1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. We're looking
at verses 1 through 6 this evening. And the title of the message
is, Encouragement for Chastened Children. Encouragement for Chastened
Children. The Scripture says here in verse
1, And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to
Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the
south and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire,
and had taken the women captive. that were therein, they slew
not any, neither great or small, but carried them away and went
on their way." Now, in this history of David, in our text here, it's
important for us to note how that David came to this city
of Ziklag. Now, after the Lord had delivered
David from Saul numerous times, and after especially his deliverance
in the mountain of Hathaelah, we read in chapter 27 that David,
because of fear and faithlessness, committed an act of disobedience. Look at this in chapter 27. David
said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of
Saul. There is nothing better for me
than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me
to seek me any more in the coast of Israel. So shall I escape
out of his hand." The Holy Spirit is never remiss in the Scriptures
to reveal the full character of His saints. That the best of God's people,
as David was, was truly only a sinner at best. This man was a sinner saved by
grace. And God reveals this plainly
about His saints in Scripture. Now, David before was told of
the prophet Gad in 1 Samuel 22 and verse 5. The prophet Gad
told David that he should remain in Judah. This was the command
of God to David. And David, as long as he remained
in Judah, he had always escaped the hand of Saul. But here, after
David was delivered again by the Lord, commits an act of disobedience
because of his lack of faith and obedience. He stayed in this land of the
Philistines for over a year and four months. David lied to the
Philistines in order to win their favor. David was exalted by his
enemies. and is soon put into a temptation,
a temptation to betray Israel and fight for the Philistines by having either to fight for
the Philistines against Israel or to reveal his deception and
to die as a traitor under the hand of the Philistines. But
God in His grace, in His mercy, moves the hearts of the Philistines
to deliver David out of this temptation, and reject him to
fight against Israel. So then, he is now returning
in our text from his being refused to fight with the Philistines,
and he's coming back to this land, Ziklag. Believer, let us
first see this. Let's see ourselves in David.
We should see ourselves in David. Consider how the Lord has delivered
us from sin, death, and hell by the blood and righteousness
of His Son. Consider how great His grace
has been to call us from darkness to light, from unbelief, which
is inescapable by our nature, and delivered us by faith in
Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should trust the
Lord always. David here failed to trust God. He said, he said in his heart, in other words,
he was trusting his own feelings about the situation instead of
trusting God. Let us trust God always. We,
like David, are often delivered by the Lord once, twice, three
times, four times, but there's a certain point where we get
to say, well, I think that maybe this time I should lean on my
own understanding. How many times have we done that?
The Lord's delivered us, delivered us, delivered us, and then we
get to a point where we say, well, either God is not going to deliver
me this time, or I need to start trusting my own instincts. We begin to trust our own foolish
heart. Believer, consider that from
the time David did this time, David did not inquire the Lord
or obey Him, from that time until our text God has revealed in
Scripture, David did not seek the Lord in prayer through that
year and four months. Through that year and four months,
he did not seek the Lord. The Holy Spirit is silent in
Scripture as to David seeking God during this time of disobedience. Is it not so with us that when
we sin and lean on our own understanding that our hearts grow cold? Too often we find that our love
is so cold toward our Savior because of our lack in faith
of God. Our lack in faith that God will
deliver us from our troubles. But the child of God is never
permitted, never permitted to disobey. Never permitted to disobey
our God. And what tool does God use to
chasten His children? Affliction. That's the tool most
used of our God to chasten disobedient children, is affliction. The
Scripture tells us, For whom the Lord loveth, He what? Chasteneth
and scourgeth every son. Believers in Christ, we are not
permitted to remain in such a state of unbelief for very long. Praise
God for that. Praise God for His chastening
hand to not leave us to ourselves for very long. Consider the scene then here.
