If you turn your Bibles to 1
Samuel, we've been spending a bit of time here, and like all of
the Scriptures, the more time we spend in them, the more instructive
they are. But I wanted to just look this
evening, we sort of have looked at this passage in Scripture
from several perspectives, and like all of the Scriptures, there's
an infinite amount there that's Still to talk about when I've
finished, there's lots more. We've looked at Abigail as a
picture of the church and we've looked at Nabal as a picture
of a fallen man and we've looked a little bit at Saul and Lord
willing we might look a little bit tomorrow. We've looked at
something of David and the Lord's hand upon David and how David
has been remarkably rescued again and again despite his activities,
despite his unbelief, he's been rescued by the Lord, because
the Lord's eternal purposes, sovereign will, will and must
be done. But there is a verse in chapter
27 that I'd like us to look at, just 27 verse 1 this morning,
this evening, just briefly, because One of the things that we can
do, and I can be neglectful, and other speakers can be neglectful
to you, but I wish to sort of put down on record a simple thing,
and that is the sin of unbelief. If we actually go back in 26,
we'll have something of a context David has, in Chapter 26, after
the rescue of Abigail in Chapter 25, David has another confrontation
with Saul in Chapter 26, and at this time he encounters Saul
camped with his troops around him, and David goes down with
one of his fellow men and they go into the very camp of Saul,
they go to the very place where Saul is sleeping and they take
from there Saul's spear and his water pot. And then they go and
David calls out to them and he rebukes the leader of Saul's
army and of course he rebukes Saul and he shows Saul how easily
he could have slain him. And then Saul is repentant in
verse 21 of chapter 26. He says, Then said Saul, I have
sinned. Return, my son David, for I will
no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine
eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool
and have erred exceedingly. And David answered and said,
Behold the king's spear. Let one of the young men come
over and fetch it. The Lord render to every man
his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord delivered thee into
my hand today. But I would not stretch forth
my hand against the Lord's anointed, and behold, as thy life was much
set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by
in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all
tribulation. Then Saul said to David, Blessed
be thou, my son David, thou shalt do great things and also shalt
still prevail." So David went his way and Saul returned to
his place. So far, so good. And David said in his heart,
I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing
better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land
of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me and seek
to seek me any more in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape
out of his hand." Of course, the issue is before
us, isn't it? That God is absolutely sovereign
and man is totally responsible. And sin, unbelief, the wicked
sin of unbelief is a shocking thing. And I want us, if the
Lord would allow tonight, for us to see that it dwells in us
and all around us, and it's something that we ought to treat with as
much disdain as the Lord would allow. And we might cry out so
often, isn't it, you know, the Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. David's activities here is unbelief,
isn't it? Unbelief is an ugly sin in those
who are dead in trespasses and sins. It's ugly, isn't it? They know there is a God, Romans
1, and they actively and they continually hold down and suppress
the truth. It bubbles up in the circumstances
and the creation all around them and they hold it down. And in
Romans 2 they are said to be inexcusable because they judge. They judge and their judgment
is on the basis of the knowledge of good and evil and yet, verse
3, they do the same things in heart and practice. They condemn
others and then they do the same things because the law is written
on their hearts. But their hearts are hard and
impenitent hearts. Sin, the sin of unbelief is ugly. in those who are dead. But the
sin of unbelief in the eyes of those who have been opened is
a crime. It's a crime, it's a horror crime,
and it's a dangerous and it's a damaging crime. The unbelief
is a direct attack upon the character of God. And I know we talk much
of the grace of God and we will continue to, the Lord willing,
but we must remember that unbelief does its damage and we must not
say that because the Lord is absolutely sovereign, then my
sin doesn't affect anything. And we must, as the scriptures
show, We must try and see sin in the light of what it really
is, and it's only ever seen clearly in the light of God and His glory,
and it's only ever seen clearly in the light of the Lord Jesus
dying on the cross. Sin is always much worse than
we can possibly imagine. And this example, as there are
many, many in scriptures, of the sin of the Lord's people
is held up there before us like a beacon to warn us, to warn
us that these men In so many ways, remarkable, remarkable
men. If we just had a thousandth of
the courage of David, it would be a remarkable thing. What an
extraordinarily gifted man he was. extraordinarily talented,
extraordinarily courageous and brave. As we saw last week, he's
a man who was worn down and he was led to a place here where
he says things that are a warning to us. They are a warning. You see, David, read those words,
David said in his heart, Or it could be rendered, David said
to his heart. So here is the Lord opening up
to us David's conversation with himself. As the wise man said,
he that trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whosoever walketh
wisely he shall be delivered. All the ways of man are clean
in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits." What did
he say in his heart? We'd just read what Saul had
said. And here's David with those words
possibly ringing in his ear. It says, I shall now perish one
day, by the hand of Saul. So he said to his heart, the heart according to Jeremiah
79 is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? The Lord searches the heart.
