You can turn back in your Bibles
to 1 Samuel chapter 22. 1 Samuel 22 and you can follow
me in your pastor's commentary as the outline is there as well. The text before us is a very
interesting portion of scripture and it actually falls along the
same lines structurally in terms of its theological complexity
as that which we had this morning in Sunday school and the The
challenge is being able to understand the redemptive reality behind
the historical account without doing violence to the historical
narrative. Sometimes the historical narrative
affords us a very clear picture of what God is doing redemptively
so that we don't have real challenges with the language or the grammar
or the context. But there are texts of scripture
that as the scholars have said, would put your mind in knots. And only the spirit of God can
unravel those difficulties that are in the text. Nevertheless,
we've had a great time, I trust, as we have observed the calling
of David, his presentation before the children of Israel, and slaughtering
the significant foe of Israel and Goliath. And now we are looking
at David's humility, his preparation for the throne, and God taking
him through some schooling, if you will, that prepares his servants
for serving him in humility and in reverence. At this point in
our text, chapter 22, we actually have what I consider the story
of three tales. They are a sequence of threes. There's a triplet here in front
of us in chapter 22 and chapter 23 and chapter 24, where presently
David is in what I call departure mode. Departure mode. He has departed from Israel as
a fugitive. And I want you to resonate with
David on that. Again, this is sort of, stuff
that everyone doesn't necessarily experience. But if you've ever
been a fugitive, you understand how harrowing life can be. Now,
if you've never been one, just pretend to be one today, because
you're going to need to put your feet in David's shoes to understand
how David acts. And in fact, it's going to go
from bad to worse because next week, not only is he going to
be a fugitive having departed, he's going to exercise a diversion
tactic that fundamentally amounts to guerrilla warfare. And again,
that's another world that you may not know, but it's going
to be important for you to ride with David through this excursion
to look for Jesus Christ and see how Christ endured so great
affliction for sinners like you and me. The third triplet that
David is gonna be dealing with is a descent into the cave of
a Doolam. And we'll get a chance to deal
with both of those next week. The departure, the diversion,
and the descent into the cave of a Doolam. It's in the cave
of a Doolam that David then begins to draw his most loyal people
to him. They will be no more loyal to
David than in the cave. The rest that will be coming
along with David when he rises to the throne and becomes all
that will be largely people who want to benefit from being on
the coattails of the most popular man in the kingdom. And all of
this is redemptive theology concerning Jesus Christ. There's another
truth here that I want to lay out before you as we work this
through. We have a problem in front of
us, much like we do in the Genesis account concerning Tamar and
Judah. And the parallelisms between
the two is that the central subject is the same, the seed of Judah. And I want you to understand
what's going on in the larger redemptive narrative. God had
a seed from before the world began. whom he has chosen to
be the means by which all of us who will be saved must come
into the world. But that seed has been hunted
down furiously by the Antichrist the moment God created a man
and a woman. And the goal of the enemy has
been to destroy that seed wherever he took up residence in the promises
of God. whether it was Adam and Eve or
whether it was knucklehead Judah, who is the privileged son through
whom the Messiah would come, wasting his sperm and his two
boys too, which goes to show you that even God's elect can
act a fool if God didn't keep them. Am I making some sense? God knows how to take care of
you, doesn't he? He knows how to guard his people, keep his
people, and lead them from the promise to the glory, does he
not? And this is what we're doing with David. We saw the seed of
Christ coming through the line of Judah, through that harrowing
event in Genesis. And then we saw the troubles
that occurred in Bethlehem in the days of who? Naomi and Ruth. when another Judaite bearing
the seed of Christ acted a fool. His name was Elimelech, who went
down to Moab, as it were, and lost his life and his two sons
with him. But what did God do? God had
a ram in the thicket. His name was what? Boaz. And
Boaz and Ruth became the direct line to this boy we're dealing
with now. All that to say this, if the devil could destroy the
seed, he will. And where David is now, the penultimate
fulfillment of it, not the ultimate, Jesus is the eschatological David,
is he not? But the penultimate Jesus is
now in a challenged environment because the enemy wants to destroy
him too. So that the seed does not continue. Are you guys following the narrative
now? that we can be sympathetic with brother David as we work
through the outline. Okay, so here's the challenge
morally. When you read 1 Samuel chapter 22 verses one through
three, the dialogue between two men, David and Ahimelech, the
high priest, you are challenged with first a moral conclusion
that we are often inclined to draw And I say that it's rooted
in the mind of men and it's bound by what we call the righteousness
of the law. men will look at this text and
largely all of the theologians that I have resorted around this
text with the exception of one or two out of dozens have said
that David in this occasion on this occasion is gripped by fear
and therefore he is led by unbelief and he's finding himself lying
to the high priest and as a consequence of his lying to the high priest
everybody in the high priest family dies makes all the sense
in the world to me It makes all the sense in the world to me
on a human level. It makes all the sense in the
world to me when our conscious thinks through how easy it is
for us to tell a lie, to cover our own skin. It makes all the
sense in the world to me when we think through very difficult
choices we have to make upon which that moral decision has
to put by the wayside for what we have often called the lesser
or two evils. It makes all the sense in the
world to me, who is a finite human being, who have been put
in situations like this way more times than I want to admit. And
I have had to lie in order to make sure those people that I
cared about and loved were not heard by the truth. I'm just
confessing. Okay, so I'm just simply saying
that you want to be careful that while you put on your self-righteous
glasses of the moral law and the conscience of men, understand
that that lamp is a truth, but it's not the whole truth. That
lamp is a truth and we are to honor it for the law is a commandment
and the law is a light and the commandment is a lamp and reproof
of instructions are the way of life. Yes, it's a light. But
it's not the full light. In other words, you can see a
thing right in front of you. And what you see is all you see. And you have to be careful to
make sure that you understand the limitations of your information.
