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I'm preaching a counterpart to a previous sermon that I preached. I preached a sermon entitled Be Like Abigail. The sermon this evening is Be Like David. David is a much more important character in the Bible. He's mentioned so much more in the Bible, but I really just want to focus on this chapter and pick out a lot of the attributes of David like we did with Abigail and see how we should be like David in this chapter, because I think there's a really important chapter to understanding a lot of things about who David is and how we should be like David. But let's go to verse number nine again. The Bible reads, And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And so we have a story where David is confronted with his enemy Saul, and he has this opportunity to slay Saul, as we've read in this chapter, but he decides not to hurt Saul. Really, this undermines a phrase in the Bible that a lot of people would maybe throw in our face or try to use against us, and we need to combat that with true biblical doctrine, but we also need to believe it too. Keep your finger here and go to Matthew chapter five for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter five. Really, David is probably one of the best characters at understanding the balance between loving those whom you should love and hating those on whom you should hate. David is a great man at doing both at the same time and really modeling for us what that looks like in our lives. But in Matthew chapter number five, look at verse number 43. The Bible says, You have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine 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 may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. This verse also makes me think of another thing. When we go out soul winning, I heard a lot of people, they're not saved, but they're talking to you and they're like, Oh, I know God's real. He's done this really good thing in my life. It's like, yeah, God does good things to unsaved people. God does good to the just and to the unjust. He gives us all kinds of blessings. Now, what you have to understand about Matthew chapter number five, and I'm not going to preach this entire chapter, but whenever Jesus Christ is bringing something up and he's saying, You've heard that it has been said, he's not saying this is what the Bible says explicitly. He's basically just bringing up the idea of this is some morality that you've heard of or this is something that people say or this is just kind of a common thought that a lot of people have. What's a common thought? Do good to those who do good to you and hate those that don't do good to you. Basically, all your friends be good to them, but don't necessarily be good to your enemies. That's basically a type of righteousness that a lot of people just kind of automatically have or kind of default to. So Jesus Christ is saying, You know what? That's some people's righteousness, but let me tell you what my righteousness is like. My righteousness is to go beyond that and even love people that aren't good to you. Love people that are your personal enemy or that would wrong you or do evil against you. You should love that person just like God himself reigns on the just and on the unjust. So we see God in a way does good on the people that don't deserve it. America doesn't deserve rain, but we get a lot of it. Seattle gets a lot of rain, but God does good things to us even though we don't deserve them and that shows his long suffering, that shows his grace, that shows his goodness, and it shows how God loves us and not just us, but basically all mankind in a sense that he gives love towards them. For God so loved the world, God obviously sacrificed his son for everyone. God gives rain to everyone. God gives a lot of good things to everyone and demonstrates his love towards everyone. There are people who are God's enemies per se and God still loves them. God still does good unto them. Now obviously we have to make sure that we balance every single thing in the Bible. We're not talking about someone that just hates God and has this burning desire to have nothing to do with God and doesn't want to retain him as knowledge. We're just talking about your average sinner. Your average sinner is an enemy of God. Your average sinner who has broken his commandments is an enemy of God and God still loves those people and still does good unto those people. And just like David who has a very specific personal enemy, King Saul, David still decides to love Saul despite Saul's hatred and Saul's persecution against David. We see him modeling what Christ said here by loving his enemy. It would be very easy for David to just say, you know what? This guy is trying to kill me. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to attack him. The Lord basically just delivered Saul on a silver platter to him. This is actually the second time in which it's happened. And notice what David's attitude is. No. But his servants, they want to. His servants want to kill Saul. So notice that's a natural tendency to love those that do good to you and to hate those that don't do good to you. But notice what David, David's different. David is saying, no, we're not going to harm. So we're going to love our enemy and we're not going to even attack our enemy in any way. Look what it says in verse number 10. He says, David said, furthermore, as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed, but I pray thee, take down now the spear that is at his bolster and the cruise of water and let us go. Now here's another thing. Does David shy away from addressing the fact that Saul is going to be severely punished though? No. Look what his statement is. He says, as the Lord liveth. Now is that a pretty strong statement? He's called the great I am, you know, as the Lord liveth, what does he say? The Lord shall smite him. Now that's like an iron clad guarantee. I mean, he's saying this guy is going to be punished and specifically he's even making reference to the fact he's probably going to die. He's saying God might kill him in battle, but one thing's for sure, God shall smite him. But he's saying I'm not going to be that guy that God