Alright brethren, let's go to
1 Samuel chapter 23. 1 Samuel 23. I'm actually going to begin in
1 Samuel 22. It says in verse 20, one of the
sons of Halimelech, Halimelech was a priest, The son of Ahitub
named Abiathar, the son of Elimelech, Abiathar, escaped and fled after
David. And Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priests. That's where he escaped from.
Saul had sent Doeg, slain all the priests. And David said to
Abiathar, I knew it that day. David had come to the temple,
spoken to Elimelech. Elimelech gave him the shewbread,
gave him Goliath's sword, and he said he was on Saul's business.
And Doeg was there, and Doeg went back and told Saul. Saul
said, you go kill the priest. And he did. And David said, I
knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would
surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of
all the persons of thy father's house. David said to Abithar, I have
occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house.
Now listen to this, abide thou with me, fear not. For he that
seeketh my life, seeketh thy life. but with me thou shalt
be in safeguard. Now prior to this David leaned
to his own understanding and he tried to save himself from
Saul. Saul wanted to kill David. David
is anointed of the Lord. He is the king and will be on
the throne but Saul wanted to kill him. And David leaned to
his own understanding and the Lord led him. The Lord led him
to show David what he was, what was in his flesh, what he was
capable of. And David thought he was wise and thought he could
save himself from Saul. So he went to doing a lot of
conniving, trying to save himself. And he went down, down, down,
down. Sin, sin, sin, sin. And he ended
up in that cave in Adullam. The Lord actually used the enemy
I said Thursday, the Lord used the enemy to remind David, you're
the king of Israel. And it all culminated really
when the Lord came to this terminating point to bring David to the end
of his flesh, was when David played a madman at Gath to save
himself. But that's what he'd been doing
the whole time, playing the madman. because he was looking to himself,
leaning to his own understanding rather than waiting on the Lord
and trusting the Lord to work his will. That's madness. That's madness. But that's what
he was doing. But the Lord will not let his
child go on in madness. He brought him down to the cave
of Dullam and he brought 400 men to join with him. And he
went to Moab and he asked the king of Moab to keep his father
and his mother. And you may think that's an odd
thing but remember David's great grandmother was Ruth and she
was a Moabite. And Orpah went back to Moab and
so there was probably some folks there David knew and it was a
good choice for him to keep his father and mother there because
Saul is the king of Israel and he wanted to kill everybody associated
with David. But the prophet was sent to David And the Lord, through
his prophet, told David, get out of this stronghold, leave
this cave of Adullam, and go back to Judah. Go back to the
Lord's people, to the Lord's house. So that's where he went.
And when he went back there, it's a picture of him becoming
the lion of the tribe of Judah. God's raising him up, a picture
of Christ. But he's raising him up. But
until the Lord brought David to the end of himself, David
was going on in his own strength, in his own wisdom, determined
to save himself. But the Lord began to renew David's
heart when he reminded him he's the king. The Lord's bringing
him to himself to remind him who the Lord is and how much
he depends on the Lord. The Lord Jesus, by his precious
blood, he made his people kings and priests unto God. And that's
what David is being reminded of. You're my priest. I mean,
my king. And that's what he's going to
make his people remember. You're my king priest by my blood. And that's going to bring his
child to believe him and trust him and wait on him. While he
was in that cave at Dullam, I read Psalm 57 to you. While he was
in that cave, we see David brought to repentance praying to God. He's praying, be merciful to
me, O God. Be merciful to me for my soul
trusts in thee. He didn't look like he had been
trusting the Lord and all the stuff he was doing resulted in
85 priests dying. But he said, Lord, be merciful
to me. My soul trusts you. He's brought to where He's calling
on God for mercy. He says, in the shadow of your
wings, I'll take my refuge. Trust you. Because he said, I'll
cry to God most high, unto God that performeth all things for
me. Was he including all that sin
and rebellion? Yep. Was he excusing it? Nope. But he was saying God was
performing everything for him. If we're gonna see ourselves
and see what we are, God's gonna let us make fool of ourselves. And you just have to wait till
that's over. If you trust in the Lord and
somebody's doing that, a brother's doing it, you just have to wait
on the Lord. But we can all be assured this
is God's children. The Lord will work this. He's
gonna perform this in his people. And he said, he'll send from
heaven and he'll save me. He'll save me from Saul, gonna
save me from all my enemies. And he prayed, Lord, you be exalted.
