Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 22. 1 Samuel 22. Now our Lord is using the persecution of David by Saul here to reveal a difference between the children of the covenants, between the covenant of grace and the covenant of law. He's showing a difference between the children of promise and the children of the bondwoman, those that are free born and those that are born of the flesh into slavery. And this difference manifests itself in the persecution of the children of God by the children of the devil. But in this account here, what we're going to see is there are many pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for his people. through His death as our sacrifice, to put away our death, to put away our sin, to deliver us from that covenant of works and to establish us in the covenant of grace, made for us, for our good and for our blessing, and we see that there's fruit Our Lord's death is a successful sacrifice. He's a successful mediator. And so His death produces fruit in and for His people so that we are given life and we are made to flee to Christ for all our comfort and all our safety. And that's what I want to look at with you here in this text. So Saul now has become entirely occupied with destroying David. This is his mission in life. Rather than doing things profitable for the kingdom, he's focusing on finding and destroying David. So look at verse 6, 1 Samuel 22 verse 6. When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him. He's hearing that David has fled, and he's hiding out, and he's a captain of all these men. About 400 men have assembled to him, to David here. And we're told in the parentheses here that Saul abode in Gibeah. This is where he's from. under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. And so we begin to see some tyrannical behaviors in Saul here. He's so focused on destroying David. And he's got this look. Now, here's the king. He's sitting in session on a throne, as it were, in a grove, in a high place, which is typically a place of idolatry. And for his scepter, he's holding a spear. That's his scepter and that sends a message to those that are standing about him. This is sending a dark message that Saul is not playing games here and anything that gets in between him and his throne, he's going to destroy it. And that's the message he wants to send to his servants because a lot of people in his court have favor toward David. They think highly of David and they don't necessarily understand why Saul is so adamant in trying to kill David. But Saul, we see in him, is like the devil. It's like the enemy of our souls in his hatred of Christ, his hatred of God, his hatred of God's Christ, which is God's salvation for his people. He hates the gospel. He hates the people of God. And just like Saul here, the devil we read of, that his wrath and anger is great. In Revelation 12 it says something to the effect of woe to the inhabitants of the earth for the devil has come down unto you having great wrath. His wrath is great for he knoweth that his time is short. He knows he has but a short time. And Saul seems to sense this. I don't think Saul knew that David was anointed. I think he would have put Samuel to death had he known that Samuel anointed David. So this was kept from him, but he could just see how the Lord blessed this man in all that he did. And the country, the people of the country loved him, rejoiced in him. And so his jealousy was provoked and he wanted David put to death, exactly like we see with the scribes and Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews who saw the fame of Christ rise up and they were jealous and they were fearful and they wanted him put to death as a result. So that's the picture shaping up here. And look at verse 7 and 8 with me here. Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Here now, ye Benjamites, will the son of Jesse, who's of the tribe of Judah, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? He's? He's? like the serpent promising them the world. He's promising them reward for their loyalty and obedience to him and he's threatening them that you're going to lose all these opportunities which I will give to you if David survives and if he becomes king you're not going to have these things that I'm willing to give to you. Verse 8, that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that showeth me that my son, speaking of Jonathan, hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or showeth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait, as it is this day. Now, Saul here, he's delusional. He's imagining this. He sees the friendship between David and Jonathan, and he's imagining that they're conspiring against him. And we've seen what they spoke of. It's a true love. It's a true bond of affection. And Jonathan knows that David will be king one day. He knows it. But they never spoke of putting Saul to death. There's no desire to conspire against Saul. They'll wait upon the Lord. And the Lord will bring it by to pass in his own good time. And Saul's going to soon know that this is true because he'll be in a cave and David would have been able to take his life right then and there and he didn't. And he knows it, and he backs off for a while until his jealousy comes up again. But Saul has become desperate here, and he begins to charge his servants of conspiring against him. He's basically giving a veiled threat, saying, you're conspiring against me, too. You're part of this conspiracy. You guys are aligning yourselves against me. And that's a dangerous place to be in the presence of an earthly king. if you will. And so this causes Doeg the Edomite to come forth with some facts that he witnessed the other day. But he tells them in such a way so as to put a dark color on them and to accuse Ahimelech, the priest, of conspiring with David. And our brother read Psalm 52, which David wrote concerning these things. And again, this is a picture like we saw the last time, what's born out of persecution. It's in these persecuting difficult times, these trials and tribulations when David wrote the Psalms. Not when everything was peaceful and calm. I don't think most of them, if any, were written then. It's all when things were difficult and hard and his life was in danger. And that's when, that's what the Lord was bringing forth, all that fruit, that precious fruit in his people under persecution. So Doeg comes forth, look at verse 9 and 10. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nab, to Ahimelech the son of Ahithep. And he inquired of the Lord for him, and he gave him victuals, which is food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Now, one thing that stands out here about the accuser, this man is the accuser here, and his name is what stands out. This is Doeg the Edomite, and this should bring to our minds that the Lord has a people and there's a people that he passes by but there is a people that is precious to him and this brings back what Edom is of Esau. Let's go back just a little bit further first and just look at the sons of Abraham. The firstborn was Ishmael and then came Isaac and we see that the Lord put a difference between Ishmael and Isaac, with Isaac being the promised seed, and Ishmael being born of the flesh, being the product of flesh, being, it was Abraham, a man of God, but Abraham put his hand to the work to try to bring to pass the promises of God made to him. He was trying by his works to accomplish what God promised he would do for Abraham. And that's such a word for us to hear, being the people of God who hear God's word, who rejoice in God's word, who believe the promises of God, and yet so often, like Abraham, we think we have to put our hand to the work. When the promises, when things seem to be taking a long time to work out, we think, well, maybe God's telling me I should do something here. And so we begin to put our hand to the work, just like Abraham, and when it's of our flesh, we mess it up. And we make matters worse. What I've heard, the best advice I ever heard is when you don't know what to do, don't do anything. Don't just do something for the sake of doing something because a lot of times that's just the flesh. And so we see here this promise that God had made to Abraham to begin with. And when he told Abraham, cast out the bondwoman and her son, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Isaac is the son of promise. I'm going to give you a son according to the promise. And so the difference between Ishmael and Isaac that I want us to just take notice of here, and we'll get to Edom in a moment, but the difference between Ishmael and Isaac is it was a matter of birth. It was a matter of birth. Ishmael was first born. He was born first, right? But he was born of the will of the flesh. And Ishmael represents all those who are born under that covenant of works. The covenant of the law and the covenant of works. And all those like him are born into bondage. He was born of the bondwoman. He's not a free man. He's a bond servant. He's born of his mother, a bond woman, and so he's born into slavery. But Isaac, he was freeborn, born of a free woman, the child of Sarah under the covenant of grace. And as the child of promise, he's not of the flesh. And what does this all picture? What does this mean for you and I? Well, brethren, this pictures the birth of all of God's children. We're first born like Ishmael. We're born of the flesh. And we're fleshly. We're of the earth. And we're born in Adam under that covenant of works. The covenant of the law. And so we're of the flesh by nature. We're like Ishmael by nature. But according to promise, our God gives us a new birth, born of the Spirit, not of man's works, not of man's will, not of man's doing, not of our fleshly blood, but of Christ's precious blood. And we're born of the Spirit, of the seed of Christ. And so we see here that when He gives us a new birth, We're free, brethren. It's a matter of birth. And that's what determines which covenant we stand under before God. Our Lord said it this way in John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. So we don't get ourselves born again. We don't get ourselves saved. We don't do anything to contribute to our salvation. It's of God. It's of God according to promise. And we wait for the promise, trusting Him, believing Him. Even though we don't see what we think we should see in this flesh, we know His Word is true and stands forever, and He shall bring it to pass. And that's a comfort for any sinner who's tried to put their hand to it. We learn quickly, I'm a failure. And I do not live up to the glory of God. I come short of it in all that I do, all that I do. And so, Isaac had children as well, right? And this brings us to Jacob and Esau. But the promise, the blessing of God was given to Jacob, right? Jacob and Esau. Esau was the firstborn. They were twins. They were in the womb together, but the first hand to pop out was Esau's. He was the firstborn. And then Jacob pulled him in and Jacob came out, but Esau, was the firstborn, and he pictures, again, the flesh. And Jacob being the secondborn, that's the work of God. He pictures that work of God for us. And it was said, the elder shall serve the younger. And what it's speaking of there is that that which comes forth first of the flesh is the elder, but that which is of the spirit is the younger. and the elder, the flesh, shall serve that which is spiritual, that which is born of God. As it's written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And so again here, we see this picture's the new birth, which is accomplished by our Savior in all his people, all the people of God given to him to redeem, he came and redeemed us. And he did not fail. He accomplished salvation. He accomplished the very work that the Father sent him to do. And Paul said it this way in that same chapter, Romans 9 verse 8, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And by nature, we're all children of flesh, born dead in trespasses and sins, having no spiritual life, no spiritual knowledge, no spiritual understanding, unable to worship the true and living God in truth and in spirit. We can't do it. We don't know how to do it. And man thinks he does, but he's ignorant. I'm ignorant by nature. I'm in