Let's just start in verse 1 tonight
rather than read this chapter. I was hoping to get through this
chapter, but it's not a short chapter and there's just so much
in it. It's good to see it all together, but it's also good
not to rush, so we'll look at as much as we can. In verse 1,
it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on
the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag,
and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire. Now you'll remember
last time we left David heading back to Ziklag because as he
went forth to go to war with the Israelites alongside Achish,
one of the princes of the Philistines, God providentially delivered
David from that terrible predicament that he had gotten himself into
And so Achish sent him home because the other princes of the Philistines
didn't trust David. And as it took them three days
to get back to Ziklag and when they got there they found that
the Amalekites had invaded and burned their camp with fire. And it's not coincidence or unimportant
that it's the Amalekites which attacked David's camp As we've
seen in the scripture before, the Amalekites uniquely picture
the flesh, the old nature, the sin nature of believers particularly. They were the first ones who
ambushed the Israelites as they escaped Egypt after the Passover. It's after the blood is applied.
It's after there's freedom from the bondage of sin that the real
conflict with the flesh begins. The flesh is our problem before
that. The flesh has always been our
problem but there was no war until there's also spirit. The spirit lusteth against the
flesh and the flesh against the spirit. The flesh has always
been our worst enemy. We have always been our own worst
enemy But as a believer we're made to recognize the flesh ourselves
as such. And here in this story it's the
flesh that brought David to the place that he now finds himself.
And it's the flesh that comes home to roost. The Spirit was willing to go
against Goliath when nobody else would. The spirit was willing
to go back to the father's sheepfold and wait on God's good time to
put David on the throne. The spirit was willing to trust
the Lord instead of taking matters into his own hands when he could
have easily killed Saul as he slept. Always remember our Lord's words
in the Garden of Gethsemane, they are incessantly applicable. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh. But the flesh. When we could
not watch with him even for an hour, he said the spirit wants
to, but it is the weakness of the flesh that makes us unable to do that
which we would, unable to serve, love, worship as we would. It was fleshly reasoning that
brought David to dwell with the Philistines to begin with. He
said in his heart, Saul is going to kill me, even though that
was in direct conflict with what God had promised. In spite of
the repeated assurances from the Lord, David was convinced
that he was doomed unless he took matters into his own hands.
It was fleshly alliances that brought David to the brink of
killing his own people. We've looked at that a lot of
different ways but I guess perhaps the most poignant of all is that
David would have been killing his own people. He was king of
those people. They just didn't know it yet.
Some of them. Most of them. He would have been
killing his own people. God had made David king of these
people to be their protector, to be their provider, to preside
over them. But he had made himself their
enemy. It was fleshly concerns, aka
selfishness, that made David lie to Achish. and made David
willing to go against his own people, seeing them as having
betrayed him, which they did, and seeing Achish, who had treated
him well, as the good guys. The ones who are the good guys
are the ones God says is the good guys, not who it seems like
to us. And God has brought him here
where he is in this chapter through the means of his own flesh, through
the means of his own sinful fleshly thoughts and alliances and concerns. And God brought him up short
of total disaster. He pulled him up short as though
the Lord himself took hold of the reins of David's horse and
stopped him right there. It was just as certain as that. He put, God put mistrust in the
hearts of the other Philistine princes other than Achish and
they wouldn't allow David to go to battle with them and now
God's going to bring David all the way down. He's brought him through all
of this since chapter 25, I think it was, where David began to
reason in his own heart, began to take matters into his own
hands, began to reason, lean on the arm of the flesh, And
through all of these different means and situations and circumstances,
God's brought him to rock bottom. And he did it for two reasons
that we can see. Number one, it's because from
rock bottom is where we cry to God for mercy. And secondly, David is going
to be made to remember where his flesh has brought him and
that only God could have saved him. He's in a place now where
only God can help him. And here's the truth that I believe
the Lord has shown us before in our own lives and in his word.
And most importantly, I pray in our hearts. That we always
have been in a place where only God could save us. He just shows
us that sometimes, through circumstances, through events in our lives.
