Okay, turn with me again to 1
Samuel chapter 21, if you would please. 1 Samuel chapter 21. I've titled this message tonight,
Crazy or King? Crazy or King? Let's begin reading in verse
10, just five verses. Give you a moment to get there.
1 Samuel 21 verse 10. And David arose and fled that
day for fear of Saul. And he went to Achish, the king
of Gath. And the servants of Achish said
unto him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not
sing one to another of hymn and dances, saying, Saul hath slain
his thousands, and David his ten thousands? And David laid
up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid, sore afraid
of Apish the king of Gad. And he changed his behavior before
them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled
on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon
his beard. And then said Achish unto his
servants, Lo, ye see, the man is mad. Wherefore then have you brought
him to me? Have I need of a madman that
you brought this fella to play the madman in my presence? Shall
this fella come into my house? Now, here we have David, the
mighty warrior, the good shepherd who killed the lion and the bear, with his bare hands as he kept
his father's sheep. David, the giant killer, the
anointed king, the pride of a nation, fleeing from Saul, he's fleeing
from Saul, he's running for his life, and he's full of fear. And now he's seeking refuge in
the city of his enemy, and not just any city. but the city of
Gath, the hometown of the giant, Goliath, whom he slayed. And
some might read this and say, how could things change so quickly? Well, I can tell you how, because
God changed them. God can change things just like
that. It's the same with us. God is
behind everything. He gets all the credit and we
get all the blame. And the reason we get all the
blame is sin and unbelief. The unbelief that's within us,
the sin that we do, the unbelief that we yield to. The sin our
nature embraces. And that's not a misquote. By
nature, we embrace sin. We love sin. Grace will make
the weakest man bold, and sin and unbelief will make the bravest
man a coward. Sin makes men fools, the scripture
says. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. Unbelief makes men blind. The God of this world hath blinded
the eyes of them that believe not. Unbelief will do that. Sin
makes men slaves. Whosoever committed sin is the
servant of it. John 8, 34. Unbelief makes men
the enemies of God. Paul said the carnal mind, the
fleshly mind is enmity, hostile against God. Sin makes men liars,
makes men ashamed. makes them deceivers, causes
them to be deceived. Hard-hearted, they become. Hypocrites,
madmen. Captives, miserable. Remember the prodigal? He was
miserable. He said, my father's servants
bear better off than me. I'll return to my father and
just ask for, to be one of his servants. Now, David was a man
after God's own heart. He was the apple of God's eye,
but listen, he took his eyes off his Lord, and for a time,
he feared what man could do to him, and it drove him to foolishness. It's here that we understand
something of ourselves. You know, you ask, why does the
Lord record these things in scriptures? To teach us something of ourselves. When we take our eyes off Christ,
there's nothing left but the flesh. And the flesh operates
exclusively on the principle of self-preservation. You know
something about that? You know, twice Abraham told
Sarah to say she was his sister. He's afraid for his life. Isaac
repeated the same tactic with Rebekah. Jacob, he stole the
birthright from Esau, went to all that trouble, and then took off running, afraid
that Esau would kill him, and he would've. Moses left Egypt in fear after
killing an Egyptian, and yet the Lord used it. put him on
the backside of the desert, had him ten sheep, taught him what
it was to be a shepherd. God's got a way of doing things.
Self-preservation, it's just natural, it's a natural tendency.
It's unaided self-effort with no dependence on Christ. There are moments in every believer's
life when fear overtakes faith. It's happened to you, it's happened
to me, and it will again. Faith makes even the best of
men irrational. What's the saying? We say it
often, the best of men are men at best. That's so true, that's
so true. Fear makes us forget the promises
of God. Fear makes us behave in uncharacteristic
ways. And instead of running to the
one who had delivered him time and time again, and had blessed
him time and time again, and the very one who had anointed
him king, he runs to Gath, the home of Goliath, seeking refuge
among his enemies rather than his God. And we might point the
finger and say, shame, shame, David. We do the same thing.
