Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the chapter that we read,
1 Samuel chapter 30, and reading for our text, verse six, but
it is the latter part of that verse, the end part of it, that
David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. The whole verse
reads, 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. The subject this morning is encouraging. Encouraging others and encouraging
ourselves. 1 Samuel 30 and verse 6, the
last part. Encouragement or to encourage
means to give support. It is to give confidence and
hope. It is to help, help one to proceed. And how needful in this discouraging
world encouragement is. In the midst of sin, in the midst
of all the working of evil in the world, of all the sin outside
and sin inside us, how needful we do need encouragement. But
also, as we are sinners and as this is a sinful world, how careful
we need to be that that encouragement is in a right way. Our deceitful
hearts would encourage us in anything but the ways of the
Lord. And being the people of the Lord,
how careful we must be not to encourage those who know not
the Lord to continue in that path. but to turn unto the Lord,
be brought to repentance, and encourage them in that which
is good. In the Word of God, we have illustrations
of those and words against those that encourage in a wrong way. In Psalm 64, we read of the encouragement Concerning the wicked, they encourage
themselves in an evil matter. They commune of lying snares,
privily they say, who shall see them. And we see the wicked,
they encourage themselves in that way. But then even the people
of God, what they did, the ancient People of God, Israel, in Isaiah
41, they encouraged themselves in making idols. They helped
everyone his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, Be of good
courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote
the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering, And he fastened
it with nails that it should not be moved. And then we read,
but thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen. There's
a difference between those idolaters and the encouragement that they
would offer themselves and encourage themselves in and those that
are the people of God. Moses encouraged Joshua. He was commanded by God to encourage
him in that continuance of the work that he was to do. In Deuteronomy,
where Moses rehearses the acts of the Lord and those things
that had been done by the Lord for them. We read of those commandments
given and encouragements given to, for Moses to encourage Joshua
and to strengthen him and to help him. And in fact, one of
the most wonderful examples of encouragement is that which the
Lord himself gave to Joshua in the very First chapter, first
verses in the book of Joshua. I'm going to read those first
verses because we see the Lord himself encouraging Joshua. We read, now after the death
of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the
Lord spoke unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister saying,
Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise, go over this
Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I do give
to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the
sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto
you, as I said unto Moses. from the wilderness and this
Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all
the land of the Hittites, unto the great sea, toward thee going
down of the sun shall be your coast. There shall not any man
be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As
I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee
nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage,
for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the
land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be
thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee,
to not from the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest
prosper with us wherever thou goest. And the Word, this Book
of the Law, shall not depart out of thy mouth, for thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all that is written therein. For then shalt thou
make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success. Have not I commanded thee, Be
strong and of a good courage, Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou
goest. Now, the Lord himself is giving
to Joshua that encouragement, and it is in himself. It's in
his word, in his law, in his commandments, in his promises,
in all that the Lord has done. The Lord is not strengthening
Joshua in himself, he's not lifting him up and saying what a wonderful
man he is, he's surely strong and able and he's got wonderful
qualities at all, but the whole strength and encouragement is
in the Lord is God and what the Lord will do through Joshua. So we have the subject before
us, encouragement. David encouraged himself, but
it was not in himself, but in the Lord, his God. So I want to confine our thoughts
to three things this morning. Firstly, when encouragement is
needed, and we have the whole context here, that David is in. And then secondly, who we encourage. We read in our text that David
encouraged himself, but it does bring the question, who do we
encourage? And then thirdly, who we are
to encourage in. David encouraged himself in the
Lord. is God. But when encouragement
is needed, really we may say that encouragement is
needed when there is discouragement. Often it is the complete counter
to what is round about us. And may we Remember just this
thought that if we need encouragement, if others need encouragement,
it is because there are things that are very discouraging. So when we're thinking, all around
us is giving away, we're seeing everything that is dark and black,
The Lord's hand seems to be against us and providence against us,
maybe with afflictions, illnesses, things in us, in our families,
the things that are happening. When those things so drag us
down and make us despondent and low, made me think that these
are the very situations that we need encouragement. Why encouragement
is there at all? Why we even speak about it? If everything was going well,
if everything was going smoothly, there's no opposition, no adversaries,
no trials, no troubles, nothing to cast us down. Would we need,
would we value encouragement? And yet, encouragement is set
before us in the Word, and especially here, and in the circumstance
in which David found himself, in which everything seemed to
be against him. Providence? No, he must have
really thought, and then the men that were with him. Why had
David gone to the Philistines? Why had he? And we can't condone
what he had done. And sometimes it is that part of
our discouragement is decisions that we've made, a course of
action that we've taken. And like David, as the leader
of his men, it had a profound effect on others. It's a hard
thing when a husband makes a decision, when a pastor makes a decision,
when a leader of people makes a decision. And not only does
it hurt them, it hurts their wife, their loved ones, their
children, their church, their congregation, their peoples.