uses to smite Saul. Hey, Saul's going to get punished. Saul is going to have his day where he gets severely chastised by the Lord, but I'm not going to be the one to do it. Now, how could he make such a statement? Well, keep your finger and go to Hebrews in your New Testament. Go to Hebrews for a moment and I want to show you something the Bible says in the New Testament about this. Now, one thing we know in the Bible is Saul saved and Saul goes to be with the Lord. You know, at the end of the book of 1 Samuel, even though he's talking to the witch at Endor and even though somehow by a miracle God allows Samuel to come up and be disquieted and talks with Saul, he says, tomorrow you're going to be with me. And so we see a picture of the fact that, hey, Saul still went to heaven despite ruining his life, despite ending his life in ruin and basically not even being able to hear from the Lord and not serving him anymore and rejecting him and committing horrible sins. Not only does he inquire of the witch at Endor, not only is he persecuting David, he even takes his own life. Yet, he still goes to heaven. Why? Because salvation is by faith. Because salvation is by grace. No one deserved it when you first got saved and you didn't deserve it when you died either. And so Saul got there by faith, just like every other person. But if you're saved and you live like the devil, if you're saved and you're not following his commandments, there's a guarantee of something. Okay, I want to show you this. Look at verse number five. And he had forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son. Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. You know what the Bible promises? If you're a child of God, you will be punished. As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him. Hey, if you're saved, you're going to get punished. You say, well, I just want to go back to the world. I just want to live however I want. I just want to sin. Okay, well, the Lord's going to smite you. That is an ironclad guarantee. You know, there's certain things that my children could do that they'll definitely get punished. You know, I'm not a perfect parent. I'm not a perfect father. And I could be negligent on punishing my children. But you know who's not negligent in punishing his children? God. And so when we see brothers and sisters in Christ, even if they turn against us, even if they're our enemies, we have to realize God will punish that person. God will deal with that person. We don't have to do it. And we should never be the person by whom we're avenging the Lord. You know, we're not going to go and attack our brothers and sisters in Christ. We're not going to try and harm our brothers and sisters in Christ. That would be an evil attitude. We should always love those that are saved without question. There's no other option. It's love your brothers and sisters in Christ. You don't curse your brothers and sisters in Christ ever. Okay? You don't wish harm on them. You don't hope something bad happens to them. You don't rejoice when something bad happens to them either. Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth. You know, the Bible talks about if you're rejoicing, you're excited when something bad happens to your enemy, God might not even punish them anymore. God might stop from punishing them. Okay? So we don't want to have a negative attitude towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter how evil they are towards us. But David realized there's an impending death for Saul, but he's not going to be the one to do it. Go back, if you would, to First Samuel chapter 26. So what have you learned? Number one, love our enemy. Number two, realize God will punish. God will avenge. God will take care of things. Okay? But we shouldn't be the one to make sure that punishment gets doled out. You know what this looks like? It looks like when your kids, they come and they're like, Mommy, Mommy, they took a cookie. Here's the spoon. You know, it's like, my kids, you know, they're like, here's the spoon. Here's the paddle. They need a spanking. Hey, they didn't do what you said. You know, they're so eager for their brother or sister to be punished, you know? And it's like, that's a bad attitude. You know, you kind of want to punish that kid, too. You're kind of like, all right, well, let's see what you're doing wrong. Okay? You know, you want to advocate for your brother and sister in Christ. And, you know, that's the right attitude. Now let's keep reading here, though, because, and I want to kind of look at another part of this verse 11, but he does do something. He says, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster and the cruise of water, and let us go. He says, so David took the spear and the cruise of water from Saul's bolster, and they gat them away, and no man saw it nor knew it, neither awake, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them. David went over to the other side and stood on the top of an hill afar off, a great space being between them. And David cried to the people and to Abner, the son of nursing, answer is thou not, Abner? So what do we see? We see David taking a few pieces of equipment from Saul's camp to prove to him that he was not going to hurt him, to prove to him that he had the opportunity to kill him, and he decided not to kill him. Now, what I think about this is I think about this. He's going to prove to Saul, okay, that he's an error and that he's not going to harm him. So if I were to instruct my brother and sister in Christ in ways that I'm not trying to hurt him or harm him, that would be righteous, you know, or that would be acceptable because, look, sometimes you're rebuking somebody or someone, sometimes you're correcting someone and they get the wrong idea about it. And so you try to illustrate to them your love in some way. And what's interesting about this, even though it's, you know, look at this, this is theft, right? He's taking his stuff. What he's trying to do is he's trying to show that he loves Saul. By taking the goods, he can prove to Saul, look, God literally handed you over on a silver platter and I didn't kill you. I didn't harm you. There's no other way really for him to prove this. How can he prove it? Because if he wakes everybody up, he's dead meat, okay? If he doesn't take anything, then how do they know that he had the opportunity? So he's taking this to prove to Saul his love that he has for him. Now, keep your finger here and go to 1 Chronicles chapter number 16, 1 Chronicles chapter number 16. I want to show you a few other verses here. But not only is Saul his brother in Christ, he's also his master. It's also his Lord. It's also his boss, okay? And it's also a person in a position of authority, someone that's been anointed by God. And David understands this doctrine that you should never want to harm one of God's people and even especially his prophets, okay? 1 Chronicles chapter 16, look at verse 16. Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham and in his oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law and Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee, Will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance, when ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it? And when they went from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong. Yet he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Sing unto the Lord all the earth, show forth from day to day his salvation. So notice the Bible's crystal clear. We shouldn't try to harm God's people and especially his prophets. You don't want to hurt a prophet of God. Now Saul is really in error here. Saul has gone really off the deep end. But notice David didn't say, even though Saul's gone really off the deep end and he's really in grievous error, that gives me a reason to hurt or harm him. There is no reason to hurt or harm one of God's children or God's people. And you should be afraid to hurt that person or to harm that person or to do evil against them. That would mean, look, God doesn't look at his children and say, Well, I know this children's screwing up a lot, so it's okay for you to hurt him. And I liken this to brothers or something. Brothers and a big brother, he loves to pick on his little brother. But here's the thing, he's not going to let someone else pick on his little brother. You're not going to come around and hurt his little brother. I mean, that's not acceptable. And the thing is, while we might, you know, tell someone that they're doing something wrong or we might correct somebody, that's not because we dislike them. That's not because we're trying to harm them. And here's the thing, no matter how much my brother has been hurting me or harming me or whatever, if someone tries to attack him, I'm going to defend him. I'm going to be there to support him. You know, it's sad today how brothers and sisters in Christ can get to a point where they won't support their brothers and sisters in Christ because of some perceived wrong that they've done. They'll have an obvious enemy attacking them, but they can't stand with their brother and sister in Christ because, oh, they were mean to them or they did something wrong to them. Well, let me give you a news flash, okay? The new IFB has never done anything to the old IFB like Saul did to David. Never. But notice what David's attitude is, I'm still not going to hurt him. And I guarantee if the Philistines came to attack Saul, you know, it'd be there to defend him. David. Isn't it sad that there can't, there's like zero old IFB pastors that can stand with Pastor Mejia after his church is bombed by sodomites. Think about that. Where's all the other Baptist churches? Where's all the other men of God to stand up and say, and condemn that? How sick, how gross. Look, I don't care how much your brother or sister hurts or harms you, you should still be on their side. You should still be advocating for them. And you know what? These sodomites, they're going to get what's coming to them because the Bible says to not touch mine anointed. Do my prophets no harm. And you know what? God will avenge, and God is going to take care of business. Go over to Psalms 105. Hey, whenever one of God's people screwed up and went to the heathen, God still protected them. Abraham lied and said that Sarah was his sister. Well, she is, but like he was lying in the fact that she wasn't his wife. It's his half-sister, so it's like a half-truth. But you know what? It's a whole lie. A half-truth is a whole lie. Three-quarters truth is a lie. Ninety-nine percent truth is a lie. Okay? And we have to understand that even though Abraham was in error and he really screwed up and he could have caused his wife to commit adultery, which is like horrifying, God still protected them and then blessed them out of it. Why? Because God just has favor towards his people. Even when his people screw up, and that gives me a lot of hope because I'm like, I know I keep screwing up. And then it seems like God still blesses us, you know? And God still gives us favor, and God still allows us to screw up and for things to still work out, for things to still go good for us, okay? Despite our weaknesses, despite our failures. Psalms 105, look at verse 15. Saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. Look, the Bible repeats this. We're not supposed to hurt God's prophets. We're not supposed to do harm to God's people. We shouldn't hate those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, okay? Go if you would to Psalms 101 now. Go to Psalms 101. Why am I emphasizing this? Well, I think sometimes we can get so much zeal for hating reprobates and false prophets and teachers that we could accidentally try to attack Saul. And here's the thing. That's wrong. We should not ever wish evil or harm to Saul. We don't want to wish that our brothers and sisters in Christ, something bad will happen to them. I'm not going to go out and harass them and try to attack them and do evil to them. We should love them. We should pray for them. We should want good for them. But this is one thing you have to understand. And I have three points this evening, okay? Number one, we need to love our enemies. But sometimes you have to love your enemy from afar. Notice how David is loving him. Not real close because he can't. He's going to love his enemy from afar. And so here's the thing. Has there been a separation per se from the old IFB to the new IFB? Maybe. I