That's why we have David's heart conversation with himself exposed. The Lord knows all of ours. You see, David's sins are exposed,
that we might know the horror of sin, the horror of this sin
of unbelief, and the irrationality and the unreasonableness of it.
but also that we might, when we see it in ourselves, be warned,
and we might, like David, say against you and you only, have
I sinned. You see, David not only spoke
to himself, but here we find David in chapter 27 acting on
what he said in his heart. We act on what we say to ourselves
in our hearts. Think about how true that is.
How often we paint ourselves into places and then act upon
it. We need, as part of the warning
here, isn't it, to be aware of what we tell ourselves in our
hearts. The Sama says, keep me from lying
lips. One of the lives that we have
is that which is inside of us, isn't it? In our own heart. There
is a new man, a glorious new man, but there is a real old
man. I just want to look at some of
the aspects of unbelief here. We'll look at six or seven of
them and look at why the Lord has done this and then look at
why he's presented this story and what we can gain from it.
You see, David's unbelief was something for which there was
no evidence. See, all unbelief is opposite
to the evidence. All unbelief, David's unbelief
here, it brings God into the court of our reasoning, God into
the court of our thoughts, and it accuses him falsely. Think of David's life, anointed
by God. He'd fought the lion and the
bear. He'd killed Goliath. He'd put the Philistines to the
sword. He'd been protected. from Saul
and his armies. He'd been protected from his
revenge on Nabal. He'd been protected from Nabal
himself. He'd been in so many perilous
situations. He'd been through so many trials
and every single time God had been faithful. There was not
one incident in David's life where he could say, God has let
me down. There is not one incident in
all of the life of all of the people who have ever lived on
this planet where they can say, God has been unfaithful. You see, when we doubt God's
word, We never have a reason, a just reason. We never have
a logical reason. We never have a reason which
is based on evidence. You can go to heaven right now
and every single person there will say God is perfectly faithful
to all that he has promised. you can go to hell right now
and every single person there will say, God is perfectly faithful
to all that he's promised and he's perfectly faithful to his
character. And such is the situation here
on this earth, isn't it? All the promises of God are yes
and amen. So in reality our sense of natural
justice should cause us to treat unbelief as an enemy and to cast
it out. David's unbelief had no basis
in anything that he had reason before his eyes to see. In fact,
David's thoughts and then his actions were contrary to the
evidence. In every situation I just said,
God was faithful. David had witnessed Him faithful. Faithful in love, faithful in
kindness, faithful in protection, faithful in provision. All of
those enemies, the spears of Saul, the swords of the Philistines,
enemies like Dov, when he was hiding in the caves of En-Gedi,
even when he went previously in Chapter 21, he went down to
Akish, the Philistine, and he gets there and he finds himself
terribly fearful and he acts Like a madman, an akish who knows
that Saul has slain his thousands and David's his tens of thousands,
probably can't believe that this man, dribbling on his beard,
foaming at the mouth, could ever be David, and he just sends him
away. He's got enough madmen around
already. There is no evidence. God says,
I will never, never leave you. Then He says to make sure that
we get it in Hebrews, He says, I will never, never, never forsake
you. He is able to keep. That which
He has begun, that good work is a good work that He's promised.
