2nd Samuel 23 verse 13 and three
of the thirty chief went down and came to David in the harvest
time unto the cave of Adullam and the troop of the Philistines
pitched in the valley of Rephiam and David was then in hold and
the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem and David
longed and said I Oh, that one would give me drink of the water
of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. And the three
mighty men break through the host of the Philistines and drew
water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took
it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, he would not drink
thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, be it
far from me, O Lord, that I should do this, is not this the blood
of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives therefore he would
not drink it these things did these three mighty men let's
pray father thank you again for your
precious word i pray as we are gathered tonight lord and i pray
we're gathered in your name for your sake for your glory lord
to learn of you to hear from you, to meet with you, and commune
with you. And Lord, teach us of yourself. Teach us of your complete, accomplished
salvation that you wrought for us with your precious blood. And may we rejoice in you alone.
In Christ's name, amen. So these three mighty men And let
me make a quick announcement, because I keep forgetting to
say it. I've been meaning to for the
last couple of weeks, I think. Frank Tate has some real back
troubles. And he's been in a lot of pain
for a long time. I think he's having surgery on
the 21st, if I'm thinking right. And I've communicated with him
a little bit. And he's, of course, glorifying
the Lord in it. Thankful to the Lord though.
He's going through a lot of pain and I can Anyway, I just be in
prayer for him and and Pray that the surgery will go well, and
he'll be His back will be strong These three men came down to
David when he was in the cave of a dolom and that'll probably
ring a bell and So let's remind ourselves of the significance
of that. Look with me, if you would, at
1 Samuel 22. Back in 1 Samuel. Chapter 22, verse one. David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Dolom, and that word escaped makes reference
to the fact that he was fleeing for his life, he was running
from Saul and the armies of Israel that were with Saul. And he went
to this cave that's referenced in our text, and so this tells
us what happened then. And when
his brethren in all his father's house heard it, they went down
thither to him, and every one that was in distress, and every
one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered
themselves unto him and he became a captain over them and there
were with him about 400 men so this is when these three men
in our text went down and joined themselves to david this is david
in exile this is david hated and hounded This is not David
enjoying the acclamations of having just slain Goliath. They
weren't singing songs about David now. He saved the entire nation of
Israel from the Philistines. But this is not, this is not
then. This is not David on the throne,
garnering the praise and loyalty of men. By virtue of his position
or his status, his exaltation to the throne. This is David
in humiliation. This is David in infamy. This is David when association
with him was unpopular, but more than that, it was dangerous.
And it's in this character that we see these men show their allegiance
to him and their love for him. Because that's what this is,
their courage. his cause they were brave for him our Savior
you see was also despised and rejected but by his grace we
see him in his humility as glorious we don't see him as defeated
we know better by his grace we see him glorious in his humility
and we own him as our king even when his crown is made of thorns
as well as when he's crowned with glory. When to love him
is to be hated of all men, then we are to love him with all of
our heart. Hebrews 13, 12, wherefore Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate. And I love what Paul said next.
And that, of course, that's our hope, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Sanctified us with his own blood suffering without the gate, but
then David's Paul said this let us go forth therefore Unto him
without the camp Let's leave the popularity and the applause
of this world let's Let's go and be reproached with him. The
last three words are bearing his reproach Without the camp. What does that mean without the
camp bearing his? reproach Moses chose the reproach
of Christ over all the riches of Egypt and Look at the characterization
of those who went out to David it's a description of all who
come to Christ in it as Sinners in need of his saving grace.
They were distressed. They were indebted and they were
discontented In other words they needed peace They needed redemption
And they needed fulfillment or joy. They needed happy, they
weren't happy. And the only one who can give
those things is Christ Jesus. So wherever he is, that's where
we wanna be. That's how they were. David's,
it's not a good time for David, but I'd rather be with him than
anywhere in this world. Just because of who he is. And
he says he became a captain over them. And we find all we need
in him, and by his grace, we bow to him. Not only do we come
because we're discontented and in debt and those things, but
we pledge our allegiance to him. We fight with him and for him.
We obey him, not so he will accept us, but because he has accepted
us. We serve him not to gain favor with him, but because we
have it. because he first loved us. We
love. And love is doing and not doing,
right? Remember 1 Corinthians 13 defines
love, and it says what it does and what it doesn't do. So when
our text mentions a dolem here, it means something. Before we
even get into the heart of our lesson tonight, so David is in
this cave with his mighty men, And he's thinking about home.
Have you ever done that? In verse 15, it says, and David
longed. And he said, he expressed the longing
of his heart this way. Oh, that one would give me drink
of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. He longed. I suspect that David
wasn't the only one. I think David probably spoke
for many of these men here. They're in a cave fleeing from
a very deadly enemy. And he longed. And it wasn't just that David
was thirsty. We know that's not it. I'm sure they had water.
