Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Turned Into Another Man Pt.4

You remember that day [when you were born again] really well, don't you? Just one touch, just a slight visitation of the glory and the power of God, and you became that new creation. Old things pass away, and all things became new, praise God! It's instantaneous. And just think, that same thing is going to happen again in our glorification. In just one moment, it's all going to change. Corruption will take on incorruption and mortality, immortality. We're going to see Him, and we'll be like Him, praise God! Aren't you looking forward to that visitation? There's nothing quite like it!

As we're studying the life of David and contrasting it with the life of Saul, there's so much that we can learn and apply in finishing this course that we're on and our faithfulness to the kingdom. As we go on a little bit further, we're going to talk about David's mighty men. We can contrast ourselves with these men and how we serve the Lord, our King.

I was thinking here just even during the offering. It was such a blessing to my heart as I looked out and saw some of these men that are here--men that have faithfully labored with us for all these years. I hate to even mention names, because I don't want to miss anybody; but I look out there, and I see men like Kevin and Steve--men that you'd put your life in their hands. Having experienced (as we talked about in the Men's Breakfast) the betrayal of so many others over the years--men that have tried to destroy you. It's a great gift that we have in the relationships that Father has given us, things that should be treasured and not taken for granted or counted common. We're a blessed people in the knitting together of the household of faith.

I want to refer a little bit to that as we see this morning the knitting together of the hearts of Jonathan and David. There are people that God wants to bring into your life and to knit your heart with, people that you can put your life into their hands. In the time of danger, you can turn to them and trust their counsel. Have you built relationships like that? They're available to you here. Or, like Saul, do you just prefer that darkness, the obscurity of just letting enough be known to portray an image? Are you willing to lay it all out on the line and to receive what God has for you? He wants to knit your heart together with those of like precious faith, men who will fight with you in the battles, men who will actually choose you over their own common blood. Jonathan loved David more than he loved his earthly father because David had a heart for God. Where's your commitment today? Is it in the eternal, or is it in the natural? We've been talking about how God is allowing us to see, in our own midst here, the contrasting of the natural with the supernatural. We need to embrace the heart that the Master had when they came to Him and said, "Your mother and your brother are outside." He wasn't moved by natural blood. He said, "Here's my mother, and here are my brothers: those that do the will of God." We're able to make a choice like that. This is what we're contrasting: whether we're building earthly kingdoms or eternal kingdoms.

As we're contrasting these lives, we saw that King Saul, in being disobedient, was deceived and even argued with the prophet of God. Some of you have done that with us. We've come to you, and we've sat you down and said, "Look; here's what the Word says, and here's what you're doing." Some of you have looked us dead in the eye and said, "No; we're doing the will of God; we're doing what the Word of God says," exactly the way that Saul did. But the good news is, while Saul continued to defend his position, many of you, like David, heard the word of the prophet and said, "Yes; I am the man." That's the difference between Saul and David. When confronted with the final decision ("Who am I going to glorify here--myself or God?"), David was a man after God's own heart. The difference between David and Saul was: Saul sought the glory of men, and David sought the glory of God. Saul wanted to be honored in the eyes of the elders, in the eyes of Israel; and David, ultimately, wanted to be honored in the eyes of the Lord and to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." That's how we can succinctly contrast the lives of these two men.

Are you seeking temporary pleasure and honor or eternal glory and honor? Are you living with the cross and embracing the cross now, so that you can embrace the glory and the treasures to come? Or are we enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season and embracing the ease, comfort, and glory that come with it? That which seems to be wise in the world ends up in death. There's a way that seems right to man, but the end of it is destruction. Then there's what the world calls foolishness, but it's the power of God to salvation. The wisdom of God contrasted with the wisdom of men--man says if you want it, you've got to get it for yourself; you've got to take everything you can at this moment; the Lord says if you want to be exalted, you've got to humble yourself; if you want to receive, you have to give; if you want to live, you have to die. It just comes down to what we believe and how we're going to live our lives: in self-control, or in absolute surrender to the lordship of Jesus.

