All right, if you want to turn
with me now to 1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel 30. I want to tell you
a story this morning. I thought about this particular
format of doing it this way, and what I would like to do is
just tell you a story. I want to read a story to you
here from the Old Testament. And then I want to show you a
picture inside the story. First Samuel 30, now to give
you an understanding of what is happening here, to give you
just a little bit of background information. David fled many
times from Saul. You know how David, when he was
young, he, he beat, uh, he slew Goliath and found favor with
Saul and Israel. But then as the events went on,
Saul became jealous of David and Saul constantly pursued David's
life. And he had to run from Saul,
who was the King of Israel. He had to run from Saul and from
Israel. And in one of these fleeing's
of David, he fled to the land of the Philistines. The Philistines
is the P they are the people who were constantly at war with
Israel. Goliath was a Philistine, but in one of these accounts,
David fled to the land of the Philistines and he and his men
that were with him lived there. in one of the cities of Philistia.
And the Philistines, once again, were going to go to war with
Israel like they always did. And David living with them decided
he and his men were going to go to war with the Philistines
against Israel, against Saul. So they went out and when they
got to the battlefield, the Philistines saw that David was there and
they weren't comfortable with him being there. They said, we're
glad that you've been living with us peaceably and you can
continue to live with us, but you can't fight with us because
you may turn on us and start fighting with Israel. You're
from Israel. So they said, we want you to go home, go back
to the city that you're living in. So David and his men did. All right now, from the time
David left to go fight until the time that he turned around
and went back home, that was three days. Now let's read first
Samuel 30 verse one. It says, and it came to pass
when David and his men were come to Ziklag, that's the town, that's
the city in Philistia that he was living in. Came to pass when
David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that
the Amalekites, those are the descendants of Amalek, who was
Esau's grandson. The Amalekites had invaded the
South and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. David and his men, they came
back home. and their city had been completely
burned with fire. All right, verse two. And the
Amalekites had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew not any, either great
or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David
and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with
fire, And their wives and their sons and their daughters were
taken captives. Then David and the people that
were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had
no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken
captives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitis, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal,
the Carmelite. 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. But David encouraged himself
in the Lord his God." What a glorious thing to consider that is. David
was so distressed. He was just so distressed because
he had lost his family. He'd lost his home and now his
men who were with him, they wanted to stone him. They felt like
he was responsible and they were just so distressed over their
loss. But it says, in spite of all of his distress, and this
is wonderful, it says, David encouraged himself in the Lord
his God. He had been weeping until there
was no more water left in him to weep. And then he finds out
his men want to stone him to death. And it says there was
only one place he could go. David encouraged himself. He
turned to the Lord, his God, and encouraged himself and the
Lord, his God. And we can too. Verse seven,
and David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray
thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither
the ephod to David. That was the garment that the
priest wore. It went over the shoulders. And what that means
is David made intercession to God over this. He prayed to God
over this verse eight and David inquired at the Lord saying,
shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And the
Lord answered David pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them
and without fail, recover all. The word of the Lord is sure,
isn't it? He said, thou shalt surely overtake
them. And without fail, you're going
to recover everything. You're going to recover all verse
nine. So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him and
came to the Brook Besor where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued he and 400
men for 200 abode behind, which were so faint that they could
not go over the brook, be sore. David had 600 men with him and,
um, they took off to get their families back. But when they
got to this brook Besor, it says 200 of them were so faint, they
were just so distressed and so broken and so weak, they couldn't
go on. So they stayed there at the brook
and 400 of them kept going, David and 400 men, verse 11. And they
found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and
gave him bread. And he did eat and they made
him drink water. And they gave him a piece of
a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten,
his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor
drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said
unto him, to whom belongest thou and whence art thou? And he said,
and watch this, he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant
to an Amalekite. And my master left me because
three days ago, three days ago, I fell sick. We made an invasion
upon the South of the Karathites and upon the coast, which belongeth
to Judah and upon the South of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with
fire. And David said to him, canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, this young man said,
