Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Godly friendships are important as we travel through life and God can use them greatly. Abounding Grace is next.

A small boy defined a friend as someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same. Well, today on Abounding Grace, Pastor Ed Taylor will show us what God considers a true friend to be. Good to be with you today.

Pastor Ed is about to continue his verse by verse study in the book of 1 Samuel and will consider the value of godly friends. If asked to name one of the all-time great friendships in the Bible, what names come to mind? I'd venture to say many of you would say Jonathan and David, and rightly so. Let's take a closer look at these friends in 1 Samuel chapter 18.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, open them to 1 Samuel chapter 18 as we continue our study through the book of 1 Samuel. We're going to pick up where we left off, although last time we were together, and if you're listening to this on the internet, maybe downloading the MP3s or the podcast, you know that the study previous to this was on the topic of homosexuality.

We paused in our study to really ask the Lord from the text and from the entirety of the word what His heart is on that particular sin. Like any other sexual sin, we need to be very careful and prayerful as we minister to those that choose it, that are caught up into it, whatever it might be, not thinking more highly of ourselves.

I mean, who are we? Who are we except men and women that have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ? While that sin, whatever it might be, could be homosexuality or lesbianism or transvestitism or any of the other names that are starting to be developed to describe that kind of behavior, whatever it might be, adulterer, fornicator, we learned last time, thief, or any of the other sins, as we're serving within our community, we have to be very careful not to put ourselves on any other position.

We're just as in desperate need of grace as anyone else. God delivered us, and if it wasn't for His grace, who could stand? If He counted all of our sins against us, what could we do? Well, what could we do? We would all be in the same place. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

There's an age-abiding life, not only an age-abiding life but a quality of life that comes with a relationship with your Creator. That's really the heart of the matter. It's not a statement of bigotry, it's not a statement of judgmentalism, it's not a statement of condemnation, because as I share my full testimony, you share your full testimony, we both can come to the same conclusion: we're both in need of Jesus Christ and His forgiving power of the blood that was shed for you and me. All of us are in need.

Because the culture has taken this section of scripture, we needed to pause. But let's pick up in verse one and continue our verse-by-verse study as it opens up: "And it was so, when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt."

Now, after every great victory, we can expect to see attacks. The enemy of our souls is simply not happy with progress, not happy with success and the ongoing victory of Jesus in our lives. So you're going to see, maybe at your life, three steps forward, two steps back. Three steps forward, three steps back. Three steps forward, five steps back.

There's a battle constantly. As J. Vernon McGee once said, we need to understand that we live on a battlefield, not a playground. The earth is a battlefield spiritually and we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. We are on an ongoing battle for the fruitfulness of our lives, and in many cases, the ongoing battle is for the salvation of our friends and family.

The Bible says this, Peter did in 1 Peter chapter five verse eight, "Be careful." Now I'm reading from the New Living Translation, "Watch out for attacks from the devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering that you are."

I would add, there are brothers and sisters all over the world going through a much greater suffering than we are at this point in time, and I think it's going to get worse. Throughout the Bible, the men and women God has used greatly have also suffered greatly, usually right after a victory. In them, we also see a temptation.

When we're getting attacked, the same thing, you see other people attacked in the scriptures. When we feel like we're attacked or we feel like we're under pressure or we feel like we've got things against us, it's a temptation. It's not only a situation, there's a temptation involved, and it's simply this, I believe: will we respond or will we react? There's a big difference between the two.

A reaction is usually in the flesh. It's just really quick and it's that reaction. Or will we respond, which has the idea of meditatively waiting on the Lord, gaining direction from God, not immediately attacking or reacting, but rather waiting on the Lord and watching Him give direction? At the end of chapter 17 in 1 Samuel, David defeats Goliath.

If there was ever a victory that's to be celebrated, second only to the cross of Jesus Christ, it's this victory of David and Goliath. It was glorious. But by the time we finish the chapter, our chapter, if you just want to look ahead in verse 29, the end of chapter 17, victory. At the end of chapter 18, in verse 29, Saul was still more afraid of David, so Saul became David's enemy continually. Difficulty.

The first few verses in chapter 18 has this new friendship that is developing between Jonathan and David. We already know that Jonathan is a man of great integrity. We see the inspiration of his life with his armor-bearer. Jonathan is a battle-worn hero in his own right, overseeing a thousand men, stepping out in courageous faith.