We saw this contrast where Saul was seeking the glory of self and the glory of men, and the kingdom was rent from him and given to another man--a man that had a heart after God, the Scripture told us. It's strange, because we look at David and see that the Scripture refers to him a number of times as "a bloody man." He was a vicious, violent individual when provoked. His zeal for God and his zeal for righteousness caused him to be able to move in what Saul could not in his humanism. David would gladly annihilate a nation for the glory of God. His hatred for sin would allow him without blinking to annihilate men, women, and children, knowing that if you leave the littlest amount of leaven, it will leaven the whole lump. He was zealous for glory and righteousness, and yet he was a man touched with the same infirmities that you and I are. He was a man in the flesh, a man who had sin in his members. He was a man who, though zealous for God, was caught up many times in his life with taking some leisure (you know, the same little breaks that you and I take). When he should have been out warring with Joab and the other mighty men, he was at home enjoying the benefits of his victories. It was then that he saw Bathsheba bathing herself and was overcome with lust. We know how the story goes--how he involves himself now in adultery, deception, and ultimately murder of a man who, at that time, was showing so much more character than he had.

When you're in sin, you think everybody's acting like you. David, moving in sin, forgot what type of a man he was when the anointing was upon him and how he could yield himself to God. He forgot how he sought no personal comfort, willing to sleep in caves and dens to defend the glory of God and to fulfill the call upon his life. He was a man who was able to sacrifice and lay his life down for the glory of God, and he sought no ease and comfort. But when he was in sin, he thought, "Surely Uriah will go home and sleep with his wife Bathsheba, this beautiful woman! That's what I would do." However, Uriah slept at the king's door and said, "How can I go home and enjoy the blessings of God when the king's servants are out risking their lives to defend the glory of God? How can I take this momentary pleasure when everyone around me is sacrificing and seeking first the kingdom of God?" When we're moving in the flesh, we think that everybody thinks the way we do. We forget that there's a remnant that seeks and is jealous for the glory of God. Then when we see them, they shame us so that we want to kill them and dispose of them to hide our own sin. The children of the world and the children of the flesh will always war with those of the Spirit. Galatians contrasts that so well.

So, you'll know what condition you're in by how you respond to those who are zealous for God, those who are jealous for the integrity of the Word, those who are seeking the kingdom first. Do they sometimes rub you the wrong way? Are you sometimes just wondering why these people don't just cool it a little bit? Maybe you're the one that's cooled it. Maybe you need to survey your own heart and begin to boast in the commitment of brothers and sisters who are seeking the kingdom and be followers of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises of God. How do you respond to those who are experiencing victory in the presence and anointing of God?

As we were looking at David's victory over Goliath in our last session, you remember what he said. "Look, king; let me go out there! Who is this that defies the armies of the living God? What is it that all of you are doing cowering back here in the camp when God's for us? If God is for us, who can be against us? Don't you know that one puts a thousand to flight, and two puts ten thousand to flight?" What are we as a people exhibiting to the rest of Christendom today? Are we cowering like the rest of them to the government and to the politically-correct Christianity that's being thrust upon us in this nation? Or are we a people who are going to stand up and speak the Word of God in a day when darkness is dominating the hearts and minds of the church? You see, God's looking for the three hundred of Gideon. The eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro over all the earth, looking for a band of men that will stand like David's mighty men and contrast with everything else that appears to be the church of Jesus Christ. Where do you find yourself this morning?