There was probably a river or a stream nearby. There's 400
men. They're not going to camp somewhere where they don't have
something to drink. It had nothing to do with that,
really. You see, it's not that he was thirsty. He longed for
a drink from that well, not just a drink. He longed to drink from the well
that he used to drink from when he was a kid, before all this
happened in Bethlehem. That's where he was from. That
was David's hometown, Bethlehem. And we can't see into David's
heart, but we can understand what he's saying here. We know
he didn't just need a drink. He was thinking of simpler times,
don't you imagine? It wouldn't have to be too simple
to be simpler than where David is now. In this story, when nobody
wanted to kill him, when nobody depended on him, when he couldn't
appreciate then how good he had it. We can't, can we? When we
have it good, we can't appreciate it till we don't have it so good.
And then we look back and say, boy, I wish I could drink from
that well again. But now he misses it. He's longing
for home. There's no question about that.
What is home then? What is home? Well, David expressed
it here as a drink of water from that well of Bethlehem by the
gate. And so think about that with
me. Our home, our true spiritual home could be characterized the
same way. The water of the well of Bethlehem. The Lord Jesus Christ was from
there too. He was born in Bethlehem, and
it means house or home of bread or food. It means house of bread,
but it's not just a house. David's not just, he didn't just
like that city better, it was his home, it's where he was from.
And the word bread often refers to not what we think of bread,
it means food, it means any kind of food. And so that's what Bethlehem
means. And David's longing for home
and home in the sense of satisfaction, of fulfillment, of food and water,
of happiness, contentment. He thought of a time when he
was younger and happier and things were simple. He didn't have so
much trouble. And those that were discontent
came to David And they picture sinners coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ, but also in David here, we see ourselves. David represents
Christ often, but also David here was discontented too, wasn't
he? It says the discontented ones came to David, but David
here, he's longing. He's longing for home. He's discontented here. And in
this one picture, we see home, We see food because of the name
of his home. We see water from a well that
David's referring to. Everything that we need is wrapped
up in this picture. In this world, we have nice homes. We eat well. It's amazing to
me sometimes. We're so, so incredibly blessed. We turn a handle and water comes
out, But we as believers, as David's men, as those over whom
he is captain, and as David himself represents here, as he is, so
are we in this world. And so we see ourselves in David
in many places, but here where we are now, though greatly blessed
in every way, everything works for our good and yet, David we
have a longing no way David longed and I do too. I do too. If you know him you
do too Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 We refer to this or it talks
about Moses there in Hebrews 11 preferring a valuing the reproach
of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. But here
in 1113 of Hebrews, it says, these all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off
and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say
such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly,
if they had been mindful of that country from which they came
out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, but now they
desire. That word is they longed. They
long, they long for a better country. That is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. And so those who believe on Christ,
we long. We long for a city like David
did. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians
121. For me to live is Christ. That's
wonderful, isn't it? Christ. And to die is more Christ. There's no other way to interpret
that word gain. There's no way. If living is
Christ, then gain is more Christ. It's Christ with no sin in between. It's Christ without me being
limited in my sinfulness and in this flesh. But listen, he
said next, but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my
labor, yet what I shall choose I want not. It wasn't his choice. He's saying like we do at times.
We speculate if I had to choose, you know, what would I choose?
Well, I'm in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better. There's that longing
again. I have a desire. I'm longing. It's wonderful here. And David
wasn't in a wonderful place, but he was taken care of. He
knew the Lord was with him. That's a good thing to know,
isn't it? The Lord was with him there in that cave, and he knew
that. He delivered Saul right into his hand, didn't he? Right
there, while he was in that cave, not in that location. But the
Lord was, he did it twice, there in that cave and in another place.
But the Lord, he was providing for David and his men, and David
knew that, but he longed for water that tasted better than
what he was drinking, not physically. Not because of the chemical makeup
of the water, but because of where it was. And we in this
world, we're provided for by our Savior. Though this is a
veil of tears, we understand when it's referred to that way.
And we know what Paul was talking about when he referred to the
body of this death. We understand that. But we're well provided for to
live is Christ. We've tasted that the Lord is
gracious, but there's still longing. We just sang this song, this
verse, I picked that song deliberately tonight, but remember the words
of this verse. Oh Christ, he is the fountain,
the deep sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted,
more deep I'll drink above. There to an ocean fullness his
mercy doth expand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. It wasn't that David was forsaken
of the Lord where he was. It was just that he longed for
something better. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5a, we're confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from
the body and to be present or at home with the Lord. We do have that longing. And
three of David's mighty men overheard what he said. And David didn't,
you know, David didn't literally mean that he wanted, he wasn't
commanding someone to go do that. He was just talking, he was expressing
the longing that was in his heart. He didn't literally mean he wanted
someone to go and get him water from this well. That's clear
from his reaction to them doing it. And they knew that too. Don't you think they knew that?
