Brethren, let's turn to 1 Samuel
chapter 30. Last time we were here, when
we were in chapter 29, we saw how that the Lord delivered David
from great temptation. And it's a picture of the Lord
returning his child to life, giving his child life. We see
this at the beginning of our lives, when we are born again,
when the Lord delivers us from death and darkness and the kingdom
of darkness. And when we go astray, it's the
Lord that turns his child back again unto himself. It is, as it were, a resurrection
from the dead. We're born again by his grace
and power. Now, the Lord continues here
with David, and he shows us David and his men after this great
deliverance from their temptation, and we come here to this 30th
chapter, which teaches us something about faith, something about
the walk of faith, which the Lord does for us in life. In life, by his grace, he continues
to reveal himself to us. He's our God, and he keeps us.
He keeps us, and we see how the Lord gives faith, how he brings
it about, how he reveals it. and how he strengthens faith
in him and uses it for our good. It's all for our good. So the
gospel truths, what we're gonna see in this chapter, there's
five gospel truths. There's five blessings that are
gleaned from this chapter. And the first is that we are
given trials and temptations. The Lord gives his child trials
and temptations. These things will come upon us
in life. And James, let me just read what
James says here in chapter one, verse 17, every good gift, every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down
from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Am I saying that trials and temptations
are a good gift given to us of the Father? Yes. Yes, I am. He gives them. He gives them,
and it's for our good. And second, we see the grace
of God where He uses these fiery trials and temptations, these
manifold temptations, to cause us to seek our God. That's good. He causes, he brings
us low to his feet before his throne to seek him. And it comes
about by these trials and temptations. Then accordingly, the Lord reveals
faith in his child through that. He gives them his word. They're
prepared to hear his word. They want to hear his word. They're
seeking the Lord for his word, for his answer, for his help.
And he reveals faith in them. his word to strengthen them and
reveals what he's going to accomplish in us by these trials and temptations
which cause us to seek him to hear his word. And then there
is an obedience of faith. There's an obedience of faith
wrought in the child of God by the hand of God In order that
we walk in the light which he's given us in Christ. And in that
walk, in that obedience, we're gonna be made obedient. And he's
gonna, in that walk of obedience, he reveals more and more of his
sovereign power, of his grace for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where he reveals it to us. is not just in a textbook
sitting here, but as we go out and experience these trials and
experience the truth of his word in us. In us. And he manifests
this in that obedience of faith. And then finally, for the peace
we have by faith, we're made to see in that peace how that
all the body, is made a partaker of this grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord gives gifts unto men
for the strengthening and the support of his body, and all
these blessings are what he's obtained And he gives them. He
gives them all to his body. His whole body is made a partaker
of this. So I want to look at these five
blessings of the Lord, which are given to his people, brought
out in this 30th chapter of 1 Samuel. So first, in the life of every
believer, there are trials and manifold temptations. There are
trials and temptations that occur. We are not immune to trials and
temptations. These things come to us, and
it's not that when we believe in Jesus, when we believe on
the Lord, that all these things go away and we don't have problems. We're mistaken if that's what
we think. We do suffer trials. And we go through trials, only
this time as we're going through them, now we're seeing them in
a new light. We have a savior. We have an
anchor of the soul now, by which while we go through this trial,
we're learning of him. He's given it to us, and we're
learning of Him. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1,
in verse 5, I'll begin there, that believers are kept by the
power of God through faith. through faith, and that means
he's gonna give us things that try the faith that he gives,
because he's keeping us through faith. He's the one keeping us,
and he chooses to do it through faith, through the walk of faith. And that's why we have these
trials, because he's proving that to us. He's showing us his
work, his power, his glory, his grace. And so, through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Now he's talking
to believers here, brethren. He writes to believers, wherein
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And so there's seasons
where we go through temptations and trials. There's seasons there.
