[0:00] Today we'll be reading from 1 Samuel chapter 20. Then David fled from Naath in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father?
[0:14] That he seeks my life. And he said to him, Far from it you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing, either great or small, without disclosing it to me.
[0:25] And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so. But David vowed again, saying, Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes.
[0:35] And he thinks, Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
[0:47] Then Jonathan said to David, Whatever you say, I will do for you. David said to Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I shall not fail to sit at table with the king.
[0:58] But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asks leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city.
[1:12] For there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan. If he says, Good, it will be well with your servant. But if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him.
[1:26] Therefore, deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself. For why should you bring me to your father?
[1:38] And Jonathan said, Far be it from you. If I knew that it was determined by your father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?
[1:49] Then David said to Jonathan, Who will tell me if your father answered you roughly? And Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go out into the field. So they both went out into the field.
[2:00] And Jonathan said to David, The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow on the third day, behold, if he is well dispossessed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?
[2:20] But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan, and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away that you may go in safety?
[2:32] May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord that I may not die and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.
[2:48] And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, May the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
[3:02] Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. On the third day, go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand and remain beside the stone heap, and I will shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a mark.
[3:22] And behold, I will send the boy, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I say to the boy, Look, the arrows are on the side of you. Take them. Then you are to come, for as the Lord lives, it is safe for you, and there is no danger.
[3:37] But if I say to the youth, Look, the arrows are beyond you, then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.
[3:50] So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall.
[4:01] Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul's side, but David's place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, But on the second day, after the new moon, David's place was empty, and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?
[4:27] Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there.
[4:39] So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brother. For this reason he has not come to the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?
[5:02] For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.
[5:13] Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, Why should he be put to death? What has he done? But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
[5:26] And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him. In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field, to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy.
[5:44] And he said to his boy, Run, and find the arrow that I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, Is not the arrow beyond you?
[5:59] And Jonathan called after the boy, Hurry, be quick, do not stay. So Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
[6:11] And Jonathan gave his weapon to his boy and said to him, Go, and carry them to the city. And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times.
[6:24] And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. Then Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever.
[6:40] And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. How about that singing this morning?
[6:54] Acoustics in here. It's enough to give me chills. I don't know about you, but I love lifting those voices and hearing that, just reverberating in this room.
[7:08] Wonderful time of worship this morning. So the passage today, it's a little bit longer, it is. But I believe that it's not as complex as we may perceive it to be.
[7:26] And I want us to see three things in this text as we reflect upon what was just read. And specifically, I want us to see in the passage the three aspects of there being a test, there being results, and there being an outcome.
[7:50] And this being the undergirding structure of the text today. And so we're going to look at that.
[8:00] And if we think about that in theory, a test, results, and outcome, if we think about that for a moment and sort of reverse engineer, if we're aiming to get to an outcome, regardless of what that outcome might be, the outcome and the basis of the outcome is contingent upon the basis of the results.
[8:25] And the basis of those results is based upon the basis of the test. And so it's all about what the basis of that test is, if we want to get to the basis of the results.
[8:38] And a test is a tangible way of addressing knowledge and understanding. That's why we have tests in school. It's why we have all sorts of tests and quizzes throughout our lives.
[8:50] It's a tangible way of assessing knowledge and understanding, especially the ability to recall vital information to apply in various contexts of life. tests.
[9:01] But what's the basis of this test? Because at various times, tests can produce various levels of fear and anxiety.
[9:13] all those unknowns weigh in. You know that upon the, we're doing finals out at YSU right now and if you've been in grade school or any sort of academia, you know, the moment you got your answer bubbled in, that's your answer.
[9:29] That's it. There's no going back. And so all these unknowns come in, the what-ifs, or if you're like me, an anxious mess, the catastrophic failure of everything and the weight of the world on your shoulders and that everything's going to crumble down and all the fallouts that come into your head.
[9:50] You can't ever forget the sweat that you endured during your first driving test, I don't think. Remember with that awkward position sitting next to somebody else with their own mirror and their own brake pedal?