darkness by nature. I don't know how to worship God. But he sent his son to accomplish salvation and redemption and life in his people, which we could not bring forth ourselves. He accomplished it. He did the work. And he brings it forth as it pleases him, as it pleases him. And so, this salvation, our Lord, because He's accomplished our redemption, He gives the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life in His people, whereby we hear Christ. We are called effectually by His grace unto Christ. He reveals faith in us, because it's not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, and we believe Christ. We receive His words, and we believe His words, and these are the children of promise, manifest by the glorious power of God, doing for them, in them, what they cannot, would not do for themselves, He does it. And so a distinction is made, because it can't be We can't be replicated by the wicked. To the outside, sure, they can fool us and nobody would know. They look like the wheat, though they're the tares. And so, but God knows, but God knows. And Dueg here, he pictures the children of the flesh, those that are left to themselves like Esau, and he's you see a picture of serving the prince of the power of the air, seeking to gain his favor and the riches of this world, rather than the riches of our God in Christ. And so that's what separates him. And the only thing I could see in all this is what it comes down to is that because God has set his love and affection on a people, whoever he puts his love and affection upon, This world hates, just as it hated Christ, and it'll be made apparent. They may not even know why they hate you, but they'll hate you, and they'll give you a difficult, hard time, and murder you if they can. that they can get away with it, because that's what they do here. And Paul said it this way, "...but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." He's saying, as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, the son of promise, even so it is now. And we see that truth all the way back in Cain, who slew Abel. We see that truth in Ishmael, who persecuted Isaac. We'll soon see it with Doeg slaying Ahimelech. And the scribes and the priests and the Pharisees, they hated Christ and slew him, just as all the children of the flesh slew all the prophets of God throughout all ages. And that's because God chose a people for Himself before the foundation of the world and gave them into the hand of Christ our surety to accomplish our salvation, our redemption, and to bring us under that covenant of grace where God may be just and justifier of them that believe in Him. according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And so our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world as our surety and redeemed us from the hand of justice which was against us under that covenant of the law and he establishes us in perfect righteousness under the covenant of grace where God is gracious to us abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the devil and his children hate you for it. Because this world is not your world, it's not your inheritance. Now this brings us to a picture we see in Ahimelech, which speaks to what our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us in his death. To accomplish our deliverance from that bondage in Adam that we were born into. Now based solely on Doeg's accusations Saul determined Ahimelech was guilty and worthy of death and said in verse 16, the king said thou shalt surely die Ahimelech thou and all thy father's house. Now we looked at this a couple weeks ago. where Ahimelech's death, it pictures the death of our high priest, of our shorty, of our savior, Jesus Christ. Saul had wrongly accused Ahimelech of insurrection, of trying to overthrow the king, saying in verse 13, you inquired of God for him that he should rise against me. And so he's charging him with insurrection, which just so happens to be, not really, that's according to purpose, that's exactly what they charged Christ with. The Jews brought him to Pilate and said, he says he's the king. And we have but one king, even Caesar. Because they wanted him crucified. They wanted him put to death the Roman way, the most shameful way to die. They wanted him publicly shamed in that manner so that they could wash their hands of it before the people and say, well, it was Pilate and the Romans that did it. But they accused him falsely of insurrection. They accused him falsely. And so we see, though, that all this was determined by God, that they should take him and by wicked hands crucify and slay him in order to bring to pass the purposes of God in redeeming his people, to save his people. And so he did that very thing in laying down his life to satisfy our debt, to pay our debt, and to give us life in himself. So when Ahimelech died, all his father's house died with him. And the picture is, is that when Christ was crucified, we brethren were crucified with him. We are the house of the father, which the father chose and gave to his son, so that when Christ went to the cross, we went to the cross in him, being born in him, and when he died, we died. When He was laid in the tomb, we were laid in the tomb. When He rose again, we rose again. And this is exactly what Paul says in a couple scriptures, but I'll quote Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Brethren, it's Ahimelech and all his father's house died. And it pictures what Christ accomplished for us. And all his father's house died with him to bring us out from underneath that bondage and that covenant of the law and works that we cannot do. that we cannot satisfy the justice of God in that covenant, but Christ did. Christ did. And when we were under that covenant of works, it was sin that determined whether you lived or died. It was sin that determined whether you lived or died. And since all are sinners, since all are sinners in Adam, all died. All died. But under the covenant of grace, Christ determines who lives or dies. And since He gave His life for sinners, all for whom He died live in Him. All whom He represented live