Now, he could have had this position toward David like his dad. He could have taken up his dad's opinion of David. He could have been very threatened by David. Why? Because David is that one that's anointed by God and would supplant Jonathan in the hierarchy of the kingdom. He could have easily seen David as competition, but he didn't.

Instead, he gave up his own power and prestige, as represented in verse four as taking off his robe and giving his armor and his sword and his bow, yielding that authority that could easily have been his to David. He developed a deep friendship and admiration and love for the man, a true, tight friendship.

A true tight male-to-male friendship without any weirdness is very possible. Now, it's not very cultural in the Western culture, but in the Eastern culture, it's still very common. I don't know how many of you, men with men or women with women, that have really good friendships. Just really good friendships. That's what we see here. There was a phileo, a friendship type of love shared between these men.

Now, if you're a person who finds it hard to make friends or hard to get close in friendships, especially you men, then this particular friendship strikes you as different. It strikes you as unusual. It strikes you as, "I don't know if that's possible." It could just be because you haven't experienced a close friendship.

Some, especially those within the homosexual activist community, come to this section and a few others that have been mentioned and twist it into making it some homosexual relationship, or some have even suggested after my study last time that they were bisexual. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every true friendship involves love, involves fidelity.

Every true friendship involves loyalty and a whole host of other human values that are seen here. I started thinking about it in my own life. Of course, my relationships in the closeness and the tightness of them, for me, starts with my wife. She's my best friend. I married my best friend and we've only grown.

We didn't start out too well, but because of the grace of God, we've grown up and she's my best friend. And then my sons, my boy Eddie and my son Josh, close and tight in our friendship and relationship. My daughter. And then there are those that I serve with in various capacities, those that I hang out with.

But I've always mentioned to you my buddy Jack. My buddy Jack is who I grew up with. He shared a picture not too long ago, we played Little League together. We grew up in the same neighborhood. We didn't go to the same elementary schools, but we went to the same junior high, we went to the same high school.

We did a lot of bad together, and after Christ, we did a lot of good together. He was just a good friend. He's a guy that you want to be hanging around with. He is one of those natural friends. He's the kind of guy that you want as a friend, and in many ways, he is like a Jonathan to me. I think of other people in my life that have been a great support and encouragement, the men that I've had the privilege to serve alongside of and be in fellowship and like-minded with, like Jonathans.

These are close, tight, you gotta have each other's back in the ministry. You gotta have each other's back in friendship. You gotta have each other's back in marriage. You gotta have each other's back in parenting. Those are the kind of relationships that are pure and honest. Like my buddy Jack, he's a friend's friend. This guy has friends everywhere.

He's the kind of guy, and if you were to meet him and befriend him and you guys were to sit down and talk for 15 minutes, it would sound like you guys wore diapers together. That's how close, that's how he is. He just becomes best friends immediately with people. The kind of guy that you would want.

I see a little bit of that in this friendship where you're just like, "You know what? That's a guy I want to connect with. That's a guy I want to be friends with." There's nothing weird about it, as we looked in the entirety of our time last time. There's nothing weird, there's nothing twisted, there's nothing perverse, there's nothing homosexual or bisexual or anything about this friendship.

These are all qualities that you'd want to see in your own friendships, that you want to grow in that way, that you want to be that friend. The Bible says if you want to have friends, you must first be friendly. These are the kind of qualities you can pray for in yourself. You can pray for in those that you're with.

You can pray for in the body of Christ. Would to God that we would share that kind of love, that we would be knit together soul. You know the Bible speaks of in the New Testament in the Greek, it uses the word like-minded. In the Greek, the word like-minded means to be one soul.

It has the idea of really tying together in a deeper level than just doing things together. We were talking about this this morning in our staff meeting, the difference between fellowship or the differences between what people think fellowship is. Fellowship isn't just having a cup of coffee talking about football. That's not fellowship.

Now, you might be fellowshipping in football, because the word just means to share in common. But true koinonia that comes from the Lord, which that's the Greek word for fellowship used in the New Testament, means to share in common the things of the Lord. I see koinonia, I see fellowship, I see friendship, I see a level of friendship that's very precious and very important.

Verse five: "David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely. Saul set him over men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Now it happened as they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out from all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, with musical instruments. And so the women sang as they danced and said, 'Saul has slain his thousands.'"

