Let's open our Bibles together
to Exodus chapter 14. We'll begin in the last verse
of chapter 14 of Exodus. Scripture says that the Lord
made a difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
And having delivered them, he destroyed the enemy of Israel. And of course, we understand
this event as a picture of what the Lord Jesus did in making
a difference between his elect and the reprobates of this world,
and how he destroyed death and got
the victory, brought his children safely out of Egypt, and reminded how
The scripture says that not a hoof was left behind. Every single
Israelite came out of Egypt. And so what the Lord has done
in saving his people was to accomplish the salvation of every one of
his elect. Verse 31 of chapter 14 and Israel
saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and
the people fear the Lord and believe the Lord and his servant
Moses. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song,
and he is become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him on habitation. My Father's God, and I will exalt
him The Lord is a man of war. He went to battle against death,
against Satan, against hell, against sin, and he got the victory
over it all. He's the man of war. The Lord
is the man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's
chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen
captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have
covered them. They sank into the bottom as
a stone. Their right hand, or thy right hand, O Lord, is become
glorious in power. How oftentimes you read in God's
word of the Lord Jesus Christ being God's right hand. And here
he's spoken of as having become glorious in power. God has made
him Lord over the living and in the dead. Thy right hand,
O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. All our sins have
been put away. That's our enemy. That's our
enemy. Judgment, justice, death, and
hell, he dashed it all to pieces. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
And with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed
in the heart of the sea. What hope the believer has in
looking to Christ for the victory over sin and over death and over
the judgment of hell. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we come into thy holy presence
bow before thee, you've told us to kiss the hand of thy son. Lord, we desire to do that. To kiss your hand and to enter
into worship. Lord, we ask you to send your
Holy Spirit in power to enable us to worship. Lord, we bring
so many distractions into this place with us. We're encouraged
to know that you remember that we're made of dust. Lord, forgive
us for our many sins. And for Christ's sake, we pray
that you would enable us to worship in the power of your spirit from
the heart and according to the truth of
your glorious gospel of salvation. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 168 from the hardback temple, 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me, even me. Even me, let thy blessing fall
on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to thee. I am longing for thy favor, whilst
thou art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
Speak the word of power to me. Even me, Even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me, even me. Please be seated. We're going
to have something special for Wednesday night. Kayla Pickman
is going to bring special music. This is number eight in the Spiral
Hymnal, if you'd like to follow along. Oh Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire to lift up from this earthly mire O may we think of heavenly
things, And know the joy Thy presence brings, Lord, let us
see the Saviour's face, and let us taste of Thy sweet grace. May open ears Thy glories hear,
and may we smell Thy fragrance near. be pleased to open heaven's
door. And on our heads thy blessing
pour, all wretched, poor, and needy we. Where can we go if O may this day be blessed the
most That Jesus Christ becomes the host To feed our souls with
living bread And with our souls in joy to wed Thank you, Kayla. That was very
special. We should do that more often
on Wednesday night. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 142. Psalm 142. Someone asked me yesterday, oh,
is that this weekend? Yes, it is. gather in the Fellowship Hall
on Friday around 6 to have a light meal and then have services in
here Friday night at 7, Saturday morning at 10, and Sunday morning
regular schedule with lunch afterwards on Sunday. So Donnie and Shirley
will be here, Lord willing, tomorrow afternoon around 2 o'clock. What a blessing it's been to
see Christ in the Psalms. And we cannot read Psalm 142
without being mindful of our Lord in the grave. Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 that the gospel is how that Christ died according
to the scripture, was buried and rose again according to the
scripture. In order to conquer death, in
order to conquer the grave, in order to conquer sin and hell,
he had to die and go into a cave, into a tomb. And then the father,
pleased with his accomplished work of salvation for his people,
rose him from the dead on the third day. We have in Psalm 142
a picture of Christ in the tomb. And it's referred back to David,
the cave of Adullam. Adullam translated means justice
for the people. And that's what the Lord Jesus
did. He satisfied divine justice. And that had to happen. in order
for God's elect to be declared righteous, justice had to be
satisfied. So the grave and the cross represents
the justice of God. And the cave of Adullam is mentioned
