Here's the book of Samuel. So, there's much light here and much encouragement from the Word. I will be reading 1 Samuel 19, verses 1-24. If you'd like to follow the sermon outline, there's one in your bulletin here, so feel free to take notes and follow along. 1 Samuel 19, verses 1-24. This is the Word of the Lord. And Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all of his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, Saul, my father seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything, I will tell you. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. For he took his life in his hands, and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all of Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?" And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. And Jonathan called David. And Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul. And he was in his presence as before. And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them down with a great blow, so that they fled before him. Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the liar. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear. But he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night. Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. Michael, David's wife, told him, you do not escape with your life tonight. Tomorrow, you will be killed." So Michael let David down through the window and he fled away and escaped. And Michael took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats hair at its head and covered it with cloth, with clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, he is sick. And Saul sent the messengers to see David saying, bring him up to me in bed that I may kill him. And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed. With the pill of goats here at its head, Saul said to Michal, Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go, why should I kill you? Now David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he said, Samuel went and lived at Nihah. And it was told Saul, Behold, David is at Nioth in Ramah. And Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the company of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Sekou. And he asked, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they are in Nioth, in Ramah. And he went there to Nioth, in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also. And as he went, he prophesied until he came to Nioth, in Ramah. And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and laid naked all that day and all that night, that it is said, It is Saul among the prophets. Let us pray that the Lord would lead us in the preaching of His Word. Dear Heavenly Father, we come again yet to You as children, as beggars. Lord, we have nothing to bring to You. In of our own strength and yet, Lord, we know that You give us much light and You lead us through Your Word. Lord, we ask of You this morning, would You open our eyes open our hearts. Would You give us changed hearts today? Would You work through the power of Your Holy Spirit to apply these words, this sermon, to the hearts of Your people, to this blessed congregation, Lord? Lord, we ask that You would speak mightily through the preacher, which is not myself, but the Holy Spirit. Would He work within our lives? Would this sermon change our lives, not because of any human speaking it, Lord, but because You change lives. Would we trust in You today that Your Word is powerful, that it's sharper than any two-edged sword, that it's living and active? And so, Lord, would You bring life to us through Your Word today? We pray this in Your Son's name, Jesus Christ. Amen. About two Fridays ago, a comet, an asteroid about half the size of a football field, about the size of a large cruise ship, just flew right past the Earth. It just missed Earth by 15 minutes. The Earth is a moving target, and so if it got there 15 minutes earlier, we would have had an impact. The impact would have been of the force of 150 H-bombs. It would have destroyed a land mass of about two-thirds that of Rhode Island. And yet, it just whizzed by us, and it just missed us, and we're all very thankful for that. Well, you might hear these news, and you're, oh, that's encouraging, and just to hear that, you're thinking, whew, we dodged a bullet. But for some of us, that's not the case. You might say to yourself, why would you tell me that? That scares me, that scares my children, I don't even know why you're saying these things. We have different ways we feel protected. Either we want someone to give us the full scoop, give us it all, and don't hold anything back. The rest of us, we don't want that. We want you, don't tell me if I don't hear it, I can't believe it, the earth will still spinning, I don't need to know. We have different ways we feel protected and guarded. We have different ways that makes us feel protected. Sometimes, we might even be so bold to say some of those protection devices in our minds is the Lord. But if we're honest with ourselves, we try other ways to protect ourselves and guard ourselves. That is the theme of our sermon today, how the Lord protects us. And in our passage, we'll see that the Lord protects His people through three things, godly reasoning, godless deception, and that God overwhelms. That again is godly