that your data about the thing in front of you may be true,
but not the whole truth. And if you don't have the whole
truth on that matter, the data that you have actually can be
distorted. I've used the analogy before
so that I can strengthen your understanding around how to view
redemptive truth. Of the man walking down the street
and passing by the house of an individual and he saw in that
man's window the man beating his child. beating his child
and he called the police on the man swearing that the man was
beating his child to death only to come to discover that when
the police got there and the paramedics got there the boy
was choking from a chicken bone and rather than killing his boy
he was saving his boy you see how the truth can be limited
if you don't have the whole picture So when we are teaching doctrinal
truth from scripture and trying to draw redemptive realities
from it, you've got to cover the whole narrative in order
to make sure you are getting the mind of God out of it. More
than that, there is a fuller or a greater lamp of light that
you and I have to consider. Do you know what that is? It's
the lamp of omniscience. It's the light of God knowing
everything. It's the lamp and light of God's
omniscience and God's sovereignty and God's power controlling all
the affairs of the world. Now watch this. In other words,
you and I have to be slow to make a judgment on a thing because
we're not God. You have to be slow about drawing
interpretations of text. unless God has given you insight
on the whole matter. He that speaketh before he heareth
the matter, it is folly and shame to him. Is that true? Follow
this now. I'm laying down a foundation so when I share with you my insights,
you will understand why God tells wise men to judge nothing before
the time, but let the Lord come who will bring to light everything
in its proper perspective. So sometimes we jump on the text.
And we say, look at David, despicable David. You know the boy lies.
You know he running from the king. He ain't got no military
with him. He ain't got a bunch of guys out there. This boy scared
to death. Wait a minute. You better hurry up and go a
thousand years down the line and let the Lord Jesus Christ
speak to you about this text in Mark's gospel chapter two
and find out what the master has to say about what David did
before you draw conclusions on our brother. I'm doing a bunch
of teaching right now, even though you're not getting it. Be careful
not to judge a matter until you hear it out fully. There's another
truth that I want to lay out as we work through our outline
tonight too. And that is this, in every culture,
in every society, there's a language dynamic. In other words, there
is a genre of speech that is unique to that culture, or that
institution, or that society, or that group. It's called a
language dynamic. Like, when you are in college,
the particular college that you're at, you will have phraseology
and terminology unique to that college. And people will know
that you go to that college by that terminology. A job you may
work at will have terminology relevant to the job that you're
on. Are you guys hearing me? Same
thing with church. In the particular denomination
or the church that you're in, you will have a genre of speech
that will betray the fact that you're a part of that camp, part
of that church. Now watch this. The people on
the outside of that environment don't understand what you're
saying, because they're on the outside. My final point as I
begin to unpack this, and I pray the Spirit of God will bless
you with the revelation, is that double entendres, Saying one
thing with it having a whole nother meaning behind it that
is more valid than the thing that was said is the art of prudence
by men who understand the full picture. So when I give you the
title, The True King's Business, when David says, I'm about the
business of the king, he is not lying. Point number one in our
outline. The priesthood, the next logical
what? Refuge. Now David has already
experienced the blessing of the mediatorial work of people in
his life who cared about him and he cared about them. We start
with brother Jonathan. He is the devoted mediator. He'll
show up one more time in chapter 23 to affirm David as being king. You will never see Jonathan again.
Jonathan will die for his covenant with David. The next mediator
was whom? Samuel, the divine mediator who
served to protect David from the wrath of the king. You no
more will see Samuel either because Samuel will die in a few chapters
down and he will remove from the scene. But the next logical
mediator to whom a godly man will go is the priest. You see, David is demonstrating
his character in this text in that he not only sees God and
knows God, loves God, but trusts God as well. Here's what I want
you to get as we work through the text. Far be it from me to
conclude that our brother David is walking in fear, walking in
unbelief, walking in the kind of doubt that would make him
act like an unbeliever, but rather David is walking by faith. It,
however, is a kind of faith that is so radical that unless you
are in this kind of test, and the Lord God Almighty is walking
with you, and God knows how to accommodate our humanness, does
he not? Unless you are in this kind of
test, and the Lord God is helping you to see your way out, and
the way out from one trial to the next trial is simultaneously
glorifying God in your heart and humbling you at the same
time, you don't understand what David's going through. You don't
understand what David is going through. So David resorted to
Jonathan because Jonathan was the son of the king, and we saw
that that was a great type of Christ, the mediator of sinners
under the wrath of God. He resorted to Samuel because
Samuel was the one who had anointed David initially, and David is
just simply going through the process of his calling, and Samuel
was a safe place. He is now coming to the priest
because the priesthood was established under Moses. a city of refuge
for hell-bound sinners to flee to and to abide until a fair
hearing would be given them are you guys hearing what I'm saying
the cities of refuge the priesthood the place of the priest knob
is a city for the priests It's right near Jerusalem, up the
street some 13 miles. And David figures he can buy
some time in Nob, although he knows Saul very well. He knows
Saul will stop at nothing to kill him, but maybe he can buffer
him some time by hiding in the city of the priest. He was right
because he was being led by God. You know, sometimes when God
is leading you, the way it looks is raggedy. I'm gonna say that
again. Sometimes when God's leading
you, the way it looks is raggedy. I've been led by the Lord all
my life. And there are times in which when God led me down
this certain path, when I tried to reason it through on a carnal
level, I'm like, Lord, this don't make any sense. This is not as
secure as I thought you would do it. But see, God's not worried
about how I feel. He knows where he's taking me
and he knows he knows how to get me through that particular
Venturi if you will that straight in a way that will accomplish
multitudes of things David here is about to be the means by which
God accomplishes several tasks and I want to close out first
our first point by saying God is our only true what us Deuteronomy
32 27 now when we say that God is our true refuge it does not
mean that that he does not use means by which he delivers us
because he does. David is in the city of Nob meeting
a man whom we are going to see is under a test. Ahimelech is
the high priest in these days and Halimelech is now going to
have to answer the question for himself, do I know God? Do I
understand God's will? I'm the high priest. I'm the
representative of God between God and the people. If anyone
should know the will of God, shouldn't it be the high priest?