[10:03] Yeah, that'll give you some comfort and ease, won't it? Right? No pressure at all as you're trying to have these awkward conversations with somebody who's just looking to see if they're going to die today.
[10:16] And so, yeah, we definitely have those tests that appear in our lives, but the test in the passage today, the test in this passage, it explores the intimate connection between a test and a desired outcome, along with all the fear and all the tension that weighs in between the test and the outcome that occurs.
[10:44] And so, for a Christian, if a test of our faith is systematically connected to an outcome, we might be asked by God at the outcome of His tests, will we follow?
[10:59] Will we abandon? And for that, there is something critical to observing God's Word today, which is the basis of faith of which is directly connected to the outcome of our testing.
[11:14] And I want us to see that clearly within these 42 verses today, and arguably within the 42 minutes that we'll have today gathered here. This is a short amount of time to unpack a lot.
[11:27] but let's turn to the Lord in prayer as we dive in and we break this down. Let's pray. Lord, it is with reverence that we approach Your Word today, with reverence that we sit under Your Word, humbled by the authority of Your Word.
[11:50] And so, Father, we may disagree with a couple things here and there in life, but Father, we can't disagree with what Your Word says. It is objective in our lives.
[12:03] It's meant to correct us and instruct us. And so, as we turn to Your Word, we look upon it for that correction, for that instruction, and even encouragement in it all.
[12:15] And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, simply laying the passage out today. If you would like to tune into the notes as well, we have some notes available on our website.
[12:30] Every week is updated. And you can even go back if you miss a Sunday. You can go back and see what the notes looked like from the previous message and you'll never miss anything. But the passage today is titled Remember the Covenants.
[12:48] Remember the Covenants. And I'm going to break this up into two different tests. And the, we'll just say the full crumb or the pivot point of where these two tests weigh is all around the festival of the new moon that we read in the passage today.
[13:09] And so, what happens before this moment and then what happens after? And those will be the two tests that I want us to see. And so, the first test is the basis of assurance in uncertainty.
[13:21] And so, in verse 20, David's still on the run. I had that song going through my head when I was studying this week. Man on the run. Yep, okay, that's all that I'll do today.
[13:34] But he is on the run. Surely he is. And he finally gets reunited with Jonathan. And don't we love putting ourselves into Bible stories?
[13:48] We do it and sometimes we have to restrain ourselves from not doing it wrongly to where we are the hero in the story. But if we're to put ourselves in David's shoes, I believe any of us would probably be at a loss of words as he's fleeing Saul's grip.
[14:07] He's asking in this passage, you see it clearly in these early verses, what have I done to Jonathan? What is my guilt?
[14:19] What's my sin that Saul seeks my life? What's David doing? He's protesting the circumstance.
[14:34] He's protesting it. And don't we often do that? We protest circumstances that unravel not so much as we had planned in life.
[14:48] Loss of loved ones, serious illness or injury comes around, financial hardships, relationship problems, divorce, setbacks in your career, maybe even legal matters as the Lord has saved you from a life of sin and running from law enforcement, or even natural disasters or mental illness, whatever it may be.
[15:13] Don't we often protest those things? I believe we do in one way or another. And in verse 4, David finally convinces Jonathan that there is indeed a step between him and death.
[15:32] It's almost like he had to convince Jonathan that your crazy father sent henchmen trying to kill me to my house where my wife pretended that I was upstairs sleeping.
[15:48] That's what your father's doing. Do you not know? Well, apparently he didn't know and it took some convincing. But he was trying to make Jonathan aware of the present situation, situation, that it is serious right now at that moment in history.
[16:08] Nothing else mattered. The present mattered. And so, Jonathan, after finally being convinced, he sees the dismay of David.
[16:20] In verse 4, Jonathan said to David, whatever you say, I will do for you. What do you need? And I imagine also that many of us would have probably marked Saul off, kind of just wrote him off as a crazy lunatic at this point.
[16:41] I mean, how many times do you have to have a spear thrown at you to realize that this guy's not safe? It would only take him picking up a spear and throwing it in my direction to say, yep, no more from you.