He wasn't saying, go do that. But such was their loyalty to
David, and such was their love for David. And I don't have any
doubt about this. They didn't do this because they
were afraid not to. This wasn't a command coming
from a tyrant. It wasn't because they were scared
not to do this for David. They loved him. And the word
honor comes to mind, doesn't it? I can't read this story.
I can't even think about it without that word coming into my mind,
honor. They honored him. They honored him. I'm sure another word came to
mind, to some in the camp, the word crazy. Don't you imagine? That's crazy, isn't it? That's
insane. They risked their lives for a
drink of water. You just don't do that. Do you? You don't do that except for
him. Except for him. It would be irresponsible to
do that for anybody else. Except the one that saved you. I should have you turn. Turn
with me to Mark 14. This is so beautiful. Mark 14.3 and being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper.
As the Lord set at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster
box of ointment, of spikenard, very precious. And she broke
the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that
had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste
of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 pence. and have been given to the poor. Somebody said, and I don't know
if this is right or not, but I heard recently that 300 pence
was a year's wages for a working man in that time. That's a lot
of money. And they murmured against her.
And Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble you her? That's a
good question. Why in the world What is it to
you? How is that a problem? Why do you trouble her? That's
a real good question. She hath wrought a good work
on me. For you have the poor with you
always, and whensoever you will, you may do them good, but me
you have not always. She hath done what she could.
She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily
I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout
the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken
of for a memorial of her. Well, doesn't the Lord, isn't
the Lord gonna get all the glory? Why would we remember her? Because
he gets the glory when you remember her. May that be us. May God make it so that you can't
even think about us without him getting some glory. That'd be
wonderful, wouldn't it? She honored him. And he honored
her, didn't he? This is gonna be a memorial.
This is gonna be written down in my book, in the scriptures. And nobody's ever gonna forget. And this is David pouring out
that water before the Lord when they brought, they honored him,
didn't they? And it broke his heart. And he
said, I can't drink this. This is the blood of these men.
And he poured it out unto the Lord. He honored the Lord in
it, but he honored those men too. I can't drink this. And
that's what our Lord did. What a beautiful picture David
is of him there. And they, and here's the thing,
all of it happened for two simple reasons. All of it happened because
of who David is. It wouldn't have happened otherwise.
He was their savior. He was literally their savior.
He saved the whole country. when he slew Goliath. They would
have been either dead or worse servants
of the Philistines, if not for David. I want to talk
about that a little bit more in a minute, but all of it happened
because of who he is and their love for him because of that,
because he first loved them. And that's how it is with the
Lord Jesus Christ. What this woman did was irresponsible.
It was reckless. Nobody does that. You don't do
that. How much do you make in a year? Would you give it away just like
that for him? And shame on huckster preachers
that use scriptures like this to to glory in the flesh. But this
is talking about for him now, for him, a year's wages. Thank God for people, for brothers
and sisters, for mighty men and women who recklessly love the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's a that's a monument to
his grace in you That's a monument to his grace
thank God for the wisdom and the faith to see that he is so
precious Palace a toy would appear And not much else matter he's
that precious I Honoring him is worth it. You
can't honor him too much. Because he's worthy. He's worthy. Remember the ones who came with
their loved one and broke open somebody's roof so that they
could lower him down? That was a little reckless. Well,
you just don't go around tearing up people's roofs unless you
have to. I'd say they had to, don't you?
Don't you say that. The Lord said in Matthew 11,
12, and from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Even if God says, let me go,
they say, I can't, I can't let you go. I will not let you go
unless you bless me. Even when he says it wouldn't
be right, for me to take the children's bread and give it
to a dog like you. You're still begging for a crumb.