I want to look at a couple of identifying character traits that will reveal what's in our hearts. Some of you fathers, how are you responding to your youth that are getting fired up and wanting to go out and work for the kingdom? Is it bothering you that maybe college isn't on their minds, but maybe going and preaching the gospel in Africa? Does it concern you that they're not concerned with how much money they can make, but whether or not they can go out and be a light and a witness in the world--whether it's out digging ditches or working in the hustle and bustle of Wall Street? What is it, fathers, that you have planned for your children that is secular and temporal that would cause you to suppress the fire that's burning in their hearts right now to be about Father's business? "Well, you know, they have to have some kind of security." How much more secure can you be than being in the will of God? Where are you? Where are you, fathers, when your children are rising up in your own house, and they're beginning to wonder why it is that you're not the head of the household? As they get a little older, it begins to be obvious to them, and they begin to ask questions as to why biblical order isn't evident. How do you respond to that? Do you have some type of humanistic response? How do you respond when they're up here for prayer all the time, and the pastors are talking about your kids' zeal, and you begin to hear songs sung in your own home that say, "Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands"? You're one of the deacons possibly, and you've killed your thousands; and now, you've just kind of sat back on your laurels. Some of the youth are being raised up, and the praises are being sung of the tens of thousands that have been slain at their hand. Does there begin to be a little provocation? "You know, you're getting a little carried away." Or do you delight in the fact that the generation following us is going to take down ten times more than we did? You can identify where your heart is by how you respond to those whom God is exalting in your presence. Do you rejoice in it? Do you delight in the hand of God upon those that are around you, those that are anointed, those that God puts in front of you? You thought maybe you were going to be elevated into that role; but all of a sudden, God puts His hand on a young man named David and places him as king. What do you do? Do you rejoice, or are you jealous in God's method of promotion?

There are a lot of things that we can learn in contrasting these kingdoms. The kingdom of Saul looked for the songs to be sung of his own glory. He delighted in all of the public relations. Here this obscure young man comes and is absolutely fearless because of the anointing of God. He said, "All I know is this, king. I was watching a few sheep for my father. I was being faithful where God had placed me. There was a lion and a bear that came and grabbed one of the kids and began to devour him [and I like what the Scripture says], And I went out after them" (emphasis added). David was not himself being assaulted; he was not fighting in self-defense. David went after the devil, as he attempted to destroy the kids that were around him. What are you doing today with our youth being attacked by Satan, with our kids being under the assault of the lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour? Are we sitting back in complacency, or are we going out and attacking the principalities and the powers? It says, "I went out, I took him by the beard, and I slew him. I took the kid out of his mouth and delivered him, praise God! And the same anointing that came on me then will come on me now to destroy this one who defies the armies of the living God." We know the story; we've heard it in Sunday School so many times, and we've heard it referred to so many times. David goes out, Goliath is there challenging the armies of God, and David lets it be known very clearly, "This day God's delivered you into my hands." David takes up those five smooth stones, he puts one in the sling, and under the anointing of God, he takes the enemy down. Some people ask why he took five stones. Was he afraid he was going to miss? No; as you read on in the Scriptures, you see that Goliath had some brothers. Have we filled our vessels with sufficient oil? Is our pouch filled with sufficient stones? Do we have the ammunition necessary to endure and to destroy the enemy as he comes into our midst? We've talked about a shaking that's going on in our midst. Much of it is God; but I want to tell you, some of it's the enemy. What are we going to do to resist him and drive him out of our midst?

So, we realize that there was a different spirit in David. David was not seeking the praises of men. He was jealous for the glory of God. We saw on Wednesday night the character of David--how he had proven himself, how he was faithful with the small flock that God had placed him over, and how he was faithful to be a messenger for his father Jesse, as he ran the cheese and the message out to his brothers. We saw how in humility he said, "I've not been proven in these things that are of the king, but what I have been proven in is this: I've been proven in worship to God on the backside of the desert. I've been proven faithful in the small things and the few sheep that were given me. And the one thing I know is this: the God that I praise at midnight in the wilderness, the God Who created heaven and earth, is surely capable of bringing this giant down in our midst." Do you want to get ready for war? How about worshiping at midnight? How about finding yourself alone out  the stars, experiencing the handiwork of God, knowing the majesty of the Almighty, and understanding that everything we face is a creation of our great Creator God and is subservient to Him, praise God! Make God big in your worship, make Him big in your prayer, and you'll be able to deal with the giants on the daily battleground of life.