And especially here with David, They were blaming him, they were
speaking of stoning him. In a way he hadn't got a friend
around him at all. What a need there was for encouragement
at that time. How much there was to discourage. Now we know, of course, in encouragements
from A small age, a child needs those encouragements. When they're
learning to read, we seek to encourage them. If they're doing
well, if they're learning well, encouragement so strengthens
them and helps them to continue when they think, well, they're
reading so poor. And yet you can see that they
are progressing, they are learning. You pointed out to them, when
they're doing their sums, their maths, and the various things,
sometimes even naturally speaking, there can be others see what
is encouraging in a person that they cannot see. And there's
a place in that way to encourage each other in the gifts and helps
that the Lord is giving. But in this context, in the wider
context, and especially where we find the situation, the discouragements
are coming from decisions and things we have done, that there
is not a a reason, as it were, to praise up man, and where we
need some encouragement, an encouragement that is much, much higher than
what man could give, or what is in anything that we have done
or said, because it is through that that the discouragement
is. It referred to Isaiah before
the Church of God, the people of God. I've laboured in vain. I've spent my strength for naught. And the Church feels that she's
been forsaken of the Lord her God. And the Lord said, can I
forsake thee? Can a woman forget her sucking
child? Yeah, they may forget, but I
will not. forget Thee, I've graven Thee
upon the palms of my hands." And the church is complaining
and feeling her state and how that she is forgotten, but the
Lord seeks to encourage and strengthen her. The Lord knows when His
people need encouragement. It's a lesser thing when we come
to the Word of God, and we come to the house of God, and we may
come, and you may come this morning, so down, so discouraged, so heavy-hearted,
you can't see anything bright, anything that will enable you
to go on. Seems to be just a dead stop,
as it were. You can't see past that at all. You need encouragement. This
is what is set before us here in this account. And may we be in a situation
where we need good encouragement. It's a solemn thing where there
may be those walking in a contrary, a wrong, path. And they say we
need encouragement. And then they find those that
are able to encourage them, but it's not in a good path. There's
sometimes that when we have and we may express to others what
our intention is and our path is, We don't need encouragement. We need to be discouraged in
it, to be stopped in it, to be hindered in it, not to proceed
in that. And so when we think of when
encouragement is needed, we do need to think of the situation
that we are in. And I believe when we have our
text, David encouraged himself, and the Lord is God, David was
one, I hope we are too, that are seeking to walk in the ways
of the Lord, and seeking to walk according to the truth in light
and not in darkness. And so, our Lord said those that
would not come unto Him, they would not because their ways
there were evil, and therefore they did not come to the light. Well, if our desire is to come
to the light of the Word of God, then it is doubtful that there
will be the situation arising that we want to be encouraged
in something that is contrary to the Word of God. I want to look then, secondly,
who we encouraged. David was saying encourage himself,
but I'm not going to begin with that. I'm going to think of others
first. Who encourage others? We may encourage others by our
example. We think of especially if we
are a parent, if we're a pastor, if we're those who've made a
profession of the Word of God, If we are in some position, what
we do is an example to others. The Apostle Paul said, be ye
followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. We read of a time when the Apostle
Paul, he reprimanded Peter because when the Jews were not around,
He sat and he ate with the Gentiles. But when the Jews came near,
then Peter separated himself and sat separate. But Paul had
been teaching the gospel that you and Gentiles in the Lord
Jesus Christ are brought together, reconciled. Our Lord had said,
other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I
must bring, there shall be one fold and one shepherd. But Peter was not walking according
to the truth of the gospel. And Paul says, many others of
the brethren, they likewise dissembled following Peter. And we do have
to be very, very careful. example we give, we might walk
through this world, we walk before our families and those around
about us, and little think that actually what we are doing, we
maybe don't even know who we are actually encouraging, just
by what we are doing, and not even looking at us. We need to really think on that. We think also not only by example,
but by word, what we speak. We think with the preaching of
the word, it's the public proclamation of the gospel. And how are we
speaking? What are we encouraging? if there's
a funeral service, and we preach of that service, and the person
whose mortal remains has been buried has shown no signs of