You're right, Lord, you're absolutely right. But I've got to have a
crumb from your table. And as we touched on already,
do you think it crossed these men's minds? Back in our text,
these three mighty men, do you think they might've thought He's done so much for us. We would be dead or worse if
it wasn't for Him, if it wasn't for death. You think there was
that thought in their mind when they went and did this? They
knew He wasn't commanding them to do that, but they wanted to
honor Him. Why? Because of who He was and what
He had done for them. Is there this element in the
gospel? Is there a sense when it comes to the gospel that we
preach, is there a sense of what he has done for us having
something to do with what we do? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.14,
the love of Christ constraineth us. He wasn't talking about his love
for Christ because listen to the rest of it Because we thus
judge that if one died for all then all were dead he died for
us because we were dead and That he died for all that they which
live Who is who is they that which live everybody he died
for? should not henceforth live unto
themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again
is that what happened in our text that's exactly what it was
it was a picture that and and and you know you think about
that the love of christ constraineth I've had people ask me, and look,
this is not talking about somebody ragging on somebody. This is
our nature. This is us. I've had people ask me, do you
have to go to church to worship God? That's the opposite of this. Can't you worship God just as
good listening to a message online? In other words, what can I get
away with? What can I get away with? Can
I be married with Vicki without actually spending any time with
her? I mean, come on. It's legal, I'm married to her,
right? So I can do that, I can be that
somewhere else. The Lord said, where two or three
are gathered in my mate, there I am. He told those who, after
he rose again, he said, you tell the others, I'm gonna be at such
and such a place at such and such a time, meet me there. Would
you be there? He's done that here, has he not? He did say, forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together. I had somebody, It's a long story. I'll tell you about it. I'll
tell you about it later if you ask me about it They the bottom
line was they said don't give us that forsaken out the assailing
of yourselves together stuff Don't give us that Bible stuff.
Is that what you're saying? Don't give us that Word of God
stuff Is that what you're telling me These three mighty men didn't
do what they could get away with. They didn't do what they did
out of obligation or necessity, but they just loved him. And
they were determined to do it just because of that. Can you
think of any other reason why they would risk their lives for
that water from that well? They broke through the hosts
of the Philistines to get it. And I know this, faith. worketh
Galatians 5 6 by love faith worketh by love James said faith that
doesn't work is dead faith you didn't get that faith from God
but faith worketh by love faith doesn't work in order to gain
favor faith works because we love him because we have his
acceptance because he Even when we were a leper, nobody would
touch us, he touched us. That's why we do what we do.
Not so he will show us favor, but because he has. Because he
did come where I was and saved me in spite of me. The Pharisees did religious deeds
to be seen of men, our Savior said, and to have the praise
of men. The woman with the alabaster
box of ointment, she didn't get a lot of praise for what she
did, did she? She was ridiculed and scolded. Do you think that mattered much
to her? Especially when the Lord said, she did a good work on
me. Do you think it mattered to her
what they said? I tell you what, she didn't get
any glory out of it though. That's a good work right there.
Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and
glorify your father. I'm pretty sure that's the only
time the Lord Jesus Christ called something somebody did a good
work right there. What that woman with that box
of years salary worth ointment. did for the Savior. It was crazy,
wasn't it? Crazy. But that's a good work,
when you can do that, and you're reproached, but he's glorified,
and you're glad. When David danced before the
ark, out of happiness and joy that the presence of God is with
us. His wife, Michael, called him
vile. It says she despised him in her
heart. But God was glorified. God was
glorified. 2 Corinthians 5.13, listen to
this. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.13,
for whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. You know what that
word beside, there's one word beside ourselves. It means crazy. It means out of your mind. It
means insane. It literally means insane. If we're crazy, it's to God.
Or whether we be sober, it's for your cause. And do you know what the next
verse is? What I just quoted a minute ago.
For the love of Christ constraineth us. For we thus judge. And if he died, it's because
we were dead. And that having died for us, we ought to live,
not for ourselves, but live unto him. If we're crazy, it's for
him. Boy, may it be so. The love of Christ constraineth
us. That's not our love for him. That's his love for us. And it because we do Love him
But we love him because his love is the cause of our love for
him and our love for him does motivate us But you can't attribute it to
me I Would never have loved him if
he had not loved me first I've known some people to do
crazy things for the Lord Straight up. No question about
it. It's crazy. If I told you about
it, you'd say that's crazy. Not a lot, but every once in
a while, somebody does something crazy for him. And it's a wonderful
thing. He inspires that. But more importantly,
he deserves that. Why? Well, we just read it. He gave himself for us. I'm not a motivator. I don't
give motivational speeches. If I did, it would be an abomination. It'd be vanity or worse. This
is what motivates God's people. The love of Christ constraineth
us. And so what am I gonna say when
I get up here? Think about that. If we're motivated
by his love for us, then what am I gonna, how am I gonna I'm
not gonna get up here and give you a big pep talk and talk about,
you know, let's do all this stuff for him. I just have to talk
about his love for us. We're motivated not by talking
about what we need to do for him. The believer is motivated by us talking
about what he did for me. May God give us grace to break
through the host of the Philistines to honor our captain, simply
because of who he is and what he's done for us. If I tell you
who he is and what he's done for us and God's pleased to bless
it, then he may just be pleased to shed that kind of love abroad
in our hearts. I know that if we're going to
love him, it'll be for that reason, because he first loved. And that's the love that constrains. It changes everything, doesn't
it? It changes everything. Let's pray.