swear unto me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver
me into the hands of my master. And I will bring thee down to
this company. What he was saying was you swear
to me that you will make me your own. You won't kill me and you
won't give me to them. Make me your own and I'll bring
you down to this company. Verse 16. And when he had brought
him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating
and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they
had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the
land of Judah. And David smoked them from the
twilight even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped,
not a man of them saved 400 young men, which rode upon camels and
fled. This Egyptian brought David and
his men to the Amalekites who they had just burned Ziklag,
just taken all their families. And now they're eating and they're
drinking and they're dancing and they're They're celebrating
over this victory that they had. And I'm not going to labor this
point right here, but it says that David smoked them from twilight
to the evening of the next day. Whenever you read these commentaries,
there are two twilights in a day. There's a morning twilight and
an evening twilight. And some interpret this to mean
from the morning twilight until the evening, which would be 12
hours. Some interpret this to mean from the evening twilight
to the next evening, 24 hours. And some interpret this to mean
from the evening twilight to the evening of the next day,
48 hours. Either way, whatever it was,
What I want us to see is God gave extraordinary strength to
David and these 400 men to slay and slay and slay, whether it
was 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, they slew thousands of men, thousands
of men, all of the Amalekites, except for 400 that fled on camels,
all right? Verse 18 says, And David recovered
all. David recovered all that the
Amalekites had carried away And David rescued his two wives and
there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great,
neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they
had taken to them. David recovered all. And David took all the flocks
of the herds, which they draved before those other cattle and
said, this is David's spoil. And David came to the 200 men,
which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom
they had made also to abide at the Brook Besor. And they went
forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him.
And when David came near to the people, he saluted them. David
is coming back with these 400 men and all the people they rescued
and everything that they had. And those 200. meet them and David salutes him.
He says, how, how are you all doing? How's everybody here doing? Verse 22. Then answered all the
wicked men and men of Belial and those that went with David
and said, because they went not with us, we will not give them
out of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man,
his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart. These men were bitter, the 400
men who went, and they said, they're not getting any of this
spoil. They can have their wives back and their children back,
and then they need to go on their way. Verse 23. Then said David,
you shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath
given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the company
that came against us into our hand, for who will hearken unto
you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by
the stuff. They shall part alike. And it
was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and
an ordinance for Israel unto this day. And when David came
to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even
to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you." The elders
of Judah who were with David, But David was estranged from
them. He sent gifts to them, gifts to his friends saying,
a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. And
he sent it to them, which were in Bethel and to them, which
were in South Ramath and to them, which were in Jatir and to them,
which were in a rower and to them, which were in Sifmoth.
And to them, which were in Esh Timoah and to them, which were
in recall and to them, which were in the cities of the Jeremy
lights and to them, which were in the cities of the keen eyes
and to them, which were in Horma and to them, which were in Corration
and to them, which were in a fact and to them, which were in Hebron
and to all places where David himself and his men were known
were want to haunt. That's a wonderful story, isn't
it? I don't know if you've ever heard that story, but that is
a wonderful story of conquering victory. All right. Now let me take that story and
show you a picture in it. And I believe we will be glad
to see this. God called David. The man after
his own heart. He said, David is a man after
his own heart. And the reason is because he
is a picture of the son of David. That's who we read about in our
scripture reading a minute ago. The son of David, our Lord, who
took the throne of his father, David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've titled this message, Christ recovered all. Christ recovered
all. That's what the story is picturing
for us. Christ recovering all. Christ recovering all of his
people from their bondage and their destruction that sin left
them in. The Amalekites here, they represent
our sin. They represent our bondage. They
represent our wicked flesh, everything that we're captive to. They represent
everything that ruined us. ruined everything that we are,
everything that we have. And David represents Christ,
our Redeemer, who came to us where we were and delivered us. He recovered us. He reinstated us back to our
place with Him. So let's look at this story one
more time. I'll try to be quick about it, but I want us to see
how Christ recovered all, all right? Verse one, 1 Samuel 30,
verse one. 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 captives that were therein.