After all, the king is a clown right now. He's a fool. He's
a rebel. He's an antichrist spirit. Israel
is partially in real trouble, is it not? We are really in trouble
when both the monarchy, the throne, and then the priesthood is jacked
up too. We hope, we hope that there's
a measure of light in the priesthood so that God's will can be done.
This is what David is hoping. So when David comes to the high
priest, he's coming to the high priest under the limitations
of his own human thinking, but guided by the Spirit and the
words that are about to come forth out of his mouth in verses
1 and 2 as he dialogues with Elimelech is going to show David,
watch this, is going to show David whether or not God has
revealed to Elimelech that David is truly the king. Watch the
language, verse one and two of our text. Now David therefore
departed this and escaped to the, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter
22, I'm ready to get going in chapter 22, chapter 21. Then
came David to Nab, to Abimelech, or to Himalach, the priest, and
Himalach, You see that H is really difficult coming out of that.
Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David. Now, I want you to
watch these words because we're going to unpack that under our
second point. Here's what he says. He was afraid at the meeting
of David and said unto him, why are you alone? And here's the
next question. And no man with you. Now, ladies
and gentlemen, he said no less and he said no more. The Spirit
of God is restraining Ahimelech's words to give Ahimelech an opportunity
to peer into truth which is not presently evident to him. See,
these are the principles of prudence. As the proverb puts it, a fool
uttereth all his mind. A fool just opens his mouth and
talks. He pours out foolishness without
discretion. He venture where angels won't
go. He challenges things that no
wise man would. And he uses way too many words,
as the proverb also says, in the multitude of words, there
lacketh not what? Sin. Have you ever been there? Watch this. Have you ever just
talked too much? Have you ever had the situation,
however, where the Lord kept your tongue? where all you said
was what was to be said and no more. And you thank God when
you got through that test, because you know you, you know you, you
know you talk too much. And you know if God had let you
just be you, you would have messed that whole thing up. But this
is what we call the discretion of words. And you can read the
whole of Proverbs 15 on your own, where it talks about a wise
man disperses knowledge aright. He uses his words carefully because
a wise man doesn't want to hurt himself nor anyone else. And a limelack does not want
to be culpable for things he should not know or for things
he should know but doesn't. See, to whom much is given, much
is what? Are you guys following me? I
got to lay this foundation because you're not going to get this
if you don't. Because these applicable principles are very beneficial
in your life and mine. All he asked was, why are you
alone and no man with you? Notice what he didn't say. Where's
King Saul? Where's his army? What's he up
to? David, are y'all in trouble?
Had he said that, a Himalayan would have been in trouble as
well with God. Point number two in our outline.
I suggest that what we're dealing with here is what I call a gospel
dialogue in what? Mystery form. Why are you alone? Because the work is what? Isn't
that what David just said? I have a secret errand of the
Lord. Is that what he just said? The Lord has, God, the King has
sent me on a business. that is secret and nobody knows
about it. Do you see illusions? Are you
following me? Do you see illusions? Do you
understand the nature of the gospel? That the nature of the
gospel has always been a mystery hidden from everyone unless God
reveals it to you? And have you not seen in the
excursion of Scripture the servants that God raises up often are
on missions for God of which nobody else knows but them? I'm
just going to give you a couple. One of them is Nehemiah. Remember
the days in which Nehemiah was in Persia and he had heard about
the terrible condition of Israel in Jerusalem and how he prayed
to his God and God sent him to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem? How that he went and he searched
out the land, did reconnaissance, determined the extent of the
trouble and there was no man that knew what he did. He was
on a secret mission. He was on a secret mission. The
other brother that we're dealing with right now, presently in
Sunday school, his name is what? Joseph. We've moved past Joseph.
But Joseph's whole descent and then ascent to the throne in
Egypt was largely a secret work. He was all by himself. And no
one knew about that work, even his brethren. All of this pointed
to the work of Christ who came into the world The world was
made by him, but the world knew him not. Our Lord Jesus came
as the Theanthropos, the God-man, and they didn't see him. He preached,
he taught, and they did not comprehend his teaching. Is that right?
And his disciples frequently said, Lord, why are you doing
this? Why are you saying that? And you know what he would say?
In the future, you'll understand what I'm talking about. But here
is the knot that's going to tie my principle to David with Christ. Jesus, just like David, is about
his father's business. And the business in our text
is the business of the true King, protecting his Vicar King from
the Antichrist King. Did you guys hear what I just
said? It's the business of the true King, protecting his Vicar
King. Who is his Vicar King? David,
from the Antichrist King. And Elimelech, The high priest
is now being challenged whether or not he understands the gospel. This is why David is saying what
he's saying in verse two. Do you understand Ahimelech that
God raised me up to take the throne? Because if Ahimelech
makes the wrong response, David knows that he is in trouble.
The things that are about to fall out now in terms of what
David is about to ask could only occur if Ahimelech really believe
that God is the man. There's no way that Elimelech
would have given David what David wanted unless he trusted that
the true and the living God was with this king, not the other
king of whom he made no mention. And the only way you're going
to understand my reasoning is to read chapter 22 and get the
point. All right, let's work through
our outline and move quickly on this. I think I have persuaded
you that when you study your Bible, you have to move very
carefully. Under point number two, sub points, four sub points.