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found." Might be found. God isn't looking for it because
he's not sure if it's there. He's revealing it to us. He gives
us these trials to prove his word to us, that he is our God,
that he has called us and delivered us from darkness, and that he
is our God, and that he is our strength. and that he is our
all, found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. And I believe that that's not
just when Christ comes again, but every appearance when the
Lord draws near unto us, when he ministers that grace to us
when we're going through the trial and bearing it in ourselves,
struggling and sorrowing at times and feeling the weight of it,
but then He comes and ministers to us His grace and appears to
us in His grace. So there's no doubt that believers
are given trials and manifold temptations. that try our faith
which the Lord has given, and it's to reveal his praise, his
glory, his honor, because through it he's keeping us. He's the
one keeping us. And we see this truth here with
David. Now David's just been delivered
from this shady league that he's been in with the Philistines
for years now. He was just about to go to war
and the Lord delivered him. And he went out in that morning
light, that first morning light, he went out from that temptation. He was delivered from it. And
since that time, the Lord's light is shining brighter and brighter
and brighter upon David. Now, no sooner has David been
delivered, but he's brought into a trial immediately. So it says now, 1 Samuel 30 verse
1. And it came to pass when David
and his men were come to Siklag, that's where they were staying,
on the third day. There's another reference there.
David has been delivered. God has raised him from the stupor
of sleep in darkness all that time he's been there with the
Philistines. And on the third day. third day. What happened on the third day?
Christ arose on the third day. Well, on the third day, they
come there, and they see that the Amalekites had invaded the
south and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire,
and had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew
not any, either great or small, there's no dead bodies there,
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.
Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their
voice, and wept until they had no more power to weep. And what we see here is that
the trials we suffer, they're not just light little rinky-dink
things. I mean, there are trials that
are very severe and very hard to bear, very difficult and very
hard upon us. And the Lord is showing us that. He's acknowledging that. They
are difficult to bear. David's two wives were taken
captives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal,
the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed. Why? Well, here's something else.
For the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all
the people was grieved. Every man for his sons and for
his daughters and But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And so on top of all the suffering
that David was feeling for the loss of his own family, the people
want to put him to death. They're angry with him. They're
angry with him. But now, as I said, there's that
light. David is finding. He's seeking
and finding comfort in the Lord. He's being broken to the point
where his knee is bending, and he's starting to pray. He's now
being troubled to the point where he remembers God, and he begins
to call upon the Lord. Now, oftentimes when we suffer
trials, and when we're in the midst of them, especially very
hard ones, We might think that God is angry with us, that he's
punishing us, that our comeuppance has come up and it's time now
and we're getting smacked around for it to straighten us out and
that he's angry with us, but the reality is that's actually
a token of his love and grace for his child. We're not being
left to ourselves. We're not being treated like
bastards. No, we have a father. We have a father that cares for
us, cares enough to discipline us and to bring us back to himself. And so we see this here, and
this is why James says, my brethren, in James 1, he says, my brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations. knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
That's what the Lord is doing. He's perfecting that faith, that
grace which He's given to His child. He's perfecting it. He's
giving more light. And this brings us to the second
blessing. So the first is that he gives
trials and temptations. He gives them. They're of his
hand. And secondly, we see how the
Lord used this trial, which he gave to David, to cause him to
seek the Lord. He used it to cause David to
seek the Lord. Verse 7. And David said to Abiathar
the priest, Ahimelech son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither
the ephod to David. This is the first time in a long
time that David has asked for the ephod. It hasn't been since
he was back in Judah before he got this idea in his head that
he needed to leave Judah lest Saul would get him, even though
the Lord delivered him two times, very mightily, delivered him
very soundly. He delivered him. All the time
that he was there among the Philistines, we never once read of David seeking
the Lord's counsel. We never read of it in those
things. But ever since the Lord delivered David from his great
temptation and gave David light, sent him out in light, now we're
seeing more and more that light shining more brightly of the
Lord upon David, giving David light, strengthening David, teaching
David, drawing David to himself. And so in verse 8 it says, And
David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this truth?