repentance, no sign of being a child of God whatsoever, and
we give the impression that they are saved, it is well with them,
they're going to heaven, And those in the congregation that
are content to just come and go and not be concerned of their
souls and not repent, they look at the life of that one and say,
well, they're saved in the life that they live and their life
was the same as ours, so we'll be all right. And that minister's
words has been a means of encouraging his people in deadness in a lack
of repentance, a lack of a concern for their own souls. And it's
something that you need to be very careful of when we speak
publicly. I do know, of course, that there
are those who have taken a minister's words, taking them out of context
or applying them to their own exercise, which is not a spiritual
exercise, and even said to a minister, that what he has preached has
been a real encouragement to them. And I know one instance
where that minister had turned round to that person and say,
it was not at all. Your path is a way of wickedness
and sin. And the word you've misapplied
is not an encouragement to you at all. And so we do need to
be careful speaking, but we need to be careful hearing as well
if we are to be truly and properly encouraged. So it is others,
others by example, by words, and sometimes it is specifically,
personally, and other times it is in a general way. Then there are the Lord's people,
of course amongst those that I'm encouraged by example and
word as well. It's a good thing to be an encourager
of the brethren. There's so much to encourage
in the churches and with the people of God. People of God
have an adversary constantly. They have their own wicked heart.
They have the tribulation the Lord has said, in the world you
shall have tribulation. and you must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom. And it is a better thing where
the people of God have those amongst them that are encouragers. Then there is the wicked, who
we encourage. Do we encourage them? Not in
their sin, not in their wickedness, but encourage them to seek the
Lord. Encourage them to consider their
ways, their walk, their conduct, the end that awaits them. Death itself that awaits us each. To encourage, to read the word
of God. To encourage to seek the Lord
while he may be found. We know the wicked. They will
be known by rejecting such encouragement, returning away from it. But remember
every one of God's dear children, before the Lord called them,
was amongst the wicked, was amongst those that said, depart from
us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways, or just desire to
be a nominal Christian, an out-of-court worshipper, are never close to
the Lord, brought nigh by the blood of Christ. But then there is ourselves. You know, in a natural sense,
we would say it would be a bad thing to encourage ourselves. If we were to say, What a great
person I am. You know I'm really well skilled
and I'm eloquent and just looking at ourselves and encouraging
ourselves in that way. But when we think of a situation
where the discouragement is ourselves, is our own failings and weakness,
our mistakes, our sins, that we truly see ourselves in the
light of God's countenance. then to encourage ourselves. Here in our text, David is a
beautiful example. We might not have any others
like David to encourage us at all, and that be our sorrow and
our grief, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And so it is right, and may it
be held to. Some of you this morning, Maybe
without any to encourage you, been bemoaning that. Yet do you have a God? Or may you be able to look to
David's God and to encourage yourself in the Lord? We read
of what the Lord said to Joshua. The Lord was not puffing up and
strengthening Joshua. but he was assuring him of his
commission and of what the Lord would do for Joshua. So who we are to encourage, may
we think of it and think of what influence our lives, our words
have, and not think of encouragement just of others, but how we may
encourage ourselves, and may it be a help to any low or discouraged,
disheartened this morning. Well then, lastly then, who we
are to encourage in. You might say it could be how
we are to encourage. But in our text, it's very clear
that David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. It was in the Lord who he was,
what he was to him. David knew his God. And you know, even if we are
to encourage those who don't know the Lord, it is an encouragement
for them to look on to those who do know the Lord and are
able to testify of him. Paul in the ship when they were
tossed with the hurricane and all hope of being saved was taken
away. The Lord met with him, he blessed
him, he said to him that he would give to Paul all those that were
in that ship and that he must be brought to Caesar, but then
Paul spoke to those in the ship, many of those that would not
have known the Lord at all, the Roman soldiers, the other prisoners,
and he encouraged them all in what the Lord had said to him,
in what God was to him, and you know they were encouraged in
that, they took courage, they ate bread, They rested on his
words. It was like with Hezekiah when
Sennacherib came against them and he encouraged his people.