Now this is where he was brought. Listen to this. He said, my soul
is bowed down, but my heart is fixed on God. That's a good place
to be. My soul's bowed down, I got no
power in me, but my heart's fixed on God. Now that, it took all
this to bring David to that place. He's in that cave of Dullam,
praying to God, Really in communion with God. My soul's broke. I can't do anything, Lord. But my heart's fixed on you.
My heart's fixed on you. Be thou exalted, God. You exalt
yourself. And Psalm 142 is another place
where David prayed while he was in that cave. And this may be
even more intense of a prayer, but listen to what he said there.
Cried to the Lord. He said, I cried to the Lord
with my voice. Psalm 142.1. With my voice unto the Lord did
I make supplication. I poured out my complaint before
him. I showed before him my trouble.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest
my path. He said, the whole time, you
knew my path. You knew right where I was the
whole time. God's sovereign. I believe that. God is sovereign. He knows our path all the time. All the time. He said, in the
way I walk, wherein I walk, have they privately laid a snare for
me? And he said, I looked to my right, I looked everywhere,
there was no man that would help me. And that was the purpose.
God brought David to where he could not trust in man, he couldn't
trust in himself. There was no man to teach us
Cease ye from man whose flesh is in his nostrils. The only
Savior is the Lord. The only Savior is the Lord. He's gonna have to bring us,
hedge us in and bring us to that place where we don't have any
other choice but Him. But Him. Until then, we'll go
every way. But when He brings you there,
you can't go anywhere. You have Him. You have Him. He
said, you're my refuge, you're my portion, you'll deal bountifully
with me. So the Lord sent this prophet
to David and told him, leave that cave, go back to Judah,
and he obeyed. And so in the meantime, Saul
sent Noah, killed him, 85 priests. But even after that, I read to
you Psalm 52 back Thursday night, even after that the Lord David
prayed and he said, I'm like a green olive tree in the house
of the Lord. What's the analogy there? A green
olive tree is entirely dependent upon God to rain on it and make
it fruitful. And he said, I'm like a green
olive tree in the house of the Lord. I trust in thy mercy, oh
God, forever and ever. I'm at your mercy, Lord. I'm
trusting your mercy. And he said, I'll praise thee
forever because you've done it, Lord. You've done all this. Here's
why he did it. This is where he was brought
to. Listen to this. Finally, David's brought to this place.
This is after he cares about Doeg, killing these priests.
This is when he told Abiathar, stay with me, fear not. He that
seeketh my life will seek yours. He's saying, he can't hurt you
unless he goes through me. Where was David brought to? He
said in Psalm 52 9, I will wait on thy name. That's where he was brought to.
I'm gonna stop running. I'm gonna stop trying to do it
by my hand. I'm gonna stop leaning to my
understanding. I'm gonna stop trying to act quickly and get
this thing taken care of. I'm gonna wait on you, Lord. For it's good, your name's good
before your saints. So at this point, the Lord strengthened
David's heart to wait on the Lord rather than running in his
own strength. The Lord is teaching David obedience through all this
suffering. It's the only way we learn it.
We get it in a theory, we get it in books, and we get it in
church history, and we read it in the Bible. How are we gonna
really know what obedience is? Same way our Lord Jesus came
and experienced it in our flesh. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. And that's what
David was doing. He's putting through the school
of suffering and teaching him to look nowhere but to the Lord
and wait on him. And wait on him. Now that's what
the Lord was teaching him. So David tells Abiathar, you
stay here with me. Now listen to what he says there.