reasoning, godless deception, and that God overwhelms. We come to a passage where Saul, out of nowhere, decides, it seems, hey, let's kill David. He says this to Jonathan and to the servants. Well, just a chapter before, there was a victory parade. David had just killed Goliath. And Saul was excited. His champion had defeated the greatest enemy that Israel had seen in a long time. They were very excited. We dodged a bullet. But then the victory parade comes in, and there's a song. And it says, Saul has killed his thousands. David has killed his 10,000. Well, the math doesn't really work. One is not 10,000, but Goliath is of the magnitude of 10,000 soldiers defeated. Saul gets the green-eyed monster, and this is not good for him. He sees an upstart. He sees a rival. The nation has moved in their heart and love towards David, and that scares Saul. And so Saul has, from that moment on, been trying to kill David. He thought, well, I'll just send him away toward, and the Philistines will kill him off. Well, unfortunately, in his mind that hasn't worked. So now he's becoming more bold and confident in his sin, and he just blurts out, let's kill David. Saul says this. Jonathan couldn't disagree more. It says in verse 1, he delighted much in David. Father and son couldn't be more apart in their opinion of David. One has a godless opinion. One sees a heart that's united in the love of the Lord. Jonathan couldn't disagree more. If you were in that situation and someone said, hey, let's kill your best friend, I'm sure You wouldn't say, oh, that's a great idea. Somebody wanted to attack a brother, a sister, your spouse. If you're like me, you would immediately say something. That's a bad idea. I will absolutely not let that happen. But Jonathan does something very wise because this is his father. He goes in private. He speaks to David and he speaks to Saul. He warns his friend. And then he warns and talks to his father. And in this we find much wisdom. We find a solution for protection in the moment. We see what Jonathan does is he honors his father. He goes in private. This is godly, godly wisdom to not stand in front of Saul, the king, who just happens to have a really bad anger problem. and to say, Dad, I absolutely disagree. To say that to the king would have, just like any time when we're in public and someone corrects us, we don't say in that moment, thank you, you're right, I was sinning. We say, you embarrassed me. When you get in private, you embarrassed me. How could you say that? Well, Jonathan doesn't do that. He doesn't challenge his dad in front of the servants. He watches himself. He goes in private. What he does is he shares his words. He's very careful. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father. It says in verse 4. When we're struggling in anger, when we're struggling in bitterness, when we're hurt, we counsel our own hearts in a certain way. We say certain things in our minds about that person. When we talk to others, we'd like to say it's not gossip. We say we're trying to work through it. But when we talk to others, we have a way of of framing the story. And it's not entirely false, but then we find over time as we keep retelling it, it's not entirely true. Words become harder. We start reading into people's emotions and facial expressions. We start saying, well, this is what was in their hearts. That's what we say. But Jonathan He does something wise. He speaks truth. We need that. Somebody to speak truth, to give a counterbalance to what in our anger and our bitterness and our hurt we're consoling our hearts with. And he speaks well of David. He challenges his father. He says, Dad, you might not know this. David is not your enemy. Let the king not sin against your servant David. He is a servant. He has not sinned against you. And as the king, you have the right to bring a death penalty. but he has done no sin to deserve it." Matter of fact, he has only benefited you. He has not sinned against you because his deeds have brought good to you, he says in verse 4. Actually, he has not sinned against you. Matter of fact, he's helped you in the moment you were excited about that. This was great news. He has not sinned against you. His deeds have gone well. He took his life in his own hands. He struck down the Philistines. The Lord worked a great salvation. You saw it and you rejoiced. Dad, remember, this was something you were excited about. Don't turn back from this. This is great news." And so he appeals to reasoning, but he also does something even further. In a sense, it's like he warms up with godly wisdom, and then he speaks the Word of God. He speaks about the Lord. He says, that not only did he do good, the Lord worked a great salvation for you and all of Israel. Not only is David good, he is God's man. And God has worked a salvation. God has done a great thing in Israel today, or in this time. And would you want to stand against the Lord? He's the Lord's man. And then he goes on to share, it might be hard to know this, but it says, why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause? That phrase, innocent blood, is a biblical phrase. It comes from Deuteronomy 19 and Deuteronomy 27. Cursed is anyone who sheds innocent blood. So he's parenting back biblical wisdom. He's parenting back Scripture. And so he has He's intact. He has care in the