We know the story. The enemy came down, and they brought David to King Saul with the head of the giant. And Saul said, "This is the man that I want with me; I recognize the hand of God upon him." Then something began to happen that was very interesting. Turn to 1 Samuel 17 with me, and let's look at a couple of things here that begin to manifest. (We'll pick it up here; that's enough review.) As David takes the giant down, he says in verse 47, "And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S." He said in verse 46, "This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee."

Is that how you contend with sin, or do you go out fearing whether you're going to make it through this day without lust overcoming you again? Do you go out trembling before the sin that's in your members? Do you go out trembling before the temptations that you have to face on the job? Do you go out trembling before all of the pressure that the world's going to put on you? Or do you rise up like David and stand before the enemy as you rise in the morning, saying, "I want you to know that today, the Lord's delivering you into my hand"? We don't start our days defensively; we start them offensively. Resist the devil, and he'll flee from you, praise God! Today. "I want to tell you something: today, lust, you're not ruling in my life. Today, covetousness, you're not ruling in my life. Today, fear, you're not ruling in my life. Today, slothfulness, you're not ruling in my life. Today, God's delivered you into my hands, praise God!" As you prove yourself faithful in the small things, He makes us ruler over the great ones.

He says, "I'm going to smite you," and then, look at verse 48. David hastened and ran towards the Philistine. Do you remember that song, "Run to the Battle"? We're a people that are to be going forth. The Bible says very clearly to put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand. We've studied that out in Ephesians many times, and we understand that the "standing" is not defensive, but it means "to set out against." It's the active tense, and it's an attack. It's to set out against the enemy. Beloved, I want to tell you one thing: when you are fully arrayed in the armor of God, there is nothing but an offensive spirit that rises up in you. You'll know when you're at peace in the full armor of God, because you know you are invincible, and you're looking for a devil to kill, praise God! How do you start your day? How refreshed are you when you begin to go out into the highways and the byways to compel those who are broken to come? Maybe we need a little more time singing praises on the hillside and getting to know the God that David knew. Can you imagine what must have been taking place when, as David sang and worshiped, all of a sudden this began to come up in his heart? "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." Where do you think that 23rd Psalm came from if it wasn't from communion with Father? The One Who leads him beside the still waters, the One Who restores his soul, the One Who causes him to lie down in the green pastures, the One Who prepares a table before him in the midst of his enemies. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

Do you know Him this morning? Job said, "I've heard about Him, but now my eyes have seen Him." These trials that we've been talking about that some of you have been experiencing--it's exactly what Edgar was praying. How refreshing it is to hear a man's heart so open, and real, and crying out to God (as Edgar prayed this morning) to be touched with the heart of God! When you see Him with your eyes--Oh, we hear about Him doctrinally with a hearing of our ear; we hear about the great testimonies of God. "But now," Job said, "my eyes have been opened. I've seen Him!" What he saw was not very enjoyable at the moment, as everything that was precious to him in the natural was stripped from him. He stood before God naked and was able to draw this conclusion: "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Though He slay me, He deserves my worship and my praise, for God is good. He is great and greatly to be praised!" Have you seen Him yet? As David encountered Him, his psalms have caused a transformation in our lives. We don't lean to the right hand or to the left. Our trust is not in horses or chariots. We do look to the mountains from whence comes our help. We rest assured that though a thousand fall at our side, and ten thousand at our right hand, it will not come nigh us. The 23rd Psalm becomes real, and the 91st Psalm becomes real and not doctrinal.