Sometimes He just makes His Word shine and reveals it from the
Scriptures, but He'll also cause us to experience it in our hearts. Only God can save him now. Otherwise,
if God doesn't do this, if he doesn't bring him here, even
if he takes him through going to fight against Israel with
Achish and stops him there and turns him back and he goes back
to Ziklag, he's delivered from the worst of it. But he'll still
go on in his imagined self-assurance and false self-sufficiency. He'll
still lean on his flesh. But after this chapter, It's going to be much harder
to forget. He's going to have a powerful
reminder of what he is. He's going to have a powerful
reminder of the result of his own efforts. And he's going to
have a powerful reminder of how much he needs the guidance, the
wisdom, faith, and salvation from God. Do we remember that? Do we always remember that? Verse 2, they burned Ziklag and
had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew
not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went
on their way. So David and his men came to
the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives
and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. The fruits of the deeds of the
flesh, the reasoning of the flesh, the pursuits of the flesh, the
result of all we do, in other words, in ourselves, is disaster. And this is disaster of epic
proportions. This is almost unimaginable disaster. If God would enable us to put
ourselves by faith and through allowing us to enter into this
text, put yourself in this place. What could possibly be any worse
than that? David and these men, they have
no idea where their women and children are, what's happening
to them, if they're safe, if they're being treated in who
knows what different ways. Knowing almost anything would
be better than not knowing. Don't you imagine? Knowing the
worst, maybe, would be better. than not knowing. I've heard people say that before
and I believe it might be true and I can't imagine. I really
can't imagine. I tried. I remembered these verses in the
scripture when I saw this. Be sure your sin will find you
out. I remembered this one. Sin when
it's finished bringeth forth death. And this is worse than
just the death of the body. This is the death of hope. This is the death of all that's
good. David has nowhere to look where
he can see any good now. Nowhere. Spiritually speaking,
that's what sin brings. Physical death is the least of
it. We're all gonna die as a natural consequence of our sin in Adam. Boy, that's the least of the
consequence of sin, is it not? and that's pictured so, so effectively here. Have you ever been to rock bottom
before? I sincerely doubt it. But if not in temporal terms,
not in earthly circumstances, maybe you've been there spiritually Rock bottom. Now God was blessing
David in this already. David didn't have any idea. David
didn't realize, I'm sure, that it was God. Or he didn't realize,
I'm sure, the magnitude of what God had just delivered him from
in stopping him from fighting alongside Achish against his
own people. And David sees no good in this
development that they discover upon the return to Ziklag. There's no good to see in that.
But God is arranging all of this already to bless David. And so,
though David doesn't know it, wouldn't, I imagine, even dare
to hope it. The Malachites are not allowed
to harm anyone of the women or children. And then verse 4, then David
and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and
wept until they had no more power
to weep. We've only wept enough probably
just to get a little bit of a glimmer of this. I doubt if we've ever
been here where we just couldn't, we didn't even have any power
to weep anymore. Not to make light of troubles
that we've experienced and many of you have, much worse than
me. But this is when the consequences
of your sin come home to you. When the consequences of your
own actions. And this is the picture here clearly. David disregarded
the promise of God and said I'm going to have to do this in order
to survive. Think of that spiritually. I'm
gonna have to start doing some things in order to be saved.
And this is life and death, isn't it? His conflict with Saul. He's trying to save himself.
That's what he's doing. I'm gonna have to go live with
the Philistines. This is when the consequences
of your own sin come home. This is a picture of that. Understand,
this is a picture of that. What happened to these men, David
and his men here, is nothing compared to the true consequences
of sin. They are unthinkable. We look
at this and we say, that's unthinkable. How could we even go on if the
enemy, if barbaric, evil, godless men took our families? and everything,
burned everything. It's unthinkable. And our sin and its consequences
is unthinkable. And when Simon Peter realized
what an abject failure he was, when he had mustered up all of
his, you know, bravado and said, I will, I will die with you.
I will never betray you. And then he was shown by God
in his providence, as David here, that he's nothing, that he's
a failure, that he's evil, that he's a coward,
that he's useless. He went out and wept bitterly. David had reasoned in his heart.