in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And nothing can stop that. Nothing can prevent that whatsoever. And so we're free from the law of sin and death in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're free in order that we should live unto God. Not serving God in fear, under threat of punishment, in worries and doubts and afraid to die, afraid, wondering, did I do enough? Did I do enough? No, we've never done enough. And that's why Christ came, to destroy the works of the devil, to put away that death and deliver us once and for all from that, that we may serve God in peace and in fellowship and in joy and in thankfulness for what He has done for us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, in newness of life. Now how is that possible for sinners such as we are? For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He accomplished our redemption, brethren. He accomplished it. Now back in our text, verse 17, And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David. And you can see just how awful this fall is in this man. that he calls them the priests of God, and yet he wants to put them to death. You see how great his fall is there. And he gave them this testimony because their hand also is with David. Brethren, is your hand with our spiritual David, the Lord Jesus Christ? It's a good testimony that the Lord bears in his people And this world sees it. This world knows them that are with Christ, and them that are not. By his grace and power, Peter calls us a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. A people who are sinners, forgiven by the grace of God, and know what we are, but know who he is and what he's done for us. making us thankful, that we would side against ourselves with Christ, that we would take sides with Him, confessing our sin, that we're unworthy, but He's so gracious and so loving, so kind, so full of salvation to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. So I'll just repeat, they didn't do anything wrong against Saul. but in it, it pictures their faithfulness, and it pictures the faithfulness of the blood redemption of Christ to deliver his people from death once and for all, in and by himself, through his death, and what he's done for us. Peter says, let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. God will call his children to suffer as this family was called to suffer. But it's all to the praise, glory, and honor of God. It's to his praise. And we don't even read of them fighting against it. They were given grace in that hour. And so the footmen, they wouldn't do it. But Doeg, the accuser, he gladly And it shows that hatred in the heart is as murder of another person. It's just as wicked. It's just as guilty of committing murder against them because that's what hatred is. We would murder them if we could get away with it. And so not only were the priests slain, but verse 19 says, and Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the sword. And when I read that, it's such a striking, a sad, thing there, because it was for that very reason that the kingdom was taken from Saul. When the Lord said, you go, he sent Samuel, and Samuel said, the Lord has said to go and destroy the Amalekites, I believe it was, and he said, kill every one of them, including their sheep and their oxen. And Saul didn't do that. When Samuel came, he said, I've obeyed the Lord, the voice of the Lord. I've done what the Lord said. And Samuel said, why then Is there this bleeding of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen, do I hear, if you've obeyed the Lord?" And then Saul said, oh well I spared them and I spared the king of Agag or whatever. But then here He goes and destroys all of them, including sheep and oxen. It shows just how grievous His fall really was. I think He knew exactly what He was doing when He put every single one of them to death in that manner. But I want to show you here in closing a picture of the grace of our Lord that He works in His redeemed by His grace and power. And what we see here is He causes you to fly to Christ, to flee to Christ, our Savior, to confess and tell Him all that is wrong, to tell Him all that's troubling us, and to come to Him for grace, for salvation, for mercy, for help in our time of need. So look at verses 20 through 23. And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me. Fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me thou shalt be in safe guard. And so the lesson here is one of encouragement, brethren, that all for whom Christ gave his life, none are lost. None shall die in their sin and perish in hell forever. All that Christ gave His life for, there's not one in hell. None is lost. He has delivered us by His blood into the arms of God our Savior, of His Heavenly Father. We are delivered from that house of flesh, that covenant of flesh. And so we've seen that in this, how that when Christ died, we died with Him. that we're chosen of God in Christ Jesus and we see that fruit wrought in us so that he gathers us together, he causes us to hear his word with understanding by his grace and power and he effectually calls us unto himself to come to Christ and to lay out all that we ourselves are sinners but what he has done and to and to declare, Lord, save me. Save me, the sinner, with thy precious blood. Don't let me perish. And he brings that out in his people so that this life of Christ is witnessed in us. Just as we see here with Abiathar. He wanted no part of that. He fled to David. And that's what we do. We fly to Christ, our Savior, our David. And so, brethren, we see the precious fruit of our Savior. I'll close with this, in John 10, verse 27 through 30, Christ our shepherd says, my sheep, hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." And so we see there, the sheep that hear His voice, that's all of His grace. That's of His salvation. You that hear Christ and believe Him, rejoice. That's the grace of your God being made visible in you, and it's by His grace and mercy, brethren, that we hear and rejoice in Him. And I pray the Lord encourage your hearts and comfort your hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.