? Be thou my vision ? ? O Lord
of my heart ? ? Naught be all else to me ? ? Save that thou
art ? ? The day or thy night ? Waking or sleeping, thy presence
my light. Be thou my stone, and thou my
true word. I ever Thou my great Father, Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I would heed not, No man's
empty praise. Thou my inheritance now and always. Thou and I first in my heart. High king of heaven. ? My treasure thou art ? ? High king of heaven ? ? My victory
won ? ? May I rejoice, O bright heaven's sun ? Still be my vision. Thank you, Becky and Chris. Our
first speaker this evening is Pastor Greg Elmquist. Greg pastors a church down in
Orlando, Florida, Grace Gospel Church. I met Greg and Trish
back in the late 90s. Wasn't it the late 90s? They
were building a building down in Apopka, right outside of Orlando
and I had been talking to Pastor Paul Mahan, had told me about
Greg and said they were building this church and wanted to know
if I'd just go down and help him a little bit on the construction
of it. I was able to go down and stay with Greg and Trish
for quite a few days. I don't remember how long we
were down there, but I mean our hearts had been knit together
ever since then, so it's coming up on Close to 30 years that
we've known each other. That boy's been a lot of water
under the bridge, ain't he, buddy? Greg, I pray God bless you. I
love you. Pray you come up, okay? I love you, brother. I was thinking
if there was, If there was somebody that didn't love your pastor,
he'd have a problem. Marvin didn't tell you that he
almost put my eye out on that construction trip, but we did
become dear friends and I'm so thankful for him and I'm thankful
to be here. If you would like to turn with
me in your Bibles, we're going to be looking at one verse of
scripture in 1 Samuel chapter 22 that has been a great word
of hope and comfort and peace to my heart. I hope it will be
to yours. It's one of those precious promises
of God's word that gives hope to a sinner. And it's the last
verse in chapter 22 of 1 Samuel, where David, speaking to Abiathar,
says to him, abide thou with me, fear not. For he that seeketh my life,
seeketh thy life. But with me thou shall be in safeguard. I've titled this message, Christ,
Our Safeguard. The Old Testament stories in
many ways are parables. Remember the disciples asked
the Lord, Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? And the
Lord said, because it's not for them to know the mystery of the
kingdom of heaven. The mystery of the kingdom of
heaven is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is that hidden truth from the natural man that must be revealed
by the spirit of God. But then the Lord went on to
say, but for you it is to know. And so he went on to interpret
that parable. And these Old Testament stories
in many ways are parables because They don't point to the characters
spoken of in the story. They are representative. A biathar
here that David is speaking to. I hope that you will be able
to see yourself in him. David, of course, a man after
God's own heart. His name translated means beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
beloved. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. We're accepted before God in
the beloved. David was a shepherd who risked
his life and protected his sheep. He was a king of Israel. He was
a sweet psalmist of Israel, wrote much of the Psalms, the one that
we just read. Of course, David was the penman
of that. But the Lord Jesus is called
the Son of David and David in the Old Testament is not to be
looked at, I remember in religion we used to take these Old Testament
characters and we would do what we called character studies.
and we would try to find things in their lives that we could
emulate and things in their lives that were cautions for us. Of course, we were under a works
gospel, so anything that would help us to know what to do and
what not to do, we found that that's what the Bible was beneficial
for. And like the Pharisees, the Lord
said, you search the scriptures because you think in them you
have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me.
And so, David is given to us in this story to point us to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's the Lord Jesus that's
speaking these words to me and you. Abide with me, fear not,
For he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me thou shalt
be in safeguard." Now just to give you a little of the story
behind this, in 1 Samuel chapter 21, David is fleeing from Saul.