to fulfil. He had been faithful to his covenant
that he made with David. And listen to unbelief speak,
doesn't it? David said, I shall now perish
one day by the hand of Saul. Saul said he won't. He says,
and then he goes on to say, there is nothing better for me than
that I should speedily escape." In chapter 25 we have Abigail,
who when she has danger, foreboding danger coming upon her, she acts
in haste, in haste, in haste, she rushes. And David says, there's
nothing better for me than I should speedily escape. Unbelief. Unbelief. It's contrary to the
evidence. It's against the evidence. It's
contrary to the promises of God. David was chosen by God, not
man. David was chosen and anointed
by Samuel. David was anointed by God's servants. David was anointed to be king. And David had been exalted above
and beyond Saul in the eyes of the Israelites and the enemies
of God's people. And yet wicked unbelief, deceitful
unbelief scorns the promises of God. Such is the unbelief
that lurks in our hearts, isn't it? Promises completed, promises
perfected, promises signed and sealed by God. Not one child
of God can ever be lost. and God be true to His promises. As He says, let God be true and
every man a liar. All the promises of God are yes
and amen, whether they're in the Old Testament or the New,
they're all promises that are signed and sealed and fulfilled
by our God. You see, He's the one who made
the promise. The promise wasn't based on David's
activities. It was based on Saul's, I mean
on God's promises that he made when he took his spirit from
Saul and made David his anointed king. You see, unbelief is contrary
to David's own words. David knew that God had promised
to be faithful to him. In chapter 26 verse 10, David
says, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall smite Saul. So David had said these things,
hadn't he? The Lord shall smite him, or
his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle
or perish. What a contradiction unbelief
is. In chapter 24, in verse 21 and
22, Saul comes to him and says, Now swear now therefore unto
me by the Lord that you will not cut off my seed after me,
and that you will not destroy my name, out of my father's house,
and David swore to Saul, and Saul went home, and David and
his men got up into a hold." See, what a contradiction unbelief
is. It's a contradiction of the words
that we speak, isn't it? It turns us into hypocrites,
isn't it? What a contradiction all of our
words of unbelief are. What a contradiction all my thoughts
and words of unbelief are. How often do we sing and sing
with joy in our hearts and then go out and act with unbelief. Listen to David, listen to these
words. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. And here David says, the best
thing I can do is flee, because the promises of God are not going
to come to pass. David said in his heart, I shall
now perish one day. David says in Psalm 18, he says,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock
and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, in Him I
will trust. My buckle, the horn of my salvation,
and my high tower. An unbelief says, I shall now
perish one day. by the hand of the Philistines. As one of the writers I looked
at today said, we are great fools when we doubt God. David's unbelief like all unbelief,
is opposed to the facts of history. The Philistine army was at this
time preparing for war against Saul, a war in which Saul would
die, a war in which David would be brought to the throne. We are called on by God to live
by faith and not by sight. But the reality is that God has
established so much of his faithfulness by his activities in all of history. As I said earlier, even Saul
knew that David would be king after he died. He told David. Jonathan told David. Samuel told David. Abigail told
David. David again and again was reminded
by those around him in front of witnesses But this is where
history was going, and yet unbelief says, I shall now perish. Unbelief, just to summarize,
and there's much more to be said about it, brings God into court.
and accuses him against the evidence. There is never any evidence for
unbelief. In fact, it always operates contrary
to the evidence. It always operates against the
promises of God. It causes us to be hypocrites
in our own words. It makes us fools to ourselves. It's opposed to the very facts. that are around us. So why is
this unbelief exposed? It is, of course, again and again,
for God to get glory and for us to be seen and to see ourselves
as what we are apart from the grace of God. David was sustained
by the grace of God. Who had won the victories? Who
had sent that stone to the very place, the one place in all of
that well-armoured man which would bring him to the ground,
that great giant? Who had rescued David? Who had
directed Saul's spear so that the spear went past his head
and buried itself in the wall and only had to move just that
far and David would have died? Who had caused Saul and his army
to sleep so David could again show his faithfulness? The Lord Jesus said those great
words to us, didn't he? He said, without me you can do
nothing. It's a reminder again of what
we are in our Adam flesh and it rises up again and again.
