Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number one in your hardbacked hymnal.
Hymn number one, O Worship the King. And let's all stand together.
Number one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. O tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy space, his
chariot of wrath the deep thunder clouds form, and dark is his
path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. you ? Frail children of dust
and feeble as frail ? ? In thee do we trust nor find thee to
fail ? ? Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end ? ? Our maker,
defender, redeemer and friend ? Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in 1 Samuel
again this morning. If you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bibles, 1 Samuel chapter 23. So if you'll find your bulletin,
I want to point out an announcement on February the twenty fifth
which will be here in just a couple of weeks. We'll plan to have
lunch together after the service. Olivia and and Aaron Hansen,
our proud parents of baby girl Haley, who was born Wednesday. So we're thankful for that. And Mark Chilko has been out
for two or three weeks and and I just heard this morning that
he has double pneumonia. Is that right? So let's pray
for Mark this morning. And our daughter, Jennifer, had
her third treatment this week, and she's home recovering from
that. So, appreciate y'all's prayers. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, our Maker, our Redeemer, our
Defender, and our Friend, Lord, we thank you for the the blessing of being able to
come into thy holy presence and have acceptance in the person
of thy dear son. We thank you that we have, we
have a sin bearer. We have an advocate. We have
one who has completely satisfied all of your demands for our righteousness
and for our justification. Lord, we can plead his name and
know that he has pled our cause. Lord, we pray that you would
be pleased this morning to bless your word to our hearts and to
reveal more of Christ to us. We pray, Lord, that you would
deliver us from our enemies and enable us, Lord, to to enter
into a spirit of worship this morning. Lord, we thank you for
the miracle of life and for little Haley and pray your hand to be
upon her in strength and guidance and in salvation. Lord, we pray
for Mark and ask Lord that you would be pleased to strengthen
him and give him a recovery that he might be able to return and
worship with us. We thank you for the treatments
that you've provided for Jennifer and ask for your hand of strength
and healing to be upon her. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, you have your Bibles
open to 1 Samuel chapter 23. I've titled this message, robbing the threshing
floor, robbing the threshing floor. And the story is given
to us of David hearing that the Philistines had invaded one of
the cities of Judah. And in their invasion, they were
robbing the people of Keilah of their bread. And David goes and delivers them
from that enemy and saves that city. And the picture here is
our experience that we have enemies that would rob us of our bread.
the Lord Jesus Christ himself being our bread. He is the bread
of life. He's the bread that came down
from heaven. And not only is he our bread,
but he's our defender. He must defeat our enemies lest
we have our threshing floor robbed and we be left hungry and without
food for our souls. We begin reading in verse 1.
Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight
against Keilah. and they rob the threshing floor. Therefore, David inquired of
the Lord saying, shall I go and smite these Philistines? And
the Lord said unto David, go and smite the Philistines and
save Keilah. So the Lord gives a clear answer
to David that he is the hope of this city's salvation. And David's men said unto him,
Behold, we be afraid here in Judah. David's band of men were
being pursued by Saul, a great army. And they were hiding out. And they respond to David by
saying, we're already afraid. How are we going to do this?
And so David goes to the Lord again. How much more then if
we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? Then
David inquired of the Lord yet again. And the Lord answered
him and said, arise, go down to Keilah, and I will deliver
the Philistines into thine hand. So David and his men went to
Keilah. and fought with the Philistines
and brought away their cattle and smote them of the great slaughter.