We read the people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah, the
king of Judah. And it is a blessed thing where
we know the Lord, and are able to encourage others and encourage
ourselves in the Lord. Do we know of His faithfulness? God is faithful. He will not
suffer you to be tempted above that which is able, but will,
with the temptation, make a way of escape that ye be able to
bear it. The old scriptures for His dear
people, they testify, and I trust we know if we know the Lord.
The Lord is a faithful God. Do we trust His providence? Sometimes
it is, like with David here, so dark, so lowering. Providence
unfolds the book and makes His counsels known. What I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. It is the Lord
that unfolds the way his counsels, his wisdom, his might. Kings,
who is he that saith that it cometh to pass when the Lord
commandeth it not? It is the Lord that says in Matthew
24, when you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, see that
ye be not troubled. All these must come to pass.
The Lord is in control over all these things. He is a God who
is powerful, mighty, able to do exceeding far above all that
we can ask or think. He can still the power of the
fire, meet with the Hebrew children in Nebuchadnezzar's fire, send
his angel into Daniel's prison and shut their mouths, speak
unto the whale and cause it Jonah be vomited up onto dry ground. The Lord is able to do all of
these things, to order the providence in the book of Esther, so that
in the split-second timing of all that had happened there,
that Haman does not succeed in destroying the Jews, but the
Lord delivers them by the provision of Esther for such a time as
this. Do we know our God? as the goodness
of God. God is good to all. His tender
mercies are over all of his works. He openeth his hand. He satisfies
the desire of every living thing. Do we know the wisdom of the
Lord? How great is his wisdom? The
Lord said that the Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and yet a greater than Solomon
is here. Do we know a wise God? A God who is a God that finishes
His work. When He has determined a thing,
He begins it, He finishes it. And to hear the words of our
Lord from the cross, it is finished. The work of redemption, that
which David looked towards, David had faith and trust in his greatest
son, spoke of him in Psalm 22, 69 and many other places. David knew his God, he could
encourage himself in that God like he did before this time,
when Goliath arose against Israel. He said, that God that delivered
me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he shall
deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And he applied
the two things. You know, naturally we might
say, well, Goliath is very different than a bear and a lion. Yeah, that is so. But God is
the same. And David saw that. His delivering
was the same. And he could apply the two. You
might be in a trial, you say, it's very different than I had
a few weeks ago, a few years ago. But the Lord delivered you
before. And though this trial is different,
He is the same. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
and today, and forever. Have we forgotten His mercy,
that beautiful Psalm 136, for His mercy endureth forever. Every
little minute thing. Not just that He formed the heavens,
but formed the sun, His mercy endureth forever. And the moon,
His mercy endureth forever. Brought the children out of Israel,
not just that, but by a high hand. Sometimes we lump everything
together, we can't see many mercies. But you split everything up and
you sit down and you think in one thing that you think is one
mercy, you divide it up and see how many mercies are in that
same thing. You sit down to eat your meal
and you think what a mercy it is. I have a home to eat it in. I have a table to sit it on. I have an appetite. I have had
the means to buy this food. I have the electricity to be
able to cook it. Sometimes we're reminded we've
got the food, but the power's all gone up. We couldn't cook
it. And then we've got the ability.