Saul is pursuing David out of jealousy and rage and trying
to put David to death and Saul finds out that David went to
a city called Nob and was supported by a priest there. Remember that's where they gave
him the sword of Goliath and the priest gave him the showbread
and Well, in chapter 22, there was a man there in Nob when David
was there receiving that support, unbeknownst of the priest that
David was fleeing from Saul. And so in chapter 22, there was
a man at that scene. His name was Doag. And his name
translated means fear. And he was an Edomite, which
were the descendants of Esau. And so everything about Doag
represents that which is at enmity against God and against our souls
and against the hope of our salvation against Christ. Doag in chapter
22 tells Saul that the priest had helped David. And so Saul
sends Doeg back to Nob and has the priest and his family and
their wives and their children and every animal in that city
slaughtered. As everyone put to death. One
man escapes. His name is Abiathar and here
he is in our story, telling us about the hope that we have in
Christ. Look at verse 20 of our text. And one of the sons of Ahimelech,
that was the priest that supported David, the son of Ahithob, named
Abiathar, escaped. He escaped that slaughter, and
he fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And David said unto Abiathar,
I knew it that day when Doag the Edomite was there, that he
would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the
persons of thy father's house. Abide with me. Fear not, for
he that seeketh my life, Saul was still seeking David. He that
seeketh my life, seeketh thy life. But with me, I shall be in safeguard. Abide with me. That word abide
means to stay. It means to sit down. It means
to cease from your labors. It means to be still. He needs to find all the hope
of your life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said that, abide
with me. Turn with me to John chapter
15. Look at verse 4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you
can do nothing. And that's what David is saying
to Abithar. But more importantly, that's
what our Lord is saying to me and you. You might say, well,
how do I know if I'm abiding with Christ, if I'm depending
upon Christ for my life? I think one of the evidence of
that is the desire that we have in our hearts for Him to abide
with us. In Luke chapter 24, A couple of the disciples are
walking back to their home in Emmaus, and it was after the
resurrection, and the Lord begins to walk along beside them, and
He begins to expound unto them those things concerning Himself
from the Scriptures. You remember the story. And when they get to their home, Their hearts are so moved by
this experience, not knowing that it's the Lord, they're not
gonna know it's the Lord until the breaking of bread. And that's
when we know the Lord for who he is, when he breaks open the
gospel, the bread of life, and reveals himself to us. But before
they sat down to eat, and before the Lord revealed himself, one
of the disciples said, abide with us, The scripture says the
Lord acted as if He would have gone on. And had they not said
anything, He would have. But out of the fact that their
hearts did burn within them as He spoke with them along the
way, they were moved to say, Lord, abide with us, for the
day is far spent. The day is far spent. I think
one of the evidences that I'm abiding with Christ, in Christ,
is my need for Him to abide with me. For truly the day is far
spent. And if He doesn't keep me and
abide with me, I have no hope. So when the Lord says, abide
with me, oh, the heart of faith says, Lord, abide with me. Abide
with me and keep me. Keep me attached to that vine.
Lord, I can do nothing without Thee. The other evidence of the Lord
abiding with us is perseverance. And an example of that is given
to us in another type in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 27.
Paul is on a ship. They're in a horrible storm.
The ship is falling apart. Some of the sailors want to escape
the shipwreck. And Paul says to the captain
of the ship, He says, if any of those men leave this ship,
you cannot be saved. He didn't say, if any of these
men leave the ship, they cannot be saved. He said, you cannot
be saved. Now the scripture tells us that
there were 276 souls on that ship. And anytime the Lord gives
us an exact number like that, He's talking about the elect. He's talking about the fact that
God knows exactly how many fish are in the net. He knows exactly
how many souls were on that ship. And what the Lord was saying
to those men, if anyone leaves, if anyone departs from the gospel
for whom Christ died, then none of us can be saved. The only
hope that any of us can be saved is that we're all saved. that
all for whom Christ died must be brought, must be brought home. The Lord can't lose one of his
sheep and all of his people will persevere. And so here's our
hope. Lord, abide with me and enable
me to abide with you. David says to Abiathar, this
one man that escaped such a slaughter, There's gonna be a great slaughter
in this world. And the wrath of God comes and
destroy, I need to escape that slaughter. Nothing will be left
alive. It'll all be destroyed. And I
need for the Lord Jesus, the son of David, to say to my heart,
abide with me. Fear not. Those that are my enemies are
your enemies. But with me, you shall be in safeguard. Second thing the Lord tells us
in this verse is to fear not. Someone said there's 365 fear
nots in the Bible. I haven't counted them, I don't
know. I know there's a lot of them. Why is that? Well, what do we say? Ignorance
is bliss. You know, Trish and I talk about
that a lot. We got married very young and went through some things
in our earth. We had children very young. We
didn't have a clue what we were doing. We still don't, but we
didn't have any idea. We often say ignorance is bliss. We couldn't survive what we went
through then if we had to go through it now, but we didn't
know any better. God opens the eyes of your understanding.
You're not ignorant. You know, you know that there
is, that this is a matter of life and death. This is a matter
of eternal salvation and eternal judgment. And so you can't say,
you can't say ignorance is bliss. You have to say, Lord, I need
you to speak peace to my heart. I've got some understanding about
my sin. I've got some understanding about
your righteousness and about your holiness and your judgment
and the eternal consequences of this matter. And if you don't
help me, I'm gonna be afraid. And so God over and over and
over again says to his children, fear not. He said to the disciples
who were on that ship, another example, the ships are always
a picture of the church. The disciples are on the ship
and the Lord walks on the water and what does he say? Fear not.
They thought it was a ghost. They didn't know what was happening.