First Samuel 22, 23. Abide thou with me, and fear
not. He that seeks my life seeks thy
life, but with me you shall be in safeguard. Now who does that
sound like? Our Lord said in John 15, 4,
abide in me and I in you. Because without me you can do
nothing. And then he made this statement,
John 15, 7. If you abide in me, he said, and my words abide in
you, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done to you.
Does that mean if I'm abiding in Christ and his words abide
in me, I can just ask for anything and God will give it to me? Uh-uh,
not in the least bit. That's not what that means. We
see in David exactly what it means. You ask what you will
in every circumstance, you ask the Lord, Lord, what's your will? How am I gonna know what I will
do? I'm gonna ask the Lord, what
will you do? Because whatever his will is,
that's what his people are gonna do. And it'll be given to you. So in some, I mean, in 1 Samuel
23, David's renewed by the Spirit of God inwardly, he's restored
to the Lord now, and now he's waiting on the Lord in spirit
rather than running in his flesh. Now look what happens, 1 Samuel
23, 1. So you get what I'm saying, the Lord said, if you abide in
me, and I in you, you'll inquire of me, and I'll make you know
my will, and then you'll, know what to do. David wasn't doing
that up to this point. David, as soon as he thought
of something, he was doing it. He said, now, you get brought
to the end of yourself. I'll wait on your name, Lord.
So that's where he's brought to. Now watch what happens. Immediately,
look what happened. 1 Samuel 23, 1. Then they told
David, saying, behold, the Philistines fight against Kelah, and they
rob the threshing floors. As soon as the Lord restored
David to trust the Lord's mercy and wait on the Lord, the Lord
gave him another trial. Right away. Right away. To prove what the Lord had worked
in David's heart. That's why. They tell David the
Philistines have come to Judah, they're fighting against the
town of Kelah, that was a town in Judah, they're fighting, they're
robbing the threshing floor, the enemy's stealing all the
food away from David's brethren. Now that was Saul's job. Saul
was the king. He should have went and defended
those brethren. Saul's not worried about his
brethren. Saul's worried about killing David. He don't care
what happens to children of Judah. The Lord worked this, brethren.
It typifies the enemies of the Lord robbing His people of life. Our Lord Jesus came down. He
came down. He came down to where His people
are to save us from our sins. He came down to us and made Himself
of no reputation, laid down His life, put His life in jeopardy
to save His people from our sins. The only way we're going to be
saved is by our King David, Christ the King. He defeated all our
enemies by his obedience unto the death of the cross. But the
Lord does this in such a way. He's gonna bring us to see that
every enemy we have, He alone is the one who's gonna take care
of them. And He's gonna do it in such a way that He makes it
impossible to us. We see we can't save ourselves
from our sins, but we think we can save ourselves in trials
in this life. We can't, and He's gonna show
us that to keep us knowing He's the only one that saves us from
our sin. We're gonna learn this by experience. So the Lord worked
this test to test David, not only to show a picture of what
Christ did for us, but to test David to prove that the Lord
had really restored him and now he was really waiting on the
Lord. So when he gets this news, if he'd have got this news prior
to this, you know what David would have done? He'd have taken
that sword and he'd have ran to Keilah and he'd have went
fighting. Now what does he do now? Verse two, therefore David
inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go and smite these Philistines?
There's a whole different spirit now. Whole different spirit.
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what
you will and it shall be done unto you. He asked him, Lord,
what will you have me to do? That's the fruit the Lord produced. He didn't have that fruit before
and he couldn't produce that fruit in himself. The Lord produced
that fruit. And that's what he's taught David.