Don't you think Saul felt good when he heard that? "Oh, the ladies are singing about my victory. Saul, I've—yes, I have, I have slain thousands. But David his ten thousands." And what happened in verse eight? Saul became very angry and the saying displeased him. We have a word for this today, what we would call this: we would call this insecurity.

We would call it jealousy. We would call it outburst of wrath. He didn't like what he heard. He was a very prideful man. We know that. This is a manifestation of his pride. He couldn't be happy in someone else's victory. We already know he tried to steal the thunder and steal the credit for the victory that David and Jonathan had given and was working out in the nation of Israel.

We already know that there are deep issues in his heart that I believe if he would have repented and humbled himself before the Lord, God could have worked in him in that instant. You look at yourself and you go, "Man, I've got deep problems," but if you'll turn your life away from your problems—the word for that is repent—if you'll have true godly sorrow over the issues in your life, God will work inside of you to change you.

I mean true deep sorrow. Not just the kind of sorrow that comes because I feel bad about myself, but the kind of sorrow that says, "You know, I have sinned against a holy and a righteous God." Psalm 51 type of sorrow. "I've sinned against God. Yeah, I've sinned against man, but my real sin is against God and against His holiness and His righteousness."

But we never see that in Saul's life and we see a difficult end to him. So he's very angry. The saying displeased him and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they've ascribed but thousands. Now what can be more, what more can he have but the kingdom?" So Saul eyed David from that day forward.

Like David learned with his dad's sheep, remember, we never despise the day of small things. Why? Well, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I don't think anything is small in the kingdom of God. Nothing is small. That's a perception that we pick up. One person is as important as 10,000 people or one responsibility is as important as 50 responsibilities.

So we don't despise the days of small things because God is working in the small things, He's working in the big things. You go, "Well, all I have is my dad's sheep." Well, you be a faithful person serving your dad in his sheep. You take care of what your dad wants you to take care of. "Well, all I have is this with my mom." Well, then you take care of it.

"You know, I've got this entry-level job." Well, then you do the best that you can. You be the best believer that you have with that entry-level job. You don't despise the days of small things. "Well, but you know, I'm just in school." Then you be the best student. You be the one that shines the light of Jesus in whatever you have.

Why? Because you never know when—we know David was with the sheep, but you never know when, verse five, Saul will send you. You never know when you'll be sent. You'll never know when someone will ask of you something great. You never know when that moment is when you need to be ready in season and out of season to serve the Lord.

If you don't learn faithfulness with the sheep, you will not be faithful or get anything more. That's what the Bible says. The danger of unfaithfulness is even worse, because the danger of unfaithfulness, according to the teachings of our Jesus, is that if you're not faithful in the little that you've had, what little you have will be taken from you and given to who?

The one that's faithful. So David, he got it from a young age. And no matter what age you are, you can get it. Be faithful. Don't complain on your situation as it sits today. Be faithful in it. Honor God in it. Bring to light the gospel in your life. Do all things the Bible says without murmuring and complaining, because you never know.

And why do we know it's important? Well, because in verse five, the Bible says that David behaved wisely. So what defines wise behavior? Doing what you're told to do. I'm certainly not subscribing to do what you're told to do in a sinful way or, "Pastor told me to do something sinful," well, you reject sinfulness.

Or, "I was told to do this at work and Pastor Ed said to be faithful," that's unfaithfulness to do something sinful. That's not faithful. But you never know. You might have a Saul as a boss. You go, "Well, I'm not going to listen to Saul." David did. David did and it's going to get worse. It's not going to be just this petty jealousy.

By the time we end our chapter, there's going to be a spear or two, I'm sure. And if not this chapter, the next. That's how Saul handled things. Saul handled things by throwing spears. You know how David handled things? With a harp. Just playing songs and worshipping the Lord is what that represents.

He was victorious in battle over the Philistines and it prompted a celebration among the people. And the women are singing, "Yes, God used Saul for thousands, but God used David for ten thousands." And I have seen more damage done to the body of Christ, I've seen more damage done to people's lives and friendships and relationships by jealousy, pride, suspicion. It's just all not good.

It separates, it doesn't bring together. Remember, it was years earlier that Samuel said to him, to King Saul, "Because you've not allowed God to rule over you, God is taking the kingdom away from you and He's going to give it to another." And from that time on, I'm sure Saul was like, "Who is it?"