Why are you alone? Because the work is secret. Second
point, the speech of the prudent and perilous times, that's verse
two. This is the way David frames
his speech. And David said unto Elimelech
the priest, the king had commanded me a business and he has said
unto me, let no man know anything of the business where unto I
send thee and what I have commanded thee and I have appointed my
servants to such and such a place. Did David have servants with
him? Yes. Had David appointed his servants
to such and such a place? Yes. How do we know? Because I know, you know, we
live in the 21st century. You can only handle suspense for
so long. So I'm going to just give you the answer now. Our
master explicitly told us that he had servants with him. Is
that enough authority for you? Mark's gospel chapter 2 you don't
have to go there now. I just want you to know our master
repeated this very account this way and when David went to the
high priest him and those that were with him We're done aren't
we? All right. Just want to erase
all doubt about David just being some pathological irrational
liar Like we are Aren't you glad you're saved by grace? Here we
go So the third sub-point is that Elimelech's righteous what? Okay, so now we're getting ready
to tie the knot because I'm going to jump you over to chapter 22
to show you why I build an argument for Elimelech's prudence, his
discretion, and quite possibly even his salvation. In 1 Samuel
chapter 22, let's read verse 14 and 15 where Elimelech now
is accosted by Saul because Saul is coming. And we'll see why
in chapter 22, verse 14 and 15, here's what we read on this matter. Are you there? Here it is. And
let me start back at verse 11. This is King Saul. Then the king
sent to call Elimelech, the priest, the son of Hittub, and all of
his father's house, the priests that were at Nob, and they came,
all of them, to the king. This here is the great summons.
And Saul said, here now, you sons of Ahitab. And he answered,
here I am, my Lord. And Saul said unto him, why have
you conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse? See, he's
still on that son of Jesse bit, isn't he? Is that brother messed
up or what? Thou and that son of Jesse. Now
watch this, I want you to hear the way the language is crafted.
In that you have given him bread and a sword. and has inquired
of God for him that he might rise against me to lie in wait
as is this day." Four very clear propositions that Saul is rendering
to Ahimelech. He says, you have listened to
that son of Jesse, David, and giving him bread and a sword. You prayed for my enemy, man,
in order that he might rise up and kill me. Now watch this,
the first three points are true. The fourth one was Saul's mad,
insane, paranoid assumption about David. But that last line is
gonna show us some insights into the treachery of the kingdom.
See, the Bible says, the wicked flee when no man pursues, but
the righteous are as bold as a lion. And the Bible talks about
the fleshly carnal tendency of suspicions that lead to things
like jealousy and rage and murder. And what's going on in Saul's
heart is a level of suspicion that's irrational, insane, and
his language is that David's trying to kill him. Did he get
it twisted? Did he get it twisted? So the
narrative is very important because I want you to mark this. This
is what Saul has been saying to everyone in the kingdom. I
want you to get this. that David is trying to kill
him. See, this is the reverse psychology
that's going on. Saul really wants to win the
people to himself and he's going to win some to him because by
the time we get to chapters 24 and 25, what David is going to
discover is that there's a contract out on him and everybody's trying
to get a little piece of that money. Now, do you understand
why I want you to feel David's pain and understand what it's
like to be a fugitive and to have an indictment against you?
and now you really can't trust hardly anyone? And that you gotta
be able to trust God to lead you to the right people to help
you when everybody wants a piece of your tail? They wanna get
paid? Because the reality is when a
price is on your head, selfish people who are greedy for some
type of gain or notoriety will sell you out. This is how you
can determine who your friends are. By the way, when David gets
on the throne and Solomon gets on the throne, they gonna clean
all that up. That's why you don't dog a person while they're down.
That's why you don't act like as if when they are down, they
will never get up. You never treat a person so bad
as to not think there's gonna be a reverse in their life. As
the proverb puts it, do not rejoice in the day of your adversary's
fall, lest the Lord see it and raise him up. One of the things
you and I must do when we see a brother or sister down is first
sympathize with them. Put your feet in their shoes.
Ask yourself, would you do what they do? Or could you do it better? But don't just sit on your high
horse and say, huh, I would have never done that. Because the
word of God is very clear, very, very clear. You and I have deceitfully
desperate, wicked hearts. And God has made us all alike.
And the reality is, if you don't know yourself, you would do worse
than the man you're talking about if it wasn't for the grace of
God. So in a situation when you're observing people that are down,
you don't necessarily have to give them a pass. But don't kick
them while they're down. Am I making some sense? I'm not
telling you to give David a pass on this matter of the moral aptitude
of his conversation. I'm just trying to holler at
you about the larger redemptive truth that's far more important.
And that is God sees the end from the beginning. And he knows
how to take the weaknesses of his saints and the humanness
of his saints and mold his purposes in their life. By the way, make
a distinction between humanness and weakness. I mean, sinfulness.
Please make a distinction between what it means to be human and
sinful. Because if you don't, you will fail to see that place
where grace occupies the life of God's people. Grace occupies
the life of God's people in the sphere of our humanness. Not
in the sphere of our sinfulness. Grace never accommodates or agrees
with or affirms our sins. But grace will always be in our
humanness to accommodate our limitations, our weaknesses,
our shortcomings. Are you hearing me? It has provision
for our sins, but it never promotes our sin. This is why we never
say, let us sin that grace may abound. You who talk like that
are demonstrating that you don't know the grace of God at all.
But God works within the ranks of our humanness, does he not?
This is what we mean by the incarnation. God manifested where? In the
flesh. So here under Elimelech's righteous
assumption, here's how Elimelech responds to Saul's statement.
And I want you to hear it now. Then Elimelech answered the who. And he said these words. Now
watch how powerfully the spirit of God responds. He says, and
who is so faithful among all your servants as David? Woo! Woo! Did you get it? Did you
get it? Notice what he just did. Will
you notice what he just did? He did not affirm the conclusion
of the king. He did not agree with the king
that what he was doing was in cahoots with David to kill him.
The first thing that a limeleck does is mediate on David's behalf. He is the fourth mediator. You guys got that? He's standing
in the behalf of David, protecting David's integrity and character. Are you guys hearing me? I want
you to get this now. Ahimelech knows who the true
king is. God has revealed it to him. And
he's standing there like a man telling the king, this boy you
want to kill hasn't done you anything wrong. Do you hear echoes
of Pilate speaking to Israel saying, this man has done nothing
wrong. I find no fault in him. I find
no fault in him. If you kill him, it's going to
be out and out murder because he hasn't done a thing wrong.