So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. Now Keilah translated
means fortress. It is a picture of the church,
God's people. It is a walled city, the scriptures
are clear on that, with gates, as is the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, walled by God's protection and by his grace,
and gated with none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the gate into the city of God. But this city is in need of being
defended. Because we are a part of the
church doesn't mean that we are without opposition, without enemies,
without those that would rob us of our bread. Some of those
enemies are from without, and some of them are from within. And you and I are in need of the son of David, who David
of course represents, coming to our defense and defeating
our enemy. I want you to notice in verses
10 and 13 of this chapter, because not only was Keilah being attacked
by the Philistines and their bread being stolen from them,
but At the same time, David was being pursued by Saul. And in
verse 10, David said, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath
certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy
the city for my sake. So here's David's enemy from
without. This is a picture of our spiritual
enemy who would destroy the church because of his hatred for Christ. Now, the only reason that the
forces of evil would have any interest in a church would be
because the Lord Jesus Christ was there. He's not interested in attacking
other cities because the Lord's not there. He already owns of
that city. But his hatred for the Lord Jesus,
which he would exercise by many means, whatever means are possible,
whether it be bringing in damnable heresies, he would do it. And there's reason why we must
always be on guard for the truth because Saul is out there and
will destroy Keilah because David's in the city. Or whether he would undermine the city by bringing discord
and division and schisms among its members. He has been very
successful in doing that because David's in the city. Or whether
he would destroy the city simply by the daily distractions of
those things that would keep us from looking to Christ. Good things, but things that
would hinder us from seeing the Lord Jesus as the one thing that
is needful. Someone might be thinking, well
what about persecution? Persecution has never been a
means by which Keilah has been destroyed. Persecution only strengthens
the church. Persecution purifies the church. Every attempt that Satan has
made to bring persecution against the children of God has only
strengthened their faith and their dependence upon Christ.
And so, this is the enemy from without. that our David must
protect us from. He is beyond our ability to protect
ourselves from. Notice in verse 13 of this same
chapter, then David and his men, which were about 600, arose and
departed out of Keilah and went with her so they could go. And
it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah and Saul
forbear to go forth into Keilah. There was no need to destroy
Keilah, David's not there. You see, it is the hatred that
Satan has for the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul was filled with
jealousy, fear. He was afraid of losing his position
of power by David. He was jealous of the love that the people had for
David. And so in order to protect and
preserve himself, his only option would be to try to destroy David. That has not changed. That has
not changed. But what also has not changed
is that the very one that Satan would destroy is the one who
defends his people successfully. Robbing the threshing floor. The threshing floor, of course,
is where the Wheat is separated from the chaff. It is generally
an elevated place where the breezes would blow just in the right
way so that when the grain was gently crushed and tossed up
into the air, the wind would blow away the chaff and allow
the grain to fall to the ground. The grain would be gathered into
the barn and the chaff would be burned with a fire. And this
is what happens when God's people meet together. This is God's
threshing floor in Keilah where the gospel is being preached
and the Lord is separating, separating the wheat from the chaff as the
wind of his spirit blows just in the right direction and just
in the right way. You know, we're reminded of what
the Lord told Nicodemus when he said, the wind listeth whithersoever
it wills. You don't know where it's coming
from or where it's going. He was likening that to the spirit
of God and how we pray every time we come together that this
threshing floor would be a place where the Lord would gather to
himself the wheat into his barn. The threshing floor is the place
where you remember in the book of Ruth, where Ruth went and
uncovered the feet of Boaz. And Boaz discovered Ruth at the
threshing floor. And Boaz told Ruth that he was
going to be her kinsman redeemer. And so it is that our kinsmen
redeem the Lord Jesus as his feet are being uncovered and
that's really what the preaching of the gospel is. John the Baptist
said that he was not worthy to unlatch the sandals from the
feet of the Lord Jesus, his feet are as fine brass brazing in
a furnace. Speaking of the the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus. And when we preach, what are
we doing? We're uncovering the feet of Christ. And even as we
uncover his feet, we cover our own feet. Our feet are made of
clay. We are creatures in his sight.
Our feet are our connection to this world and how dependent
we are. that he would cover us with his
skirt and be for us what Boaz was for Ruth at the threshing
floor. You remember when Uzzah reached
up and put his hand on the ark, which is a picture of the defilement
that takes place when men put the works of their hands to the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is pictured
by that ark and he is the fullness of our salvation and any attempt
that man makes to put his hand on the ark will result in exactly
the same thing that happened to Uzzah. God will slay him for
having thought that he could add to the finished work of Christ. That, if you go back to that
story in 2 Samuel chapter 6, that happened at a threshing
floor. It happened at a threshing floor.