[16:53] I'm good. But David lays out a plan as a final test of Saul's heart. Isn't that odd?
[17:06] In other words, he's giving Saul yet another chance. What grace of David we see here.
[17:19] And what a wonderful glimpse that we receive into the ways of God who provides tests for humanity before judgment.
[17:31] Romans 1 says that all are without excuse. Right? You see, within David's testing initiative, we do receive a glimpse of the grace of God.
[17:46] And this isn't something that will come eventually. eventually. This is something that comes presently now. David bestows his grace and another opportunity to test Saul's heart now, not saying, well, I'll give him grace if he proves to be deserving of my grace.
[18:09] That's not grace, friends. Grace is not earned. Grace is given. And so, we do receive a glimpse of the grace of God through David's actions, but he does provide a test that anticipated to reach Saul's heart, but there's something else going on in the passage today.
[18:31] He's also similarly testing Jonathan's heart, especially his followership of David.
[18:42] And we see here that, just like many of us might experience, you know, somebody says something irrational and you're just like, what are you talking about?
[18:54] Jonathan, twice in this passage says, far be it from you. Like, what are you talking about? You're as crazy as my father. You're out of it.
[19:06] My father's not trying to kill you. Far be it from you. Or in verse 9, he says it again, as if he would hide anything from David. Jonathan says, far be it from you.
[19:19] And David was questioning Jonathan's confidence, disposition. It kind of reminded me of Peter's response of the test he would inevitably face in life, where he tells Jesus so passionately in John 13, I will lay down my life for you until the rooster crowed.
[19:48] You see, church, I want us to see something developing in this passage, that at various times and seasons, God will place difficulty and trouble in our path.
[20:05] And this is as a means of testing us. this is not an eventual uncertainty of if God will test us, but it's actually a theological surety.
[20:21] In the present, He will test you. And it is under the most strenuous test that God shapes and fashions His disciples in ways that we can never imagine, especially getting us to the point where we don't desire to change our circumstance and declare away every little bit of ailment in our lives, but we allow those ailments and the tragedy and the struggles in our lives to actually change us.
[20:57] And then we can say it is well with our soul. Amen. God does this in the present.
[21:09] And for that, let's continue to discover how precisely He's able to do this and to draw out a certain outcome of our lives. And so we see the testing begins.
[21:22] There's a plan that's set out in verse 9 of a new moon festivity that would provide a good opportunity for David to kind of test Saul's heart to see if maybe if he's absent from this festivity, maybe Saul will give him a little bit of grace, right?
[21:44] And so they go along with this plan. And this would be an unthinkable action for David to not be at this festivity.
[21:56] You might say, well, it's not the first time I've ever canceled dinner plans. I don't know what the big deal is about this. When the king organizes his people to gather around the table, especially his armor bearer, his son, and David, you would think that being absent would be a sign of disrespect, utter disrespect to him, and that it was.
[22:21] But in another sense, it's like I wouldn't even imagine being crazy enough to think that a kid after I just tried to throw my spear at him to expect the guy to come home and eat with me at the table.
[22:33] It's almost like there's just an oddity of this passage. But an alibi is proposed by David, but a problem exists in verse 10.
[22:45] Who's going to tell me the results of this test? And so Jonathan changes the location probably to a more secure location in verse 11.
[22:59] But before making the plan, before the testing and the results happen there, I don't want us to miss the test and the results here.
[23:11] Because before they get to the plan, it's almost they take this little rabbit trail here after verse 11. Before making the plan, it seems as David's present fear of Saul isn't the only fear among the two.
[23:32] David isn't the only one that seems to be a little bit hesitant and fearful. Jonathan fears David. Do you see that?
[23:45] And there's a little bit of irony I want you to see because the most imminent threat against David at this moment is not Saul.
[23:58] The most imminent threat in the present is Jonathan. And the most imminent threat against Jonathan in the present is David, which poses a future threat.
[24:16] prophets. And in verse 12, Jonathan and David use strong language here that affirm a two-way allegiance.