way he shares these things. And in the moment, it seems like it works. If you look at this as a method, and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported all these things, and Jonathan brought David to Saul, and it seemed that there was reconciliation. Jonathan had brought, it sounds like, a reconciliation in Israel that day. For the moment, it seems like peace. Evil is restrained, but for some reason it's not conquered in the heart of Saul. There is peace for the moment, and we ask why. I thought he just shared some scripture. I thought he spoke godly wisdom. Why is it that Jonathan, who has been obedient and godly and careful, and maybe in your minds, ten times better than what you might have done, why did this not work? We can treat God like a vending machine sometimes. I share devotions with my family. I take them to church. We can go through a resume. And we can put that into the whole mix. And we can say, like a vending machine, I've been good, and I've read Scripture to my family, and I pray every day, and I read my Bible, and those are all good things. But then we say in our minds, A7, out pops a godly child. And when a godly child doesn't pop out, we say, well, let me go through that again. What have I done? I raised my kids right. I've given them devotions. I've read Scripture to them. I've prayed with them every night. Something's not adding up. There has to be something that's in addition to what we do. Something far greater than what we do. Because we also can add on that list all the things we're not doing right. And we need something greater than us to make those godly words from Scripture. Yes, continue to read Scripture to your kids and pray with them. But we need something to superintend this, don't we? And so there is something wrong with Saul's heart. We need something greater than Saul and Jonathan to fix this problem. And we know it has to be the Spirit that attends this. It has to be the Spirit. So for the moment, There's protection, but then we go to verse 8, and there's war again. And now's a fresh opportunity for David to do his job well. And again, he does a fantastic job. And rather than Saul loving the deliverance of Israel, the green-eyed monster happens again. Jealousy. And now he wants to kill David again. We see that a harmful spirit or a tormenting spirit from the Lord comes upon Saul. There is a lot to be said about that. I will say that that spirit is there to judge Saul as there are times the Lord hands people over and puts them under judgment for a time. Pharaoh saw this, right, with the plagues. His harmful spirit is judging Saul in the moment for his sin, unsettling him, keeping him from settling in on his sin. And if you want to talk more about that, I'm sure Talman is very well versed, Pastor Wagonmaker, and he can explain even more about that. So much there, and there's so much ink spilled on that. I'd like to move on from there. But the idea is there's a moment here where Saul is unsettled. He is unhappy. He tries to kill David. And it, for some reason, doesn't work. And we're wondering, what's going on? Why is this not working for David? Why is this not working for Saul? Somehow he averts the crisis. And he's able to move on. Saul's not able to be successful. So we come to a second method of trying to protect. Saul is sending out messengers to look out for David because he's going to kill him in the morning. And Michal, we normally call her Michael, but the proper way to call her is Michal. I always slip and call her Michal, so if you do too, that's okay. I might even slip again in this sermon. He sends out, and McCall does something. She sees her husband. She knows what's in the heart of her dad. And she says, if I think like a Texan that I do, Daddy's going to try to kill you in the morning. Daddy's out to hunt you and to kill you, and this isn't going to go well for you. You need to leave. So she commands David, if you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed. And so she sends David down through the window. And she does something that David really never asked for. She comes up with lies, a deception, an elaborate ruse. She's going to put the household idol in a bed. She's going to cover it with clothes. She's going to put a pillow of goat hair. And then she's just going to tell everybody for a time, well, David's sick. He can't come down. She has this elaborate deception, this elaborate lie. And we're going to talk about that household idol here in a second. But she does something that David in the text never asked for. David never said, and when I leave, tell your dad this. And yet she does that. We can find that when we're trying to protect our family, we do that. Maybe a family member that you don't really want to talk to right then. You know, your great aunt Bertha calls and, well, just tell her I'm not home. Because we think that will be OK. Or maybe you have a child, I remember talking to one family, they had a son who was very gifted in tennis, and he did well for a time, and he decided, with the encouragement of his family, they always spoke well of him, that he was gonna go out and play professional tennis. And he tried to join the pro tour, and he spent a couple years trying to do it, and he wasn't successful. He was very frustrated, very dejected after all of that, And it came out later