I'll get myself out of this situation What he's saying is here if this
goes on like it's going now You know Saul's gonna kill me, but
if I could I've got an I've got a plan. Yeah, everybody has a
plan God don't have a plan I Wish people would shut up about
God's wonderful plan. God don't have a plan I No. He has a word. He has a will. And he always does it. And he reveals some of it to
us. But he don't have a plan. David had a plan. Not God. God had revealed to David what
was going to happen. And now David discovers, as Simon
did, as I hope we have, that he is a spectacular failure. I mean, think about this. Both Simon and David trusted
their flesh, both learned that in them that is in their flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Nothing. No resource, no power,
no wisdom. What they thought was wisdom
has brought upon them the unthinkable disaster that they find themselves
in. And I pray that we've learned
that as the Lord showed us that we're worse than nothing. If
we were nothing, if our flesh were nothing, the world would
be a better place. You realize that? Talking about our flesh now as
believers, now the Lord has called us as believers the salt of the
earth, the light of the world. And as Christ liveth in us and
shines through us, that's the truth. We're talking about our
flesh now. If our flesh were simply nothing,
the world would be a better place for it. It's way worse than that. Just our tongues alone, because
they express what's in our hearts, are called By James, a world
of iniquity set on fire of hell. May God bring us to the place
where we weep bitterly over our sin, over what we are, over the
abject failure that we are. Not just the consequences of
it. Psalm, I'm sure here, as we'll see later, maybe next week,
I pray, wept because of the consequences. I think David wept for more than
that, based on what the Lord enabled
him to say and do in this chapter. I believe he was weeping for
more than just what happened. The Lord showed him what he was,
that all of his best thinking and plans were not just empty
and vain, but anti-Christ. They were evil. They were wrong. He was running from God, not
to him. The Lord said, blessed are they
that mourn. David's in a good place. That rock bottom's a good
place. If the Lord's there with you. Blessed are they. You ever thought
about what are these blessed ones that our Lord was talking
about that the blessed are they that mourn? What are they mourning?
What are they weeping about? What is the great sorrow of their
heart? Their heart. That's what it is.
Well, verse 5, we're going to run out of time. And David's
two wives were taken captives. Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and
Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly
distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul
of all the people was grieved. You thought I was maybe I'm not
going to speak for you. You've probably read this. If
you thought I was exaggerating, the more we read, this is rock
bottom, isn't it? The people, the ones who pledged
allegiance, the very few, the handful that David thought he
could rely on, they've turned on him now. And he deserves it. They spake of stoning him because
the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons
and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself
in the Lord his God. The Israelites as a whole had
rejected David. Saul wanted him dead and most
of the country was loyal to Saul. The fact that David had saved
every last man, woman, and child of them, I'm sure didn't make
that better for David to swallow. They had rejected him. I'm sure
everybody knew that God had anointed him king or had heard about it,
but they didn't want him as their king. There wasn't an uprising against
Saul. They pledged their allegiance to Saul. They were loyal to him.
The Philistines had rejected David. They didn't trust him. They didn't
have any use for him. They likely would have killed him if not
for Achish, you reckon? If Achish hadn't vouched for
him, what use did they have for David? They mentioned, you know,
David. They boasted about him slaying
ten thousands of us. And now even the handful of faithful
rejects that had come out and pledged their allegiance to David
at Adullam wanted him dead. They spake of stoning him. I don't know whether they would
have gotten up the courage to do that, but they wanted to,
didn't they? They wouldn't have been talking
about it if they didn't want to. There would have been a lot more
people happy than sad if David was dead at this time. A lot
more. David only had one true friend.
Akish had treated David well. I wouldn't have wanted to test
that relationship. And that relationship was based on a lie. If Akish had known the truth
about David, would he have still been his
friend? Jonathan loved David, but for whatever reason, Jonathan
didn't leave everything and follow David. I don't know why. I know we have a beautiful picture
in the love of David and Jonathan and the beautiful covenant that
they made with one another that we'll see in the story of Mephibosheth
later is a beautiful picture of our Lord. But Jonathan in
the story of David is David. Where's Jonathan? There was only one way for David
to look. And that was up. And God must bring sinners to
this place. Where we see our sin, we see
its consequences. And He must shut us up to the
only one. You see, if God had gotten him
out of this situation, that would have been great. But would that
solve the problem? His circumstances are just a
symptom of the problem. What David needed, and what we
need, was for the sin to be taken away. The sin and its consequences
taken away. John 1.29, John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away. the sin of the world. Have you
ever noticed that word, away, in that verse? There are a lot
of other good words in that verse, aren't there? But I like that
one too, don't you? Away. Take it away. If the sin goes away, the consequences
go away. But if just the consequences
go away, Paul said the blood of bulls
and goats could never take away sin, but this man. Let me read
it to you in Hebrews 10, 12. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And so David encouraged himself
in the Lord. Where else was David going to
go to find any reason whatsoever for encouragement? Where were you and I? Will we
get it from this world? Will we get it from our own self-sufficiency? That's what brought David where
he is. Allying with the world and trusting
his own heart is what brought him here. So where will you and I find
reason for encouragement? And let me say this just flat
out. If you and I ever find any reason for any encouragement
anywhere else but in the Lord our God, we are deceived. Now
think with me. Well, my family encourages me.