Now David is coming back and it came to pass that David and
his men were coming back from Ziglag. The Lord had delivered
David. He took a big weight off of David's
shoulders without David even asking. And so then he's coming back
and David is ecstatic. David is glad. There's a great
load lifted off his shoulders. He doesn't have to fight against
his people and the Philistines didn't kill him. That's a good
thing. So he's coming back and he's
happy. And he wants to celebrate with his family and all of his
hosts are happy. But what happens when they get
back from Ziglag? Things aren't what they thought
they would be. The Amalekites had come and invaded
the south and Ziklag and smitten it and burned it with fire and
taken their families captive. When they returned, their gladness
of joy was turned to terror and sorrow. Their worst fears had come to
pass, their sons and their daughters were taken captive. Now, I'll
tell you, I don't know much about that. I haven't had that happen
to me. I know this, when I let my son
go and run around the block, I set a timer. I set a timer,
and when he's not back during that time, I tell you, my heart
begins to sink. I get this sinking feeling, and
then I go and look for him, and when I find him, I'm glad. But
I'll tell you, I don't know anything about this kind of pain. They've
been taken captive. They took their families. So in this passage, the Holy
Spirit has prepared for us these Amlekites. They came in, And
they did this. But now, remember that these
Amlekites are the people that God told Saul to kill. And because of Saul's disobedience,
these people still cause God's people great trouble. But notice
this, that even God used Saul's failure to chasten David. Isn't
that something? He used Saul's failure to kill
these people, which was disobedience, and by which Saul was rejected
to be king. God used this for chastening
David and his unbelief. Again, I can't imagine the pain
that these men must have felt, not only losing all their possessions,
but also losing their families and children. And so David and the people,
the scripture says, look at this. And so David, in verse three,
and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with
fire. Their wives and their children and their daughters were taken
captive. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up
their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. This was a great trouble, a great
trial and difficulty. They wept so much until their
strength was gone and they had no more tears to weep. But instead of turning their
anger These tears, when they could weep no more, it rather
turned to rage. But instead of turning their
anger toward the Amalekites, notice where they turn their
anger. In verse 5, David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam,
the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nebo the Camelite.
And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning
him. Because the soul of all the people
was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. These
men were ready to kill David. Instead of blaming who was responsible, they rather
blamed David. Is this not a good picture of
us by nature? Sinful men by nature. Because
Adam failed to obey God, sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men. We have come into this
world sinners. And death is brought into this
world, and pain is brought into this world. What's the reason? Sin. That's the cause of all
sickness, suffering, and grief in this world. Sin is the cause. Sin is the fruit. Death is the fruit of sin. James
says that. He said, When lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and when sin is finished, it brings forth
death. Why are there tyrants and famine and disease and sickness
and death in this world? Why is there suffering? Sin. That's the reason. Yet man, because
of his depraved nature, When the fruit of sin ripens, and
sorrow and grief and pain are the end result of sin, instead
of running to God for mercy, instead of running to God for
forgiveness of sins, men rather blame God instead of sin. They would rather rage against
God and against Christ than confess their sin. Psalm 2, why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Why do the kings and the rulers
set themselves and take counsel against the Lord and against
His anointed? Was not David God's anointed? David was a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who God said that Christ, his
anti-type, should sit on this throne forever. Men, in their
grief and in their trouble, say to God's anointed, let us break
their bands asunder and cast their cords from us. Let me ask you, was this not
what happened to our Lord and Savior? Was not Jesus God's anointed
King? And yet what did they say to
Him? Let us kill the heir. Let us
kill the son. And this is what these men purposed
to do to David, is kill David. Jesus was constantly surrounded
by His enemies. And yet, what was His repose? What did He do when He was surrounded
by those who the Scripture says are too mighty for Me? What did
He say? Where was His repose? The God-man
turned to God for His refuge. So then, where David is concerned,
What does he do in this time? He does what his anti-type did. He turns to God. Scripture says,
but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. What an example for every one
of us who are chastened or troubled. You who believe on Jesus Christ,
listen, if you are chastened of God because of your sin, do not point your finger at God,
rather confess your sin. and encourage yourself in the
Lord your God. What an example, a plain example
for us to follow. In times of great trouble and
chastisement, we are prone in our sins of our flesh and nature
to blame God for our grief instead of seeing the true enemy. The
true enemy is our sin. The true enemy is not our God,
the true enemy is ourself. I tell you the truth, I am my
worst enemy. I'm constantly with me. Everywhere
I go, there I am. And so I know this, we confess
this. Surely we know that God is the
first cause of all things. He caused these Amlekites to
come in, did He not? Was this just bad luck? Was this just a happenstance? No! We know that God caused these
men, God moved these men so that they would come in and do this
thing. How do I know that? Look back
here. Can you see this? Look at this in verse 2. And
they had taken the women captive that were therein. They slew
not any. Do you wonder why they slew none? Because they were under the direction
of God. That's why God did this. God is the first cause of everything. This Amalekite invasion was not
an act of random chance or bad luck. It was according to the
good will and providence of God in correcting His son David. This most clearly was seen at
the crucifixion. Isn't that so? When the Lord
Jesus Christ was crucified, the scripture says, you by wicked
hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory. But who delivered
him up? It was God. By the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, he was delivered up. God, before the foundation of
the world, determined that His Son should be crucified for the
redemption of His elect people, and yet the men that did it were
responsible for their sin. They were doing exactly what
they wanted to do. So these Amlekites, they were
doing exactly what they wanted to do, all the while not ever
knowing they were doing what God determined to do. You see, these men were restrained.