on that the family didn't want to tell him. We came home, and he said, well, I'm very hurt. I really tried hard, and I thought I was a much better tennis player. The family said, well, we didn't want to hurt your feelings. So we didn't tell you that we didn't think that that would really work, and that you should probably think about it in another career. People try to protect by withholding information. They try to protect by saying, tell so and so I'm not home, or they bring their kids to school and they say, well, you know, you shared the truth rather than saying that they accidentally slept in. Oh, they weren't feeling so well this morning. We do things where we think we're trying to help or protect, but in the long run, they're not very helpful. McCall is trying to do that, but what happens in verse 17 is very interesting. The messengers keep coming back and forth. Is David sick? Ok, let me look at him. So Saul comes up personally. He's going to do something about it. He sees that David is down to bed. He says to her, why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go? Which by the by, didn't he agree that David is not his enemy when he was talking to Jonathan? Wasn't that the agreement that they had? But now, suddenly, David is an enemy again. Why would you let my enemy go so that he escapes? And McCall says something interesting. She goes, he said to me, let me go. Why should I kill you? She's caught in a lie. So what does she do in the lie? Well, she lies. She she has this elaborate story. When she's pressed, her heart is revealed when she is stressed. I'm not sure about you, but I think it's true of all humanity that when you're going through a hard time, either it's work stress, maybe you're not feeling well. What's really in your heart comes out in that stressful time. Well, she is stressed, her heart is revealed, and she shows that basically she's not very godly. She's a liar. When Saul gets stressed, what does he do? He goes to anger. When she gets in trouble, what does she do? She lies. That's her escape mechanism. She's not a very godly woman. What's one thing we know? She has a household idol. It's a woman's prerogative, when she gets married, to decorate any way she wants. That's certainly the way it works in my home. I don't make much of whatever what Katie would like to do. That's fine. If she asks my opinion, I'm sure I'll give it to her, and I do at times. That's a woman's prerogative. They live in the separate houses here. And when she is, in a sense, coming into this home, she brings a household idol. So she has idolatry with her. As we look at David's history, David never has idols. He has never had idols around him. So we see this as something with Michal. Another thing about Michal is that her own father knows her character. In chapter 18, when David is getting set up, in quotes, to fail by Saul, he sets up this marriage with Michal. And Michal is... She's said by her father to be a snare. She says, I'll marry her off, she'll be a snare. She'll be a spiritually stumbling block for David. How a father can say this about his own daughter is... is just inexplicable to me. But he says, I will marry her off to this guy so that she will stumble him. When we come to 2 Samuel 6 and David is dancing before the ark, joyfully as it comes into its new place, David strips down and is joyfully dancing. And McCall says, this is a shameful thing you've done in Israel. She's used to a certain professionalism of her father. This is unspoken of. A king shouldn't act this way. This is not a godly woman. She mocks her husband. She is not saved. And so when she is in a difficult situation, she lies. She gets selfish. She does not protect David. Actually, she implicates him. And of any time that Saul has a reason to kill David, now has an excuse. It's the words of McCall, isn't it? She says, Daddy, he said he'd kill me. Now, what father wouldn't defend his own daughter? If a man, even a young man, threatens you, who's married your daughter, threatens to kill her, what father wouldn't leap into the fray and make sure his daughter was safe? Well, she has really sold David down the river by saying, well, he said he was going to kill me. And so she is caught in this deception. Now, on the surface, it looks like What Jonathan did didn't help, and certainly what McCall does doesn't help. It seems almost, if you will, at first glance, well, then it doesn't matter if I do to the left or to the right. It's the same result here, so it shouldn't matter. But if we're more careful, we would see that there is a difference. There was reconciliation for a time and peace with Jonathan. There was anger. with McCall. There was closeness brought by what Jonathan did. There was division that was brought by what McCall does. It does matter. And God is free to use what McCall is doing. He is free to use sin sinlessly to move David forward. We see examples of how Pharaoh's sin brought salvation to Israel. We see what happens with Joseph, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. The Lord is moving this story forward, but it seems to be getting darker and darker. It seems like David is getting not more protected, it seems like he's feeling more exposed and less protected. And so, what are we going to do? We feel this. When we're looking at the tea leaves of our situation, we