Shall I overtake them? And And God answered him, Pursue,
for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover
all." God gave David a bold promise, a very bold promise. He said,
you will overtake them, and you're going to recover everything,
everything. And so, this is the third thing,
is that out of the midst of his trial, where the Lord brings
David to seek the Lord, the Lord gives him his word and promises
great success. And in that word, he gives David
faith. In that word, David believes
the Lord. And you think about the glory
of our God and Savior, who delights to reveal Himself in the midst
of the trial, who gives us His word of assurance to comfort
our hearts, to comfort you, that though you go through trials
and temptations and great difficulties and afflictions and hardships,
yet He's drawn you to Himself and he's giving you his word,
and by that word, creates faith in your hearts, reveals faith
in your hearts, gives you that faith, and then strengthens that
faith, and shows you to trust him, brings you to trust the
Lord. For example, Paul had a thorn
in the flesh, and Paul thought, I'd be much better, more effective,
more useful to the kingdom of God if I didn't have this thorn
in the flesh. And so he says in 2 Corinthians
12, for this thing I besought the Lord three times that it
might depart from me. And Paul, I believe, was used
to praying and receiving a clear, decisive answer when he prayed. And he sought the Lord three
times for it that it might depart. And the Lord replied, my grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Well, how do we learn that God's
strength is made perfect in weakness? When we're weak. going through
the trial, and finding insufficient in ourselves so that we're brought
to cry out to the Lord. That's where you're going to
learn that the Lord is able, that he provides, that it's his
hand keeping you and strengthening you and providing for you. Otherwise,
we wouldn't even think about him. That's just the nature of
what we are. We wouldn't even give him much
of a thought at all, except in a very outward form. but it's
through those trials that we're weakened in the flesh, and in
that weakness of the flesh we see the strength, the wisdom,
the power, the glory of God for us in Christ. Most gladly, therefore,
Paul said, will I rather glory in my infirmities, my weaknesses,
my sicknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, Therefore,
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I
am weak, then am I strong." And that's exactly what we see here
with David. David's been in a bad place for a long time, but he's
brought him out, and he brings him low right away. He puts him
right down on his face before the Lord through this trial,
but he begins to seek the Lord, and the Lord gives him his word,
and the Lord gives him faith in that word which he gave him,
so that we see at the beginning of verse nine, so David went. He went in faith. He went believing
the word of the Lord given to him. And that's the fourth blessing
that we see here, is that there's an obedience of faith which the
Lord gives. There is an obedience of faith
that the Lord gives to his people wherein David witnessed the mighty
works of God. Had David just stayed there in
Siklag, he wouldn't have seen what he's about to see. But now
he's going to see the mighty hand of the Lord. In faith, in
walking in that faith, he's going to see the mighty works of God. And we see this throughout scripture. In Psalm 107, it says there,
they that go down to the sea in ships that do business in
great waters, And my thought is on those that are in fellowship
with God, in the same ship with God that go to these waters here
to do business in great waters, these see the mighty works of
God. You that are in fellowship, just
like those sailors that go in the sea in ships, They see, and
do business there, they see the mighty works of God, so you that
are in fellowship with the Lord, you see the mighty works of the
Lord and his wonders in the deep. And so, that's when David begins
to walk in faith. going in faith. The Lord has
given him his word, and he's now going in faith. He's pursuing
after these men that have attacked Ziklag and taken his wives and
children. He sees the wonderful works of
God. So verse 9 and 10. So David went,
he and the 600 men that were with him, and came to the brook
Bezor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David
pursued he and four hundred men, for two hundred abode behind,
which were so faint, so faint, that they could not go over the
brook Bezor. And so one thing we see in this
is that the body of Christ, in the body of Christ, not all are
called to the same trials, to endure the same trials, to endure
the same afflictions. Not all are called to bear the
same ones. There's times in a place where
the Lord lays upon his people great burdens, and then there's
a time when they're not called to bear those great burdens. Some are able to bear the severest
of burdens. Some are able to bear the heat
of the day at a certain time, and they go out and they bear
those things. And then their time comes when
they're just too faint and not able to go on bearing those things.
And that mantle is picked up by another generation. And they
begin to bear the heat of the day and the weight of those burdens
and those trials. And they suffer them cheerfully
for the body of Christ, for the people of God. So one thing we
see in this is that not all in the body of Christ are called
to bear that burden at that time. At any given time, we might be
called. And when we're called, the Lord's
going to strengthen us and help us to do that very thing. And
then, of course, there are some parts of the body that are not
called to bear that burden. The back, the arms, the legs,
they're called to bear burdens. But not all in the body. All
of us have different offices, different callings, different
uses that the Lord has called his people to do blessed things
in that body, and maybe they're going to suffer, but they're
not going to suffer necessarily the most severe things at all
times, right? Were all apostles? No. And they
were called the off-scouring of the world. They bore that
for the brethren. Were all pastors? No. No, they're
not. They're not all pastors. But
he raises up whom he will as it pleases him, and each one
is made willing to bear the burden that they're called so that other
parts of the body may just be blessed. And that brook, bezoar,
means cheerful. And the lexicon says that it
means cold. That cold, cheering water was
there for some that were so faint that they might just rest there
at that brook and be provided for. And others went on and bore
that. And that's OK. The Lord does
it as he sees fit. And he makes his people willing
to bear that burden that the other parts of the body that
are not able to bear that burden at that time may rest. may rest and be provided for
and be cheered and comforted in that time. Paul said, I say
through the grace given unto me to every man that is among
you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in
one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being
many, are one body in Christ, and every one member is one of
another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is
given to us. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy
according to the proportion of faith. And so that's how it's
gonna be, brethren. The Lord's got a body, and he's
going to use the members of that body as it pleases him. Now, as we cross over the brook
here, we see something rather incredible. For those that did