several times in the scriptures. We're going to look at one of
them in 1 Samuel chapter 22 tonight. But it's where David fled when
he was trying to escape the threatenings of Saul. Saul wanted to kill
David. And David hid out in the cave
of Adullam. And in 1 Samuel chapter 22, David's
mighty men, there were 400 in David's army, and they all heard
that he was in the cave of Adullam and they all came down and met
with David in the cave of Adullam. A picture of the church coming
to the place where the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied divine justice. I've titled this message Escaped
to a Cave, Escaped to a Cave. And sinners are in need of a
place of escape. Just as we saw Sunday before
last, I think it was, when we looked at the place where
believers find their safety, this cave is a place of escape. I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians
10, verse 13, where the Lord says to his people, he says,
there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to
all men. But our God is faithful. He's
faithful. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which are able. And don't understand that
to mean that God's not going to put more on me than I can
bear. Because if God doesn't put more on us than we can bear,
then we don't need the rest of that verse which says He will
provide a way of escape. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
way of escape. And when God puts our sin on
us, it's a greater burden than we can bear. We've got to have
a place of escape when the Lord shows us that we're, that we
have no righteousness and that we're sinful and that God is
holy and that justice must be satisfied. We've got to have
a hiding place. We've got to have a place of
escape. We've got to have a cave of a doodling where the justice
of God is satisfied. Now that's what, that's what
I want us to see tonight. We often forget that the little,
The little print at the beginning of the Psalms is actually part
of inspired scripture. Our Bible printers put it in
really tiny prints so that it almost seems insignificant, but
I want to focus in on that little print at the beginning of Psalm
142, where it says, Michelle of David, a prayer when he was
in the cave. This is the prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ from the grave, crying out to His Father to not
leave Him and allow Him to suffer corruption. The Father heard this prayer,
and the Father was satisfied with what the Lord Jesus accomplished
in fulfilling divine justice. And so the father answered this
prayer by raising him from the dead and he's called the firstborn
among many brethren. So it's the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ that gives those in the army of David that
have fled to meet him in the cave of Adullam, it's his resurrection
and the answer to his prayer that gives us the hope that as
the father raised him from the dead, So what he accomplished
was sufficient to satisfy God's justice for all of David's men,
for the whole church. So this is the prayer that the
Lord Jesus Christ is praying from the tomb, from the grave. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice. With my voice unto the Lord did
I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before
him. I showed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed
within me, when thou knewest my path, then thou knewest my
path, in the way wherein I walked had they privately laid a snare
for me. I looked on my right hand. And
behold, there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed
me. No man cared for my soul. Oh,
this is every sinner's cry. I looked to my right, there was
no man to help me. I looked to my left, there was
no man to help me. Lord, I'm in trouble. I need
justice satisfied. I cried unto the Lord, unto thee,
O Lord. I said, thou art my refuge and
my portion in the land of the living." You see, right now he's
not in the land of the living. He's in the land of death. He
suffered death and he suffered all the pains of hell and all
the judgment of God's wrath for his church. And now he's crying
out to his father. Attend unto my cry, verse six,
for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. Father, if you don't look upon
my trouble and if you don't see the successful work of redemption
that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for me, then my persecutors are
stronger than I. I can't defeat Satan. I can't
conquer my sin. I can't put it away. I can't
satisfy divine justice. Bring my soul out of prison. That I may praise thy name, the
righteous shall come pass me about. For thou shalt deal bountifully
with me. Oh, what a glorious prayer. What
hope we have. the Lord Jesus Christ crying
out to his father, believing that he would not suffer his
holy one to see corruption, that he would deliver him from the
prison of death, that he would receive him back into glory to
be seated at his right hand, and that all of his work would
be successful in satisfying justice and in saving God's people. Turn back with me now, if you
will, to 1 Samuel chapter 22. Escaped to a cave. This is where David wrote this
song. This is what he's experiencing
when he fled to the cave of Adullam. Look up that word, Adullam. It
means justice for the people. And that's what you and I need.
We need justice. There's an article in your bulletin
this Sunday that I was asking the question, why do the shamelessly
profane wear a cross? I mean, we see it among people. They wear these big medallions
and these big crosses. Why do they do that? Are they
mocking what they perceive to be the symbol of Christianity?