Holy Ghost, teach our people. Teach our people. This is what
I meant by the righteous assumption of Elimelech. He first says,
And who is so faithful among all your servants as David? Has
a limo like been watching David? Absolutely. Watch this, which
is the King's what? So I have no reason to doubt
David's integrity or character on two points, how he has conducted
himself and the fact that positionally he is your son-in-law. Who am
I as a high priest to look narrowly down the king's son-in-law's
life and reject any kind of help that he would want? He's been
impeccable in his service towards you. He is your son-in-law. Watch this. Now, not only is
he saying that he is your son-in-law, but he goes on to say, not only
is he your son-in-law, but he goeth at your what? He does whatever
you want. Is that true? Yes, indeed. If you go back to chapter 17,
18 and 19, David did everything the king said do but sin. He did everything the king said
do and he did it well and he succeeded at it. The king is
indicting David with a wrong judgment about his character
And Elimelech must defend David. That's what mediators do. Watch
this now. He says, he's been so faithful.
He's been your son-in-law. He goes at your bidding. And
he is, watch this now, honorable in all your house. Take the dagger,
Elimelech, and push it all the way into the heart of Saul. And
let Saul know, God has revealed to you who the true king is. He's a branch of righteousness
who honors God's law and honors God's throne, and he has done
nothing wrong. See, because the words of King
Saul to Elimelech are capital punishment crimes if what Elimelech
did was true. Are you hearing me? Look at verse
15. Did I then begin to inquire of
God for him? Watch this. Be it far from me,
let not the king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all
the house of my father, for your servant knew nothing of all this,
less or more. See my point? Do you see how
I opened up talking about the discretion and wisdom and limitations
of a limelight's words? You've come by yourself, what's
up? Now the ball is in David's court.
The way David drops it is with a double entendre that underscores
the reality of David's higher mission with the king of glory,
who is sending him on a mission that supersedes the mission that
David is struggling with in terms of the unqualified king. Are you guys with me? Elimelech
is defending his own right before King Saul, even though he's going
to lose his life for it. Point number C. which is logical,
the justification of David, by whom? The priestly mediator,
the justification of David. Now, all of these men that are
around King Saul, all of his servants that are watching King
Saul, have just heard the high priest declare David's innocency. Every one of their conscience
now is pierced with the light of truth. You know how when you
running with a fool because you part of a gang, a group of men
or women, y'all know what I'm talking about. You get become
part of this sorority and then the leader of the sorority, you
discover if 5150 are close to it, right? And you've been wondering
whether or not you should get out. You should have got out
long ago, but now you're in a precarious situation where that individual
is about to get y'all all in trouble. See, only a few of y'all
know what I'm talking about. I grew up this way. I grew up
being parts of little cliques and gangs, and we'd go get in
trouble. And the thing that really would
tick me off is that the leader of the gang was a fool. I'm like,
why on earth am I following a fool? I could have did a better job
than him. I'm in trouble over a fool. With whom you associate
yourself with, you become identified with. But in psychology and in
theology, we use a term called an ethical break. And what that
means is every man is an agent of himself, autonomous, and you
gotta draw the line no matter what your boss says. And you
have to determine within yourself whether or not you're gonna just
do the group dynamic thing, lose your conscience, and go head
on and jump down the throats of people and start gangbanging,
because what Saul is about to do is gangbang. He's getting
ready to kill everybody in a limolex family, everybody. And then the
whole city getting ready to be wiped out. Are you guys hearing
me? Read your Bible. Didn't I tell you how to read
ahead of me a couple, two or three chapters? So you can keep up
because I can only preach to you for about an hour, five minutes
before you turn into pumpkins, right? So you guys have read
ahead and you realize that Saul kills the whole of Elimelech's
house with the exception of one who escapes. And I'm going to
talk to you about him at the end because there's a larger
paradigm here. You've got to be able to see the electing love
of God in Christ and the destruction of hell-bound sinners only to
save your wretched soul out of it. And David's going to let
him know. David's going to let this brother
know. As long as you kick it with me, you're going to be all
right. And this is why I'm telling you that David is not walking
in fear or doubt or fleshly carnal machinations. He sees the hand
of God in what he's doing. Are you guys following me? He
sees the hand of God in what he's doing, although there are
horrible, horrible consequences. Let me move on. Point number
three then, as we work through this. The Antichrist saw further
what? That's right. Look at verse six
through eight. This is gonna be so comical. Chapter 22, verse
six through eight. When Saul heard that David was
discovered, I'm sure this is chapter 21, verse 21. Yeah, no, chapter 22, verse six
through eight. When Saul heard that David was
discovered and the men that were with him, now Saul abode in Gibeah
under a tree in Ramah, having a spear in his hand. Here it
is again, that spear. and all of his servants standing
about him. Now listen to these words. Then Saul said unto his
servants that stood about him, here now you Benjamites, will
the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and
make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds that
all of you have conspired against me. Did anybody watch Mutiny
on the Bounty with Humphrey Bogart? How many of y'all watched that?
I just need to know of you. When he started going a bit crazy,
thinking his gods was coming against him. Is that Saul? Absolutely. Saul losing his mind. He out
under a tree. He don't know where David is,
but the Holy Ghost is piercing his conscience to let him know
you're a condemned man. He actually think David is coming
after him and that his own men are betraying him. When you and
I are not rooted and grounded in biblical truth, When we don't
think God's thoughts after Him, we will be inclined to a suspicious
mind, drawing conclusions about people that are baseless. And
as the Bible says, there is no peace, saith my God, for the
wicked. When a man or woman is not walking
in the principles of the kingdom of God, everybody's your enemy.
But the reality is your own enemy is yourself. Because you don't
have the bulwark of truth protecting your conscience from all of those
insane thoughts that make their way in and build conclusions
that have nothing to do with reality. You're a slave of your
own sinful fears and doubts as Saul is here. Now watch what
the text goes on to say. He says that all of you have
conspired against me and there's none that showeth me that my
son hath made a league with the son of Jesse. You know what Saul
just did right there? He's sitting under the tree trying
to hunt David down, and he goes to thinking, now some of these
folks here with me knew that Jonathan made a league with David.