So rather than run, he's waiting, he's asking the Lord. And the
Lord said, it'll be done to you. Look at verse two. The Lord said
to David, go, smite the Philistines and save Kelah. You ask what
you will. Lord, what will you have me to
do? It'll be given to you. The Lord
said, go, smite them. Taught him to smite, go smite
him. So he asked the word of the Lord. He's made to know the
Lord's will. His word's been spoken, he knows
it. And by the grace of the Lord, David believed the word of the
Lord. He believed him. I'm gonna go to Kelah. I should
go to Kelah, he told me. And so the Lord made him know
this. And then the Lord gave him another
test. Soon as that happened, he gave him another test. Verse
three, David's men said to him, Behold, we'd be afraid here in
Judah. How much more, then, if we come
to Keilah against the armies of the Philistine? Now, this
was not only to prove David, but it was also to give us a
contrast. David's men were afraid. Now,
this is understandable. They were afraid. They knew Saul.
They knew his army was after David. He was coming to kill
David. He wanted to kill David. They knew this. They knew the
Philistines were the mightiest enemy in the land. The Philistines
produced iron, and they had the monopoly on iron, and they had
the fiercest weapons, and they were the mightiest army in the
land at the time. And they knew this. And Keelah was a fenced
city. That means they were one way
in and one way out. When they went in there to fight
the Philistines, if Saul wants to come in after them, they're
going to be between two armies both wanting to kill them. and
no way out. And not only that, we saw what
a ragtag group of folks this was that came down to David.
They had not experienced soldiers, and they're afraid. But this was unbelief contrasted
with the faith the Lord gave David. It's a contrast to what
the Lord had worked in David. Now by God's grace, only by His
grace, by the fruit of the Spirit, David was given the Lord's Word
and therefore he believed God. It took a lot to get him to there,
but he believed God, he trusted God. He discerned by the Lord's
Word what God would do despite what it looked like. David saw
everything they saw in Providence. He saw Saul's army. He saw the
Philistines army. He knew Keilah was a fenced city. He saw everything in God's providence. He knew what he had done and
how weak he had been prior to this. But he didn't judge what God
would do based on providence. That's a bad mistake. It was the word of the Lord.
And the Lord made him know what his will was. And when he makes
you know what his will is, you'll know it. That's faith, trust
in the Lord, despite what the providence looks like. So that's
what he does. So what does David do? He knows
it's the Lord's will for him to lead these men into Keilah
and fight the enemy. He knows that. He knows that's
gonna be done. The Lord told him it's gonna
be done. It's gonna be done. So is David
going to, is he going to try to force these men to follow
him? Is he going to try to browbeat these men? Is he going to shame
them? What's he going to do? He knows he can't put faith in
their heart because he just experienced how he couldn't put it in his
own heart. He knows he can't bring them to the end of themselves
because he just experienced how he couldn't. For a long time,
he'd been trying to do things by the strength of his hand.
It took God bringing him down, down, down, down, down to say,
Lord, I'm going to wait on you. There's nothing good in me. I
can't trust myself, David said. I'm trusting you, Lord. He had
to be brought there. So he knows he can't bring these
men down. He can't put faith in their heart. Their flesh is lifted up right
now in fear and unbelief and they're strong in their flesh
and they're weak inwardly. That's the picture. And he can't
strengthen that inward man and subdue that fleshly man. He can't
do that. So what's he going to do? He
knows this is the Lord's will. What's he going to do? Verse
4. Then David inquired of the Lord yet again. Do you get the
point here? Before he wasn't trusting the
Lord, before he wasn't waiting on the Lord, now he's brought
to see he's nothing in himself. Now he's brought to see he can't
work out a righteousness, he can't work out a holiness, he
can't save himself from his enemies, he can't do one thing himself.
What's he doing? He's abiding in the Lord, trusting
the Lord, inquiring of the Lord. And the Lord answered him. He
said he would, you ask what you will, and it will be given to
you. He asked the Lord, what should I be willing to do
here? The Lord answered him. He said, arise, go down to Keilah,
and the Lord added something. Listen to this. For I will deliver
the Philistines into thine hand. Now get that. The Lord works
in providence to make the way impossible to carnal sight. It's
impossible to us, and that's by the design of the Lord. That's
by the design of the Lord, is to make it the more obvious that
the Lord alone gets the glory for the victory. It's by his
word spoken affectionately into our new man that the Lord makes
his people believe and do as he wills. Only by His, the Lord
commanded, arise, go down to Keilah. They're gonna go down
there and fight. He's gonna use them to fight.