David goes in the spirit of the presence of God. For he says, "The battle is not ours. It is not with sword; it is not with spear. The battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands." He runs toward the enemy. The Spirit of God takes that stone, and it sinks into his forehead. I like how graphic that is. This wasn't a concussion; this was an invasion. He falls (just like the god, Dagon) on his face before the presence of God. The idol, Dagon, fell on his face before the ark. The world is continually trying to prop their god up, and every time you turn around, it's on its face again. Do you have that kind of hope in the anointing that you're walking in? Do you want to know one of the great things about David that made him a man after God's own heart? Regardless of all of the immoral acts that David found himself involved in, the one thing David was never involved in is idolatry. His flesh got the best of him, but his heart never wandered after other gods. Are you fully persuaded that what God has promised you, He is able to perform? Or are there still the gods of self-effort, self-exaltation, worldly endeavors, and worldly wisdom that we have a tendency to look toward in the time of real adversity?

We've talked about the proper balance of medical science, yet I ask you the question: when you go to that doctor, when you take those pills, (and I'm not telling you not to go to doctors, and I'm not telling you not to take pills; listen to what I'm saying) where's your trust ultimately? Are you going there in lieu of God or because of God? Do you want to know why I go to the doctor's when I do? I go to the doctor so I can get fixed and continue working for God. I go there for God, not instead of God. You seek the Lord early; you seek the Lord first; you seek the Lord always. And only you know your heart. David was a man after God's own heart. He was a man that never involved himself in idolatry. Because of that intimate time that he spent with the Lord, there were no other gods that he ever sought. He knew the Lord his shepherd Who restored his soul. Can you find refreshing anywhere but in God? Can you really get refreshed on vacation? Can you get refreshed by spending a month in a hammock on the beach? There's only one way to be refreshed, and that's to have fellowship with Father. Vacations don't refresh you; it's the time you spend with Father while you're away. It's the visitation of God. It's the word that the Lord speaks to you. Robbie's gotten so used to doing this every time we come back from a time away. When I see Robbie, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "What did God say to you?" Not, "How did you like Hawaii?" or "Did you enjoy skiing?" Every time you get away, every time you're able to just move back from the daily pressures, you're able to get quiet and hear what God's saying. "He restoreth my soul..."

David, a man after God's own heart. He runs to the enemy, smites him, takes his sword and cuts his head off, and then comes the presentation before the king. Then something happened that I want you to see this morning. (I'm getting too bogged down here; I want to get into some of the facts that I wanted to touch on.) Following this great victory, something very interesting happened in chapter 18. It says, "And...the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." What do you think it was that Jonathan fell in love with in this young man, David? You would think that Saul would have become jealous of his son's love and admiration for another man, but that didn't bother him. What bothered Saul was that he wasn't hearing the songs of the women of how great he was. All that motivated Saul was a jealousy, a rage against David, because David was a man pursuing God with a fervency that he had once strived toward. Jonathan had seen the hypocrisy of his father. Jonathan had seen the carnality of his father. Jonathan had seen the vanity of being raised in a home of wealth, power, and prestige, and he saw that there was nothing there that could satisfy. Then Jonathan sees a man who's wholly after God, and he said, "There's the reason for living; there's the treasure of life."

I want to encourage some of you young people. Regardless of the environment that you've been raised in, we see a couple of great examples in these few chapters right here. We see a Samuel who was raised in the hypocrisy of the house of Eli. Some of you children that are sitting here this morning have been raised in homes of hypocrisy; but you can't cop out, and you can't make any excuses for your carnality or lack of zeal. In the midst of all of the carnality of Eli's home, Samuel was raised up a prophet whose words never fell to the ground. In Saul's house--a house of self-exaltation, a house of carnality, a house of humanism--Jonathan was raised up and became a young man of integrity, a young man who fought for the glory of God, a young man who embraced the heart of David, one who was wholly after God. The decision is yours; you can't blame it on your environment. Psychologists want to put it off on your environment. It's your heart, it's your treasure, that will determine the prize that you obtain in the last days. Every one of you that's hearing my voice this morning is old enough to make your decision for God regardless of what your family does. It will rule over genetics. Genetics are powerful. The more I study, the more I look at the power of genetics, it is a scary thing, man! I believe that genetics are what's being spoken of when it talks about the sin that comes to the third and fourth generation. It's speaking of those of us that were raised in households of alcoholics, those of us that were raised in homes of promiscuity, that have brothers and sisters that are half brothers and sisters or out of wedlock with others, and we've experienced these things in our lives. You have your aunts and your uncles, and everybody in town's sleeping around. That's the environment that you're raised in, and it goes from generation to generation. Whether it's sexual lust, or whether it's alcoholism, or whatever it might be, I want to tell you something: it can stop in your generation, praise God! You don't have to be what mom and dad were, and you can be what mom and dad are. If they're doing good, then follow them with all of your heart!