feel like we're going to be in trouble and something's going to happen to us. So what do we do? We see that Jonathan did his best, and McCall tried to do her best, but failed. It's going to have to take something greater than Jonathan or McCall. It's going to have to take something dramatically different. And we find it in our last section of this passage. We saw what man will do, and now we must see what God will do about this. Again, we come to a similar problem with Saul. Saul is in hot pursuit. David runs to Nioph, which is in the area of where Samuel is. Nioph is like a tent community for prophets. It's like a seminary for prophets. And so David and Samuel are there. And so Saul has this great idea that he's going to send three waves of messengers to go get David. Now, when it says messengers here, You're probably thinking of how when you're at work and the secretary comes in and hands you a slip of paper, you know, you need to call Mr. Jones. You think that's a message. Well, that's what messengers do. Or those days where they handed you, you know, telegraph messages, and here you go, and they put it on a little silver platter. You might think that that's what a messenger is doing. These are not what these guys are. They come to take. Solstice Messengers, verse 20. To take David. That idea of to take is not to say, hey, David, I love you a lot, but could you come with me? Saul would really like to have a conversation with you. It's the idea of seize or capture. These are not messengers. This is the bridge squad. And they're there to seize, grab him by force. put him in the back of the police car and bring him back to Saul. And so these men are probably maybe military men. I don't know who these men are, but they must have enough strength to seize David, to forcibly take him back. So Saul says, I'm going to send them. As the first passenger gets there, He comes and he sees a company in verse 20 of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as head over them. Then they start to prophesy. Now there's a division here on what Samuel and the prophets are doing and what the messengers are doing. We see in the English language of course that they're both prophesying, but in the original language it's the same verb but two different forms and so two different meanings. Whereas in the first one, it says that Samuel was standing as head over them. What it's saying there is that Samuel is leading them. There is an order. There is a way that worship is done. We have a lot in the five books of the law. We have a lot in Leviticus of how the Lord orders his worship. And the way when it says he's standing head over them, the language is more like he's standing leading them in worship. So there's an ordered thing that's happening here with the prophets. But when we come to what the messengers are doing, it's a different form, and it changes meaning. And this is more like disordered. This is more like they are not in control of their faculties. What happens is they're basically speaking and praising the Lord with gritted teeth. One is joyfully doing it, one is being made to do it. It's more like Balaam. when he was being paid to speak ill of Israel. And he couldn't do it. He could only speak well. He was made to prophesy what was only right. And so three waves are sent. Saul doesn't get the message. The messengers are seized by God. And rather than trying to seize David, they are captured by God in that moment. So Saul comes in. And the way that the Lord protects David is by humbling these men. As these other men had previously come in, when they got to Nioth, they actually started to prophesy. But when Saul starts to get there, and he's at that neighboring city right nearby, before he can even get to Nioth, he starts the praise parade coming in, already prophesying. He's humbled. He does not come in with majesty and glory of the king, trumpets blazing, What he is trumpeting and heralding is the greatness of God, which is exactly opposite of what he wanted to do. Not only does the Lord humble him in that way, but he removes, in that moment, it says here that, verse 24, and he too, he also stripped off his clothes, he also prophesied before Samuel. We find in Saul what actually happened every time they prophesied. We thought they just spoke of the Lord, But in this case, they did other things. Oddly enough, they stripped off the clothes. Not all of it, but what they would do is, it's like when David was dancing before the ark. It's a picture of humility. And he is laid out, laid bare before the Lord. He is humbled is the picture. Removing any implements and signs of his power, which would be his armor. There's a special robe that kings wore. And I don't mean like when you think of King Arthur, you have that big red robe that trails behind you in an aisle. But there's a special robe that Jonathan had and Saul had. Well, he stripped from anything of any earthly sign of honor. And it says here that he was laid down or laid naked all that day and night. What that means is it's not like he was lying down on a bed looking at the ceiling fan. It was more like the lie down prostrate. His face was in the dirt. His hands, his palms were lying down. To lie prostrate before a king would be a sign of ultimate respect. And in God's house, it would be a sign of ultimate worship. And so what