This week, we continued the
“Two Kings, Two Thrones” series. The premise is that King Saul is a type and
picture of rule by law and King David is a type and picture of rule by grace. In this part, we examined the growth of
Saul’s jealousy toward David. Law is always jealous of what grace can
accomplish. It can’t understand how God can possibly use someone “less
obedient” than itself. Doesn’t God know they smoke? Maybe I need to remind Him.
He must not notice how good I am. Maybe I should remind Him of that too J
We see in 1 Samuel 18:12-14
that whatever David was given by Saul to do, he did with great success because
the Lord was with him. If the Lord is with us, we can be nothing but
successful. There is not one single instance of anyone in the Bible having God
with them and following His lead who lost. Grace is what
gives us the full confidence that God is with us. When living under law, we
have no confidence that the Lord is with us. According to law, any sin might
cause the “Spirit to lift,” but under grace we have full confidence that He
never leaves us or forsakes us – through the blood of Jesus. 1 John 3:19 tells us how we have this
confidence. Notice that the only
commands that are considered part of the deal are to believe in Jesus and love
one another. Sin doesn’t rob us of
confidence God is with us. A guilty
conscience does.
Also, Saul tries to pin David
with a spear not once but twice, but David didn’t leave. He stayed faithful. Also, why does verse 10 say Saul’s evil
spirit was from God? This is probably a translation issue, but we
looked at 1 John 1:5. God’s mercy and protection were gone from Saul. When God’s
anointing was gone, Saul began to reap the fruit of what he had sown. Mercy protects us from that.
Now, does that mean you
can do anything you want and God will make you successful? If I told you that
you would likely call me a liar. We’ve all experienced doing things we thought
were of God and failing. There are a few parameters we want to follow if we
want to have success in the Lord in all we do:
1.
You will experience success in those things the Lord calls you to do.
2.
You will experience success in those things that are part of your
God-given destiny
Now, those things might
be a little hard to specify. Looking at some of what does NOT qualify as things
that the Lord will be with you on might help…
3.
No guarantee of success in selfish or sinful plans (he’s not going to
help you destroy yourself or others).
4.
No guarantee of success in “good ideas” that were not “God ideas.” We
often fail because we endeavor to do something that is good, but not something
God anointed us to do.
5. No guarantee of success in working on His plans MY way.
The next thing we looked
at in David’s story was Saul’s offering of two of his daughters in marriage and
why one was accepted by David and the other not accepted. First, Saul offers
his oldest daughter, Merab, to him. This would have been tradition – that the
eldest daughter would be married first. Saul
puts a qualification on David obtaining this bride. The groom traditionally
paid a dowry to the father of the bride. David knew he could not afford the
dowry of a king’s daughter. Saul says he can have her if he fights Saul’s
battles against the Philistines and leads his armies.
A couple thing are important
about this exchange. First, this bride was rightfully David’s because he
defeated Goliath. It was part of what was promised to the victor. Secondly, law
is always going to keep demanding more before you can earn the promise. Merab’s name in Hebrew means “increase” or
“multiplication.” David had already earned it, but the law keeps adding more
qualifications. We’ll never be perfect and qualified to receive the blessing of
God. It can only be obtained as a gift through Christ.
Also, Saul made this offer
with the hope that the Philistines would do his dirty work. He wanted David
dead (law wants grace to just go away). He wanted to send David out to battle
worldly sin (what the Philistines represent – see previous messages in this
series). If you continue to try and battle sin with more law, eventually sin is
going to destroy you.
Then there is Saul’s next
daughter, Michal. Her name means “who is like God.” Isn’t it cool that the person who is like God
is drawn to grace. It is discovered that
she is in love with David. Saul sees another opportunity to complete his plan
to have David murdered by the Philistines. This time David accepts Saul’s offer
because he sees the price as something he is capable of paying, and this
daughter loves him. The gift of salvation
is available to ALL of mankind, but only those who choose to love Jesus are
going to receive that gift and enjoy that gift.
Saul’s price is 100
Philistine foreskins (eww!!!). David actually delivers 200 (double eww!!!).
What a great picture of Christ. Jesus will not only pay the debt to purchase
us, but far exceed it for those who love him! Now, we love Him because He first
loves us – but receiving that love depends on making a choice to love Him. What
a great exchange.
To
listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