They slew not any either great or small, but carried them away
and went on their way. All right. That's the ruin of
the bride of Christ. That's the destruction and the
bondage of the people of God in sin. Verse three. So David
Christ. And his men, they represent his
strength. They also represent his law.
We're gonna see that, the strength of his law. Verse three, so David
and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with
fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were
taken captives. God and his holy law saw what
happened to his people. They saw the condition that they
had fallen into. Verse four says, and David and
the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept
until they had no more power to weep. Oh, how our Lord wept
for his people. Oh, how our Lord was moved with
compassion for his people. That's what started the, the
work of redemption, love, and for God so loved here in his
love. He was moved with compassion
for his people. Verse five, and David's two wives
were taken captive, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail,
the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed. David himself was greatly distressed. Our Lord Jesus Christ was touched
with the feeling of the infirmities of his bride. That's the feelings
he endured. feelings of the infirmities of
his bride. For her sake, he groaned in spirit,
and he sorrowed even unto death. Verse six says, 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. From the cross, our Lord prayed
to his father saying, they have all turned on me. They have compassed
me about like dogs, my own familiar friends, he said. But think about
this, suffering in the place of his people, the Lord Jesus
Christ cried even to his father. He said, my God, my God, why
has thou forsaken me? For the sake of His people, our
Lord was marred more than any man. He was beaten, He was tortured. He said, I'm the man who has
seen affliction. But even our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the midst of everything that He endured to put away our sin,
He comforted and He encouraged Himself in the Lord, His God. This is what He said. He said,
I know, Father, that thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. I know you
won't. He knew the Lord, his God and
father would deliver him from the pit. He knew that and he
encouraged himself in that. Verse seven says, and David said
to Abiathar the priest, to Himalek's son, I pray thee bring me hither
the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither
the ephod to David. Hebrews four says, we have a
great high priest that is passed into the heavens for us. John
said, he's our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's our
high priest that makes intercession to God for us. Verse eight. So David inquired at the Lord,
saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered him, Pursue,
for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover
all. Concerning our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father said in Isaiah 42, He said, Behold
my servant, the one that I've sent to bring justice and judgment,
he shall not fail. He said he won't even be discouraged.
Without fail, he shall recover all. Verse nine. So David went, he and the 600
men that were with him and came to the brook Besor where those
that were left behind stayed. And David pursued he and 400
men, 200 abode behind, which were so faint that they could
not go over the brook Besor. We'll say something about that
in just a minute. Verse 11, watch this, I believe you'll enjoy
this. Verse 11, they found an Egyptian in the field and brought
him to David and gave him bread and he did eat and they made
him drink water. And they gave him a piece of
a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten,
his spirit came again to him for he had eaten no bread nor
drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said
unto him, To whom belongest thou, and whence art thou? And he said,
I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. And my master
left me, because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion
upon the south of the Carathites, and upon the coast which belongeth
to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag
with fire. And David said to him, canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swear unto me by
God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands
of my master. And I will bring thee down to
this company. And when he had brought him down,
behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and
drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they
had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the
land of Judah. This young Egyptian was left
to die. And he'd been there three days.
And our deliverance came from a three-day encounter with death.
Christ dying on the cross, buried in the tomb, risen on the third
day. All right, now listen to this.