The men who are full of faith are still just men. The best
of men are men at best. It's to remind us of our weaknesses
and our frailties. And it's a reminder that we are
not to think too highly of ourselves and our wisdom and our worth. It's like Paul, isn't it, where
he's brought to a place where he will boast in the Lord and
not in anything in himself. True religion sees nothing inside
of man and looks to everything in the God-man. It is just an exposing of what
we are apart from the grace of God. You see, David had been
in a long and wearisome trial. He was wandering, he'd been harassed
continually. He had no safe place to lay his
head. We must be mindful of the sins
that so easily entangle us, especially when we get tired. Weariness
is something that comes upon us all the time. But David was
just tired. Just tired of the battle. And
also David in the midst of these battles had had times where he
had great spiritual experiences, hadn't he? He'd been rescued
and been delivered and God had done marvellous things through
him. and to the people around him.
So often when things are exciting, God's people are so often brought
low. I often remind people at baptism
that so often that will be a time in the midst of those wonderful
things that we are reminded of. and personally applied to us,
how often the trials are going to come in a tougher and more
real way. Also, David's failings are to
show us that we never rise above. a desperate need for God's wisdom
and not the wisdom of men, even if it's our own wisdom that we
think is guided by God. We need to go back to his word
and to his promises and get our wisdom directly from what God
says. David had so often asked God. If you read these previous ten
chapters, you will see David talks to God, and God immediately
answers him, and immediately gives him direction, and has
done faithfully. What a blessing. What a blessing
prayer is. What a sad thing that the blessing
of prayer is not used in this situation. God had answered him
every time. Answered him perfectly and protected
him and guided him and here's David speaking to himself and
not a word mentioning God at all. I shall now perish one day. What a wicked act unbelief is. Unbelief, according to Hebrews
3.12, we're told to take heed because there's an evil heart
that departs from the living God. You see, Hebrews 3 and 4
is talking about those people that perished in the wilderness
and they didn't enter in. Why did they not enter in? Because
of unbelief. 600,000 died. because of unbelief. The people
went into Babylonian captivity because of unbelief. They hearkened not, nor inclined
their ear, but walked in the counsels and the imagination
of their evil heart, and they went backward and not forward. You see, David went to the most
unreliable place on all of planet earth for his wisdom. He went
to his own heart. He reasoned with himself from
a human point of view, and when you look at it from a purely
human point of view, it seemed like a wise and reasonable thing
to do, isn't it? But unbelief, as we see, is always
a denial of the presence and the promises and the character
of God. You see, as we look on in this
chapter, we'll see what happened today with the effects of unbelief.
It made him do a foolish thing. If you go back and read chapter
21 at your leisure, you'll find that he'd been down there before.
He'd been down to Achish before. And then he found himself there
in fear of Saul going down to this king of the Philistines
and then he finds himself in fear of Achish and has to act
like a madman that he'd been sent away. And why didn't Akish
just destroy him? God preserved him and rescued
him. So unbelief can bring God's people
to a place where we have suffered before because of sins. You see,
bad experiences are no sign that we will not fall again into something
which brings us harm. be led into these situations
that we will be seekers of Divine Grace. We need God's wisdom,
not the wisdom of men and not the wisdom of our own hearts. We never get to a place where
we are in any way above the need of the Divine Grace of God. There is no place of security
in this world apart from the grace of God. As I said earlier,
bitter experiences don't teach people. We still have the same ability
to fall into the same trap again and again. Unbelief brought David
to be numbered with the Lord's enemies. Here's David with the
Philistines. Here's David not just with the
Philistines, but here's David with the Philistines as the king's
personal bodyguard. Here's David finding favour in
Achish's eyes. And how does he find favour in
Achish's eyes? The unbelief adds sin to sin. It's never lonely sin. It always
has willing friends. So David encouraged Achish's
favour on him by lying to him. And he lied to him about destroying
Achish's allies by claiming that his attacks were upon Israel. And David not only had to lie,
but David had to hide his deceit to Akish by killing all the people
he encountered. So when he went out to fight
against those people that are mentioned here in chapter 27, he killed every man,
woman and child. Every man, woman and child in
all those places died to protect David from his imagined fears. And even though, as we saw last
week, the Lord moved the hearts of those Philistine lords in
chapter 28 to remove David from their army that was fighting