bear this burden, they saw more of the wonders, the wonderful
works of God in this. We see how the Lord is going
to fulfill his word, and it says in verse 11, They found an Egyptian
in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread. And he did eat, and they made
him drink water. And they gave him a piece of
a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten,
his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread, nor
drunk any water three days and three nights." And so this man
is on the doorstep of death. If you don't have water for three
days, you're going to die. This man was at the point of
death. David and his men had not found the camp, but they
found this man. They found this man. And they
gave to this man what things they had. They gave to him what
things they had. And David said unto him, to whom
belongest thou? And whence art thou? And he said,
I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. And my master
left me, because three days ago I fell sick. We made an evasion
upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth
to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklik
with fire." Now this proves to be a providential blessing for
them. They didn't know where this camp
was. They didn't know where to find the women and the children. But here we see the sovereign
hand of God that has power and control over all things, lays
this man down to die, as it were, that he might be found by the
people. and that he would lead them right
to that camp where their wives and their children were, where
those that were lost, those that were taken captive were. And we see the sovereign hand
of God in that. And you think about that in the light of the
gospel. Doesn't it say of Christ, out of Egypt I have called my
son. And here's this young Egyptian
boy, dead. just on the doorstep of death
there, to bring them to their captive wives and children there. And so we see how that the Lord
laid down his son in death, the just for the unjust, who willingly
went to the cross to lay down his life, that all that are lost,
all that are captive, all that are destroyed and ruined in the
fall, that they would be found and delivered from their captivity
and brought out of that death and darkness unto light and life. And this is because our Lord
is long-suffering to us. He's not willing that any of
us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. And David said to him, Canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by
God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands
of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company." And
so we see in this how that God provided exactly what David needed,
what David and his men needed there to bring to pass God's
word of promise. God did this, as it pleased him. These saw the mighty works of
God in the deep. And so, in that obedience of
faith, David and his company, right, who didn't know where
their families were, yet there, in that obedience of faith, they
bore fruits of the Spirit in feeding that man, in providing
for that man, in nursing that man back to health. They showed
him mercy and kindness there. And so there's another picture
there, if you can hear it, of God's provision for his children
in this world, that those who come to ruin, those who come
to troubles and difficulties, provide for them. Do what you
can for them. There's nothing wrong with helping
others, even though they don't profess to know the truth. Be
kind. Bear fruits. Bear those fruits
of the Spirit to them. Show them love. and kindness,
and be merciful there to them. Because ultimately, that young
man was used of the Lord to help bring them to their families
for their good. And we see pictures of that.
The Lord in the parable of the Good Samaritan, when a Jew, it
says, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, he fell among thieves,
and he was beaten and robbed and left half dead. Alive physically,
dead spiritually. And then this Samaritan, who
no doubt is a picture of Christ, hated and rejected by the Jews,
comes along and he ministers to this man, half dead. And he
nurses him back to health of his own provisions, provides
for him, brings him to an inn, to the church. And at the church
is where he's ministered to and nursed back to health and helped
there. And so that's what we're called
to do, brethren. If it be possible with you, and
as much as it lies with you, be at peace with all men and
provide things honest in the sight of all men. There's no
law against it. And even if that person doesn't
help you directly, it may be that they'll remember that and
help a brother in Christ and help them. Now, verse 16. And
when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad
upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing because
of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of
the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. And David smote
them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of
them, say 400 young men, which rode upon camels and fled. And
David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away,
and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking
to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither
spoil nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered
all." And so it is, we see a picture of our Savior. so that all for
whom he came to deliver, he recovered all. Not one of his children
is ever lost for whom he died. And this brings us to our final
point, which is that the whole body is made partakers of the
grace of God. in the Lord Jesus Christ because
of what he did, not according to our ability. It's not our
works. It's not our light. It's not
what we have done, but it's what the Lord has wrought in us. These
blessings which he's given to us, these spiritual blessings,
this life, this light, his spirit, this grace, this faith, is all
of him, and they are all of the spoil of what Christ has obtained
in defeating the strong man and bringing us out of the strong
man's house. And this is where we find our
peace, brethren. Our peace and faith is established
here. Whatever we're called to suffer,
whatever we're called to endure in this life is nothing in comparison
to what Christ endured for his people. When He was called of
the Father and sent of the Father to be the surety of His people,
He is called the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world. And that's exactly what He did
by willingly coming in the flesh, fulfilling all righteousness,
going to that cross as the sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, bearing the
sins of His own people, in his body on the tree, and so made
satisfaction, paying the price, paying the debt of righteousness
that we owe to God, and so satisfied God's holy law, his holy justice,
satisfied him that we would go free by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so He died on the cross,
was buried, and rose on the third day from the dead, justifying
all that believe Him for their righteousness. All that believe
Him and trust that He put away my sin, that He is my righteousness,
that He is my acceptance with the Father. He's our Savior. And so now all the blessings
of God are obtained by him, and he gives those blessings to his
people. He shares these blessings with
his people. And that's what we see here,
picking up in verse 20, and David took all the flocks and the herds,
which they drave before those other cattle, and said, this
is David's spoil. He took it. And we're going to
see in a bit how that he uses that to bless many far and wide. But that's spoil that he takes.