We do it daily. We run to everything but to God,
don't we? Yes, by nature, that's so. How
afraid did David have to be to do that? Well, again, verse 10,
and David arose and he fled that day. Why did he flee? For fear
of Saul. And he went to Achish, the king
of Gath. And when a child of God fears,
faith is shaken. It has to be. It just is. There's no room for fear and
faith. They can't reside in the same
place at the same time. Joy is lost. Courage is drained. Love is hindered. Enemies gain
advantage. And God is dishonored. The fear
of man is a snare, the scripture says. The fear of man bringeth
a snare, but whosoever putteth his trust in the Lord shall be
safe. Proverbs 29, 25. And we're called
to fear God and not man. And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
Him, God, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now, there's no doubt we've seen
it in past studies. Saul's rage toward David and
his determination to kill him was so intense that David actually
felt no less secure in enemy territory, in the hometown of
Goliath, than he did in Israel. Saul had already tried to kill
him a couple, three times. And so David goes here thinking
that the Philistines wouldn't recognize him. But they did. They did. And notice how they
described David there in verse 11. And the servants of Achish
said unto him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they
not sing one to another of hymn and dances, saying, Saul hath
slain his thousands and David his 10,000? And so in jest, they
call him the king of the land. One interpretation of that means
the king of the land means the king of the whole earth. And
they were mocking him. This is David. Remember, he's
the king of the whole world. Everybody sings about him. The
victories that made David a hero in Israel, the Philistines mocked
him for it. They said, did they not sing?
Did they not say? They sure aren't saying it now. Just look at him. And again,
I ask, why would David go there? Maybe the simple reason to show
us how foolish you and I are when we fear anyone other than
God. Now, this is for all of us, because we're all guilty
of it. So again, we see a picture of the rejected king. That's
maybe been the first point in the last two or three studies
when we look at this, is David being a type and picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They said, is not this David
the king of the land? David was God's anointed king.
He was rejected by Saul. And that again points us to Christ
because the Lord Jesus was rejected by his own. He came into his
own. and his own received him not."
John 1.11. Scripture says he was hated without
a cause. He was hated freely for no reason. He was accused of being insane.
Christ was. They accused him of being demon
possessed. The gospel is seen here, beloved. The world rejects the King of
kings. But God receives him. He was
despised that you and I might be accepted. If you take a costly
jewel, a high valued diamond or some kind of a precious jewel
and throw it in the mud and nobody sees it, the world may trample
upon it, but it remains a jewel of great worth regardless. So
Christ, who was rejected, hated, never ceased to be King. He never
ceased to be God. He never ceased to be the Messiah,
the Savior, the Lord of all. So Christ, who was rejected and
hated, never ceased to be our Redeemer. You know, I can't tell
the difference between a cut glass and a rare diamond, but
I know I only know the difference if the jeweler of the universe
reveals to me what it is. And I see, by God's grace, that
Christ is a stone of great price. He's our treasure. He's the pearl
of great price. That's the only way we know the
difference, isn't it? You could sell me a glass ring,
and I'd think it was a diamond, and that's what religion of this
world has sold the majority of folks. They've sold them a counterfeit,
just a glass jewel. Verse 12, and David laid up these
words in his heart, and look at this, and was sore afraid
of Achish the king of Gath. So at first glance, we don't
see anything here in David but fear, but may God enable us to
look through gospel lens as we consider these verses. If he
does, then we can see that David is truly a shadow, just a shadow
of the real thing. As we've said before, no imperfect
man can perfectly typify a perfect savior. Can't be done. David, God's anointed trembles before
a Philistine king and he acts out of fear, not faith. And where
David fails, Christ prevails. The gospel is in the contrast.
Our salvation is not found in David's weakness. I don't know
why people look there. Our salvation is found in Christ's
strength. The fear of man shows us our need of a Savior. And we are most afraid when we
listen to the words of men more than the promises of God. Men
will tell you, on one hand, you can do anything and everything
when you can't do nothing. And then men will tell you that
God can do nothing for you when He can do anything and everything.
We better not listen to men. We better listen to God. To fear
men is to stop trusting the Lord. It shows our misplaced confidence. It shows us our need of the gospel.
It shows us our need of Christ. Our Lord did not fear men, even
when He faced the cross. As He stood before Pilate, Pilate
said, don't you know, why are you ignoring me? Don't you know
I have the power? And the Lord said, you don't
have any power at all. You don't have any power but that which
my Father gives you. He wasn't afraid, was he? No,
sir. Now David's fears have doubled.