Fear not, it is I. It is I. The Lord appeared unto
Abraham, the father of the faithful. He said to Abraham, fear not. I am thy shield. I am thine exceeding
great reward. Don't be afraid, Abraham. You
see, by nature, we have reason to be afraid. And we are in desperate
need of the Lord to say, fear not. Remember that story of Jairus,
who came to the Lord, whose daughter was dying, and he pleaded with
the Lord to come and heal his daughter. And so on the way to
Jairus' house, the servants of Jairus came and said, bother
the master no more, your daughter's dead. She's gone. And you can only imagine what
gripped the heart of Jairus in that moment. And the Lord looked
at him with such tender compassion and said, Jairus, fear not. Only believe. Only believe. The only remedy for fear is faith. And here's what God is saying
to me and you, through the mouth of David, to Abiathar, abide thou with me, fear not. The Lord Jesus revealed Himself
to John in the book of Revelation, and John fell at his feet as
dead. And the Lord placed His hand
on John, fear not. Fear not, John, I am the first
and the last. I'm the Alpha and the Omega.
I'm the beginning and the end. I'm the first cause of your salvation.
I caused it when I entered into a covenant relationship with
my Father in eternity past and agreed to be your surety. And
I'm going to bring it to its fruition. And I'm going to make
sure that you're brought all the way home to be with me. I'm
the Alpha and the Omega. That's the reason why we have
not to fear. There is no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. He has satisfied all the demands
of God's holy law. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. He did not come to
destroy the law, He came to fulfill it. He came to satisfy divine
justice. The holy justice of God required
full satisfaction for the sins of God's people. And that's exactly
what He did. And He says to me and you, fear
not. What a blessing it is to be shut
up to Christ. Got no place else to go. The
only hope that I have with my fear is to have my heart fixed
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. Abide thou with me, and fear
not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life. David was telling
Abiathar, your enemy is my enemy. You know, you would have thought
Abiathar might have had a safer place to go, because Saul was
pursuing not only Abiathar, who had escaped the slaughter, but
Saul was pursuing David. And as long as Abiathar was with
David, Abiathar's life would have been in danger. Let me just
go somewhere where I can get lost and Saul will forget all
about me and he'll take off after David. No. Abiathar pursued after
David. And David said to him, abide
with me and don't be afraid. Yes, your enemy is my enemy. We had the same enemy. And God's children have the same
enemy that the Lord Jesus Christ had. He conquered every one of them. David knew by the promise of
God that he was going to be king of Israel. He knew that Saul
was going to fail. He believed God. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ never
questioned in his heart that when he bowed his mighty head
on Calvary's cross and he cried, it is finished, father into thy
hands, I commend my spirit, that the father would have seen the
travail of his soul and the father would have been satisfied and
accepted that sacrifice. And he knew, he knew that all
the enemies that his children face, he would conquer. Our enemies, Well, sin, sin's
our biggest enemy, isn't it? Sin's our most experienced enemy,
perhaps. The Lord Jesus Christ made an
end of sin when he made himself a sacrifice for sin. He bore
all the sins of all of his people in his body upon that tree, and
he put them away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself.
He knew that he was going to be successful in doing that.
And so he says now to me and you, sit down, be still, don't
work, abide with me, don't be afraid. Yes, your enemy is my
enemy, but I conquered that enemy. I defeated that enemy. I separated
your sins as far as you from the east as from the west. And
because of what I accomplished on Calvary's cross, God will
remember them no more. God made him who knew no sin
to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He bore those sins and he put
them away. He buried them in the depths
of the sea. He's able to say to you and me,
fear not. Your enemy is my enemy. Another
enemy that you and I deal with is Satan. And the Bible says
that the Lord Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil. What is the work of the devil?
Death? Blindness? Deceit? You see there was a time when
We were spiritually dead. We didn't have any life. We were under the dominion of
Satan. It was a time we couldn't see.