try to still be their friend, but they don't really want to be my friend. You know, David would still be friends with Saul, but Saul's not really interested in David, is he? Okay. But sometimes that division is necessary to preserve yourself. To preserve yourself from them, to separate from them. And there's certain separations that David decides are really important. Let's read Psalm 101. Look at verse number four. A froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. David realizes, hey, I can't be around this type of person. And you know who's froward? Saul. He's contrary to David. He's against David. He's attacking David. Verse five. Who so privately slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath an eye look in a proud heart, will not I suffer. So even if someone's saved, they can still slander you. Even if they're saved, they can still attack you or be froward against you. And at that point, you say, well, guess I kind of have to separate from that person. I kind of have to put some safe distance between me and that person. It's not that I'm wishing harm to them or evil to them. I'm just saying I can't be around you anymore. I have to separate myself from this person. He says in verse six, mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the lamb, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that it may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. So notice David is saying, look, I can't be around someone that's lying, that's froward, someone that's going to slander, someone especially that's privily slandering. Privily slander is always wrong. If you can't tell everyone, then it's probably gossip. It's probably wrong. It's probably not something. Look, there's sometimes I'm talking one on one with somebody and I'll bring up a false prophet or something and I'll talk about how they're evil. But you know what? I would say it from the pulpit too. Here's the thing. If you wouldn't say it from the pulpit, you probably shouldn't say it. That's a good guess. And the person that goes around sneakily and quietly, hey, let me tell you something. It's like, no, I'm not interested in secrets. Secrets aren't, you know, I'm interested in the truth. I'm interested in the light. And the guy that's going around whispering, you know, maybe whispering today is text messaging. They're going around, they create these secret texting groups and they slander people. Look, that's not the person you want to be around. You know why? Because they're going to do that to you. You're never on the inside, okay? If you think that you and your buddies are the only one, oh, we wouldn't slander each other, you're lying to yourself, okay? And so even if someone's godly, even if someone's saved, even if they've done great works in the bath. I mean, let's think about Saul. He was little in his own sight. He was the first anointed king of Israel. He slew thousands of Philistines. He was a great leader. I mean, this guy was great. But there came a point where he said, I can't have any fellowship with you. Why? Because he started throwing spears at him. Like when someone's throwing a spear at you, run away, okay? Don't go in the presence of that person. And you know what? There's going to be Baptists, there's going to be preachers, there's going to be great men of God that when they start throwing a spear, you have to separate from them. But here's the thing. That doesn't mean that they're a Philistine now. That doesn't mean that they're Goliath, okay? And so we don't want to hurt them, we don't want to harm them, we don't want to do evil against them. We need to love our enemy, but we need to keep a safe distance. So point one, be like David in loving your enemy. But point number two, sometimes you need to keep a safe distance from your enemies, okay? Let's keep reading and go back to 1 Samuel 26, and let's keep reading a little bit more of the story. And he calls out to Abner, and he said in verse number 14, and David cried to the people and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, answer is thou not Abner? Then Abner answered and said, who art thou that cries to the king? And David said to Abner, art not thou a valiant man? He's kind of talking bad about this guy. And who is like to thee in Israel? Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? For there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is not good that thou has done. As the lord liveth, again that's a pretty strong statement, isn't it? Ye are worthy to die. Wow. Because ye have not kept your master, the lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is in the cruise of water that was at his bolster. Now, this is a really interesting portion of this chapter here where David is rebuking Abner severely. Now, here's a couple things you have to understand. First of all, that doesn't mean he hates Abner, but Abner is worthy to be strongly rebuked because he's worthy of death. He literally allowed Saul to be killed, and by grace, David was someone that wouldn't kill him. I mean, if it was anybody but David, Saul would have died, and so would probably Abner. And what we have to understand is that David preserved both of their lies. Abishai is like, let's go. I'm ready to get this guy because he's the son of Zeruiah. That's a different sermon. But here's the thing you have to understand. It's very interesting about this sermon. Who's Abner? Abner is the guy that's with Saul. Abner is Saul's right-hand man. Abner is his most valiant guy. But you know who preserves Saul's life better than Abner? David. David preserves Saul's life more than Abner. And this is what I'm going to tell you. Yes men are not your greatest offender. You know who's your greatest offender? The guy who's rebuking you. The guy that's telling you that you're wrong. Go over to Proverbs 27 for a second. Think about this. You know, people get so mad at someone like me. I find a saved pastor and I point out him being a grievous error, and they act like I'm attacking him or hurting him. You know who's attacking and hurting that guy? The Abners in his life that are the yes men, pretending like what they're doing is good, allowing them to go to these battles. And you know the yes men, he's not going