He now fears Saul and Achish. And this is always the case when
we seek refuge apart from God in Christ. There's a lesson here
for us. There's no resting gap. No resting
gap. David, who narrowly escaped from
Saul, does not turn to the Lord in prayer, but he takes off running
in panic. And what does that say about
faith in God, when a believer does so? He not only enters into Goliath's
hometown, if you remember from the last study, he goes there
carrying his sword. Don't you know everybody recognized
that? David wasn't thinking what proof this is that fear blinds
us to wisdom. Fear will do it. It'll cause
you to act stupid. It sure will. Fear causes us to forget God's
past faithfulness. Can we see how irrational fear
is? When panic sets in, we just make
foolish choices. We make foolish choices anyway,
but when we're scared, we really make them. We run into the very
danger that we ought to avoid. Fear will not lead us closer
to God. That's the point I'm trying to
make. Fear will lead us into folly. Fear is real. Fear comes, run to the Lord,
not to Gath. Don't run to Gath. Remember the
Lord's past deliverances. Think on what the last time you
were in a situation and how the Lord delivered you from it. Recall
His precious promises from God's Word. Quote the Word to yourself. Open up your Bible and read it. I suppose all of us have acted
foolishly under fear. The good news is this, God's
mercy is greater than our fear and our failure. He trumps it. David would later fall into grievous
sin. You know, with Bathsheba, had
her husband put on the front lines and murdered, and yet when
he confessed his sin, When Nathan approached him and said, Thou
art the man, he discovered the Lord is merciful and gracious,
and he's slow to anger. He's slow to anger, and he's
plenteous in mercy. Isn't that something wonderful
to learn? The Lord is merciful and gracious. He's not out to kill us. He's slow to anger. He's plenteous
in mercy. Psalm 103a. Christ stood where
David failed. And Christ stands where we fall
and fail. Though our Lord Jesus was rejected,
yet He was always King. Never stop being King. Never
stop being on the throne. Never stop determining to do
you good. That's good news. Look at verse
13. And he changed his behavior before
them and feigned himself mad, just acted like a lunatic. Feigned himself mad in their
hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and let the spittle
fall down upon his beard. I mean, he's giving an Academy
Award performance here. Out of fear, David resorts to
deception. That's what fear will do. Abraham
did the same thing, as I mentioned a moment ago. He told the Pharaoh
of Egypt, and he told Abimelech, the king of Gera, he said, oh,
Sarah, she's my sister. He was afraid that both of those
kings would kill him and take Sarah. The father of faith was
reduced to a liar because of fearing for his life. And if
Abraham would do it, I know I would. God had promised Abraham and
Sarah a son. He couldn't die. He hadn't had
that son yet. And David here, he acts mad. He acts crazy, insane to escape
death. But even though David acted foolishly,
God preserved his life. That's the good news in this.
in spite of us. You know, we hear believers say
sometimes, God saved me in spite of me. That's exactly what He
did. He sure did. He saved me in spite of me. Hell's
what I deserved. Condemnation's what I earned. He didn't give me those things.
He showed me mercy and grace. He was merciful and gracious.
He was slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. David's survival was not because
of his cleverness either. I've heard men preach it that
way. Well, David, you know, the Lord gave him insight and he
knew what to do. Listen, David's survival was due to God's mercy
and grace. If he'd been as smart as these
men make him out to be, they never went to Gath to begin with,
right? And this scene points us to the
gospel in a few ways. I want to just give you a few.
First, we see the insufficiency of man's righteousness. We see
that everywhere we look. David is humiliated, he's drooling,
and he's scratching like a madman. And our hope's not in David,
but in the greater son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, who never
compromised or acted in unbelief. Not like David's doing here.
And we see a picture of Christ bearing our shame. David acted
mad and was despised in the eyes of the Philistines in order to
be spared from death. He had hoped he would prance
in to Gath here and nobody would recognize him and that he could
lay low for a few days and then move on. He's running and hiding
from Saul. And that didn't work out. God exposed Him. That's right. Christ in truth bore reproach
and shame and mocking. He wasn't pretending. He willingly
did so. He took on the humiliation of
the cross to deliver His people. We also see the divine deliverance,
that divine deliverance is by grace, not by works or worthiness. David is delivered not because
he quick-wittedly acted, but because God's hand was upon him.