We were blind. Couldn't believe. Didn't have
any interest in the gospel. Impossible to believe. Remember when Samson went down
to Gaza, and the name Gaza translated means strength. And Samson went
down to Gaza and took the gates off of that city with their post
and carried them like 20 miles away on his shoulder. There we
have a picture of our strong man, the Lord Jesus Christ. What
does he say? The gates of hell shall not be
able to prevail against the gospel. I'm going to go into the very
pit of hell, and I'm going to lead captivity captive. Those
who are captive to Satan, those who cannot believe, those who
cannot see, those who cannot live, I'm going to destroy the
works of the devil and give them life. Your enemy is my enemy,
but don't be afraid, I've defeated him. The Spirit of God comes, he convicts
his people of sin. because they believe not on Him,
of righteousness because the Lord Jesus Christ goes to the
Father and He's our righteousness before God, and of judgment because
the Prince of this world has been judged. And our David says to us, abide
with me, don't be afraid. Your enemy, sin, Satan, I've
defeated them. The Lord Jesus said, in this
world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ overcame
the world and we in him have overcome this world. So that
when John in 1 John chapter four speaks of that antichrist that's
in the world, And the Lord assures us that though the Antichrist,
all that is contrary to the gospel, the freewill works mentality
of the world will not overcome you because greater is he that's
in you than he that is in the world. There we have it, the
Lord Jesus Christ says to us, your enemy was my enemy. I conquered that enemy. I conquered
that enemy. What can separate us from the
love of Christ? Tribulation. We have tribulation
in this world. Distress. Persecutions. Famine, nakedness, peril, sword. We experience all those things
in this world. What can separate us from the
love of Christ? Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. The Lord Jesus
Christ conquered the world. And he says to his children,
my enemy, your enemy, is my enemy. But don't be afraid. Abide right
here. I've conquered him. You and I
have one more enemy that we must face. The final enemy is death. And that's the enemy that the
Lord Jesus conquered in his death. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, through
Christ Jesus, we have the victory. He defeated death. He so satisfied the Father in
what He came to do, that the Father could not allow His Holy
One to see corruption. If we could say it this way,
the father was obligated to raise his son. He's the first among
many brethren. That's his resurrection. And
there's our hope. We need not fear death. The Lord
Jesus says, your enemy was my enemy. But I defeated that enemy. I conquered death. I brought
life out of death. You know, it seems like most
people are worried about physical death, but the Bible makes it
clear that that's not our concern. Revelation chapter 20, verse
14, death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, and this
is the second death. People are worried about the
first death, they don't know anything about second death. Truth is, if you only die once,
if you're only born once, I should say, you're gonna die twice. Die physically, you die spiritually,
the second death. But if you're born twice, physically
and spiritually, you only die once. And so the Lord said, blessed
is he that hath part in the first resurrection, for the second
death hath no power over him. What is our part in the first
resurrection? When the Lord Jesus Christ raised from the dead,
we raise from the dead. God's people, all of God's people
were in Christ. So the life that He lived, we
lived. The death that He died, He died. The resurrection that
He raised, we were raised in. And the ascension into heaven,
the Scripture says that we are in the heavenlies, in Christ
Jesus right now. So Christ, our union with Christ
as our representative. There's our hope. He conquered
death. In the first resurrection, second
death has no power over us. Lazarus died. The sisters Mary and Martha were
grieving. The Lord comes after he'd been
in the tomb for four days. And Martha says to the Lord,
Lord, I know that my brother will rise in the resurrection.
The Lord Jesus Christ says to Martha, Martha, I am the resurrection. He that believeth in me, though
he be dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. He's talking about that second
death. If you live and believe in Christ, you don't have to
worry about second death. That's separation from God for
all eternity. The Lord Jesus conquered that.
in his death. And the last thing that David
says, with me thou shalt be in safeguard. Noah and his family
were safe in the ark. That ark is Christ. The deluge
of God's wrath cannot touch you if you're in the ark. The ark
was pitched from within and without. No harm could come to those in
the ark. With me, you're in safeguard. God gave the children of Israel
cities of refuge in the Old Testament so that those who killed someone
accidentally could flee into that city of refuge and the avenger
of blood, the law, could not pursue that person in the city
of refuge. That city of refuge is Christ. We know now, if you're a believer,
you know now that you were there at the cross and it was your
sin and it was your voice that said, crucify him, crucify him. But prior to being in the city
of refuge, you, we committed that murder, that death accidentally,
didn't we? We didn't know, we were ignorant. So we were made to know that
we were the one that we pierced, as Zachariah says. Here we flee to the Lord Jesus
as our city of refuge. Proverbs chapter 29, verse 25
says, the fear of man shall be a snare, but whosoever putteth
his trust in the Lord shall be safe. I'll be your safeguard. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteousness runneth unto it and are safe and are
safe. You know, this word safeguard
is the word for prison. Be shut up to Christ. You know, all men are prisoners.
You're either a prisoner to your sin, a prisoner to Satan, or
you're a prisoner to Christ. And only those who are bound
to the Lord Jesus Christ know anything about freedom. If an
unbeliever thinks, well, you know, to be a prisoner of Christ,
I lose all my freedom. Oh, no. Right now, if you're
not a prisoner of Christ, you have no freedom. You're a slave
to your old man. You're a slave to your sin. You're
a slave to your desires, your nature. You're a slave to Satan.
You're a slave to death. Oh, you have no freedom. But
if the Lord makes you free, you're free indeed. Where the Spirit
of God is, there's liberty. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
will be your safeguard. I'm going to not only protect
you, but I'm going to give you liberty. Freedom to love, freedom
to believe, freedom to rejoice, freedom to know God, freedom
to not be afraid. So the Lord Jesus says to me
and you, abide with me. You're not. Your enemy is my enemy. I defeated. And I. Will be for you. Your safeguard.