We haven't got a toothache or something that we cannot chew
or eat that food. And we could just do one simple
thing like that. be able to trace those mercies. You know, when we hear of the
trials at the docks, or when we have the problems with the
delivery drivers, and then there's no food on the shelves, suddenly
things that we just took for granted, then we see, or should
see, as being mercies. And we have to remember that
our God is a merciful God, and mercy is not deserved. When we
see all things against us, we say, that's because of our foolish
ways and our sin and our shame. And yet we remember the mercy
of the Lord. We think of his word. David encouraged
himself in the Lord, his God, in the word of God. That is what
God said before Joshua, the statutes, the ordinances, The laws, the
ways of the Lord. Times of trouble and affliction
are not times to cast away the Word of God. Satan would say
it is. He'd say, look, if God is the
one that deals with you like this, then just cast it away. You know, even Israel, they said,
while we followed the Queen of Heaven and gave sacrifices to
these idols, everything went well. Now that we've turned to
the Lord, everything goes wrong. But they were told the Lord chastened
them for their ways and really tested whether they really did
repent. When David had sinned in the
matter of Uriah and Bathsheba, he said, I have sinned. David might have thought, if
I say that, then the Lord won't chastise me. But the Lord said,
no, you brought great reproach upon Israel. The sword shall
not depart from thine house. But when David started to have
the tribulation, the sword, he didn't say, oh, what an unfair
God. There aren't. I repented. I said, sorry, and I don't deserve
all this. I'm not going to follow you anymore. The Lord will test whether the
repentance of his people is real. Very often, in a natural sense,
repentance or sorrow will only be because of the trouble it
brings us and the thought that if I say sorry, then there'll
be no consequences, no chasing, nothing will follow. Well, I've
proved it the other way, and it proves the reality of repentance
When the rod comes, we know we deserve it, but we know there's
mercy mixed with it. The rod is steeped, he only lays,
yet softened in his blood. The Lord chastens the children
that he has loved and will save. Well, we think of the encouragements
that are in the word of God. When Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he says this word to them, finally my brethren be strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might. The encouragement also
in the prophecy of Habakkuk and we read there in the third chapter
that although the fig trees shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit
be in the vines, The labour of the olive shall fail, And the
fields shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from
the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls. How discouraging
that is! Then we read, Yet I will rejoice
in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and he will make my feet like hind's feet, and he will make
me to walk upon mine high places." That's encouragement. Encouragement
from the Lord. We think of the apostle writing
to the Romans, Romans 8, that well-known chapter in the verse
28, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Then in verse 31, what shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? When Paul writes to the Hebrews,
he says, let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content
with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the
Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. Or when Paul writes to the Corinthians,
he writes his second epistle to them, and he says to them
in the first chapter of that, Epistle, verse 9, we have the
sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so
great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us. This psalms also have many beautiful
encouragements in the Lord our God. Psalm 56, which is one of
the Psalms of David, we have in verse 11, In God have I put
my trust, I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. and Jeremiah the prophet, and
I think if ever there was a prophet that had so much discouragement
in his ministry, in his whole situation, as he saw Babylon
come, a people that would not turn, would not hear the words
of the Lord at all. And yet he says this, O Lord,
my strength and my fortress and my refuge in the day of affliction. The Gentiles shall come unto
thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers
have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no
prophet. But then he sets forth the name
of the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will this
once cause them to know, or cause them to know my hand and my might,
and they shall know that my name is the Lord. So it is a blessed
thing where we join with David and are able to encourage ourselves
and encourage others in the Lord our God. And may we be enabled
to say and join with David in this, that he is our God, that
these things are things we've known personally and experienced
and we are not to cast away but his mercies in time past forbids
us to think that in trouble he'll leave us and cause us to sink. No, we are like David to encourage
ourselves in the Lord our God. May the Lord add his blessing
and encourage any of you at this time who are discouraged and
low