Is that what they're doing? Perhaps some of them are. But
I think the majority of them wear these crosses for the same
reason that religious people wear them. The cross to the world
is nothing more than a symbol of love and sacrifice, which
are virtues that are highly esteemed among men. Men look at the cross
and they think, oh, what love, what sacrifice, what a great
thing that is. But the offense of the cross,
that's why people wear them, because the cross isn't offensive. The offense of the cross has
to do with the justice that was satisfied. It has to do with
holiness. It has to do with sin. It has
to do with substitution and satisfaction. And that's what the world doesn't
see in the cross. All they see is love and sacrifice. Believers don't make an idol
out of their Lord's crowning glory and wear it around their
neck in order to appeal to the sentiments of men. They don't
do that. They don't do it. This is justice
being satisfied. This is God's holiness demanding
that the law be fulfilled and that sin be paid for in full. And so look what happens here.
Chapter 22, verse 1. typifying the son of David, the
Lord Jesus, therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave
of Adullam. This is where he wrote Psalm
142. Again, prophetically telling
us what justice was satisfied by the sacrifice that Christ
made, atoning for the sins of his people. And when his brethren,
and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to
him. And everyone that was in distress,
and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented,
gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over
them, and there was with him about 400 men. Now here's the
church. Here's the church. Everyone that
was in distress, everyone that was in debt, everyone that was
discontented came to where David was, in the cave of a dulem,
and they became his mighty army. I want to try to answer four
questions. What was David escaping from? What was he escaping from? What do you and I need to escape
from? Secondly, who exactly was it that escaped to this cave
of Adullam? This passage we just read tells
us who escaped. The third question is, what did
they do? What did they do when they got
there? And the fourth question is, What did they all have in
common? Here's the gospel. Here's the
gospel, brethren. What did they need to escape
from? Well, we've already been dealing with it. Justice. Saul
was out to kill David. David was a threat to Saul's
throne. Saul couldn't have it. And men
have raised their fist in rebellion against God. That's what we did
in our father, Adam. We fell into rebellion with our
father, Adam, when we sinned against God. And that's our problem. And so justice has to be satisfied. Hebrews chapter two, verse three
says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? What do we say from? We're saved
from the wrath to come. We're saved from the penalty
of sin. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. That's the judgment of God. And the wages of sin is death. So here we are escaping to the
cave of Adullam to meet our king and our commander, David, to
deliver us from the justice and the judgment of God. You know, the only reason that
Elijah We looked at this in the last week or two when Elijah
ran to Mount Horeb and tried to find a hiding place in the
law. And God asked Elijah, what are
you doing here, Elijah? The only reason Elijah survived
on Mount Horeb is because he was in a cave. And I've wondered
if maybe Elijah was in the same cave that God put Moses in. Moses was on the same mountain.
Moses, the scripture says, was put into a cleft of a rock, which
was a cave. And the only reason, the only
way you can survive the mountain of God's law is to be found in
Christ, is to be found in Christ and for his work of redemption
and his successful deliverance from death and hell and judgment
be fulfilled. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 25 says,
see that you refuse not him that speaketh. See that you refuse
not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused
him who spake on the earth. He's talking about the law of
God. Talking about the voice of Moses. And if those who refused the
word that God gave through a man did not escape, then he goes
on to say, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from
him that speaketh from heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
has spoken and he has declared his successful work. And so the
Lord's telling us they didn't escape and they failed to believe
the word of a man. Though that man was speaking
for God, how are we gonna escape if we fail to believe the voice
of God himself? So the Lord's telling us, oh,
you need to escape. Where are we gonna escape? The
cave of Adullam, where the justice of God is satisfied. Oh yes,
the cross is about God's love and it's about his sacrifice,
but it's about his justice and his holiness. In Genesis chapter
19, the Lord says to Lot, you remember before the fire of God's
wrath fell on Sodom, the Lord came into Sodom and told Lot,
he said, escape for thy life. So what he said, escape for thy
life. And where did Lot go? He fled
to a cave. Read it, it's right there in
Genesis 19. He escaped the destruction of Sodom. And the scripture's
clear. This world is already, I mean,
it's slated for destruction and it's gonna be destruction by
fire. God tells us that. But I don't wanna be any part
of that. And the Lord says to his lads,
escape for your life. Go to the cave of Adullam. You'll
find justice satisfied there. No fear, no fear of God's wrath
there. Christ Jesus the Lord himself
is the way of escape. So What was David escaping from? He was escaping from death. He
was escaping from justice. He was escaping for having threatened
the king and his authority. And that's exactly what we need
to escape. Now, go back with me to our text
in 1 Samuel 22. Who was it that escaped? Who was it that heard? Look at verse one, David therefore
departed thence. And that's what our Lord did.