to tell you when you have a problem. He's not going to tell you when you have a grievous error. He's not going to actually preserve you. Look at Proverbs 27 verse 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You know what's better than a kiss? A wound. Because if all you get is kisses from Abner, he's going to let you die. But notice the wounds from David will actually preserve you. Not only did David literally preserve him, but David allows Saul to realize, hey, Abner's sucking at his job. Abner's not doing his job. Your right-hand man doesn't really care about you. Look at this horrible error he let you commit. Look at the horrible error he commits. You know, the guy that actually cares about you and loves you will rebuke you when you do something wrong. The Bible says that you shouldn't hate your neighbor in your heart. You're not supposed to suffer sin upon him. What are you supposed to do? Rebuke him. Tell him that he's wrong. And people get all mad. They're like, why would you rebuke a pastor? Why would you talk negative about a man? It's like this is like, well, do you want me to be an Abner? Abner's not really his friend. Abner's not really preserving him. Abner's going to allow this guy to get destroyed. If I'm doing something wrong, please help me. Why would I want a bunch of yes men to let me just walk off the cliff? You know, the guy that really preserves Saul better is David. Even when David has been pushed out, even when David's not his, you know, in his like current service, he's still preserving his life more than Abner. That's crazy to think about. Abishai wanted to kill him, but David preserved him. And notice Abner didn't preserve him from anybody. Abner's just asleep on the wheel, you know? And you know, there's a lot of Christians that are asleep at the wheel today. They will let their master be destroyed because, you know what, they're just a yes man. And it takes courage, it takes boldness to do the right thing sometimes. But we need to be like David. We need to keep a safe distance because then we can still preserve them, okay? Now, go if you would. Let's go back and let's look at verse number 17. Let's keep reading the story. So point number one, be like David and loving your enemies. Point number two, keep a safe distance. And point number three is this, protect your enemies. That doesn't sound, you know, very good. But David literally protected his enemy. He protected Saul's life. And he's protecting him from Abner saying, you know, you got some problems in your ranks. You got some pences in your ranks. Okay, no, I'm just kidding. You got some Judases in your ranks, right? You got people that are going to betray you that are not there that are really watching out for you. And we see in verse number 17, it says, and Saul knew David's voice and said, is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, it is my voice, my Lord O King. That's interesting about this is Saul knows David's voice because he saved. Hey, the saved know the voice of the shepherd. It's just, he wasn't listening. He wasn't interested. He wasn't putting David around him. He got mad at David's voice, which is a picture of what? Some Christians get mad at the Bible. They get mad at what God's commandments actually say and they don't want to believe them. But you know what? When David speaks to them, they still know, okay, well that is the word of God though. That is still what the Bible says. Verse 18, and when he said, and he said, wherefore doth my Lord does pursue after a servant? But what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand? Again, David is defending himself. He's saying, what have I done wrong? So is it okay for me to tell somebody that they're in error? Yeah, of course there is. We need to, but you know, he's entreating him as a father. He's not, you know, screaming at him or yelling at him. He's just, he's trying to be nice. He's like, what have I done? Why are you pursuing me? Why are you coming after me? Why are you trying to attack me? What have I really done? You know, you asked for a hundred four skins, I gave you 200. I wouldn't want to give you one, okay? I don't want to collect one four skin, okay? How did you collect 200? Who thinks of that? A hundred, you're like, I don't want to, you're not going to be like, do you think we should get an extra? No. Let's get double. You're like, no. Can you imagine the guys there that were with them? That's some loyal servants. I think Dave, I think, uh, I think my employees might quit, you know, it's like, they're just like, no, thank you. Right. Well, let's keep reading. He says in verse 19, now, therefore I pray thee, let my Lord, the King hear the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if they be the children of men cursed be they before the Lord. For they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying, go serve other gods. Now this is a very interesting statement. David basically brings up a hypothetical. And what I like about this is it shows the humanity of David. You know, we kind of sometimes don't realize that these people, they weren't looking into the future with the Bible and knowing like exactly what's going to happen every moment of their life. They're living their life like we are. We don't know what's going to happen five minutes from now. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. We don't know what the future behold. We don't know people's intentions always. And so David brings up a hypothetical because he doesn't know. He just says, hey, if you're pursuing after me, if you're trying to hurt me because God's causing you to do it, well, let him accept an offering. But he's saying if people are stirring you up against me, let them be cursed. Okay. But he doesn't know which one it is. And I'll say this. I pray like this sometimes because I just don't know. I say, you know, I look at a particular individual and I say, you know what? I can't tell what's going on with this person. I can't tell if this person is like just an error or they're super wicked. They're like an evil reprobate type person. And so I'll just pray to the Lord. I say, hey, just expose it. You know, just whatever it is, if this person's saved, you know, let them just come to the truth and let them, you know, get their heart right and let me have a right heart towards them. But I say if they're wicked, expose them. Just make it manifest. Just, you know, curse them, destroy them. Just make it clear and obvious how wicked they are. And look, those prayers have come true sometimes for me. There's been people where I'm thinking like, I can't tell. I can't put my finger on it. I feel a certain way, but I don't have the proof. And I'm just like, Lord, make it manifest. And they're just like, you know, Judah's got more people saved than anybody else. I mean, what could be more manifest than that? You know, you don't intend harm on these people. You don't want bad to happen to them. You don't want evil to happen to these people. You know, look at David's attitude. He's saying, you know what, if God's just causing you to, you know, chase out, let him accept an offering. And really, this is kind of an interesting picture here because I believe this is a great picture we have of Christ, right? Because who does Saul represent? He represents Israel, and the Lord stirs up Israel against who? David, who's Christ, and they kill him. And how is God pacified? By the offering of Jesus Christ, isn't he? You know what those Pharisees that were trying to stir him up, they're cursed. And notice David's not afraid to curse those people either, is he? To curse the people that would attack him personally. Oh, you just must think you're real special, David. People that are attacking you must be of the devil, because they are. Notice David wasn't afraid to say, hey, the people that hate me and are trying to kill me are of the devil. Oh, you're so prideful, David. Who do you think you are? God's anointed. He's a child of God. And look, let me tell you something. People that hate godly men that are attacking them, they're reprobates, and they are cursed of the Lord. They're not, look, obviously David wants to hurt, or Saul wants to hurt David here, okay? And we understand, but even Saul's constantly conflicted. He's constantly trying to, look, those people that are just adamant, just these wicked evil, just constant, you know, implacable reprobate type haters, they are reprobate, okay? And they're going to constantly hurt them. And go if you would to Psalms chapter 109 for a moment. Go to Psalms 109. These people that are, you know, bombing, pastor of a his church, they're reprobate. They're evil. Curse them. Hey, if people are getting stirred up, hey, it almost makes me feel like the media's in that camp, because who's stirring them up? Curse them. Oh, I don't know why you would curse people. That's not biblical. Why is David doing it then? A man after God's own heart. Now look at Psalms 109, and look at verse number 15. The Bible says, let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Now this is talking about Judas, and this is talking about his family, and it's saying let the Lord cut them off their memory from the earth. Here's what you have to understand. All the wicked will be forgotten at some point. They will be utterly destroyed. And notice what they did. They wanted to push David off of the inheritance and tell him to go serve other gods so he couldn't serve the Lord. You know what? David's coming back to that inheritance, and they will be pushed off and forgotten forever. And you know what? Those faggots that want El Mani so bad, and those faggots that bomb Pastor Mejia's church trying to get him away from serving God, he's still gonna serve God wherever he's at, number one. And then number two, he's coming back on this earth, and you know what? His memory's not gonna rot, but their memory will rot. You know what? I don't know any of their names, and I never will, because their memory will rot like the disgusting filth and dung that they are. They're just gonna perish and cease to exist. I don't care about them. Nothing about them matters. Look at Proverbs chapter 10, Proverbs chapter number 10. You know these people trying to push David off from serving God. Notice they're trying to get David from stop serving God in his country, trying to get him to serve other gods, trying to get him to stop being around the Lord's people. But you know what? God's not gonna let that happen. God's gonna bring him back, and God's gonna bring him back in full force. He's gonna be their leader. He's gonna be their king. Proverbs chapter 10, look at verse seven. The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. Biden's name will rot. It's just gonna be a byword, and then it's just gonna cease to exist. Nobody cares anymore. Nobody wants to know their name. And look, everybody that was wicked eventually gets exposed. Think about it. It's not like people are like, oh, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong. Everyone that was super wicked, even though they had lots of people brainwashed back then, when people look back in history, they're gonna be like, that guy was wicked. There might be all kinds of people that voted for Biden, but you know what? When the people look back, no one's gonna be pro Biden. No one's gonna be pro Kamala. No one's gonna be pro any of these people. They're gonna look back and be like, they're so wicked. They were so evil. They were so vile. Joe Biden, he basically has already forgotten that he even exists himself. He's not far from perishing in his own mind, let alone everybody else's. And Kamala will probably be so bad. Well, for Biden, who? You know? The next guy will be, I mean, who can even remember five presidents ago? 20 presidents ago. I mean, it's like, who cares? No one. No one cares. You know what? Those that were godly, we still remember them. Isn't it interesting that there's millions of people preaching about all the godly people that lived on this earth and all the wicked people we forgot about them. Nobody cares about them. We'll go to Isaiah chapter 26, Isaiah chapter 26. Hey, you can try to push King David out of his inheritance. You can bomb the church, but you know what? We're coming back and we're coming back with Christ and you're gonna rock and your memory is gonna perish and nobody's gonna care about you. You know what? They can't stand that. They hate that. So they just try to push you off the land while they can. Isaiah 26, look at verse 10. Let favor be showed to the wicked. That's an interesting verse. That makes me think of what we already read. How God reigns on the just and the unjust. Hey, I go out to the wicked and preach the gospel all the time. We try to show them favor, but what happens if they don't return? Yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see, but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people. Yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. So notice they're envious of God's people. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because he was envious of his brother. Because his brother was righteous. Because God liked Abel. Because God was pleased with Abel. You know why they hate God's people? Because we're righteous. Here's a question I have for you, okay? Who is doing more damage to the sodomite community? The independent Baptist that preaches about how wicked they are or Muslims that throw them off buildings? Who's more intolerant? I mean I haven't seen an independent Baptist pick a sodomite up and throw him off a building anytime soon, anytime recently. Yet when is the last time these faggots protested a mosque? I mean look there's all kinds of people that are hating fags and killing them. Why are they persecuting us? Because they hate the righteous. Because the Muslims not righteous. Because the Muslims not of God. Look, the devil's not gonna go and attack his own. He's like they're good. He's gonna come and attack the righteous. Look, when do the news media condemn all the mosques in America? They believe in Sharia law. It's not like they're better. It's not in that regard, okay? Hey, they believe in capital punishment for fags. When is the news media gonna be like, oh we need to make sure and protest all the mosques and look at this mosque with their hateful rhetoric and their evil language. It's not gonna happen. Why? Because he's not righteous. They're gonna attack the righteous. They're gonna hate God's people. But you know what? Their memory is going to perish. What does it say in verse number 14? They are dead. They shall not live. They are decreased. They shall not rise. Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. Talking about their rulers, their leaders that were wicked, that weren't godly, that didn't get saved. Notice their memory will perish. And you have to understand this. Most everything in your entire life you've forgotten. Did you know 99.9% of your meals you can't remember? 99.9% of your outfits you can't remember? I can't remember 100%. Women can remember like .01% of them, okay? You can't remember. Look, you don't remember what you did at one or two or three or four. Maybe some things at five. I mean, the amount of stuff you remember about your life is like less than .001% already, okay? And look, eventually we won't remember anything about the wicked or any of those kind of things. We're just gonna be worshipping God. It's gonna be so great. And just like you forgot your life at one, two, three, four, you're gonna forget all this, too. It doesn't matter. You don't matter serving God, doing that which is right. And these wicked people will forget about him. We won't even remember that his church was bombed. You're just gonna be thinking like, why is Pastor Man? He is like, how so big? Why is this mansion? Why does he have so many crowns? You're like, I don't know. This guy is large and in charge. And he's not ruling over our money. He's ruling over California. Maybe Pastor Man is gonna run for his money, all right? But look, you have to understand the memory of the wicked, they're gonna rot. It's gonna perish. Who cares about them? Go back to if you would to 1 Samuel 26. We're gonna finish this chapter. Look, don't get discouraged about what happens in this life because you're gonna forget it anyways. It doesn't even matter. All the vanity of vanity, say the preacher, all is vanity. All vanity. It doesn't matter. Get that in your head. And you know why you have to preach that so much right now? Because people still have a tight grip on the things of this world. And when you have a tight grip on the things of this world, you're afraid to step out in faith and serve God. You're afraid to let go of those things. And you know what? We in America are gonna have to try and let go of some things probably. Persecutions come to America. And I knew as soon as Trump was out of the way, you know his numero uno on the fagolisto? Christians. I mean, I don't like Trump, but you know what? He was a shield. He got a lot of hate. Without Trump, I mean, who are they gonna hate now? I know who they're gonna hate. Pastor Mea. And I hate anybody that stands up. You know what? And you know, they tried to silence Pastor Anderson, so anybody else that has a voice, they're gonna try and come after them hard. But you know what? We're just gonna keep preaching the Bible. 1 Samuel 26, look at verse 20. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flee, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. So David, he has a pretty low view of himself. He calls himself a flee. He's saying, I'm a nobody, why are you attacking me? Why are you coming after me, Saul? Verse number 21, then said Saul, I have sinned. Return my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. David answered and said, behold the kingspear, and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. Lord, render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord delivered thee into my hand today, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed. And behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. I think this last part's really important. We have to understand a few things here. First of all, David preserved Saul better than Abner. And notice, the thing that he took, he gave it back. He didn't take anything. He harmed Saul in no way. He preserved Saul. He preserved Saul from hurting David and causing more wrath to come upon him. He preserved him by allowing him to realize Abner is not really protecting you the way he should. And you know what? He gave all of his stuff back. He did nothing bad to Saul. So if you tell someone that they're doing something wrong, did you