That's why they didn't kill any of this group. They were restrained. These men, if men by nature were
not restrained of God, what would this world be like? What would this world be like
if God would not restrain the wrath of man? It would be utter
chaos. Utter chaos. But the scripture plainly says,
surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath thou shalt restrain. Can we not see this by the fact
that none of these were injured? Because the Lord, the Lord knew
what he was doing. He was chasing his children by
this. Therefore, believer, in Christ, in our chastisement and
troubles, we should have great cause to praise God. No matter
what your troubles, no matter how great they appear to be,
we still have great cause to praise our God for His goodness
to restrain men. To restrain from all their devices
of evil, so that we may have comfort and
only encourage ourselves in our God. Let us encourage ourselves
in our God, for He has not only restrained evil nature of man,
but has come by His Holy Spirit and conquered our hearts. Is
that not cause to praise Him in the midst of your chastisement,
in the midst of your greatest troubles? Should this not encourage
you that God has come and put a new spirit in your heart? to
give Him praise, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas
once we were enemies of God, yet now we have a heart of humbleness,
a heart that longs to bow down to our Lord and Savior. He has
given us a new heart and faith in Christ and has delivered us by the blood and righteousness
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He has justified us.
He's redeemed us. Therefore, when your troubles
and chastisements come, let us forsake our thoughts of the flesh
to blame God, but rather let us with David encourage ourselves
in the Lord our God. When troubles come in like a
flood, When the Amlekites of our sin burn down our worldly
comforts, when the wicked men of this world oppress you, run
to your God. Run to your God. Don't walk,
run. Don't walk, run. Flee to your
God who is your refuge. And God, I pray, may He hedge
your way up so that you have no other place to go but God. Isn't that, wasn't that what
He has to do to us? Isn't that, it's such a shame, but it's just
the way it is. God must hedge up our way with
thorns on every side so that we have nowhere else to go but
to Him. I like this, I wrote it down.
To run from God, And run to the creature is like running from
the fountain of living waters to broken cisterns. To forsake
God is to forsake the light of the sun for the light of a candle.
To leave the rock of ages for a blowing leaf in the wind. Run
to God, believer, in Christ, for He is our life, our light,
our love, our peace, our strength, our shelter, our safety, our
security, our crown, and our glory. Christ is our all and
in all. He's everything. Are you in trouble? We were talking about that just
at the beginning. You're having some peace, a peaceful time, good.
Don't worry, trouble's on its way. And when it comes, run to
God. Run to God. Flee to Christ your
refuge. Believer, we above all men know
that there is no encouragement in the things or people of this
world. You know that? There's no encouragement in the
things or people of this world. There's no strength to be found
in them. But remember, our place of safety rests solely in Jesus
Christ, our refuge. I like this, David said when
he was in that mountain, he said, I looked to my right hand and
behold, there was no man that would know me. David, there David
was in that foreign country, in that land of the enemy. And
now then all those that were with him were now his enemy,
ready to kill him. He looked to his right hand of
strength and he found no one that even would know him. No man cared for my soul. Are you in such a lonely place
where no man can help? Where no person could shield
you from the calamities of your sin? Are you in a place where
no one can comfort your soul in your despair? What do the
people of God do in such trouble? Are we to weep as those that
have no hope? No. Are we to cast off hope in
God and His goodness? No. What do we do? Do what David
did. Encourage yourself in the Lord
your God. Encourage yourself in Him. David
said in Psalm 142, verse 5, I cried unto thee, O Lord. I said, thou
art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Attend
to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me. In times of danger, Does not
the child run to his father? Isn't that just natural? When
you've got a little infant child and he's in trouble, what does
he do? He runs to the one who's stronger than he is. He runs
to his father. Is it not just natural for the
wife to fall into the arms of her husband for solace? Is it
not just right for a soldier to flee for refuge in the bunker? Yes, even so should the Christian
flee to his God and find a sure protection, sure comfort, and
sure solace. Therefore, believer, let us flee
to God by understanding his character. Understand the character of God.
In Proverbs 18.10 it says, The name of the Lord is a strong
tower the righteous run into and are safe. The name of the
Lord. The name of the Lord is speaking
about His attributes. When you encourage yourself in
the Lord, how do you do it? By remembering who He is. Who are you running to? I'm running
to a strong tower. and the righteous flee into it
and are safe. The name of the God is speaking
about His attributes, things that we know about our God, and
we find confidence and encouragement in our times of trouble and chastisement. Flee to God, for He is a strong
tower. The strength of God is as strong as strength itself. How strong is strength? It's
as strong as God. He has all strength. Matter of
fact, the scripture says this, power belongeth unto the Lord. It belongs to Him. All strength. Do you need strength? Where do
you go? You go to the source of strength,
God. Consider the tower of God's people
is Jesus Christ, who is all our righteousness, who has robed
us in his righteousness, covered us in his majesty. and whose blood washes us from
all our sins, even because He has finally once and for all
satisfied the justice of God forever. Why would you not run
to God? Why would we run to man? Why
should we cling to our own foolish thoughts about how things should
be? When you're in trouble, run to
God. There's the tower. There's your strength. Therefore,
God's justice being completely satisfied, His holy law being
completely honored and obeyed by Jesus, our representative,
in whom God has put us from eternity, in whom we believe by grace and
power of the Holy Spirit, who then shall be able to penetrate
such a tower of strength? I tell you, no one. The tower
of God is so deep, no one can undermine it. It's so high that
no one can scale it. It's so strong that no weapon
fashioned against it shall stand. Jesus himself said, my church,
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus said, I know my sheep.