I mean, he knows. He knows how bad he is. He knows what the prophet said. And that brought suspicion in his life. Who could it be? God's going to give it to someone else. And I'm sure he was looking for someone else that God was raising up. And when he saw the response of the people, he saw how David was so brave in the field of battle, he saw how the people were beginning to turn towards David, I think that he got a hint to the point where, "Hey, maybe this is the guy, and if I get rid of him, I don't need to worry about it. I can keep the kingdom."

Taking things into his own hands and now by force. From now on, Saul will do his best to destroy David. King Saul will do his best to keep David from the kingdom. And this begins the attempts on David's life by Saul. It's so discouraging, so discouraging what these types of emotions can do in our lives.

So verse 10: "It happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house." Now circle that word prophesied. Don't think of it the context of it isn't he's prophesying like speaking forth the words of God. He's babbling. He is pretending, if you will. This distressing spirit is bothering him.

So David played music with his hand and at other times there was a spear in Saul's hand. And Saul cast the spear, for he said, "I will pin David to the wall with it." But David escaped his presence twice. Now Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him, but He had departed from Saul.

Therefore, verse 13, Saul removed him from his presence, made him captain over a thousand, and he went out and came in before the people. And again, verse 14, David behaved wisely in all his ways. And what was the promise? What was the benefit of that? The benefit was the Lord was with him.

When you and I behave unwisely, we don't have the surety of the Lord with us. Now it's not like He dismisses and He leaves us, but when you grieve the Holy Spirit, when you and I sin against the Holy Spirit, when you and I are in the midst of sin, even though we can go through all the motions religiously, we know we don't have the abiding presence of the Lord.

If you were to be truly honest, you go, "Hey, I know the Spirit dwells in me, but I'm not able to enjoy the Spirit. I'm not able to enjoy that relationship." And for King Saul here, in the Old Testament, the relationship of the Holy Spirit was different prior to the death and resurrection of Messiah, is the Spirit of God just departed.

Same with Samson. Remember Samson came to a point in his life where the Bible says he didn't even know the Spirit of God wasn't with him anymore, and he was still doing everything he always did. Today we see that just living on in the flesh. When you're a fleshly man, a fleshly woman.

Guest (Male): And so we see while David was wise, Saul was unwise in his behavior. You're listening to Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace, part of his study entitled Keep Your Hands Off the Situation. Keep listening, there's more to come in just a moment.

You can hear it again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We've also got an app that makes listening to Pastor Ed easy to do on your mobile device. Just search for the Calvary Church app in the App Store. And we'd really like to hear from you. It's helpful to know how these studies are impacting your life and that would be a real encouragement to Pastor Ed and the team. And if you're in need of prayer, please leave your requests as well. There's a place to contact us at aboundinggraceradio.com.

Abounding Grace is supported by listeners just like you, and we are grateful for those that come alongside us with either a one-time gift or ongoing support. We'd like to say thanks today for a gift of $25 or more by sending you The End Times in Chronological Order by Ron Rhodes. How do Old Testament and New Testament prophecies fit together?

Why can you trust a literal interpretation of the scriptures? These questions and more are answered in The End Times in Chronological Order. Call us at 877-30-GRACE or visit our e-store at calvaryco.store. All right, we left off in 1 Samuel chapter 18 at verse 15. Here is Pastor Ed taking it from there.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Verse 15: "When Saul saw that he had behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him." Another emotion, with all these mixed-up emotions that are not from the Lord. "But all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before him." What did David do?

Did he raise up a people for himself? Did he draw people to himself? Did he publicize? Did he try to win over people? All he did was live wisely and faithfully. And there's a natural attraction to the men and women that are living wisely and faithfully. It's just so different. It could even be so different within the church community, where you just like, "Man, that's just something special."

Remember in the New Testament, I don't remember who it was, was it Nathaniel? Who was it that Jesus said, "You know, there's a guy that's no guile"? Who was that? Nathaniel. I mean, just like there's just a person that rises to the top. And we could pray for that in our lives, where we just be with no guile. Just no guile. Like God would just use us in these last days. So Saul's abandoning the Lord, and God's abandoning him.

Guest (Male): We'll see the right response when spears are thrown in our direction next time on Abounding Grace when Pastor Ed returns to 1 Samuel.