harm them? No. Notice, he didn't want to lay a hand on the Lord's anointed, but he did tell him he was wrong. He did tell him he was in error. He did rebuke his servant. He did point out his flaws. He even made it clear, God's going to punish you severely. So if I point out someone's error, if I say they're doing something wrong, if I separate from them, if I say the Lord's going to punish you, does that mean I've hurt them in any way? No. And so don't get confused. You know, I'm not going to try and hurt God's people. And you know what? There's going to be pastors that are saved, but I don't want to be friends with anymore. I'm going to have to separate from them. But that doesn't mean I don't love them. And I might even point their error out if I needed to. But at the end of the day, I don't wish any harm to them. I pray for their blessing. I pray for their favor. I'm not going to call them and harass them. I'm not going to call them and hang up. I'm not going to order 20 pizzas to their church and not pay for them or something. I'm not going to create a troll YouTube account and go put what I really feel in the troll comments of their YouTube sermon. I'm just going to not say anything. I'm going to bridle my tongue. I'm just going to tame myself and say, you know what? Because I don't like people trolling me, so why would I want to troll them? I'm not going to hurt God's people. Now obviously, when someone crosses the threshold and they're not just like a Saul, they're like a Goliath. Okay, then the gloves are coming off. Okay, then it's time to pull out the big guns. But even then, I'm still not going to avenge myself. I'm still not even going to call Goliath and order 20 pizzas in his name either. I'd like to. I'm not going to punch Goliath in the face. I'm not going to do any of that kind of stuff. We fight a spiritual battle today. You know how you fight someone that's wicked? You preach against them. You preach the truth. You stand for the Word of God. That's what you do today. And you know what? We're going to preach. Look, I would love to be in the Old Testament and go to El Mani and fix the problem real quick. And you say, Pastor Shull, you're not that tough. Yeah, but I have the Lord on my side. I have a lot of faith, so you know what? And that faith can remove mountains. I can be cast in the depths of the sea. You know, the Lord might just rain hail on them. I don't even have to fight. I'll just have to show up and watch them get destroyed. But you know, we're in the New Testament. We fight a spiritual battle. And what we have to understand is this. The way that David viewed Saul. Saul hurt David, was trying to harm David. I mean, having your father-in-law try to kill you is a little bit, you know, a strained relationship to say the least, okay? Throwing spears at you and attacking you. And Saul killed all kinds of his friends. I mean, he killed one of the priests and he did all kinds of evil and all this stuff. And he's hurting David and he's attacking him and whatever. But notice, David still thinks that Saul's life is precious and still loves Saul and does good on him. And then he says, you know what? I hope that's how God views me. And this is the most important point, because here's the thing. You realize that after you got saved, you were still kind of like a Saul to Jesus. You are still sinning and doing a lot of evil to Jesus. And how do you want Jesus to treat you? I want him to treat me like David treated Saul. To love him and not to harm him. And he's saying, hey, as I looked at Saul's life and preserved it and loved his life, I want God to then do that to me. And you know what? God does do that to us when we don't even deserve it. He's a true David. We need to try and be like him. Go to Romans 5, the last verse I'll have you turn to, Romans chapter number 5. Saul was David's enemy, yet David loved Saul. And you know what? God loves us. Even when we were enemies. Look at Romans chapter 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet paired venture for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God committed his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Hey, we were the enemies and Jesus Christ still died for us. Just like David was still good unto Saul even though he's his enemy. And you know, obviously, now that we're saved, we've been reconciled, but the Bible says if you love the world, you become an enemy of God again. And when you sin and when you do evil, you can become an enemy of the Lord. Saul became an enemy of the Lord. And I screw up, you screw up, we all screw up. And you know what? I want the Lord to be gracious unto me. But you know who he's gonna be gracious unto? Those who are gracious to his people too. That love his people and pray for the favor and blessing of his people even when they're returning evil for your good. We should be like David in what? We should love our enemies today. And we should keep a safe distance from those that have crossed the line. But ultimately, we should even protect our enemies from themselves, protect them from sin, protect them from doing evil. And you know what? When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ attacking us, let us not render evil for evil or railing for railing, but rather blessing. Because you know what? We're gonna go through tribulation and I want God to give me as much grace and favor that I don't deserve when I go through that as I can possibly get. And you know how I can get that? By showing the same type of love towards my personal enemies. Let's go to prayer. Thank you Father so much for your word. Thank you for this great example that David set for us and ultimately knows a picture of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for loving us when we were enemies and saving us. And thank you that you still have mercy and grace even beyond spiritual salvation. But even in our daily walk that we can still have a mediator to make propitiation for us and to give us grace and mercy. And I pray that we would have that same type of loving spirit towards those that do us harm or do evil to us. That we would not render the same treatment but rather we would truly love our enemies like David. And Jesus is gonna be praying. Amen.