Now he wants to bring it up. Do you see that? Now he wants
to bring it up. After all this time, which one of y'all knew
that my son Jonathan made a league with David? You see, he's aware
that he's losing all of his defenses, that he has no protection, that
not even his son is with him. This is a miserable condition
of being, isn't it? Watch the further development
of it so we can move forward. Now watch this, watch this now.
He says, and there's none of you that is sorry for me. Oh. And show it unto me that my son
has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this
day. Do you see how he has twisted
it? Sick, sorry, sad, Saul you got it sick. Sorry sad Saul is
seeking sympathy Watch this And he's gonna get it from a
rebel He's gonna get it from a rebel and this rebel is going
to be the spirit of Antichrist working for Saul against David
And it's a lesson that you and I must learn. If your heart is
black and wicked, read Proverbs chapter 26 in your own time.
If your heart is black and wicked, you will listen to ungodly men. If your heart is corrupt and
vile and self-centered, you will listen to ungodly people. The
gospel you will listen to is a gospel that will cater to your
own advantages. When you hear the kind of selfish,
narcissistic, self-centered, woe-is-me ideology coming out
of a person's mouth like Saul, you're going to see it as an
opportunity for your own wicked heart to get an advancement.
And now you're going to slay the righteous and justify the
ungodly, because that's what this Antichrist spirit is about
to do. Are you hearing me? And just as Halimelech hung on
all of David's words, so this Antichrist spirit is gonna hang
on all of Saul's words to show Saul that he is on his side. So this is what we're dealing
with in our third point. The Antichrist Saul exposed Doeg,
the what? Traitor. A type of whom? Told you the old things point
to the new, do they not? The old things point to the new.
Verse 9. Then answered Doeg the Edomite,
which was set over the servants of Saul and said, I saw the son
of Jesse. See, he didn't even call him
David. See the spirit of Antichrist? You see how he is formulating
his words to be consistent with the words of Saul? You see how
he's pandering towards Saul? These are the mechanisms of weak
men who don't have the spirit of righteousness in them. This
is the chameleon spirit that knows how to change colors when
it's convenient and get the upper hand on people. You don't want
to be given to these kind of people. The proverb is clear. The man that goes with the individual
that's given to change, he will smart for it. He'll suffer for
it. Don't hang out with people that
are inconsistent, vacillating. Changing their minds all the
time jumping from this group to that group or the other group
All they're doing is seeking their own ends and they'll turn
you in for five dollars That's dough egg. Do you hear me? That's
doing watch it. Now. This is very important watch
how this unpacks He is a traitor like a Judas and here's what
he says he says and I saw the son of Jesse coming to knob to
a limo like the son of a limo a hit up and and he inquired
of the Lord for him. Who inquired? Elimelech did,
and gave him victuals and gave him a sword of Goliath, the Philistine. You see who gave Saul his information? Was this dog. Yeah, I know his
name is Doeg, but he's a dog. Hence we have verse following,
verse 11 following where he calls Elimelech. Are you with me? Point
number three, the Antichrist saw further exposed Subpoint
A, Doeg the traitor. Subpoint B, Saul attacks the
king, the prophet, and the what? Who is the king? David. Who is
the prophet? Samuel. Who is the priest? Elimelech. This man is crazy. He does not
have the spirit of God, and he hates the kingdom. Here's another
principle as I draw this home. And Jude said it, and Peter said
it. Ungodly men, unprincipled men despise dominions. They despise authorities. They
oppose rulers. They hate government. They hate
structure. They hate order. And you'll meet
many of them in the church as well. They hate submission. And one of the chief evidences
of the Spirit of God is your ability to submit to God and
godly biblical leadership. Let me say that again for just
some of y'all to get. Because see, some of y'all think you
can run around the kingdom and do whatever you want to do. I'm
here to tell you, you'll never bear fruit that way. One of the
things you must learn how to do is submit to God and submit
to godly biblical leadership. If you want to prosper, submit
to godly biblical leadership. God doesn't have free radicals
in the kingdom. He doesn't have mavericks. Every
maverick is an apostate. Every maverick is a heretic.
Every maverick is a pseudo Christ. And when Christ came, he always
submitted himself both to the father and human government to
demonstrate honor to God's word. And this is why you see the radical
antithesis between the character of David and the character of
Saul, don't you? David would have never done what
Saul did. Why? Because David sees the kingdom. Does he not? He sees the kingdom. I will not touch God's anointing.
You're going to see that in the next couple, two or three chapters.
He will have an opportunity to kill Saul. It ain't going to
happen to me. I'm not going to do it. I'm not touching the Lord's
anointing. If the Lord wants to kill him,
the Lord knows how to kill him. And he did. But my point is,
David understood the chain of commands. He understood the structure.
He understood the order. He understood the protocol. He
didn't violate it like our present culture is tearing up everything
biblical today. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is a great type of Jesus Christ and the moral
attributes that are being demonstrated in David now. The virtues are
something that we want to take hold of because you will prosper
only when you submit to God's rule and God's way. This dog,
the Edomite, is the spirit of Antichrist in that he does something
that the other servants would not do. Notice what the text
tells us in verse 16. And the king said, you shall
surely die, Elimelech, you and all your father's house. And
the king said to the footman that stood about him, turn and
slay the priests of the Lord. Isn't that crazy? Turn and slay
the priests of the Lord. There is no way you can be saved
cursing the Lord. Do you hear that? You can't call
Jesus accursed and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And that's
what's going on here. Kill them. They're cursed. Kill
them. Watch what it goes on to say.
Because their hand is also with David. Isn't that wild? And because
they knew when he fled and did not show it me. but the servants
of the king would not put forth their hand to what? Fall upon
the free. You understood what I meant earlier
about the ethical break? How that there's a line you draw
and it doesn't matter what the king say. I don't care if the
president and all of Congress tell us we are to abandon the
true and the living God and quit obeying his word and stop worshiping
the true and the living God. Listen, it's better to fear God
than to fear man. And we're going to obey God no
matter what he wants to do. I don't care what happens in
our world and in our culture. They can throw us in the jail.