What is your family to you without him? What is this church family
to you without Him? The dearest relationship, the
things in this world that we might most tend to trust and
rely upon, they are enemies. Even those who are dearest to
us, they would be bitter enemies. They'd be a source of pain and
misery and nothing else, and not joy for sure, if not for
Him. Thank God for all the good things
in your life. But always remember that without
Him, there are no good things in your life. David remembered. David remembered. He encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. He remembered that it was God
that had anointed him king. It was the Lord that had promised
him everything that mattered. It was the Lord that had delivered
Goliath into his hand. Isn't that what he said? He said
to Goliath, the Lord's going to deliver you into my hand this
day. And he did. It was the Lord that had been behind
everything good that had ever happened to David and he remembered
He remembered that nothing's too hard for God. Turn to Psalm 57 with me, verse
1. Think about this. This is an
occasion, this text tonight. There's a whole lot in the last
part of this chapter too that I pray we'll see. Next time. It's a time for reflection. It's
a reminder of what we are. It's a reminder of who God is
and who He is to us. What He's done for us. Psalm
57-1. Now notice the timing of this, the occasion of this psalm.
To the chief musician, Altasheth, victim of David, when he fled
from Saul in the cave. This is when David first began
this journey as a refugee from his own country. When he began
to flee from Saul, and it was in the cave, that's when those
men came out to him, those that were discouraged and in distress
and in debt. They came out to David, and that's
when he wrote this, and listen to what he wrote. Be merciful
unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me, for my soul
trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings
will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high,
unto God Now look at this part. That performeth all things for
me. God that performeth for me. Notice all things is in italics. That just means that those actual
words are not in the original. God that performeth for me. That's who I'm going to cry to.
And that's what he did in this chapter. He encouraged himself
in the Lord and then he went to the priest and he cried unto
the Lord. He inquired at the Lord. And look, here's what God will
do. I know what He'll do. He'll send from heaven and save
me. He's been saving me for a long time. I know that He's not going
to stop now. He's not going to stop now. He's been saving me
from the start. From the reproach of Him that
would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy
and his truth. And what else do we need? Do
we need the cooperation of men? Do we need for circumstances
to, you know, just fall into place for us? Do we need the
stars to align or some nonsense like that? We need God and we
need his mercy and his truth. His truth, not my truth. I hear
a lot about that lately. Your truth, my truth. There's
no such thing. We need His mercy and His truth. So it seems David trusted the
Lord before. chapter 27 it was chapter 27
where David reasoned in his heart and said I'm just gonna have
to I've got a plan here I'm gonna I'm gonna run to the Philistine
he didn't inquire of the Lord then before that he did and here
we are in our text after that He inquires of the Lord. What
happened then in chapter 27 verse 1? When he took matters into
his own, when he leaned on the arm of the flesh, when he reasoned
within his own heart, and when he got himself into this horrible
mess, what happened then? The same thing that happened
to Simon. We talked about already tonight. David reminded me here
of Simon. Simon said, before he denied
and betrayed the Lord, In John 6.68, then Simon Peter answered
the Lord, where would we go? To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And after he betrayed the Lord, He said
in Acts 2.36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made this same Jesus, whom you've crucified,
both Lord and Christ. And that whole message that Simon
preached in Acts chapter 2, God honoring, faith, full of faith
and boldness. So what happened in between there?
Same thing that happens to you, same thing that happens to me.
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh, the flesh happens. But here's the beauty of it.
Never forget that statement of our Lord in Gethsemane. When
we could not watch with him for one hour, he told his wife, the
Spirit is willing. Paul said in Romans 7, I can't
do the things that I would, but I would, that's the Spirit. But I find another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, lusting against
the Spirit, the flesh, so that I cannot do the things that I
would. The Spirit is willy, but the
flesh. But we have to add another but
to that. Because our Lord did. Turn with me to Matthew 6 and
we'll close with this. Matthew chapter 6. I'm sorry,
I know that's not the right verse of scripture. Matthew 6 can't
be right. Where do I need to go? Is it
where they're in Gethsemane? The spear is willing, but the
flesh. Maybe it's 16. Is it 26? 26, okay. Verse 40. If it's right,
verse 40, I'll know it when I see it here. I want us to look at this together
if we can find it. OK. OK. Yeah. All right, let's look
at verse, let's start with verse 40. I want to kind of ease into
this. But this is it. It's 2640. And he cometh unto
the disciples and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter,
what? Could you not watch with me one
hour? That's a good question, isn't it? That's a good question. Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. That's why the Lord came. For
what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sent His Son to do it in our stead, in our place,
as our representative. as our substitute. The law couldn't, in our flesh,
performed by our flesh, our weak flesh, couldn't satisfy God.
