Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: We have to repent. We have to ask God, "Please forgive me." And then we have to ask Him the next thing: "Lord, give me Your love for those that hate me or for those that are against me."

David J: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.

Hi everybody. On February 11th, that's a Wednesday night at 7:00 PM Pacific Time, I'm going to invite you to sit down with me as I interview Hedieh Mirahmadi. She was once a Muslim, born and raised in the Islamic world, and having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, came to know the Lord. We're going to sit down and talk about the world around us, about faith, and about our country. So join us Wednesday, February 11th at 7:00 PM Pacific Time on the Real Life Network. Go to RealLifeNetwork.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called 1 Samuel in a message titled "Loving Your Enemies." Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of the prophets. So here in Chapter 24, we'll consider how loving your enemies isn't just a New Testament command given by Jesus, but a powerful Old Testament example of David's life in the wilderness.

Now, you see, David had the opportunity to take vengeance on King Saul, but he chose not to retaliate. Instead, he resisted the impulse to repay evil with evil by not taking God's justice into his own hands. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that loving your enemies is consistent with God's character throughout Scripture. David showed honor and mercy toward Saul, trusting that the Lord would have the final say. Now, with his message called "Loving Your Enemies," here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Loving your enemies. We're going to learn that tonight. 1 Samuel Chapter 24. David, as you know, has been in hot pursuit by Saul. Saul is out to kill him. Saul is out to destroy him. God called by David to be the king, Saul not wanting to relinquish the office. David, being a man of integrity, a man of God, the Spirit of God upon him.

In 1 Samuel Chapter 24, verses 1 to 22, this evening we'll study about loving your enemies. Everyone's got an enemy. If you don't have an enemy, then you've probably either not paid close attention or, in the spiritual context of things, we've perhaps never taken a strong stand for Christ. Jesus says a prophet has honor in any location, in any house he traffics to, except in his own home.

There's a chance that perhaps you've presented the gospel in your own house. How did it go? How were you received? Especially if you are a child of that home. Maybe you're a teenager or maybe you're a little older, but you're a child, and you announced to your parents or to your older brothers and sisters, "Hey, I found Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says about God." They're probably going to be pretty put out and pretty upset. Enemies is something that the Bible has warned us about, that if we take a stand for Jesus, we will naturally have enemies. There will be people against us.

Tonight, though, we look at a very interesting portion of Scripture because of how David handles his enemies. We learn a lot from this. So loving your enemy, we're commanded to do that in Scripture. By the way, this is kind of a neat thing regarding relationships. We can use this in many ways. In your note-taking this evening, jot this down if you would, regarding loving your enemies: it is this, what loving your enemy is like. What's it like? What does that look like if we put a face on it? Well, we're going to learn this from David.

Note this, Chapter 24, verses 1 through 7: "Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines..." Think of the flesh. Every time you see Philistines, think of the flesh. "...that it was told him, saying, 'Take note, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi,' a barren region." Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men from all of Israel and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats.

Some of us have been there. We've talked about that before. Actually a beautiful place. So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to attend to his needs. Now some commentators will say he took a nap. That's a nice way of putting it. Let me put it to you this way. Everybody had to stay outside, and Saul found a banana leaf or something and went into a cave to take care of business. Do you know what I mean? Don't you love how honest the Bible is? Saul has got to go potty, and the Bible tells us so.

Of course, he's a man, and all men put their pants on the same. In this case, come off the same. So Saul goes into the cave to attend to his needs. Now here's the thing: David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. They're all in there together. There are some caves there that are huge. We've been up that canyon. We've taken the hike up the waterfalls. Beautiful place. In the middle of the En Gedi wilderness, there's nothing there. It's barren like the moon until you come to the valley or the canyon of the wild goats.

And guess what's in the canyon? Wild goats, still to this day. And they're there. Then you keep going up, and the whole terrain changes, and the temperature changes to the point where there's ferns, wild ferns that flower in the spring and in the fall, coming out of the cracks of the cliffs. There's a great pool there that we've gone swimming in. Waterfall coming down. Spectacular. There are caves there. Saul goes up there. David and his men, naturally, are hiding out there. Why? Because in all of the region, it's the only canyon that's got water.

So Saul goes into one of the caves. No doubt his men, 3,000 of them, are sitting back, probably filling up their wine skins or their water skins in the water that's there and enjoying all that. So Saul goes in to attend to his needs. Verse 4 says, "Then the men said to David..." They must have whispered, "This is the day which the Lord said to you, 'Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.'" In other words, this is the moment. Remember when God said it a long time ago, David? Now's the time. Act.

David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Now Saul naturally would have laid his kingly robe off to the side to attend to his needs. At that moment, then, David begins to cut the hem of the robe. In a Jewish background, in the Middle Eastern world, you do not touch the hem of a man's robe because you are touching his authority. Mark that. It's important. David cuts off the hem. We're going to see soon how David should not have done that. But David does it. The authority of a man in the Hebrew world is in the hem of his robe.