against Israel, it's a sign of the wonderful
grace and mercy and covenant faithfulness of God. It's no
sign of commendation to David that his enemies were used to
rescue him from a situation unbelief had put him in. Unbelief, as
we saw last week, brings great grief. David and his men lost
all, their wives, their children, their goods. Those who live in this world in wicked
unbelief lose all. See David was taken to this place
where unbelief had worked itself out that he might be brought
to a place where he comforted himself in the Lord when even
those who were his loyal allies were wanting to kill him. David
was brought by the grace of God to a place where he was a beggar
in need of a saviour. David's unbelief is unbelief
in the context of God's covenant, eternal promises and purposes
for him. A temporary unbelief has its
consequences. What are the consequences of
perpetual eternal unbelief? The Lord asks that searching,
searching question, doesn't he? He says, when I return, will
I find faith on the earth? So this is why for some of the
reasons why David fell. He fell to show us in remarkable
ways what man is. But I think David's fall is to
show us how amazing the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus is. This was
David's real faithfulness, wasn't it? His faithfulness was worked
out in one who was faithful. You see, all of the troubles
that David had faced and all of the troubles that you and
I will face came upon the Lord Jesus. He was touched with the
feelings of our infirmities. You think of the Lord Jesus being
like David in so many ways. He had no place to lay his head. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He was a faithful servant. He
was a faithful friend. He was a faithful counsellor,
a faithful provider and yet he suffered at the hands of those
he helped. He was taken to places of extreme
physical, emotional and spiritual anguish, wasn't he? What a remarkable
thing the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus is. and he was tempted
to use his anointed position to bring events to a suitable
conclusion for him. He was tempted by Satan himself
when he was weakened in his flesh as much as a man can be weakened
and still be alive. It's remarkable to think of how
incredibly faithful the Lord Jesus was, right up to that point
of dying on the cross. What a remarkable faith. our
Saviour worked out for His people. Perfect, perfect faithfulness
to God. Perfect, perfect faithfulness
to His Bride. Perfect, perfect faithfulness.
Worked out and lived out before this world. That's why David
felt that we might as we fall like David, we might, like David,
be comforted in his Lord, that we might be encouraged, be picked
up and dusted off, and be reminded again that those sins, that horrible,
evil, wicked sin of unbelief, which lives in us now, in our
Adam flesh, and rises up again and again and again. That sin,
that evil, wicked sin, was put on our Lord Jesus, and He said
it was mine, and His Father punished it until God can't find that
sin anymore. David's fall is just symptomatic
of the fall into unbelief that I see in myself. No wonder that
man cried out, didn't he? Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. I have gone astray, says the
psalmist as he finishes that great psalm 119. He says, I've
gone astray. like a lost sheep. Lord, seek
thy servant. May God protect us. Protect us
from the unbelief that lurks within us. May he show us how
wicked it is. May he cause us to cling and
run to the Lord Jesus and find our comfort and our peace there.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, We just thank you that we can
come into your presence, not because of anything that we do
or anything in us, as we are in our Father Adam. Oh, Heavenly
Father, we pray that you would protect us from unbelief, you
would cause us to see its wickedness, you would cause us to see the
damage that it does in this world to your glory and to your honor.
Father, help us to confess quickly, help us to run quickly to you,
help us to come to a place where we can find safety and security. Help us, Heavenly Father, not
to trust the words of our own hearts, as wise as they might
be in the circumstances. but help us to rest in what You
say in Your Word. May Your promises, Heavenly Father,
be real in our lives, and may we feel the comfort of Your faithfulness,
Our Father, again and again, even in the midst of the darkness
that engulfs us so often. May we look to You, may we be
caused to wait and patiently see that You are perfectly faithful
to the people that You have loved from everlasting in Your dear
and precious Son. We praise You Heavenly Father
and thank You. for your dear son, the extraordinary faithfulness
that he wrought when he was on this earth. And we praise you,
Heavenly Father, that you see us in him now. Help us, Heavenly
Father, to be not entangled by the thoughts of our hearts, but
be found clothed and robed in that extraordinary righteousness
that he has wrought for his people. We do pray for us as a fellowship
here, Heavenly Father, that you would cause us to be faithful. We thank you for the remarkable
things that you have done in us and through us, and the things
that you have brought us to see, our Father. We praise you for
the blessings that we have as your children, and we thank you
in Jesus' name. Amen.