happens here is that Saul is humbled. He is prostrate before the Lord. And it is such a remarkable thing that at the end of this, It says, is Saul among the prophets? What's interesting is this becomes a joke. It's so unexpected that people said, is Saul even among the prophets? Well, obviously not. But it was such a remarkable event. What we see here is that it's only the Lord who protects. At the end of the day, the only reason why Saul doesn't do what he does is because he is gripped in that moment When I was in Scotland, I remember hearing the leader of this Bible camp I was at. He said that one day he was on his way to a pub and he was going to drink that night and go out and sin. And he was walking through a football field, he said, but we call it a soccer field. He was walking through a football field and for some reason he couldn't walk anymore. He stopped for some reason. And for some reason he was seized in the moment And all of the sins that he had ever committed, his heart was heavy, just came to his mind for some reason. He didn't know why in that moment. And he broke down and he fell to his knees. And he realized all of his sin for some reason, he said. And we know it's now. He said it was the Holy Spirit convicting him of sin. And he prayed. He said, Lord, I recognize that I have been against you for these many years. I've always known that you've been there. Would you forgive me?" And he started that Sunday attending church. The Lord has a way, now this is not every day we see this, but the Lord still has a way of even physically seizing people and stopping people, arresting them. We hear of stories of remarkable recovery of how something just missed us, just like this asteroid, just so happened to miss us. And we forget the daily things the Lord does to protect His people. We forget how much the Lord cares for His people, and that He still does these things, even if it's not in that miraculous moment that we're seeing with Saul here. We see the ultimate way that the Lord protects us in a way that we can't protect. We might try to be Jonathan, or at times we might find like we're McCall, but we cannot protect the ones we love. True protection has to come in that personal work of God, just like here in the Spirit, The Lord had sent Christ, the second person of the Trinity, and the third person, the Spirit. And Christ, as he personally came to earth, as that great God-man, he faced people like Saul, like the Pharisees who stood against him. He faced people like McCall, who were worldly, like the rich young ruler, and did not want to stand for what he was about. And he had a few people he met that were for him, like the apostles. But none could hinder what Jesus Christ was going to do. Whereas David is trying to find himself not caught and not killed, Jesus chose to be caught and to be killed. And the Lord used sin sinlessly. He moved our salvation forward. It was at that cross, at that death, that Jesus conquered and rendered ineffective sin, devil, and the dead. He was so powerful that He Himself resurrected from the grave, proving that those things that scare us the most, will never have sway over us. And so we might be scared for different reasons. You have children and you worry for different reasons. But if Jesus has conquered sin, devil, and death, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of the Lord. There is nothing so scary out there that God is not bigger than that, because He is proven at the cross. He is greater than those things. Our God is that big. And at the end of time, our God will do something to all of those people and those beings who have stood against us. He will render them ineffective. We see that the Lord has sent His Spirit to be a deposit in us, to secure us into the great day of judgment. And what's interesting is Paul says something, and I'm going to close here. about that great day of judgment, where God is doing something truly remarkable. It says in Philippians 2, 9-11, And therefore God has highly exalted him, that image of kingship, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Saul wanted to be king. At the end of time, you'll either be a Samuel or you'll be a Saul. You'll either be rejoicing and praising in ordered worship, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, or you'll be made to confess, like Saul, that Jesus Christ is the true King. And the rejoicing thing is that the Holy Spirit has changed your life, applied salvation to your heart, You are one of those people that are secured into that great day where we'll be worshiping the King of Kings. But if you do not know the Lord, now is the day to confess Him. Now is the day to fall on your knees and recognize you are a sinner. Because every knee will bow. They'll either be made to bow or they will be gladly bowing before the Lord. Such is The King of Kings. So what do I ask of you today? Trust in that Lord. Trust in that King. Whether it's your children, whether it's your parents, your grandparents, your friends, trust in Him. He is your insurance. He is your protection. He is your fortress. You are secure in Him. Trust in Him. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, We recognize that You are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and we would like to say that we could secure ourselves. We would like to secure our people that we love. Lord, we love our children. We love our spouses. We love our parents, our grandparents. We think of our friends, and Lord, we weep for them and grieve for them. We'd like to see their lives change, but Lord, we don't see it change. We don't see our hearts change, and we're grieved, Lord. And so, Lord, we have to trust in Your Spirit who changes people, who applies the truth of this Word. Even today, Lord, There is so much light in Your Word, so much light in this passage, and yet, Lord, we would not see it if it weren't for Your Holy Spirit. So, Lord, we ask that You would mightily work through the power of the Holy Spirit on our own hearts, on our family's hearts, on our friends' hearts. Lord, would You give us boldness, boldness to speak this truth to our family, to our friends, and especially to those who are not saved. We pray this in Your Son's name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now we have the privilege, the rich privilege to see a baptism this morning. If you want to follow along, we're in form one of your Psalter hymnal. It's on page 123. It's really my joy to be able to do this baptism. I didn't grow up believing in infant baptism, and it's through the wagon makers and their godly daughter who helped me come to a biblical conviction on these things. And so it's really my joy to stand here and to be able to administer baptism in a biblical way. We're in form one, page 123. Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The principal parts of the doctrine of holy baptism are these three. First, that we, with our children, are conceived and born in sin, and therefore are children of wrath, so that we can't enter the kingdom of God, except we are born again. This, the dipping in or sprinkling with water, teaches us whereby the impurity of our souls is signified, that we may be admonished to loathe ourselves, humble ourselves before God, and seek for purification and salvation apart from ourselves. Second, holy baptism witnesses and seals unto us the washing away of our sins through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are baptized into the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For when we are baptized in the name of the Father, God the Father witnessed and seals unto us that he makes us an eternal covenant of grace with us and adopts us for his children and heirs, and therefore will provide for us with every good thing and avert all evil or turn it to our profit. And we are baptized into the name of the Son. The Son seals unto us that he washes us in his blood from all our sins, incorporating us into the fellowship of his death, and resurrection, so that we are freed from our sins and accounted righteous before God. Likewise, when we are baptized into the name of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit assures us by this Holy Sacrament that He will dwell in us and sanctify us to be members of Christ, imparting to us that which we have in Christ, namely the washing away of our sins, the daily renewing of our lives, till we shall finally be presented without spot among the assembly of the elect and life eternal. Third, whereas in all covenants there are contained two parts, therefore we are, by God, through baptism admonished of and obliged unto new obedience, namely, that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. that we trust in Him and love Him with all our heart and with our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength, that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a godly life. And if we sometimes through weakness fall into sins, we must therefore despair of God's mercy, nor continue in sin, since baptism is a seal and indubitable testimony that we have an eternal covenant with God. And although our children do not understand these things, we may not therefore exclude them from baptism, since they are without their knowledge partakers of the condemnation in Adam, and so again are received unto grace in Christ, as God speaks unto Abraham, the father of all believers, and therefore also to us and our children, saying, I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, throughout the generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. This also Peter testifies with these words. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that is far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. Therefore God formally commanded to circumcise them, which was the seal of the covenant and the righteousness of faith, as also Christ embraced them, laid his hands upon them, and blessed them. Since then, baptism has come in the place of circumcision, The children shall be baptized as heirs of the kingdom of God and of his covenant. And as they grow up, the parents shall be bound to give them further instruction in these things. That we, therefore, may administer this holy ordinance of God to his glory, to our comfort, and to the edification of our church, let us pray. Let us call upon his name. I will now pray. Oh, almighty, eternal God, thou who hast according to thy severe judgment the unbelieving and unrepentant world with the flood, and hast according to thy great mercy served, saved, and protected, believing Noah and his family. Thou hast drowned the obstinate Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea, and led thy