They had things woven in there. It would be a symbol. It would be an announcement. They were beautiful. They were various colors. They had various statements. Rabbis had certain statements on those hems, the high priest, others that had positions of authority, and King Saul would have had it on his robe as well. Remember the woman, the Syrophoenician woman, when Jesus was trafficking through the Gentile region up in the northern area near Tyre and Sidon? Jesus is walking, and everyone's pressing against Him.

A woman had an issue of blood. Remember? What did she say to herself? She said, "If I can touch just the hem of His garment, I will be made well." So everybody's pushing and shoving, and she reaches through the crowd. She was unclean. She had an issue of blood some 12 years. She was not allowed to be gathered around other people. She was unclean. She reaches out and grabs the hem of His garment. Now naturally, that wouldn't have meant anything. Symbolically, it meant that she was reaching for His authority. Symbolically. But it goes deeper than that.

Something happened spiritually, didn't it? She touched the hem of His garment, but she had said, "If I do that, I'll be made whole." Why? Because in her region of the world, physicians had their insignia or their authority on the robe as well. She doesn't know much about Jesus. All she knows is He's a figure of authority. She's heard great things about Him. "I will reach and touch His garment, and I'll be healed." She looked to Him as a physician. So when she reached out in desperation and touched Him, Jesus said, "Who touched Me?"

The disciples say, "Lord, what do you mean, 'Who touched You?' People are pushing and shoving and knocking You around in this crowd, and You ask who touched You?" In other words, naturally, that's a silly question, Jesus, on the natural plane. He qualifies it by saying, "No, someone touched Me, for I felt virtue or power depart from Me." Wow. And there at His feet was a woman trembling for fear. Jesus said, "Woman, your faith has made you whole." She reached for His authority.

Saul, though he be a lunatic, he be a carnal man. I don't personally believe—you can argue with me, and that's okay—I personally do not believe that Saul was a saved man. He exhibited to me nothing of a saved man. I think he was the people's king, not God's king. But regardless, God had him in power, and it wasn't for David. So listen, David reaches out and cuts off the corner of Saul's robe. Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe. You see that? His conscience now is bothering him. Why?

Because there's a way to love your enemies that only comes from the mind of God. He said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master." Isn't that incredible loyalty? This man's out to kill him, and yet David is honoring the office. "The Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." So David restrained his servants with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went out on his way.

What do we learn from this? That there's a way to love your enemies, and David shows us how. There's a time—there will be a time, Christian, listen—God will allow a moment, an opportunity in your life for the man or the woman or the family or the entourage that has been after you because you are walking with God, because you love the Lord, because you know in the flesh—don't tell me you don't—that in the flesh, if you could, you would take that enemy of yours out. That's one of the things we struggle with as humans. We live in a civilized culture. We would never dare admit such things.

But when the pressure is tough enough and strong enough and heavy enough, and when things are bearing down upon us and we get so pressured by the constant attack of the enemy—your enemy or my enemy—that your emotions will say things to you inside the recesses of your heart: "I wish he or she or they—God, would You just take them away?" Now we would never voice that publicly. And if we thought it—and we do in our head—instantly the Lord says, "Now stop that right now." And we have to repent. We have to ask God, "Please forgive me."

Then we have to ask Him the next thing: "Lord, give me Your love for those that hate me or for those that are against me." It's easy for us, for everyone of us, to find that person or those people that don't like us and get together with others and begin this horrible sin of just tearing them apart. "My, you know what she—oh, you know what else she does? And she this—and you know what?" You take the sin of someone and you allow it to invade your life, and now, believe it or not, by doing that, we enter into their sin. You say, "Well, wait a minute. They're the bad guy."

I know they're the bad guy. But you know what? God deals with bad guys. We're not to deal with the bad guy. We're to love our enemy. And there's a way to do that. The first thing is, God is speaking to David and saying, "This is not right. You cut the hem of Saul's garment." Fine print, translated: God is the one who cuts the hems off of men's garments. It's expensive to love your enemy. You can't do it on your own. None of us can. You say, "Well, Pastor, I'm a really nice person. I think I can maybe pull it off." Then you don't have a real enemy.

But loving your enemy, yeah, it's expensive. Matthew Chapter 5, verse 43 says, "You have heard that it was said by those that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do the same?"

In other words, don't bad guys love bad guys? That's normal. But listen, the innocent, they don't naturally love their attacker. But in Matthew Chapter 5, when the Lord speaks to us concerning the Sermon on the Mount, He's talking about the spirit of the heart of the believer. What is our mind to be like? Isn't it neat that David, who was pre-Pentecost, who was pre-birth of the church, who was pre-the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, is acting, thinking, and conducting himself like a born-again believer? Isn't that neat?

Wasn't Abraham justified by faith? How are you justified? By faith. Just like of old, just like of new. So David is now by the Holy Spirit, he's convicted, and that's a very powerful thing. Well, listen, your enemy will act upon false information. We learn that in verses 1 through 7. Look at verses 1 and 2, that Saul heard that David was out there, and so Saul goes after David. Just mark this down and we'll breeze through it: your enemies are acting upon false information.