What a picture. The gospel is preached and the
weed is cast into the air and the wind of the Spirit blows
and some hear the gospel but they conclude that They've got
to do something to help God out to save them and they put their
hand to the ark. It happens at a threshing floor.
The separation of the wheat from the chaff all takes place at
a threshing floor. And now the Philistines have
come to this threshing floor and they are robbing the people
of Keilah of their wheat. Now Saul's not the only enemy
that we have. The enemy from without, that
spiritual power that is too great for us to resist and for whom
we need the protection of our David to defend us lest we be
left without bread. He's not our only enemy. Who
is the enemy that's mentioned here in our text? Well, the scripture
says it's the Philistines. The Philistines, who do they
represent? Well, the word Philistine comes
from a root word that means to prepare a corpse for burial. To prepare a corpse for burial. Now we see what that's a picture
of. Paul said in Romans chapter 7,
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. He said, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I have a corpse that's prepared for burial, that's attached to
my back and I'm carrying him around everywhere I go. The Philistines
are a picture of the enemy that's within. Yes, there's an enemy
without. But brethren, you and I have
an enemy within. And you know, we sing that hymn, I need thee every hour. And is there an hour in our week
that we need our David, the Lord Jesus, to enable us more than
the hour in which we come together at the threshing floor in Keilah? Is there an hour that you need
him more than this hour? I would say no. No. And you've had enough experience
in your own life to know how easily distracted and how quick
you can forget the things that you've... Why? Because this is
a spiritual exercise that we're doing right now. This is a... We're needy people, we've got
to have a work of grace done in our heart right now. You know
I'm thinking about the parable of the soils that the Lord gave
when he talked about the man who's scattering the seed and
he interprets the parable when he says this is the preaching
of the gospel, the seed is the word of God. and how some seed
falls on the hard wayside and the birds of the air come and
snatch it away. And some seed falls on thorny
soil and the cares of this world choke it out so that it's not
fruitful. And some seed falls on rocky
soil so that there's no depth to its roots and the sun comes
up and it dries up the soil and the seed becomes unfruitful.
And then there's the There's the prepared ground, there's
the good ground, there's the toiled ground that the Lord has
made ready, that is ready for the seed. And only in that place
does the seed grow and become fruitful. How many times have you had the
birds of the air come and snatch away the seed from you? You see,
this isn't just a picture of the unbeliever and the believer,
how the unbeliever can't hear the gospel, how the unbeliever
might have no interest in the things of God. There's wayside
soil in your heart and in my heart. There's thorny soil in
your heart and in my heart. The cares of this world would
choke out the bread, the fruit so that we become unfruitful
in the things that we hear. There's shallow soil in your
heart and in my heart so that you might get excited about something
that you hear for a moment and then before you know it, it's
really there was no depth to it and it was unfruitful. Is this not Is this not the corpse
that we've each brought in here with us? Let me show you another picture,
another... Turn with me to the book of Titus. 1st 2nd Timothy, Titus chapter
1. Look at verse 10. Oh, by the
way, the Philistines came from Crete. They came from Crete. That's
how they got to the Western coast of Palestine. And they were a
constant a constant trouble for the children of Israel. Every time the children of Israel
turned around, they were battling the Philistines, especially in
this particular time of their history. Philistines are always
there. For there are many unruly, verse
10, and vain talkers and deceivers. especially they of the circumcision.
They of the circumcision were those Judaizers that were trying
to point the people back to the law. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth is
the Messiah and you must have him in order to be saved, but
he by himself is not sufficient. You also have to show a certain
level of obedience to the law. and those that were of the circumcision
were saying, you've got to do your part. You ever have a Philistine
in your heart, a deceiver, a talker, an unruly man who says to you,
you need to find your comfort and your hope in the evidence
of your salvation, in how you live and what you do and what
you don't do. Verse 11, whose mouths must be
stopped. What is it that stops the mouth
of man? The scripture tells us in the
book of Romans, it's the law. It's the law that shuts man's
mouth and makes man guilty before God. So the very law that we
are tempted by the Philistine from within to go and find for
the hope of our comfort when we go there, we find that the
demands of that law have done nothing but stop our mouths.