[24:29] Jonathan towards David, that Jonathan will not betray David, he will not come back and try to seek his life on behalf of his father, that Jonathan will disclose everything to his father.
[24:41] You can see the testing going on here. And not only that, but David to Jonathan. Because Jonathan, his fear is about tomorrow.
[24:54] His fear is about his life down the line when David is made king. In various ways and fashions in this passage, Jonathan is affirming David's kingship. Even though he wasn't physically actually king, he was the anointed one by God at this point.
[25:11] And David to Jonathan to preserve his life and his family's life, won a present fear, won a future fear, won a present promise and won a future promise.
[25:24] And look in verse 16 and 17, upon this allegiance, both swore again to each other. A covenant in verse 16.
[25:39] And you see, this covenant would bind David to protect and Jonathan to follow through.
[25:53] David's job was to protect. Jonathan's job was to follow through. Isn't this so similar to the covenant between God and his people all along to the nation of Israel?
[26:17] Isn't this the promise of God and the covenant that we see between God and us today? He will protect us.
[26:28] Will we follow through? In other words, considering the context at the central moment of unfolding evil, there exists a covenant that is unbreakable by God.
[26:43] God is unable to break a covenant. He is truth. He is immutable. His yes is his yes, his no is his no. So, in other words, it's not whether or not God will follow through with his end of the bargain, it's whether we will follow through with ours.
[27:04] Amen from the cars outside. And so, I have to ask you, if that is what is going on in the passage, I have to ask you, when trial and testing comes, do you remember the end of your bargain?
[27:27] I believe we have more in common with Jonathan's fear of the future and minimizing the present more than we like to admit. Jonathan, his focus is like, well, yeah, this is fine, David, but take care of me down the line when you're the king.
[27:45] And if I'm dead, just take care of my family. And what's David concerned about? Now. Jonathan, follow through now because none of that is going to matter unless you follow through.
[28:02] And we concern ourselves constantly, church, with the anxieties of tomorrow and the possibilities and the outcomes and the catastrophic failures that we carry on our shoulders.
[28:15] And the longer we are fixated upon step ten, God is simply calling us to focus on step one and give the other nine to him.
[28:27] And friends, the forthcoming event that transpires matter less if we fail to respond rightly to the present occurring tests. David, just as Jesus Christ has made a covenant with his church, to his church, and his covenant does not come and go like the words of man.
[28:53] No. God, in Christ, has promised to hold tightly to the church. And to the church, Jesus Christ's grip is unbreakable.
[29:09] There is nothing that can break his grip. And so when testing does come, when God tests us, therefore, just as it were for Jonathan and David, we are given his covenant, and in his covenant alone, we find our greatest source of assurance in trial and testing.
[29:38] In other words, God's got the future. If we could only heed the present and not worry about tomorrow. God's will go to God's will.
[29:49] After that rabbit trail, you see that interesting rabbit trail that they take. It's like they pause the train, and now they're back on track in verse 18.
[30:01] And so the covenant is established in verse 18. And using this little suspicion as possible, Jonathan plays this little game. I don't know if that was a popular thing to just shoot arrows into the woods and just, you know, whatever that might look like.
[30:19] He uses as little suspicion as possible. I would think that that's suspicious, but that's just me. But Jonathan plays archery as a means of delivering those test results to hiding David of Jonathan's test.
[30:36] And this would happen three days after. And trust is now tested by both. And so it leads us, to this unraveling of the new moon.
[30:50] And we see the second test here. The basis of peace and adversity. In verse 24, the test is underway all the way to verse 26.
[31:04] Things are going pretty good. Saul assumes the best. That's good. Right? Oh, David must be unclean. Okay, we'll see him tomorrow.
[31:16] And things go pretty good. But upon day two, suspicion is raised. Since uncleanness would only last till the previous evening, Saul is sort of on the scent of betrayal from David.
[31:37] But it's like, okay, snap back to reality. who betrayed who here? Who just tried to kill David? And now Saul's feeling betrayed.