He's told them, arise, go down there and fight. They're gonna
go and they're gonna physically fight. The Lord's gonna speak
and say, arise and go and you're gonna strive against your sin
and you're gonna mortify your flesh and you're gonna fight
against every enemy and you're gonna do that. If the Lord's in it, if it's
the Lord's will, if that's what He's working and teaching you.
But watch this. Who gets the glory? The Lord
promises, I will deliver the Philistines into thy hand. All
this is of the Lord. So David, verse 5, and his men,
I don't know how the Lord made this known in David's men, but
He did. He put down their flesh and they
believed the Lord. David didn't do that, the Lord
did it. So David and his men went to Kelah and they fought
with the Philistines and they brought away their cattle, smoked
them with a great slaughter, so David saved the inhabitants
of Kelah. Isn't this just like our Lord?
Our Lord promised them, he said, I'm gonna deliver them into your
hand. And not only did he deliver the
enemy into their hand, he gave them cattle, They were starving,
this army was starving. He gave them cattle to feed them
and they delivered the inhabitants out. Our Lord went to the cross
and what appeared to everybody by the natural sight as just
being a foolish thing, a worthless thing, just a man dying on a
cross, was in reality God conquering all the enemies of his people.
Our Lord Jesus Christ conquering the head of Satan. and destroying
all the enemies of His people, delivering us from sin and death
and hell and the law and the curse and our own self and saving
us. And not only did He restore to
us what we were in Adam, He gave us above and beyond that. He
saved us above and beyond that. He gave us eternal life, eternal
redemption, eternal salvation, eternal life by what He's done
so that His people can never fall again. And he comes and
he makes this known in your heart. And he brings you to the end
of yourself so that you can't work it. He makes you see it's
impossible for you to work it. And he tells you, lay hold of
me, and you're gonna lay hold of him. But who delivered him
into your hand? He did. He made you lay hold
of him. And every step we take through
this life from then on, he's working everything to bring us
into total impossibilities. But they're not obstacles. There
are opportunities to trust him. And that's what he's going to
make his people do. He's going to make his people trust him.
And he's going to give them strength to fight under his banner, by
his power, by his grace, trusting in him and looking to him and
walking by faith in him. And no longer looking to ourselves.
No longer trusting our wisdom. And what's He gonna do by that?
Deliver every enemy into our hand and make us know He did
the delivering. To keep us looking to Him, Him,
Him, Him, Him. So what happened after this took
place? We see in this the Lord's able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. That's
what He did for us. So then what happened next, verse
six, and it came to pass when Abiathar the son of Elimelech
fled to David to Keliah, he had stayed back while they went into
Keliah and fought to Philistine. Now he comes to Keliah where
they are. He came down with an ephod in his hand. That's the
Urim and the Thummim. That's the lights and perfections.
That's how you inquire of God and know what God would have
you to do. And but he came there. And David now, he's a picture
of a believer. He's been restored. He's been
renewed. And the Lord, little by little, through each step,
first with that heathen king, he said, you're the king of Israel.
And David hid it in his heart. He ended up in that cave. He
sent him 400 there, looking to him and trusting him to lead
them. And he became captain over them.
He slew those 85 priests and brought David to the end of himself
to say, I'm the one that did this. He brought him to cry out
to mercy to say, Lord, I'm not trusting myself anymore. I'm
looking to you. I'm going to wait on you. Whatever you'd have
me to do, that's what I'm doing. And he said, now, Lord, should
I go to Philistine? He walked in the Lord. He obeyed
the Lord. And the Lord told him, go. The
test of these men, Lord, they don't believe. They're afraid. What should I do? Made them know,
I'll deliver them. I'll deliver the enemy into your
hand. Go fight. And so the Lord brought David
to walk in his will and trust him and look to him and not trust
himself. And what did he do after that?
He sent him this ephod with this high priest with the Urim and
the Thummim. And the picture here is this.