They can kill us. But we're going to worship the
true and the living God. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying?
And these servants knew that this was high treason against
the God they could not see. And they drew the line. Just
like Humphrey Bogart's partners. The parallels are there. But
there was a man who was willing to do everything that Saul said.
Saul had a companion in Doeg, didn't he? Verse 18 and 19. And
the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priest. And
Doeg the Edomite turned and he fell upon the priest and slew
on that day four score and five persons that did wear a linen
ephod. 85 priests died by that man's
hand. Verse 19, and Nob, the city of
the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and
women and children and suckling and oxen and asses and sheep.
With the edge of the sword, Saul committed genocide on that day. Do you see what happened? You
see how God must kill this man? Do you see how God must stop
Saul? Are you guys hearing me? Because
Saul has no fear of God. God did not give him the mandate
to kill those people. He took it upon himself. And
Doeg did his bidding. That's why I have in point C
the lapdog of the Antichrist. Now let me close out by a wonderful
redemptive truth. Point number four, the business
of the king. As I stated, David knew whom
he was talking about when he said he had to do the business
of the king. He wasn't talking about Saul.
He was talking about the king of whom he wrote multiple times
in the Psalms, the Lord our God is a great king above all the
gods of the earth. He is king of kings and Lord
of lords. And we worship him. Mount Zion,
beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, the city
of the great king. God is king and he raised up
David to be his vicar until his son Jesus Christ would come David
always saw this king by the way Every faithful pastor always
sees this king every faithful servant always sees this king
high and lifted up sitting on this throne Are you hearing me?
We have a sovereign god under whom we all are under his authority
And that's the only way we can maintain sanity in any institution
and and particularly the church So point number four says the
king is our great god The mission that David was under is to do
what? Ascend to the throne through
what? I built that argument in the opening of our message, did
not I? Let me see if I can show you
the celestial counterpart to the terrestrial earthly conflict
that David is in. Revelation 12 verse 4 and 5. You guys have heard it before,
but this is paradigmatic to all of the struggles of the godly
seed. And there was a woman that was
with child. Notice what it says in the third
and his tail that is the devil drew the third part of the stars
of heaven and did cast them down to the earth and the dragon stood
before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to do what?
Devour her child as soon as it be born. Do you see that conflict
running all the way through the scripture saints? to devour the
child whether it was under the period of the patriarchs or the
period of the judges or the period of the monarchy or the coming
of christ you remember as soon as the boy as soon as the boy
was conceived his mama had to run him down to egypt another
shadow represented in david going down to the philistines next
chapter because he's a fugitive just like jesus was a fugitive
until the death of Herod who wanted to kill him. Are you guys
following me? This is what we call redemptive
realities and paradigms in the scripture. For to devour her
child as soon as it be born. I think verse 5 has something
to say as well. Mark this. And she brought forth
a man child who was to rule all nations with the rod of iron.
Is he a king? And her child was caught up unto God and to his
what? Did he make it? Did he make it? Did our Lord
make it? Did he come in? Did he do his business? Did he
rise again? Did he take his throne? Did he
send his Holy Ghost? Is his spirit not revealing to
us the successful work of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ? But he
had to endure a whole lot to come and go back, didn't he?
Yes, he did. And these are the pictures. Now,
there's one more, two more quick points I want to give you. Point
number... for in our business, the king is our great God, the
mission ascending to the throne. The secret is the gospel. I affirm
that, is it not? Here's the last two sub points
quickly. David knew he was to be what? Yes, he did. It's crazy. And Christ knew he was already
what? Did he not? They didn't accept him as king,
but he knew he was king. Remember, he rolled into Jerusalem the
week he was going to be crucified on a foal and the ass of a foal.
Here comes our King riding on an ass, the fall of an ass. See
the parallels? It's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful truth. Now
let me close with the gospel here in a more pertinent way.
Point number five, the giving of the what? Showbread. See this
is why I say I'm arguing for a limeleck having some light
because what a limeleck does is approved by Christ as an act
of mercy. The showbread in the temple was
purely for the priest. They were next to the Holy of
Holies and they were in six rows. Now the showbread were, they
were kind of like your big loaves of bread, kind of like your French
bread, about three and a half pounds per loaf. That's a lot
of bread, brothers and sisters. Lot of bread, three and a half
pounds. And David asked for five of them, didn't he? Now that's
quite a bit of bread for one brother. That means he had people
with him, as our Lord stated. But see what the high priest
is doing right here is being a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who when guilty sinners, desperate sinners who need the bread of
life come to him, he gives it to them. Because Christ for us
is the bread of life, is he not? He's the bread of life, which
came down from heaven to give life to the world. And thus God
provided for David what? Strength! David was famished,
he was hungry, he was toiling. And by the way, while David is
sitting in exile with his boys, eating on these loaves of bread,
guess what he does? He writes Psalm 34. where in
verse eight says, oh, taste and see that the Lord, he is good. That's the same song. He's sitting
there eating the bread and saying, this is the Lord. Brothers, this
is how good God is to us. We on the run, but God is with
us and God is providing for us and God's meeting our needs.
Does God meet our needs? Does God provide for us? Does
God feed us in the wilderness? Does He even feed us in trouble?
This is what makes God so good to me. Even in my troubles, God
still feeds me. And God is protecting him as
well because the bread points to Christ. He knows that God
is... David is in the full grip of
a sovereign God. He has no doubts that God's on
his side. And I want to show you with just
one more verse as we close. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 22.
the last two verses. I just want you to see this is
crazy. I'm going to start at verse 20.
Are you there? And one of the sons of Elimelech,
the son Ahithob, named what? Abiathar. Abiathar. He escaped. The whole city, all
of the priests, except for one man escaped. Are you hearing
me? The whole city, all of the men,
women, and children are destroyed. One man escapes. What doctrine
is elucidated here? The doctrine of election. Am I making some sense, saints?