Some of those things are in you. David's brothers didn't make that up about him being a young man who was zealous, and they called him "a naughty man." This was a kid that would show off, man! This was a kid that didn't mind doing back flips, and walking on his hands, and slapping lions and bears around. Joseph didn't mind strutting his stuff with his coat of many colors. Their brothers were jealous of these that God had put His hand on, and they despised them. These were young men that experienced and enjoyed the blessings and the anointing of God and didn't apologize for them. But the thing that we see is this: these men didn't use it for their own glory; they used it for the glory of God. Your greatest assets can become your greatest liabilities if you use them for yourself instead of for God. For many of us, He's blessed us, and we're consuming these gifts upon our own lusts and our own flesh. What are you doing with what God's given you? Are you squandering it on your own glory and your own ease? Are you willing to wear that coat for the glory of God, and be despised of everyone around you, and be proven in the den of isolation, and in the persecution of Potiphar's house, and in the coldness of the dungeon, as your heart's being proven and prepared for the throne of Egypt?

Each one of us should be examining ourselves this morning. "What kingdom am I in? Am I identifying the gift? Am I identifying the call? Is it being used for the glory of God?" (I've tried to narrow this down, and we're a little broad in the concepts right now; but I want to get to the point as we're finishing this morning.) I'm trying to stir you up and cause you to identify, "What kingdom am I moving in? What wisdom am I moving in? Who am I living for? Do I realize that God's hand is on me, and that I'm being called to be separate? I'm being called to be an individual distinct from the masses. Do I realize that to be successful for God, I don't have to be raised in one of the pastor's homes or one of the deacon's homes? Or if I'm raised in one of the pastor's or deacon's homes, or somebody else's home, and they're not living exactly for God, God can use me and separate me." So, David is knit together with Jonathan. God will bring you into the lives of men who will be there for just one reason: to save your life, to bring you the information you need at the right moment to deliver you.

Let's go on. I want to get a little further along, so that we can be ready for Wednesday. Ronnie's going to be preaching tonight; I thought it fair to warn you! It's been good having them home, amen? A refreshing has taken place in their lives, both he and Tony. As they go back about the vision, they need your prayers, for you to hold them up for the wisdom of God. They pray for us in the temptation of all of our abundance, and all of our idle time, and all of our pride of Sodom. They're in an environment that's very dangerous to their souls, and you need to pray for them and lift them up. They're in a nation that's swallowed up in religion, in the temptation to be accepted as a success only by numbers and by running with the shakers and the movers. We need to pray that both Ron and Tony would continue in the spirit of humility and be content with where God's placed them and called them. We should pray that they'd be content to build only according to the anointing and the miraculous power of God, and not by the arm of the flesh, and by all of the con, and the hustle and bustle that are the treasures of that nation. So, pray for them that they'll continue to walk in the Spirit. We believe that they're refreshed and ready to go back and continue the good work that they've been doing. So, just continue to hold their hands [up].