[31:48] I mean, that's where sin gets you. Verse 28, all the way to 29, Jonathan explains the alibi that was established by David in verse 5 is a little bit embellished, a little bit.
[32:03] Maybe trying to sell Saul a little bit on some details that maybe David didn't think about. But Jonathan explains the alibi of why he's gone, and so the test now begins with Saul's heart this time.
[32:19] Will evil of Saul prevail over the apparent peace of Saul? And so we read in verse 28, look with me. Jonathan answered, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem.
[32:37] In verse 29, he said, let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me go away and see my brothers.
[32:50] For this reason, he has not come to the king's table. Seems pretty good, right? However, there is something that Jonathan let slip in his embellishing.
[33:06] He said, let me go, which is a word for escape. A little trigger in Saul's mind, I would imagine, and Saul's anger becomes so extreme here, almost on the verge of being completely obscene in his cursing of Jonathan.
[33:33] uses colorful language. There would be a bunch of bleeps on this TV sitcom if you heard it on NBC back then. It's essentially, you let him go?
[33:49] Escape? Do you understand, if David is on the loose, our kingdom is at stake, young man. And there's a few attempts in verse 33 that Jonathan tries to reason again with his lunatic of a father.
[34:07] But as we understand from last week, a corrupt will, what, cannot be reasoned with or can be reasoned with for so long? And Saul picks up the spear again.
[34:21] This guy loves the javelin. He picks up the spear again and throws it at his own son. As he's cursing in an attempt to kill him. Church, I don't know what rock bottom necessarily might look like for each individual, but this has got to be rock bottom for Saul.
[34:45] This is definitely what it looks like. Path of recklessness, anger, madness. This is how unaddressed sin will unravel you.
[35:02] And Jonathan, a follower of David, receives the determined result of that test. Tension enters the narrative as Jonathan is faced between a terrible choice, between King Saul, mind you, is his father as the narrator tries to reinforce the son of Saul constantly, choose him or King David.
[35:27] Will Jonathan follow through? And the next day Jonathan takes the boy just as he stated he would, and on the third day he came with that alibi that seemed I think that he would take a little boy probably to kind of reinforce the story that this madman lunatic of a father isn't going to question where Jonathan is or who he's with.
[35:54] Is he with David? So the little boy will be able to attest to that. In verse 35, I don't want you to miss the tension here because it continues as Jonathan enters into this field, there is now a bounty still on David's head.
[36:14] Jonathan is armed and dangerous and fully aware of where David is.
[36:28] If on that trip for a moment that Jonathan thought to himself, hmm, I never thought about it that way. If David lives, I won't be king.
[36:43] Maybe I want to be king. And maybe his heart could change on the way to provide these test results. But verse 37, the tension is relieved as we're on the edge of our seats and Jonathan follows through.
[37:07] He delivers the test results, shoots three arrows, has the boy retrieve them, and the message is sent into the woods by simply stating, is not the arrow beyond you?
[37:25] Yelling to the little boy. And upon the listening ears of a hidden man in this field, he gets terrible news.
[37:38] There is no reconciliation with evil. There's no chance of it. In verse 38, the boy returns with the arrows, and Jonathan sends the boy home and allows him to take all the weapons with him, take any form of danger that could be perceived by David as a threat.
[38:00] Take everything with you, it's just me, I am disarmed, and I'm coming to say farewell to David. and leaving just Jonathan and David into the field.
[38:16] Church, the cross of Jesus Christ is a declaration of that same message.
[38:28] The arrow was beyond Jesus Christ, Christ. And if the arrow is beyond Jesus Christ, the arrow, guess what, church, is beyond you too.
[38:44] In other words, the world and all its evil will be bloodthirsty to act evil against you. in verse 40, in such a moving scene, I would be less inclined to point out that this is a lesson about friendship, or five points of being a good friend to your buddy, and much more inclined to point out the lesson of Christ's ability to sympathize in our weakness.
[39:32] After all, it was David who the narrator felt so inclined to detail that David wept most in this time.