That Philistine can't talk to us anymore. When David comes
and defends us against the Philistines, he shuts the mouth of that lawmonger. that would have you to find the
hope of your salvation anywhere outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the hour that we need
him most. Who subvert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake, for advantage,
for advantage. In another place, the Lord said
they thought that gain was godliness. They thought that gain was godliness. What does the Philistine from
within do? What does this talker do, this
one who would take us back to the law? He would suggest that
any improvement in our circumstances is the evidence of God's blessing. How many times you've thought
that? How many times you've heard men say that? Oh, you get a blessing
from God and that's the evidence that God's for you because you've
presumed that gain means godliness. You've had some sort of gain
in your circumstances and so you assume, but here's the rest
of that verse. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. What is the evidence of godliness?
What is the evidence of God's blessings and God's approval?
Not the gain of our circumstances. The evidence of God's blessing
is that we are content with Christ, content with Him. And when we
come together, that's our hope, that the Lord would just silence
the voice of the Philistine and make us content. with the Lord
Jesus. That's the evidence of God's
blessings because the natural man, the Philistine, the man
of the flesh is never content with Christ. It's a work of grace
in the heart. It's a work that only David can
perform when he comes to Keilah at the threshing floor and destroys
the enemy, the Philistine. Look at verse 12. I told you
the Philistines were from Crete. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own. Now, by the way, look with me,
I meant to show you this in verse five. Paul is writing to Titus
and he's saying to Titus, for this cause left I thee in Crete,
that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting
and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. So Titus
is in Crete. Paul has been there already,
churches have been planted, there are numerous churches on the
island, and Paul has left Titus there to set things in order
and to appoint elders in the churches in Crete. And now Paul,
in writing to Titus, reminds him of the nature of the Cretans. Look what he says in verse 12. One of themselves, speaking of
a A Cretan prophet, a Cretan poet, even a prophet of their
own said the Cretans are always liars, evil beast and slow bellies
and this witness is true. Now that's where the Philistines
were from. Liars, the belly is a picture
of the flesh in the Bible. slow bellies, always wanting
to just feed the flesh. He's not talking about what you
eat physically, he's talking about just the Philistine that
is within, the enemy that would rob the threshing floor and keep
us from feasting on the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He must be defeated and he's too strong for us. We can't defeat
him. Paul again in Romans chapter
seven says, to will is present with me, but how to perform that
which is good, I find not. This evil man is always there. This Philistine, this Cretan
who lies to me and he's only concerned with his belly and
he's an evil beast. He's an evil beast. He must be
defeated. If I'm to be able to feed on
Christ, the Lord Jesus is gonna have to do it all. He's gonna
have to give me the ability to feed on him and then he's gonna
have to give me himself to feed on. He's gonna have to do it
all. Is there an hour in your life or in my life where
we have a greater need for our David to come to the threshing
floor and bless us and defeat those who would rob us of our
bread than this very hour when we gather together to worship. The Spirit is willing Those disciples in the Garden
of Gethsemane, the Lord went, prayed, sweat drops of blood,
agonizing over what was about to take place as he drank of
the cup of sin and the dregs of God's wrath and was forsaken
of his Father. And he came back to the disciples,
found them asleep, and he said, Spirit's willing, I know you're
willing, but the flesh is weak. The Philistine within you, that
cretin, he would rob your threshing floor. And oh how we need David to come
and defeat that enemy, to save us from ourselves. David said in Psalm 119 verse
61, the bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten
my law. Lord, I have an enemy without,
I have an enemy within that would rob me of my bread, but by your
grace, you keep me. And it was God that sent these.
Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah 42. Brethren, if we're gonna be able
to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus and find
the hope of our salvation in Him, He's going to have to do
it for us. How many times we've walked into
this place, we've sat, we've listened, and we've forgotten. I've had people ask me on Monday
what I preached yesterday and couldn't remember. And I spent hours preparing these
messages. And I had to go back thinking,
now what? Hmm. Flesh is weak, isn't it? Look at Isaiah chapter 42 at
verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. Now that's another way of saying,
this is my beloved son. In him, I am well pleased. The Lord Jesus is all of our
righteousness before God. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. He's the only one that kept God's
law. You and I have never been able to keep one of God's laws
one time. The Lord Jesus, he's the only one that made it honorable.