That's always the case. We're not quick-witted, we're
not clever, No, that's not why God does anything. It doesn't
have anything to do with us. It has everything to do with
Him. His hand was upon David, and His hand is upon the child
of God. The gospel declares that sinners
are not saved by their wisdom, their strength, their dignity.
Well, what is dignity? But by the sheer grace of God
in Christ, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, you know the verses well.
We're saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves. It's
a gift of God, not by works. Thus any man should boast. No,
sir, we have nothing to boast in. And David again foreshadows
the rejected Christ. David, the anointed king. is
scorned and considered worthless by the Philistines, God's enemies. The Lord Jesus, the true King
of kings, was despised and rejected by men. You've heard that all
your life. This was the path of His people's
salvation. He had to be despised and rejected
in order for you and I to be accepted in the beloved. And
in this verse, the gospel is seen by the revelation of man's
weakness. That's how you see it. In man's
weakness. God's preserving grace. The Lord Jesus did not bear our
shame and pretense. He bore it in truth. Oh, the foolishness of man and
the faithfulness of God never ceases to amaze me. As I open
the scriptures and study the scriptures, it just amazes me
how foolish man is and how faithful God is. And how faithful God
is in spite of the foolish men and women. Here we see the humiliation of
the anointed. David humbles himself here to
the lowest point. He's acting insane. All to save
his life. But the Lord's humiliation went
infinitely lower and he did it voluntarily in order to save
his people, not himself. He who was rich became poor.
He who commanded angels became a servant. He who was wisdom was mocked
as a fool. They said he's a glutton, he's
a wine-bibber, he's a devil. He humbled himself, Scripture
says, unto death and even the death of the cross. Philippians 2a. And you know
and I know salvation comes not by pride or strength, it comes
by the humiliation of God's Son. The world looks for power. That's
what the world's looking for. They want a God and a Jesus gonna
show up on the scene and gonna just take the world, you know,
and signs and wonders. Hey, that's how the Antichrist
is gonna show himself. They're looking for power. Looking
for power. But God works salvation through
weakness. Which brings me to my next point.
It's just that. God reveals that deliverance
is through weakness. David escaped death not by strength,
not by the sword, not even Goliath's sword. And he sure didn't escape
by his wit. It was by weakness and shame. Christ's death on the cross looked
like defeat. It sure did. They thought they
were high-fiving themselves, but it was the greatest victory
ever won for the kingdom of God and God's people. The weakness
of God is stronger than man. The weakness of God is stronger
than man. Can we get that through our thick
skull? The cross was not a failure,
it was a triumph. It was a victory hidden in weakness. In humiliation, Christ destroyed
sin, death, and hate. And then we see the King of Israel
hidden in humiliation. David looks like a madman. He's
acting like a madman. But under this shame was Israel's
king. You see the picture there? At
the cross, Christ looked like a condemned criminal. He hung
in the middle of two of the worst criminals that lived in that
day. But hidden in that shame was
the King of Kings. That is just mind boggling. Faith
sees what the world can't. Did you hear me? You see what others can't. If
it's not because you're special or I'm special, but you are in
Christ. What do we see the world doesn't
see? We see a crown under the thorns. And we see glory hidden
in suffering. And we see victory hidden in
defeat. You see, if we live by faith, not by sight, we see Christ's
glory where the world only sees shame. Verse 14, then said Achish unto
his servants, lo, ye see the man is mad. Wherefore then have
you brought him to me? And here we see God's providence
in spite of man's weakness. Now think with me on this. Even
though David acts foolish here, even though he acts like he's
a madman and saying, God used it for his deliverance. Achish
dismissed him as just a harmless madman. Why'd you bring this
man to me? Why are you wasting my time? Rather than killing him as a
dangerous enemy, he dismissed him. And David would cause Achish
and the Philistine army trouble the rest of his days. They should
have killed him when they could have, but God wouldn't allow
it. It's like the Lord Jesus, time and time and time again,
walked right through the midst of a crowd when they wanted to
murder him. It's time and not yet come. David's
time and not yet come. What a way he pitches us, pitches
Christ to us. This again proves that God can
work through us even in spite of our failures and evil. God
can work. What we meant for evil, God meant
for good. David escaped through deceit,
but Christ overcame through truth and obedience. Even through fear
and weakness, God still preserves his own. David trembled before
Achish. Peter denied the Lord Jesus.