[39:50] And after seeing the love of Christ that is driven to obedience of the cross, this expresses Jesus Christ's compassion to His followers, which is emblematic of Christ's comforting presence when the church suffers.
[40:12] love of love of God. In other words, in such a gentle and peaceful scene of observable two-way affection based upon a two-way covenant, and seeing this intimacy between two friends, I wouldn't think that this is homosexual behavior to say the least, of them kissing one another, but rather this is cultural, this is Old Testament times, where that is how two people showed affection.
[40:46] It's not like they're making out here, so we can take our cultural garbage and put it out and see the beauty and the peace and the gentleness of such a scene in this farewell scene, and we get a glimpse into the heart of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
[41:05] Jesus Christ cares deeply for His church and will never leave, will never abandon His church.
[41:18] It's a profound love. It's a relentless love. It's an undeserving love. I can't forget the words of Christ in John 15, if the arrow is truly behind and beyond the church signaling that evil is out to get you.
[41:45] I believe that we can reflect upon Jesus Christ to His own disciples in John 15, 20, where He says, if they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.
[41:58] He didn't say that they might, or maybe a few. You do this or do that. He says they will persecute you. And why is He saying all that?
[42:11] Remember in our John series, all the way to verse 1 of chapter 16, just a few verses after that, John 16 verse 1, He says, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.
[42:28] the spear is headed for us, church. Why? Because the world utterly hates Jesus Christ.
[42:43] And the only way that the world can take a shot at Jesus Christ is to take their best shot upon the church. church. church. There is hope, though, in Christ's comfort and compassion amid this very evil reality that exists.
[43:03] And it's the best news that I could ever be offered today. It's the best thing that you can be offered today.
[43:16] But maybe you're not in Jesus Christ. Maybe you're not a believer today. And you might be saying, I know Jesus don't want me.
[43:29] I know what I've done. I know what my life encompasses. I know all the women or the men that I've slept around with in my life.
[43:39] And even just partying last night, I've stumbled into this lovely brick stone church here and just wanted to get some answers. And friend, the world may become your friend and seem like a faithful companion, but their companionship and their faithfulness will lead you by the hand to death, to fire, to flame, to judgment.
[44:11] And that does not have to be your outcome in this life if you are not in Christ. Jesus Christ came as a substitute on your behalf.
[44:22] It's for you. But the offer doesn't come by any other means than by faith in him, believing in him.
[44:36] A simple gospel of belief becomes so complex when we compare the weight of the world and the sin that we have in our lives from time to time.
[44:52] Silly, isn't it? Christ told us to believe in him. And that's it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever shall believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
[45:10] That's the good news. Why would you be so resistant to such good news? I ask you to take heed of your faith today.
[45:21] Come to Jesus Christ if you're not in him. But what do we see overall? We see that when testing comes in verse 1 through 23 or when trial comes verse 24 to 42 what do we have to cling to other than Jesus?
[45:46] What do we have to cling to? Well, Jesus Christ is true to the covenant.
[45:56] covenant. And it is in the covenant that we remember that we find our greatest hope in assurance when we are tested, peace in adversity.
[46:12] And with that the church endures generation after generation. It is the same gospel of which saves, it's the same gospel that holds us tightly.
[46:24] mercy. And so while I know that not a lot of us may sense the imminent danger of spears being thrown at us or henchmen out seeking our lives, we must not forget the devil who serves as an advocate for enacting evil in our lives.
[46:43] first Peter actually says that this fellow prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
[46:57] more. And so we can rest assured that this adversity will ever be present in our lives regardless of spears or what not or henchmen coming after us.
[47:11] And it will be active during your moment of testing and trial. So what do we do, church? We must never forget the covenant that binds Christ to us and us to Christ.
[47:26] And so in that, the outcome of trial and testing, the outcome of adversity is all upon the basis of will you follow or will you abandon?
[47:42] That is the basis of the test in our lives. It's the basis of this test. It is the basis of the results. It's the basis of the outcome.
[47:54] And so let's pray as we continue to respond to that good news and lift our voices together just as we were before the sermon.
[48:05] Let's pray.