He departed this world. He said, I'm, I go away, but
you know, I'm going to prepare a place for you and, and, and
the place that I'm preparing, you know, I'll come again and
receive you unto myself. Oh, let not your heart be troubled.
Believe in God. Believe it also in me. My father's
house or maybe mansion, the Lord went away. He went away and he
told them, he said, he said, I'm going to, I'm going to send
the comforter and that I hope that's what he's doing right
now. He's comforting our hearts to know that he was successful
in satisfying God's justice. David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, the brethren of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the children of God are the only people in this world
that are going to hear the gospel. And we don't know who they are.
And so we cry from the housetop. We take advantage of whatever
opportunities God gives us to tell everybody, not knowing who
God's elect are. But here's the truth. Only his
brethren and only children of God are going to hear, and they're
going to come. Caleb and I were talking about
this the other day. I don't know if this is right or wrong, it's
just my experience, because people show an interest in the gospel
a lot, and then they say, well, I've had people this week, men
working at the, we're getting the fellowship hall fixed, and
we've been talking to the workers over there, and three of them
have said, I'm gonna be there this weekend. Well, I hope they
will. But I have my doubts. I've gotten
kind of cynical over the years. I've heard a lot of people express
a lot of interest in the gospel who never followed through. But
I know in my heart of hearts, this is what I want to say to
them. If you're the Lord's, you'll be here. You will. And if you're not,
you won't. And if you come and you're not
the Lord's, you'll lose interest and you'll go away. The brethren of David. came. Those who were of his father's
house, they came. I had people say to me, well,
isn't God everybody's father? No, he's not. No, he's not. To as many as receive him, to
them gave he the power to become the children of God. God's everybody's
creator, but he's not everybody's father. When the Lord appeared
to Mary at the open tomb, when the grave, when the cave was
open and the Lord comes out victorious and Mary's there and the Lord
says to Mary, you go and tell my brethren that I go unto my
father and to, he said, you remember that's when Mary was wanting
to cling to him. And he said, Mary, touch me not.
I'm not yet ascended to my father, but you go and tell my brethren
that I go unto my father and to their father, to my God and
to their God. That's who comes, that's who
hears. David's brethren and the members of his father's house
heard where David was and they went down to where he was. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I have other sheep that are not of this fold, them I must bring. The hearing ear, the seeing eye,
they're both from the Lord. And there's our hope. If God's
given us faith to come to the cave of the Dulem, to where our
David is, our King is, and to believe on him. And that's the
hope that we're, how do I know if I'm a child of God? How do
I know if I'm part of his family? How do I know if I'm a brother
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Come to the cave of the Dulem. That's how I know. Faith is the
substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. That's the only evidence we have. We don't look to our lives and
to our feelings and to our experiences to get assurance of our salvation. We look to Christ. I've got no
place else to go but the cave of Adullam. So his brethren, And members
of his father's house, they're the ones who heard where he was. And they're the ones that came
down to where he was. And that's my third question.
What exactly did they do? Well, look, look at verse one
again. David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brethren and his
families in his father's house heard it, They went down, they went down
feather to him. Oh, brethren, the way up is down. The way up is down. That's why
men don't come to Christ. They're too proud. They're too
self-righteous. They won't, they won't be stripped
of their righteousness. They won't be left naked before
God. They're going to defend themselves.