Elijah ran from Jezebel, but not one of them was cast away.
Isn't that something? Go tell my disciples and Peter. Verse 15. Have I need of a madman
that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my
house? What do you want me to do with him? Get him out of here.
I ain't taking him home. I don't want anything to do with
him. Achish cast David away as useless. That was God's means
of deliverance. Isn't that what the world did
to the Lord Jesus? They cast him away as useless.
The king of the Philistines didn't want anything to do with David,
and the contempt of man can turn into a shield for God's people. David was despised yet preserved. David, the anointed king of Israel,
was treated as a worthless fool. And this all points to Christ.
He was thought to be mad. He was mocked, he was ridiculed,
he was blasphemed, yet through his rejection, God brought salvation. God's way, not man's way. That's why this book is so amazing
to me. The more I read it, the more
I look at it, the more I think to myself, didn't no man write
this? Didn't no mere man write it?
David escaped by folly. Christ was delivered by wisdom.
David acted mad to live. Christ was committed to death
to save. You see the difference? Weakness
plagues the strongest of men. Perfection is found in the God
man. What a picture we have here that
the world cannot recognize God's anointed. You just can't see
it. To Achish, David didn't look
like a king. He looked like a crazy vagabond. And to the Jews and to the Romans,
the Lord Jesus looked like a criminal, not the Savior. Now listen, unless God gives
somebody eyes to see, I can't overstress this, they can't see
what's in front of them. Let me give you again an example.
How many years you look in this book and go, Hmm, I wonder what
that means. And then all of a sudden one
day you read it and you go, oh, that's what that means. Unless
God gives you eyes to see, you can't see what's right in front
of you. In these five verses, God reveals
David's humiliation, man's rejection, God's preservation, and the salvations
of the Lord. What a gospel outline that is.
It points us to Christ who was humiliated and rejected. And
yet through that rejection, God accomplished the greater deliverance
of his people. So who is Jesus Christ to you? Is he a madman or is he the Messiah? Is he crazy or king? David's failure shows us our
weakness, but Christ's faithfulness secures our salvation. The world
still mocks Christ and still mocks his people. Faith is branded
as foolishness. I had a man ask me one time,
he said, you really believe that that you preach? I said, with
all my heart. He said, that's foolishness. Well, it may be
to you, it's foolishness to the world, but it's the power of
God unto salvation to me. But to you, Glenn, that's right. The gospel to the world is madness,
but what the world despises, God honors. If you believe not,
yet he about it faithful, he cannot deny himself. And by his
grace, I'm not going to deny him either. Our salvation rests
not on our shaky hands. We don't come to Christ on our
lame feet. Salvation rests in the pierced
hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where we falter, Christ
holds fast. We trust not in ourselves. We
don't trust in our schemes or our strength. We trust in the
faithful Son of God. He's the true refuge. He's the
deliverer. He delivers the weak, the true
king who saves his people to the uttermost. I love that word
uttermost. We're saved completely, fully,
and finally. In other words, we're saved permanently. Oh, once saved, always saved.
Absolutely. Because my Lord and God saved
me. Christ is all. What does that
mean? He's everything to the believer. He's our life. He's
our righteousness. He's our peace. He's our hope.
He's our treasure. And in all, the Scripture says,
He dwells in all believers by faith. He's not confined to one
group or nation. He is equally in the poor and
in the rich. Savior of the learned and the
unlearned. Master of the slave and the master. Capital M Master
of the little M Master. And we are one in Him. It exposes our emptiness. It
shows Christ's fullness. It reveals the unity of the Gospel.
We lack everything. We bring nothing. Christ provided
it all. That's just the way it is. No
room for human pride. No boasting in personal achievement.
Our boasting is in Christ alone.