people Israel through the midst of the sea upon dry ground, by which baptism was signified. We beseech thee that thou wilt be pleased of thine infinite mercy, graciously to look upon these children, and incorporate them by the Holy Spirit unto thy Son, Jesus Christ, that they may be buried with him through baptism into death, and be raised with him in newness of life, that they, daily following him, may joyfully bear this cross, cleaving unto him in true faith, firm hope, and ardent love, that they, being comforted in thee, may leave this life, which is nothing but a constant death, and at the last day may appear without terror before the judgment seat of Christ thy Son through him, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we also pray that you would be with Talman and Sarah. And we pray, Father, that you would continue to be with them as they raise their other children, that they would also know you and serve you alone. We pray all of this to the Holy Spirit and the only God, lives and reigns forever. Amen. Talman and Sarah, please stand. I have questions for you. And if the answer of your heart is yes or Would you please say, we do, after these questions. Beloved in Christ the Lord, you have heard the baptism is an ordinance of God to seal unto us and our seed his covenant. Therefore, it must be used for that end and not out of custom or superstition. That it may then be manifest that you are thus minded, you are to answer sincerely to these questions. So here are the questions, Tom and Sarah. Do you acknowledge that our children, though conceived and born in sin, and therefore subject to all manner of misery, yea, to condemnation itself, are sanctified in Christ, and therefore, as members of his church, ought to be baptized? Second, do you acknowledge the doctrine which is contained in the Old and New Testament, and in the articles of the Christian faith, and which is taught here in this Christian church, to be true and complete in doctrine of salvation? Third, Do you promise and intend to instruct these children as soon as they are able to understand in the aforesaid doctrine and cause them to be instructed therein to the utmost of your power? What is your answer? Raise his name. Please come forward. Isn't this beautiful? So exciting. Oh, little guy. Little guy. All right. Kelly, do you mind if I step in here a little bit? Come here. Come to me a little bit. Thank you, sir. Silas Otto Wagonmaker, I baptize you into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Almighty God, merciful Father, we thank and praise Thee that Thou hast forgiven us and our children and all our sins through the blood of Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and received us through the Holy Spirit as members of Thine only begotten Son, and so adopted us to be Thy children, and sealed and confirmed the same unto us by holy baptism. We beseech Thee also through Him, Thy Beloved Son, that Thou wilt always govern these children by Thy Holy Spirit, that they may be nurtured in the Christian faith and in godliness, and grow and increase in the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they may acknowledge thy fively goodness and mercy, which thou hast shown to them and to us all, and live in all righteousness under our only Teacher, King, and High Priest, Jesus Christ, and manfully fight against and overcome sin, the devil, and this whole dominion, to the end that they may eternally praise and magnify thee and thy Son, Jesus Christ. together with the Holy Spirit and the only one true God. And Lord, I also pray that Silas would be used in your service, that he would seek you in such a magnificent way that others would be enticed, be warmed in their hearts to know and to hear of Jesus Christ. Would you use him as a light in a dark world? We pray this in your Son's name, Jesus Christ. Amen. That's so much fun. Please open up your hymnal to hymn 418 as we rejoice in our hearts at this baptism. 418. Please stand. ♪ May your rules act on our feeling ♪ ♪ Lift up shepherds by their spread ♪ ♪ All the peoples empty leading ♪ ♪ Follow them thy rules of share ♪ Hail, dear little ones, we see thee. Hold them in thy gracious arms. There we know thy worthy leading. Holy, they're secure afar. Never from thy side. Let pasture grow thee, let them be thy lions' prey. Let thy tender nests go lowly, keep them through life's dangerous way. Please be seated. We now have an opportunity to for the deacons to collect the offering today. The offering will be going to the general fund. So, you you Music Music Music Please stand to hear the Lord's benediction. Our benediction comes from Ephesians 3, 20 to 21. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Thank you. Doxology 52. ♪ O Lord, my God, I sought Thee ♪ ♪ And Thou didst heal and save ♪ ♪ Thou, Lord, from death didst ransom ♪ ♪ And lead me from the grave ♪ ♪ His holy name we will ever be saved ♪ ♪ Shall all the grave ♪ ♪ Your laughs a moment is flavor of our days ♪ ♪ Our sorrow like a pilgrim can carry for a night ♪ ♪ A joy the heart will gladden when dawn's the morning light ♪ Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and close the door. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. In the morning light of day, in the evening light of night, I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you a story.