This young Egyptian admitted to David, this is when David
came to him, this is what he said. He said, I am the very
sin that has been committed against you. I'm the very sin. He said, I was among the ones
who burned Ziklag and took your families. I was one of the ones
that took your family and burned your city. And David said to
him, you're going to be the one who leads me to this battle with
this enemy. David picked this Egyptian boy
up and carried him with them into this battle. And it was
our very sin. This, this boy is our sin. He's a picture of our sin. It was our very sin against God,
which led Christ to the battle of our deliverance. In order
for Christ to go to war with our death and our ruin in bondage
and captivity, He had to carry our sin with Him to that battle. That's how He got there. It was our very sin that brought
Him to the conflict. And this boy said, he said, I'll
bring you as long as you make me your very own. You make me your very own and
I'll bring you there. And that's what Christ did with
our sin. He bore our sin and our sorrow. He made them his very own. Verse
17. And David smote them from the
twilight even into the evening of the next day. And there escaped
not a man of them, save 400 young men, which rode upon camels and
fled. At the cross of Calvary, Christ
ended the war. That's what he did. He accomplished
the work and he won the victory. But these 400 that escaped on
camels, they represent the sin that will still plague us in
this flesh until the day we die. Just still plaguing us. Even though it's there. There's
no threat. There's no threat. The battle
is over. The victory is won. Verse 18 says, and David recovered
all. That's what happened on the cross
of Calvary. If someone wants to know what
truly happened on the cross of Calvary, here's what it was.
Christ recovered all. All of his people, all that they
had lost. None of them were lost. Everything
that they had was restored to them. Verse 18, and David recovered
all that the Amalekites had carried away. And David rescued his two
wives and there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great,
neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they
had taken to them. David recovered all. And David
took all the flocks and the herds, which they draved before those
other. cattle and said, this is David's spoil. And that's
how it is with Christ, our savior. It was Christ's work. It was
Christ victory. Therefore it's Christ's glory. All the honor, all the credit,
all the glory goes to him. This is Christ's spoil. Verse
21. And David came to the 200 men,
which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom
they had made also to abide at the brook, Besor. And they went
forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him.
And when David came near to the people, he saluted them." Then answered all the wicked
men and men of Belial and of those that went with David and
said, because they went not with us, we will not give them out
of the spoil that we have recovered saved to every man, his wife
and his children, that they may lead them away and depart. It
says all the wicked men said, and this is what wicked men say. But these 400 also represent
the strength of God's law, and this is even what God's law says.
This is what wicked men say, and this is what God's law says.
It says, this deliverance ought to be by works. They came back to the 200 who
stayed behind, and the 400 said, or the wicked men out of the
400 said, they didn't do anything. They were so weak and they were
so faint. They contributed nothing to this
deliverance. They contributed nothing to this
deliverance. We risked our lives. We did all
the work. We should get all the reward.
They should get nothing. They didn't earn it. They don't
deserve it. That's what wicked men and women
who are clinging to the law say. Salvation is by works. Salvation
is only to those who produce the works to earn it. To them,
Christ says, no, it's not. Salvation is by grace. Deliverance
is a free gift from God. This is from God, equally given
to every single one of his people. No matter how weak they are,
no matter how faint they are, no matter how distressed they
are, The inheritance, the spoil of victory is freely given to
all of God's people according to the riches of His grace. Then answered all the wicked
men and men of Belial, of those that went with David and said,
because they went not with us, we will not give them all of
the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and
his children, that they may lead them away into part. Then said
David, you shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the
Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the
company that came against us into our hand. for who will hearken
unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by
the stuff. They shall part alike. And it
was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and
an ordinance for Israel unto this day." It is a statute and
an ordinance for Israel to this very day, now and forever. Grace
alone, grace alone. Verse 26, And when David came
to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even
to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the spoil
of the enemies of the Lord, to them which were in Bethel, to
them which were in South Ramoth, to them which were in Jeter,
to them that were in Aurora, to them which were in Sifmoth,
to them which were in Eshtimoah, to them which were in Rechol,
to them which were in the cities of Jarrah, the Jeremy lights
to them, which were in the cities of the key nights to them, which
were in Homa to them, which were in Coruscant to them, which were
in a fact to them, which were in Hebron to all the places where
David himself and his men were want to haunt David gladly presented
his reward to the elders of Judah. And concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, Jude says, the book of Jude says, now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power
both now and ever. Amen. Amen. I hope that's been a blessing
to you. I hope we've all enjoyed seeing Christ in that glorious
story. Amen. All right, let's close
our service by turning to hymn number 449.