs all the time not all the time but you know it happens when you're overwhelmed with joy or something why are you laughing miss kelly you never seen that before well you guys know what i'm talking about right when you're overwhelmed with joy you know when you have this overwhelming sense of joy you know you grab your brother and you give him a huge moses has done it multiple times you give a good jew joke to to moses he'll give you the greatest hug you've ever felt in your life he'll squeeze the life out of you okay and he'll give you a kiss on the head i'm not joking he's done it before that's why i don't tell those jokes around him i'm just kidding i'm just kidding but you know every one of us has had a brother a family member or brother in christ or something well we're just overwhelmed with joy i plug many men in our church where you know just during thanksgiving or christmas i see them and i just and even like a side hug or something right you just kind of squeeze them because you loved it right it's not it's not gay it's not effeminate to embrace a brother in christ or something like that is very appropriate and even to kiss on the forehead give that holy kiss is appropriate every once in a while though it's not my thing okay so you want to give me a holy kiss you know just just tell me you would like to but don't do it okay uh and so that's probably what jonathan and david did understand they're great friends and you have to you have to understand that they loved each other they were like best friends and they didn't see each other very often so when they did see each other it's like they missed each other understand now what does this particular passage mean because people have taken this to pervert this to say oh you know these guys loved each other more than they would even love women or something right well let me explain something here is that first of all it doesn't even say that david loved john david's love for jonathan passed the love of women although i'm sure he loved jonathan a great deal it's saying here that jonathan was very pleasant unto david and jonathan's love was wonderful passing the love of women now what does that mean in particular well let me give you the spiritual application of what i believe it's actually symbolically representing because david represents jesus christ therefore jonathan will represent the follower of jesus christ who is to love jesus christ and his love for jesus should pass the love of women should pass the love of their children should pass the love of their spouse should pass the love of everyone in other words our loyalty to jesus christ should be preeminent over every relationship that we have now why does it say women well because men you know one of the closest relationships that we will have on this earth is our relationship to our spouse right like my closest friend that i have in my life is my wife you know she's the closest most intimate relationship that i've ever experienced in this life is with my wife but the bible says that my love for jesus christ should surpass that that i should love jesus even more than i would love my wife it doesn't mean i should love my wife less or like hate my wife or just be like sorry girl you're number two on my list or something no i'm supposed to love christ i'm supposed to love my wife as christ also love the church but here's the thing is that my love for jesus passeth the love of my woman you understand in other words i'm more loyal to my lord jesus christ than i would be to my wife and although i am loyal to my wife and i do love my wife my loyalty for jesus christ is far greater because he's my god he's my savior and so this is what it's signifying here is that you know jonathan represents the believer who loved david and his love for david passed up the love of women now from a practical standpoint you say how do you explain the the literal interpretation well the literal interpretation is that jonathan and david won't really you know about that life with women in the sense that they weren't really emotionally tied to their women that's why they're like marrying all kinds of girls and stuff and just you know just kind of leaving them and leaving them in the city and just kind of you know i mean i'm not saying they didn't love their wives but you know it says something when you just pick up two wives in one trip right you guys understand this is like you're my one and only and you it's like he's just like collecting wives like people collect you know pogs is that what you said pokemon what people what people collect nowadays pokemon is that what you said jason did you speak i don't know what people collect what do people collect nowadays shoes cars man that's an expensive hobby there you know they're just they're just collecting i'm just saying they're just collecting a lot of wives and it doesn't seem to be like a really special relationship either it's just like and then salomon does the same thing and they're just having children and again i'm not saying that they didn't love their wives they obviously love their wives but it could be that their emotional relationship to that spouse sis their spouses was very shallow right because there's only so much you can say you really love this particular one when the other one's standing like right there you understand whereas the love that he had for jonathan and vice versa you know that seems to be where he invested a lot more emotional love too okay now now i'm not saying that's right either okay so don't use that and say all right well i'm gonna be best friends i'm gonna be closer to my my guy friend or whatever my best buddy more than my wife or something don't that's stupid okay because the bible teaches us we have the whole entire scripture and and men you should not be closer to your high school buddy and the dude you grew up with more than your spouse all right and in fact let me just say this you should spend more time with your spouse than you do with your high school buddy or whatever okay we're not in high school or if you're married you should behave like it okay and not you know carrying that third person around everywhere you go or something like that go on a triple date or something okay be with your wife amen and so but here this is what we see going on and obviously this is a completely different life these guys are going to war they're fighting all these battles and so some of the most intimate emotional relationships that they've experienced are those that they have on the battlefield alongside with another soldier and they love each other so that's what it's talking about it's not talking about faggotry okay and we obviously know that we didn't think it was talking about faggotry but that's just to answer the fags who say that it's talking about faggotry you know what i'm saying so it says his love was wonderful passing the love of women how are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished and so he he concludes it by just saying like these guys were awesome these guys were wonderful and how is it that they fell and how is it that they just perished along the way he's simply just honoring them before he begins to move on in the next chapter to take over okay and so uh that's pretty much it great start to second samuel chapter one hope we learned something let's pray when we dismiss father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the principles that we learned lord thank you for the preservation the inspiration and preservation of your word help us as your people to read the word of god in faith and uh when we come across something we just don't understand just believe it anyways and if people want to say that's blind faith let them call what they want they're not even saved and so lord we believe every single word and we have faith that it's true no matter what and may you open the eyes of our understanding and uh teaches the deep things of god through the spirit of god that dwells within us as we mature as we read the bible more and more may you just continue to teach us lord and we know that we're not going to learn the entire bible in a lifetime not even in eternity we're just going to keep learning the word of god because it's it's it's unsearchable and so please lord help us and lord we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen all right we have one last song tonight song number 44 will work till jesus comes song 44 will work till jesus comes everyone nice and strong all together oh land of rest for the i sigh when will the moment come when i shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home will work till jesus comes will work till jesus comes will work till jesus comes and will be gathered home to jesus christ i fled for rest he bade me cease to roam and lean force a core on his breast till he conduct me home will work till jesus comes will work till jesus comes will work till jesus comes and will be gathered home i sought at once my savior's side no more my steps shall roam with him all brave debts chilling tight and reach my heavily home will work till jesus comes will work till jesus comes will work till jesus comes and will be gathered amen wonderful singing the artisans so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so you