Oh, but, you know, Job, Job thought that his life deserved some acknowledgement
from God and that he wasn't, that, you know, that he really
wasn't guilty of the things that, you know, I, Lord, you need to take my life
into consideration. Isn't that what Job was saying? And then when the Lord spoke,
oh, I spoke without knowledge. Things that were too wonderful
for me. Behold, I see something now I've never seen before. I'm
vile. I've been brought down. Saul was knocked off his high
horse and ended up in the dirt. Proud, self-righteous, arrogant. I'm not talking about the kind
of arrogance that the irreligious display. I'm talking about, that
is arrogant. The self-righteous, the religious,
can veil their arrogance and their pride with a lot of feigned
humility, can't they? And that's what they won't give
up. They won't give it up. What is it to come down to where
he is? Well, it's to agree with God
that you are a hell deserving sinner without any ability whatsoever
to save yourself. You can't make any contribution
to your salvation. That's what it is to come down
to where David is in the cave of the Dulem. You can't satisfy any part of
God's justice. You can't make up for your sin.
You can't work your way into heaven. And if the Lord, that's what
it is to come down. Turn with me to the book of Lamentation.
I want to show you something here. Lamentation, right after
Jeremiah, Lamentations chapter one. Jeremiah, this book is all about Christ.
In the volume of the book it is written of me. And Jeremiah,
as the weeping prophet, interceding as a sin-bearer for the children
of Israel during their Babylonian captivity, is a type of Christ
the Lord praying for His people and bearing the burden of their
sin in His body on Calvary's tree. Look at Lamentations chapter
1. Oh, there's so much we could
read here. Let's just begin in verse 11. All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given
their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O Lord,
and consider, for I am become vile. Now that can only speak
of Christ. Now what Daniel said when Daniel
said, my comeliness has been turned into corruption, we become
vile. Job became vile when he heard
from the Lord, when he saw God in his holiness. He said what
Isaiah said, woe is me. I'm a man of, I'm undone. I'm
a man of unclean lips. But to literally become vile
from not being vile, that's the Lord Jesus Christ burying our
sins in his body on Calvary's cross. Perfect fellowship with
the Father up until the Garden of Gethsemane when the burden
of sin begins to be put on him and he sweats drops of blood
and he carries those sins through his scourging and onto the cross.
And he says, I've become vile. My people, they've sold themselves
for naught. They don't have any bread. And
look at me, I have become vile. Look at verse 12. This is clear
that Jeremiah is talking about the Lord Jesus. Look at verse
12. Is it nothing to you all that pass by? Behold and see
if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto
me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
It pleased God to bruise him. People think, well, if I just
be sorry enough, I hear preachers on TV, you know, well, you know,
if you just tell God you're sorry and make this decision and pray
this prayer, everything will be good. You can't be sorry enough
for your sins. The Lord Jesus Christ, are we
sorry? Yeah, but not to satisfy God's justice. There's no cave
of a dulem in our sorrow. But the Lord Jesus says, you
may come by me. Are you going to come by me and
act like I'm not here? Do you not see my sorrow for
you? The Lord Jesus Christ went down
into the very pit of hell. And when he is pleased to reveal
himself He causes his brethren and the members of his father's
household to see themselves for what they are, sinners. Lord,
I have no righteousness. I can't satisfy divine justice.
I can't put away my sin. I can't make a decision. I can't
be sorrowful enough. I can't pray a prayer that's
sufficient. My sincerity is so lacking. I need to come down to where
David is, in the cave of a dulem, for justice to be satisfied.
That's what they did, and that's exactly what we do. God gives grace to the humble
and he resists the proud. God makes you to be a sinner.
That's all you've got is sin. All you've got. You've got no
place else to stand. You've got no argument to make. You've got no claim on God. You're completely dependent upon
his mercy and his grace. It's a long way down. It's a
long way down because men by nature, 2 Thessalonians 2, men
by nature set themselves on the throne of God. And that's what
the free will gospel does. It says God is dependent upon
me. He's done his part, but he can't
save me unless I allow him, unless I invite him in. And so they
set themselves up on the throne of God. It's God votes for you,
the devil votes against you, you break the tie. Who's sovereign
in that scenario? Man is. Man is the one who's
omnipotent. He's the one that holds the keys
to hell. That's not our God. And it's
a long way down from that throne that men set themselves up on. to be in a hell-deserving center.