People will say something to them about you, and they'll form an opinion. It's wrong that they're doing it, but they'll form an opinion. They'll hate you. They'll come after you. And the very basis of their action against you is probably false. Did you know that? Have you ever had that happen in your life? I've had that happen in my life, when someone is used, in my opinion, by Satan to tell somebody else something that's not true. And then that person—"They what? They said that about me? Yeah, they sure did. Well, you know what?"

And it never even happened. And so now this guy or this gal, they're all hurt and upset. They want to tear each other apart, and it's all their anxiety and anger's based upon a false premise. Satan loves this stuff. That's why the Bible says that God hates—that's a strong word, isn't it?—God hates those who sow discord among the brothers. Wow. That's powerful. The enemy will act upon false information. We learn that in verses 1 and 2. By the way, remember this: in 1 Corinthians 14:33, the Bible says that God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as He is in all the churches of the saints.

Satan loves lies. In John Chapter 8, verses 42 to 44, the Bible tells us that Satan loves lies. He's the father of lies, and he's been a liar from the beginning. So Saul is told some information. Now Saul quite clearly is against David anyway, but there's fuel to the fire. You see how this is snowballing? And yet God would have David to love his enemies, and God would have us to love our enemies. In verses 3 and 4, as we look to this section, what loving your enemy looks like or what it's like: listen, you'll desire to justify your innocence. Did you know that?

If somebody attacks you, what do you want to do? Anybody? You want to defend yourself. "It's not true. That's not the way I am," or "I didn't do that," or "I didn't say that." Look, the temptation to justify yourself is overwhelmingly strong. Very few people can control it. I'm telling you now. It is best to let God defend your innocence. Let me put it to you maybe in a scenario of experience. It's possible that you know of a situation, maybe you are a spectator to it. Party A is attacking Party B. But Party B doesn't respond back.

You stop and look at Party B, and you begin to analyze who or what are they. Why are they not retaliating back? Why are they not fighting back in defense of all the accusations? Listen: they must be guilty if they're not fighting back, the world says. Right? Come on, we're all guilty of that. We see it on TV. "Oh, this guy was arrested. He was accused of this. He didn't say anything. Three days later, he still hasn't made a statement. Well, he must be guilty." The evilness of our own hearts indict people like that, try them and condemn them before anything more comes out.

We're so quick that way. David was like that. I'm like that. You're like that. It's the human nature. Yet it's sinful. It's wrong. So Party B's not responding. "Well, he must be guilty, or she must be guilty. How can he not say anything? Boy, if I was innocent, I would stand—in fact, I'd run an ad in the newspaper!" Just watch out. That works in the world, to a point. PR, spin, is powerful. And the temptation's overwhelming to use it. Best to let God defend you. You say, "Jack, are you kidding me?" I am not kidding you.

I can tell you through experience, I have learned to let God defend you. He does a much better job. Don't do it. "Well, if you think I'm going to sit back and let that guy say that about me..." Okay, then go. Go. You're going to do it. Just go. And you're going to get all messed up and bloody-nosed. Aren't we being more like Jesus if we're attacked wrongly, falsely, and the Scripture says we take it well? That's what the Scripture says. And I know the temptation's overwhelmingly so to defend ourselves. Let God defend your innocence.

Are you innocent? Then let God defend you. And you know what? He will not only defend you, He will promote you. There's a lot of young people in here tonight. You learn this quickly, be a lot happier along the way. Let God defend you. There's a timing that the Lord has, and it's best to yield to His timing. In verses 5 through 7, we learn that loving your enemy is like: your life will be troubled. You know? Your life will be troubled by it all. It's true. That will happen. When you love your enemy, what does it look like? Well, your life will be troubled by it all, meaning this: that when you have an enemy and they're attacking you, you will have to pick up your cross daily to follow Jesus in this area.

Listen, some of you need to hear this to get freedom: God has never asked us and He has never stated or required of us to forget. Did you know you—"Well, this person hurt me 25 years ago, and I just can't forget it." You want to know why you can't forget it? You and I do not have the ability to forget such things. You can't do it. That's a divine power that only God has. Did you know that? God is the only one who can forget. But what has God called us to do? Forgive.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "Loving Your Enemies." Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel, a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Fear does not have to control your life, not when Christ is at the center of it. This month, we're featuring a powerful and deeply personal book, Living Fearless in Christ, by Hedieh Mirahmadi. Once a devout follower of Islam and a high-level attorney in Washington, Hedieh had everything except peace until she encountered the living Jesus. Choosing to follow Him cost her everything: her career, her status, and her place in the world she once knew. But what she gained was far greater: freedom, identity, and a fearless faith that cannot be shaken.

Her story will challenge you, encourage you, and remind you of the power of the gospel to transform lives. Living Fearless in Christ is more than a testament; it's a call to bold surrender. Available for the month of February for a gift of any amount at JackHibbs.com. That's JackHibbs.com, where real stories point you to real truth and real life in Christ.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at JackHibbs.com. That's JackHibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.