The Lord says, abide in me and I in you. And he says to him
that hath, to Him shall be given. To Him that honors me, I'm going
to honor Him. So this is a picture of Christ
making Himself known in one that He's restored by His grace so
that you walk in His light and He keeps giving you more light
as you walk in His light. And that's what He's doing. He
keeps His people. He never leaves us. He'll bring
us to the end of ourselves. He'll renew us by His word. He'll
make us seek Him more and more. And when He's sought sincerely
and humbly and trustfully, bringing you to, he says, in all your
ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your step. And that's
what we see him doing in David. Now Saul, if we read on, and
we might look at this another time, but I'll let y'all read
the rest of the chapter at your leisure. But what you see there
is, when Saul found out they was down there in Keilah, fenced
in in that city, Saul didn't inquire of the Lord. He had one
thing on his mind. I got him. He looked at that
providence, and this is what he actually said. He actually
said, he said, he said, the Lord's delivered
him into my hand. That's what he thought. The Lord had delivered
him into his hand. He looked at it by providence.
He didn't have the word of the Lord. So he flew down there to
get him. And again, he took that ephod,
and David said, Lord, He said, is Saul going to come after me?
And the Lord said, yes, he's coming after you. And then he
said, are these people of Keilah going to deliver me up to Saul,
me and my men? The Lord said, yep, they are. That was an unappreciative bunch
of folks, wasn't it? They were going to deliver David
to Saul after he defeated the Philistines and saved their lives.
They're going to deliver him over as hardness of heart. So you know what David did? In
one of these verses, David prayed when he spoke to the Lord. David
was not worried. He was not worried about himself. He was worried about the city. Listen to verse 10. David, O
Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul
seeketh to come to Keliah, to destroy the city for my sake. That's what he was worried about.
He wasn't worried about himself. He wasn't worried about what
was going to happen to him, what Saul was going to do to him.
He was worried about his brethren. I don't want them to be destroyed
for my sake. So what did he do? The Lord said,
yes, he's coming. He went out and suffered in the
wood, in the forest. so that that town could be spared
and those brethren could be spared. And the Lord spared them. He
stopped Saul from touching them. What's that a picture of? Christ
laying down his life. He suffered the just for the
unjust that his people might go free. And so on and on, Saul
goes on trying to kill him, trying to kill him, trying to kill him.
Just like we saw the Pharisees and the scribes and the devil
trying to take Christ before the time. And the Lord wouldn't
let him touch him. This is a picture of how he brings
you to walk in his light, and he keeps giving you light, and
he keeps protecting you, and he keeps saving you, and he won't
lose one. That's what our Lord does. That's
how our Lord's gonna save his people. That's just so. That's
just so. We have to trust the Lord for
our refuge. Have to trust the Lord for our
refuge. All right, brethren, let's go
to the Lord. God, we cast ourselves on Your
mercy. We ask Your will to be done. We ask You to protect Your people. We ask You to make us look to
Christ and trust Him and walk in His light. We ask You, Lord, to help us wait on Your name. Don't let us walk in our flesh
and run in our strength. Make us trust in You. Give us the heart You gave David. Give us the spirit of our great
King David, our Lord Jesus. Strengthen faith. Put down our
unbelief. Help us to be willing to look
only to You and trust, Lord, that You're able to do exceeding
abundantly of all we ask or think. Not only to save us, but to save
us more abundantly. Lord, help us to rest in Your
name. Believe You. And Lord, we trust
you to deliver, continue to deliver, even as you have at Calvary.
Be with our brethren, be with one another, be with those suffering
that you're bringing through these trials. We trust, Lord, you'll bring
us to the end of ourselves to trust you. For those you have,
we thank you, praise you. Help us, Lord, to continue to
inquire of you, look to you. Forgive us, Lord, our unbelief.
Forgive us our sin and the murder we bring about. Keep us cleansed and robed in
your righteousness and accepted for Christ Jesus alone. It's
in his name we ask it. Amen.