As David and Jonathan's hearts are knit together, we contrast now David with Saul, because listen to what it says. I want you to see verse 5 very clearly. This is showing us how we need to conduct ourselves as we go out into the world with the anointing of God and with a zeal for God. The Bible says it this way: that we're to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. We're not looking to stir up trouble, but we will not compromise. We're not looking to draw attention to ourselves, but we are looking to boldly proclaim the gospel. Don't be reckless, but be bold. It's very important to see in the heart of David that he behaved himself wisely, the Scripture says. Look at verse 5. "And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants." Just show some integrity when you're out there. On the job, work as unto the Lord. Be the best man on the job; and yet, don't give your soul to the company; it belongs to God. If you're ten times wiser (as the Hebrew children were), then you can accomplish more in less hours than all of those who have married the company. God will give you wisdom, and God will give you favor. When they come and want more out of you, just tell them, "Look! I'm already producing more than anybody else in the place, and here's why: because I'm seeking the kingdom of God first, and I'm not compromising the glory of God. I'm not compromising my family, and I'm not compromising my ministry for your company. But I think it's pretty obvious to you that God's hand is on me. I'm performing better than anybody else you've got. Maybe you ought to give God the glory for it." As he behaved himself wisely, it says he was accepted in the sight of the people. The Scripture says that as he went out and was victorious, Saul began to be jealous. He was wroth, and it displeased him as the people played and sang the songs that Saul had killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands. Saul says, "What can he have more than the kingdom itself?" "And Saul eyed David from that day and forward."

You're going to have enemies out there. They're going to put their eyes on you, and they're going to try to destroy you. Jesus never committed Himself to men. We're serving as unto the Lord; we never commit to men. Don't trust anybody that's not in this kingdom. Jesus knew what was in men, the Scripture says, so He wouldn't give Himself to them. As we all know the story here, it says that at times an evil spirit would come upon Saul, and he would take up a javelin and throw it at David. Look at verse 12; I love this passage. "And Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him." Do you know that people are afraid of us? Now, behave yourself wisely. We're not talking about being arrogant or boastful, but people are afraid of the anointed of God. When the children of Israel were going to come into the land, it says that their enemies' hearts melted because they knew what God had done on their behalf to Egypt. Do you understand that, going into any situation, you're the winner? If God's for you, who can be against you? Do you believe that? I don't mean doctrinally. Do you really believe that you can't be beaten, that we're invincible? "No man can take My life," Jesus said. "I have to lay it down." And He's the One that lives in us. Nobody can take your life; Jesus has to offer it up. If He offers it, then blessed be the name of the Lord! Until then, let's set out about the Father's business.

Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him. Look at what caused that; look at this next phrase. He was afraid of David because the Lord was with David and had departed from him. He knew that God had departed from him and gone to David. Do you want to know why people that used to be your friends don't like you anymore? It's because the Lord that departed from them is in you. Do you want to know why people that have gone out of your life and have begun to serve other gods despise you and those that you're with? It's because the Spirit that went out of them is in you. Do you want to know why they're preoccupied with taking up javelins and trying to kill you, and you're preoccupied with going out, trying to bring glory to God, and hoping to restore them? It's because the Spirit that was in them is in you. We're not jealous of them; We don't seek to kill them. Saul was at the mercy of David twice, for David to take his life. Do you know that on numerous occasions over the years, I've had my enemies in my hands to destroy them, but all that we would do is just pray that God would bless them and give them a cup of cold water. Many people who have opposed us have been destroyed, and there was no rejoicing over the destruction of an enemy, but a humility and a broken-ness. David behaved himself wisely. What spirit is in you? There's no spirit of retaliation in us if we're of the kingdom of David and the kingdom of the meek and lowly One. We're not seeking victory to say, "See; I was right!" We're seeking to be faithful so they can say, "See; God was right!" He watches over His Word, and He performs it. Saul was afraid because the Lord was with David and had departed from him. "Therefore Saul removed him[self] from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him." Mark verse 14, and grab hold of it. He behaved himself wisely, and the Lord was with him, ".and Saul became David's enemy continually" (verse 29).

We're contrasting these kingdoms. We're not talking about the pagans, beloved. We're talking about the kingdom of