That's a long way. But that's exactly what God does
when he brings his brethren and the children of his father's
household to the Cape of Adullam. You remember in Daniel chapter
4 when Nebuchadnezzar looked around at his great empire and
he said, look at what I've done. Right away, just like that. He
went from being the greatest, most powerful man in the world,
sitting on the king's throne, ruling over nations, ruling the
world, to becoming a beast that crawled
around on the ground and ate grass. God took all of his sanity
away from him. And then what did he say? What'd
he say? Oh, the Lord, he looked up, the
scripture says. He looked up. He was all the
way down. That's a hard place to go from
riches to rags, isn't it? Easy to go from rags to riches,
but it's hard to go from riches to rags. That's exactly what
God does. Strips us of all of our unrighteousness
and makes us like Nebuchadnezzar. We've got no place to go but
to look up. You remember the prodigal son? He took his inheritance
and went into a far country. And everybody in religion looks
at that story as, well, he wasted his inheritance on riotous living. Look at the godless life that
he lived. No, the point of the story was
that he ended up feeding swine and eating the husk that the
swine do eat. That's the point of the story.
Where was the prodigal son? He was in a free will church
teaching a Sunday school class and eating the same garbage that
he was feeding to his students. That's where he was. And scripture
says he came to himself. Oh, he saw himself on. You see,
that's where God takes it. He takes us from the bottom,
doesn't he? But he has to put us on the bottom. They came down. to where David was. That's where
that's where our Lord was. Lamentations chapter 1 verse
12. He went down. He experienced the sorrow and
the judgment of sin and death. And his people follow him right
into that cave. Right into that cave. Job thought that he had lived
an exemplary life and was worthy of God's consideration until
the Lord brought him down. I repent in dust and ashes. All right, let's look at the
last point that I want us to see from this passage. Go back
with me to... First Samuel chapter 22 and look
with me at verse 2, and everyone that was in distress. Are you in distress? Now this
word means to be between a rock and a hard place. It means you
can't turn to the right, you can't turn to the left, you can't
find anybody to help you. You've got no place to go. In 1 Samuel chapter 14, Jonathan
takes his armor bearer against a Philistine garrison And God gives him the strength
to wipe out the whole garrison all by himself with his armor
bearer. But as he's climbing this hill to get to the garrison,
the scripture describes this pathway that he's on. And it
says, and there was a sharp rock to the right and a sharp rock
to the left. He couldn't go to the right.
He couldn't go to the left. The only thing he could do is
go straight. That's what the Lord does. He puts us in distress. We've got no place we can go
to get deliverance from our sin. That's why coming to Christ is
not a choice. A choice implies that you've
got an option. You don't make a decision because
you've got an option to come to Christ. You've got a sharp
rock on your right. You've got a sharp rock on your
left. You're in distress. You've got no place to go. There's
only one way. Only one way out. There's only
one cave. There's only one place of escape.
And don't you like it that way? If the eye be single, the whole
body shall be full of light. Don't you love it? You don't
have to make a choice. Lord, you've put me here. Will
you lead me also in what the Lord said to the disciples? Lord,
where are we going to go? We've got no place else to go. You
alone have the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. We've got
no one else to go to. Like that woman with the issue
of blood, she had spent all that she had on positions And there
again we have a picture of a sinner trying this religious man and
that religious opinion and this religious outfit trying to figure
out and she spent all that she had and she was worse off than
she was the beginning. That's what happens to a sinner.