This man is going to know that he is the object of God's mercy,
that he should have been destroyed right along with his own family.
Y'all got a minute? Can I keep talking to you for
a minute? Please listen to me now. You got to know how to study
your Bible, because God's doing a whole bunch of things at one
time. He's saving his elect, and he's meting out judgments
upon those whom he has determined to punish for rebelling against
him all along. Once you trace Ahimelech all
the way back, his great-great-granddaddy is Eli, whose two sons, Abdi
and Phinehas, God swore in killing them that he would destroy his
whole house. Here the judgment is taking place
as God is simultaneously wiping out an ungodly generation of
rebels who identified with Eli and rebels who are now going
to be in the judgment with David against Saul. Rebels! Abiathar
is going to carry all the way through into not only 2 Samuel,
but also 1 Kings. Now watch this. Watch how this
one sinner, saved by the mercy of God, is secured by the words
of David. Abiathar showed David, verse
21, that Saul had slain the Lord's priest. Do you see it? Verse
22, and David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day when that
dog, the Edomite, was there. I knew it. I could smell him.
He smelled bad. This is what I was saying earlier.
I got about five minutes with you. This is what I was saying
earlier about when you study your Bible, your goal is to learn
the character of God. Your job is not to get your head
all swelled up with, you know, pedantic theology and propositional
ideas, abstract concepts. Your job is to learn the nature
and character of God, because He doesn't change. The immutability
of His nature, when comprehended, allows us to say He's the same
God yesterday, today, and forevermore. And if God shows mercy to sinners
like He did David and Abiathar, will He not show mercy to sinners
like us? Watch this, watch this! when
we take up sides with David. Are you hearing me? When you
take up sides with David, you're going to be hated by the world,
but you're going to be loved by God. When you take up sides
with David, you'll see a thousand fall on your right and 10,000
on your left, but it's not going to come near you because you've
taken your side with David. When you take your side with
David, you're going to have to take hits just like David took
hits. Just like Christ took hits, just
like the disciples took hits, just like the church takes hits
for Jesus, you gotta take hits for Christ. Whenever you join
somebody's side, you make enemies. Are you guys hearing me? Whenever
you join somebody's side, the question is, is Jesus worthy
for you to take hits? Is Christ worthy for you to suffer
with, that you might reign with him? A Biathar is going to experience
the mercies of David mediating for him shielding him because
his daddy shielded David. You'll get that in a moment.
Is that good? See, David is about the standing
in the gap for the only high priest left. He's gonna be the
high priest. He gonna help bring the Ark of
the Covenant back to Israel in David's days. He gonna serve
with David in the army. He's going to fight many battles
with David. He's going to carry him. His ministry is going to
carry him into Solomon's reign. Are you guys hearing me? He's
a sinner saved by the mercy of God out of a household that was
destined to be condemned. But God had mercy on him because
God had chosen him in Christ. And that's what he did for you,
sinner, saved you by his grace. without anything in you worthy
of saving out of a household of sinners that are worthy of
damnation. He had mercy on you. You weren't
saved because your family was better than anybody else's family.
All of our families are from Dallas. We all got nutty families. Everybody
crazy as JR and wicked as Sue Ellen. Are y'all hearing what
I'm saying? Some of y'all been safe for five
minutes. Haven't you noticed your family is a little bit nutty?
I mean, you didn't see it before. Hold on, you didn't see it before. But now you go, you know what,
man, my family is nutty as a fruitcake. You didn't see it before. Now
you know, you come out of a nutty line. You do, you come out of
a nutty, stay with me for a second now. I'm just breathing a little
bit. And God gave you a sound mind. Did he give you a sound
mind? He gave you a sound mind. You
know why? Because he hooked you up with
David and David with you. And David knows where he's going.
Look at the last line. Here's what he said. David said
in verse 22, David says, I knew it the day when Doeg the Edomite
was there that he would surely tell Saul. And here's what he
said. I have occasioned the death of
all the persons of your father's house. He didn't say I have caused
it. It's just that he occasioned
it. God has fulfilled his will prophetically against Eli in
David's time in order to clean up the priesthood so that when
David takes the throne, the priesthood would advance. But in God's mercy,
as he always does, he saves a remnant out of the hole, because that's
just how God is. He's not going to wipe out the
whole priesthood. He's going to always have one.
like he did with Samuel, and like he's doing with David, and
like he's doing with Abiathar. Now watch what verse 23 says.
Abide thou with me. That's your word for the day
child of God. Abide with Christ. Abide with the Son of God. Make
your home with the Lord Jesus. Come hell or high water. It doesn't
matter what you're going through. Abide with Him. That's His call
to you. That's His call to me. Abide
in Him. He'll abide in you. If you abide
in Him and His word abide in you, you will bear much fruit
and you'll glorify God. Why? Because God will work in
you the will and the do of His good pleasure when you abide
in Him. Are y'all hearing me? Here it
is. Watch this. Abide with me and
do not what? Listen, only the angels talk
like that. Man, I can preach for another
hour now. So what I'm saying is that David has always been
under the anointing. He's always been under the anointing. I know it looks crazy, but you
think it looks crazy today. If today was tough for you, don't
come to church next week because it's going to get crazy next
week. Do you hear me? It's going to
get straight out. I'm talking crazy next week. And you ain't going to be able
to handle it. I can't see it. It can't be. Don't come. Don't come. Because we're going to see how
God works in situations when it's so bad, so bad that everybody
swears you done gone straight crazy. Do you hear me? No one is looking at you as a
rational, sane individual, but you are so connected to God,
so tied to God like two strands. No one can separate you from
God. But unless a person sees what's operating in your heart,
they will judge you as a nutcase when all you are doing is desperately
holding on to God. Listen to how it closes. He says,
if you abide with me, you don't have to fear. For the man that's
seeking my life is seeking your life. Do you see that? But with
me, you shall be saved. Is that a promise or what? Is
that a promise? But with me, you shall be saved. That is good. That is good. I'm done. I don't know about
y'all. I'm done. Mmm.