He didn't just take it to himself and hoard it. No, he used it
to bless many people. Verse 21, David came to the 200
men, which were so faint that they could not follow David,
whom they had made also to abide at the brook Bezor. And they
went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were
with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted
them. He asked, how are you guys doing?
Are you OK? Are you guys doing all right
now? And then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial
of those that went with David. So you can see, even those that
do incredible things doesn't necessarily mean that they're
the lords. These were men of Belial here.
And they said, because they went not with us, we will not give
them aught of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every
man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away
and depart. Could you imagine if Christ did
that to us? You didn't go with me. You didn't
do this. I did this. What would we have done then? We see how there's still a people
that despise the truth of God, despise Christ, and reject him,
and they don't enter the kingdom themselves, and they hinder those
that would enter by faith. Then said David, ye shall not
do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us,
and who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came
against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you
in this matter? But as his part is that goeth down to the battle,
so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff. They shall part
alike. And it was so from that day forward
that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto
this day. And so that's exactly what we
see accomplished in the gospel. Christ is the one who accomplished
this great victory for us. And he's the one that laid down
his life, that bore this for us. over a great deal of time
he's raised up apostles who bore greatly for us and raised up
churches and others who have gone before us, men and women,
that have made great sacrifices in defense of the gospel so that
as it is this day we have the gospel and know the gospel, that
it's all of Christ, that this is speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he is our hope, our salvation, our all because
of the sacrifices made by others that the Lord raised up and strengthened
and provided for them to keep carrying this word, this gospel
words that we have it today so that we're not left in darkness
and we see how how that the Lord continues to send out this spoil,
the spoil of the gospel, the good news of the gospel to us
to this day. And we see that just in our text
there, verse 26 says, and when David came to Ziklag, he sent
the spoil unto the elders of Judah. even to his friends, saying,
Behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the
Lord." He sent gifts far and wide, not only to those that
remained at the Brook Besor, but those that weren't even there.
They were back in Judah. They had no part in this whatsoever.
And yet he sent them part of the spoil. Look at the next verse,
to them which were in Bethel, to them which were in south Ramoth,
and to them which were in Jeter. And it goes on and on for another
four verses saying the same thing to all these places that he sent
this spoil. And the sense is that the gospel
of Christ, it didn't just remain in Jerusalem. It didn't just
remain in Judah. It didn't just remain in Israel
or in Samaria. But it kept going out further
and further and further and further. And the spoil was sent out of
what Christ had obtained by his death and resurrection. That
spoil, that word, that good news went out further and further.
And not only across lands, but even across time. it goes out,
so that we, 2,000 years later, are still hearing this same blessed
word, receiving that same spoil, which was obtained by the Lord
Jesus Christ himself for his people, and that he sends out
to us these blessings, this grace, this good news, this faith, this
hope, which we now have in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
beautiful picture here of faith wrought, of the spoil wrought,
of how that he recovers his people, the women and children of the
church that were taken captive and lost. And he delivers us
from that bondage. And by his spoil, that goes out
so that he's calling his sheep and blessing his people throughout
lands, throughout time. He's doing it all, brethren.
I pray he bless you with that picture and to rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And let me just, it all began
there with those trials for him, and let me just close with what
we open the service with from Romans 5. Let me just pick up in verse 3. And
not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that
tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which
is given unto us. Amen.