That's what happens to one of God's elect when they try to
relieve the guilt of their sin Through religious activity, they
end up like that woman with the issue of blood. They crawl on
their knees. Oh, if I could just touch the
hem of his garment, I could be made whole. I got no place else
to go. I'm in distress. He's the only
one I can go to. The mountain of the law is one
side. My sins on the other side, I
got sharp rocks on both sides. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I am the way, the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come
to the Father except by me. I'm the only way. Are you in
distress? That's how we know. We've come
to the cave of Adullam because, Lord, I didn't have any place
else to go. I was in distress. No other name has been given
among men whereby we must be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ
and his successful work of redemption in satisfying God's justice on
Calvary's cross is the only place we can go. And we don't want
to go anywhere else. The Lord has shut us up to Christ. Isn't that a good place to be? Notice, what did these men have
in common? They were in distress. They had
no place else to go. They were in debt. You see that? They were in debt. They had creditors. First job I got, 1974 maybe, when I got out of the
Navy, I was a bill collector for a finance company. Boy, that
was a horrible job. Horrible job. And one thing I
learned right at the beginning was that people that are in debt
have rights. And we had to, you know, we had
to be very careful not to harass people. I mean, you know, and
some of these people were just deadbeats that needed to pay
up, you know. But they had rights by the law. They had rights. And we had to
respect those rights. Oh, don't think God's that way. The law of God is holy. The law
of God demands and exacts perfect justice. There are no exemptions. There are no exceptions. There
is no forgiveness of debt. You know, debt between men, it's
a good thing that debtors have rights. Otherwise, we go back
to indentured slavery or debtor's prison, which wasn't that long
ago. You got in debt, you went to prison. Somebody paid your
debt until you got out of prison. But not with God. The law is relentless. It requires full payment. It will not satisfy with anything
else. That's why hell is eternal. That's
why it's eternal. Because the law can never be
satisfied by my punishment or by your punishment. It can never
be satisfied. The only thing that satisfies
the law of God. Here's the debt that we owe.
The debt is the debt of sin, and the wages is death. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe. His death on Calvary's cross,
the only thing that satisfied God's law. His perfect righteousness,
the only thing that satisfied God's law. And so we come as
men and women who are in debt. I've got a debt I can't pay.
I've got to have David in the cave of a dulem to satisfy God's
justice. I'm in distress. I need my debt
paid. And the Lord says, it's finished. And that's exactly what that
word means. Talao means, that's the word that's in the Greek
language. Talao means the end of the law. It's the end. It's
finished. It's complete. I understand that
if you paid a debt off in those days that they would stamp your
bill or write on your bill that word talao. Paid in full. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus did. And he's the only one, he's the only one that satisfied
God's law. Justice demands full payment. No exceptions, no excuses for
nobody, nobody. We talk about being above the
law, nobody's above the law. The law had to be kept. God's
law is holy and just and good. Now on the last point, real quick,
look at the last point. So who went down to the cave
of Adullam? Those that were in distress,
those that were in debt, and those that were discontented. Now, You and I suffer a lot of
discontent in this world. We're discontent with our circumstances. A lot of times we're like the
children of Israel in the wilderness. We murmur against God and we're
discontent with one another and we're discontent with ourselves.
That's not what he's talking about here. that we could be like the Apostle
Paul when he wrote in Philippians chapter four, not that I speak
in respect of want, for I have learned to be content in whatever
state I'm in. Oh, the Lord would give us contentment. The Lord said in first Timothy
that if you have food and raiment, therewith be content. Be content
with the things that God has given you, right? We brought
nothing into this world and it is certain that we should take
nothing out. Godliness with contentment is great gain, isn't it? I wanna
be a content person. I don't wanna be discontent and
murmuring over my circumstances. That's not the point here. The point here is that I cannot
find contentment for the salvation of my soul. I cannot find contentment
with the putting away of my sin. By my commitment, by my knowledge,
by my will, by my works, I've tried them all. And I'm discontent. I can't find relief from the
guilt and the shame and the penalty of sin in anything other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. And only when I look to him alone
do I find contentment. That's what David meant in Psalm
23 when he said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in
want of anything. He has provided everything for
me. The only way I can be content is to have Christ standing in
my stead. You know, religious people try
to give us assurance. Only a lost person would try
to convince someone else that they're saved. You come to me
and tell me that you're doubting your salvation, I'm sorry, there's
not anything I can do to help you. The only thing I can do to help
you is what I'm doing right now. And I'm not going to try to convince
you that you're saved because you're doubting. That's what
lost people do. And they call each other brother
and embrace each other and do all sorts of things to try to
bolster each other's assurance of salvation. And the child of
God says, I can't be content with that. I'm discontented. I can't be content with what
other people think about me. I can't be content with my works
and my will. I've got to have my commander,
David, in the cave of a dulem to satisfy God's justice and
to cause me to come down to where he is that I might escape the
wrath of God, the judgment of death. Our Heavenly Father bless your
word. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen. 126 let's stand together
126.