and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and no man
shall pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man shall pluck them out of his hand. Oh, consider this, you are doubly
secure. The hand of Christ is in the
hand of God. Who shall pluck you out? Who
shall pry open his hand? and take you from him. Nobody,
nobody, no event of time or eternity, no angels in heaven or demons
in hell could ever assault the throne of God and pluck you from
his hand. That's how secure this strong
tower is. Every man in trouble is going
to flee to somewhere. to someone. Isn't that right? When you're in trouble, you're
going to go somewhere. Where are you going to go? The
worldling, the false professor, will run to his money, his possessions
for comfort and support. He'll run to men of like mind. I thought of this, when the worldling
runs to somebody of like mind, he's like Ahab. Remember the
king of Israel? He had 400 prophets. And these were all what you would
call yes men. These were all people that told
him what he wanted to hear. And you remember Jehoshaphat
said, is there not another prophet of God? I know you put up all
these guys. He said, yeah, but there's one that don't speak
well of me. I don't like to hear him. They run to people of like minds
so that they can find comfort. He'll turn to his religious works.
He'll turn his conscience. When his conscience feels a guilt,
he'll look back to some work of religion he's done, some decision
he's made. He'll try to find some solace
there. But for the children of God,
there's only one place for us to go. It's not to our works, and it's
not to our possessions. It's to a person. the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the only place we find
any refuge, any comfort, any solace in our troubles. The child of God must, when he
is chastened, find his comfort and in Christ, because he is
all our salvation. I like this scripture. In Micah, chapter 7, verse 5, it
says, Trust not in a friend, nor put ye confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of your mouth
from her that lieth in your bosom. For the son dishonoreth the father,
and the daughter rises up against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies. are the men
of his own house." Isn't that what the Lord said? Concerning
that when you believe in Christ, this is what's going to happen.
Your family is going to rise up against you. He said, you
don't put any confidence or trust in them. Therefore, I will look
unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear me. Don't put your confidence in
any man Don't put your confidence even in the woman of your bosom,
the wife or your sons. There's no comfort there. Believers
in Christ, we must run to God. Let us rather than murmur in
our trouble and in our chastisement, rather than murmur, because that's
inconsistent with faith in Christ, isn't it? Isn't that inconsistent
with sovereignty, the sovereignty of God, to murmur? So then, instead of murmuring
and complaining about our troubles and lots in life, let us rather
encourage ourselves in the Lord. The Lord our God What then is
the result of David's encouraging self in the Lord? Look over at
verse 19. Look at this. He encouraged himself
in the Lord. He sought the Lord's counsel.
He went out. God told him to go after them,
the Amlekites, and recover his people, recover them. And he
did. He comes back and look what it says in verse 19. And there
was nothing lacking to them. neither small nor great, neither
son nor daughter, neither spoiled nor anything that they had taken from them."
Listen, David recovered all. Let us see the result of encouraging
ourselves in the Lord, that we shall lack nothing. So instead of complaining, seek
God in prayer. Stand in boldness in the face
of your troubles, in the face of your enemies. Even as those
Hebrew children did, remember how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
stood before the king of Babylon, and they said, you know, whether
our God is going to deliver us from this fire or not, we know
he's able. If he does or not, it doesn't
matter. We're not afraid of you. We're not afraid to answer you
in this. We're not gonna bow down to your idols. We'll serve
God no matter if it kills us. You see, they found their strength
where? In God. They took solace that
if God, he could deliver me or he can kill me. It doesn't matter. Find your confidence in God.
Know this, that Christ has restored all things. Everything. What if you lost everything in
this world? What have you really lost? You've lost nothing. You've lost
nothing. If you lose your life, what have
you lost? Nothing. Why? Because my life is hid with Christ
in God. Therefore, in your trouble, remember,
instead of complaining and blaming God, rather take encouragement
in your God. For Christ is our strength, our
refuge, our shield. And no man can get to us there. What a day heaven will be. Because there will no sin penetrate
that place. No more sin to molest. No more
sin. But as you walk through this
world, I know that you, believer, and I are capable and prone to
sin. So therefore, when we sin, let
us run to God. Let us find encouragement in
Christ our Savior. And there's peace. There's a
place you can rest and find great comfort. Because nothing can
penetrate his protection. May God bless this to your heart.
Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.