He kept it perfectly, not just in outward action, but in his
heart, in his motive. But This is a people robbed and
spoiled. He's talking about you and me. They are all of them snared in
holes and they are hid in prison houses. They are for a prey and
none delivereth for a spoil and none sayeth restore. They don't
have anybody to help them. They can't help themselves. They
look to the right hand and there's no man there. They look to the
left hand and there's no man there. They're robbed and they're
spoiled. Who among you will give ear to
this? Does this describe you? Are you an inhabitant of Keilah? The Philistines robbing the threshing
floor? The enemy of Saul pursuing after
David and willing to destroy the whole city for David's sake?
Who will hearken and hear for the time has come? Who gave Jacob
for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Who did this? Did not
the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not
walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. This
is the result of sin. This is the consequence of our
sin. The Lord gave us over to the
robbers. The Lord spoiled our threshing
floor. Why would he do that? Therefore, he hath poured upon
them the fury of his anger and the strength of battle, and it
has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not, and it burned
him, yet he laid it not to heart." Oh, how many times we're just
dull and numb and insensitive to the real consequences of our
sin. What is the real consequence
of our sin? our inability to feast on the bread of life. Chapter 43, verse one. But now,
here's our hope. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name, and thou art mine. There's your only hope. There's
your only hope. You belong to me. If I left you
to yourself, the Philistines and the Saul's of your life would
completely destroy you, would kill you, would deafen you, would
blind you. You would not be able to eat
even a crumb from the master's table if I left you to yourself. But here's your hope, I have
redeemed thee. Not I will redeem you if you
do your part, I have redeemed you. You know, later on in this
same chapter, David hears that Saul's coming to Keilah. And
David brings in the priest and inquires of the Lord if he should
leave, if Saul in fact is coming to Keilah and the Lord said,
yes, he's coming. And so David asked the Lord a
second question. He said, will the people of Keilah
give me up? And the priest went before the
Lord and came back with the answer and said, yes, they will. Yes, they will. David had already
rescued them. He had already redeemed them.
And yet the Lord said, the people of Keilah will give you up to
Saul. The Lord Jesus Christ had already
redeemed us. He redeemed us in the covenant
of grace before time ever began. He redeemed us on Calvary's cross
when he shed his precious blood. Who was it that gave him up?
It was the inhabitants of Keilah. The scripture says when the spirit
of grace comes to Keilah, to the people of God, they will
mourn after him whom they have pierced. It was us that gave the Lord
Jesus Christ up on Calvary's cross. It was our sin. It was we that were there that
said, crucify him, crucify him. The Lord sent these robbers,
he reveals to us our sin in order that his strength might
be made perfect in our weakness. In order to cause us to see,
Lord, you're gonna have to come deliver me from these Philistines.
You're gonna have to You're gonna have to defeat Saul lest he come
and destroy this whole city. Lord, I'm completely dependent
upon you to speak to me and to feed me and to save me. Lord,
if you don't save me, I won't be saved. God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Lord, you're gonna have to give
me your spirit if I'm gonna be able to worship you. We don't
say to our unbelieving friends, come worship with us. We would
never put out a sign, come here and worship. They can't worship.
Come, hear a man who told me everything I ever did. Come hear
the gospel, but worship is something that only believers can do and
they have such a difficult time doing it. Why? Because of the enemies that would
rob us of our bread at the threshing floor. And because of our spiritual
slumber and seeking the Lord to help us, I need thee every hour. And there's not an hour, I know
for me, there's not an hour I need the Lord more than this hour.
And I believe the same thing's true for you. In all the trials
and troubles that we go through every week, day by day, in which
we cry out to him to help us, is there ever a time when we
need him to help us more than when we come to the threshing
floor? That we be not robbed of our bread. All right, let's
take a break.