Nor could we, in the weakness of our flesh, pay our sin debt. Christ came to do both. He sent
his Son to do it. So let's see if we can find another
but in this passage. But the flesh, the flesh is weak. He went away
again the second time and prayed saying, oh my father if this
cup may not pass away from me except I drink it. Thy will be
done. And he came and found them asleep
again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away
again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh
he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and
take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Go away, Chris, I didn't see
another butt there. Didn't you? Think about this,
the Lord asks Simon, could you not? Could you not? He didn't ask that because he
needed an answer, because he was looking for information.
He didn't need an answer to that. We need an answer to that. We
need to know the answer to that. He's dealing, the Lord is saving
them here. Wouldn't you say? He's doing
the business of saving them. He's in the process of bearing
their sin. I don't know how else he could
have been under such a weight, such a burden in the garden,
do you? What can cause the son of God to sweat great drops of
blood and his soul to be exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, if
it's not sin? And I'll tell you this, it wasn't
his sin. He's bearing my sin in that garden. And He's going
to bear it all the way to Calvary. He's going to put it away. He
is saving them. He is in the process of dealing
with their sin in that passage. He's bearing the awful load of
all of their guilt and shame before God. And in the process
of bearing the consequences of all of their sin and their sinfulness,
what they were and what they had done and hadn't done. He asked this question, could
you not? And the obvious answer is no. We not only can't have any part
in that, we can't even watch him do it for us. Unless he wakes
us up. Do you feel low enough yet? I
didn't come here to make you feel low, except in this sense. May God bring us real low. If that's where we have to be
for him to lift us up and bring us to himself. Could you not? No. We can't have any part in
that. We can't even watch him do it.
What's our part in it then? He states it pretty clearly,
doesn't he? Rest. Sleep on now and take rest. We're not going to give anything
are we? We're going to take something when it comes to salvation. He's
not looking for you to give something. He's going to give you something.
He said, come to me and I'll give you rest. And he said to
them there in the garden, take your rest. And when you see and become by
His grace greatly aware of what a failure you are, everything,
all of your plans and your imaginations and your efforts and everything
that you could muster ends in abject failure. When you see
that, salvation is of the Lord then. And may you see that and
I see that also. But also when we boast, when
we begin to lean on the flesh, when we forget and we trust in our own flesh and think that
there's, we begin to think that there's actually something to
us. Salvations of the Lord then too. You could not, you cannot, you
shall not. He could, he did, and he shall. It doesn't get much plainer than
that, does it? We've seen that. The Spirit's willing. By His
grace, there are Amalekites and we do fight them. I'm glad that
we fight them. But we lose. Unless the Lord
fights for us. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh, don't forget the next but though, but the Lord. The
flesh is weak, the flesh could not, cannot, will not, but He
can and He did. He did everything. He saved them
anyway. He saved us anyway too. He had
to save us anyway. Remember that about you. He had
to save you anyway. We've seen in these last few
lessons in 1 Samuel, David just as David, haven't we? Because
the Lord needs to show us that. He shows us who we are, but in
verse 8 of our text, David is Christ. Let's look at it just
in closing, verse 8. 1 Samuel 30 verse 8, and then we'll
get to the rest of this, I pray, next week. David inquired at
the Lord saying, now think about this, David is Christ here. Shall
I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? Shall
I undertake salvation? And He answered him, pursue,
for thou shalt surely overtake them. And without fail. Recover all. And we'll find as
we study this that he recovered more than what was lost, as our
Lord Jesus Christ did. We not only recovered the innocence
and holiness and purity that we had in Adam, we don't just
have a sinless nature, we have the divine nature now. We have
the nature of Christ, infallible and perfect. Without fail he recovered all.
Everybody David fought for, David saved. And he knew before he
ever left that he would. Because God had declared it.
David had a plan, God just told him what was going to happen.
God don't have plans. Everyone Christ died for is saved,
and that's the simple truth of the gospel, and it's the difference.
The more I think about it, the more I see it in the scripture,
it's the difference primarily between the gospel and false
gospels. The successful Savior. We preach
the successful Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is salvation, and it really
is that simple. And I pray that the Lord will
show us ourselves and show us our Savior this very
night and comfort us in Him. Let's pray together.