Let's be turning to 1 Samuel
chapter 27. Tonight we're going to look at
the town of Siklag. This was given to David by Achish,
the king of Gath of the Philistines. And this is when David fled from
the land of Judah, from Saul, and he went to Gath of the Philistines,
to Achish there. And it's going to prove to be
a kind providence of God in doing this. It's provided for David's
safe keeping and to protect him, to to provide cover for him from
the king in what he was accomplishing. And I found it to be very significant. It's at the core, this town And
for David, it's at the core of his safety and provision. And
what we see in it is it's a picture of the covenant promises of our
God. That's what's at the core of
our salvation. That we are in the covenant of
promise made between the Father and the Son. And so we'll see
that here and, you know, What I find truly amazing about these
closing chapters here, again, and we brought this up the last
time we were here, is that you have these two men, David and
Saul, and Saul is the king, David is anointed to be the king, and
neither of them is perfect in what they do. We see that both
men are sinners, and yet God makes a distinction. providing
for David and providing a covering for David and protecting David
and keeping David and and not not allowing David and for David's
sin or David in sin to be destroyed but he protects David and yet
Saul goes forth without a covering and Saul is destroyed for his
sin and it's all comes down to the covenant of grace it's all
part of the the covenant of grace here and so we'll see the blessings
and the truths contained in this covenant of promise here. as
it's traced out in the giving of Ziklag to David and the things
that David does from Ziklag, what he accomplishes out of Ziklag
there. And they testify of Christ's
redeeming salvation and of our regeneration. And this report,
this gospel is not heard or not understood by the wicked. You that see this, what I'm showing
you tonight, you that see Christ in this, what a blessing, what
a mercy, because there's many people that will not and cannot
see this. They can't see Christ. And it's
to their own destruction that they cannot see him who is life
and how the Lord is testifying of Christ our righteousness throughout
his scriptures. So what I want to show you tonight
is very much the truths of the gospel. I'm going to speak according
to the truth of the gospel and the mystery of God's righteousness
revealed. Our Lord tells us to seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
things. will be added unto you. All the
things that man is worried about and concerned about and seeking,
the Lord takes care of all of those things. You seek the kingdom
of God first. And what is the kingdom of God?
It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what the preaching of
the gospel is the bringing near to you the kingdom of God. And
Lord willing, we'll see that on Sunday. And it's the bringing
near to you the kingdom of God. That's the preaching of Jesus
Christ. And so we preach Him, and you
that seek to know Him, the true righteousness of God, the very
righteousness of God, God's not gonna leave you hanging. He's
not gonna leave you with something undone, something unfinished,
something that's dependent on your flesh to do. We're His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. And so everything He's
prepared for you to do, He does. He works it in you. He leads
us and keeps us in the way of Christ, our life and our all. And the natural man, you know,
in seeking to make himself righteous, won't come to Christ, won't see
Christ. won't see Christ in these things.
He's looking for his own righteousness. He's looking for to ensure and
to establish himself in righteousness by his works. And so he can't
see these things that we are blessed to see of our God. And so it all is worked out here
in these final closing chapters here. Saul is doing his best,
all that he can do to establish himself as the king, to outlast
David, to defeat David, to put David to death, whom he knows
is the king, the rightful king. He hears the people say it. I
don't know if he knew that David was anointed. I don't think he
did or else he probably would have put Samuel to death. but
he hears the people he knows that they know that this man
David is the rightful king and so he's doing everything he can
to establish himself and in doing that he destroys himself rather
than David whereas David is provided for provided for kept and protected
and and and has a covering And so we see this here, it all comes
down to the covenant promises which are established for us
in the blood of Christ. So, let me say this, as we get
into this, the prophet Gad had told David to go to Judah. He said back in 1 Samuel 22 verse
5, David was in Moab at that time, and the prophet said, get
thee into the land of Judah. And David did. He left Moab and
he went back into Judah. And there is where we came to
those chapters where the Lord miraculously delivered David
from Saul. He actually gave Saul into his
hand. and David spared Saul. Saul's
life was precious in David's eyes in the cave at En Gedi and
in the wilderness of Ziph. Those two times David let him
go and proved to Saul that he could have taken his life. Yet
with those two things David feared Saul. David was afraid. And David thought, certainly
Saul is going to get me and take my life one of these days. And
so verse 2, 1 Samuel 27 verse 2, David arose and he passed
over with the 600 men that were with him unto Achish, the son
of Maok, king of Gath. And that number 600 stands out
to me. You know, after Keilah, were
told that David had 600 men with him when he rescued Keilah from,
I forget who the enemy was, the Midianites, I think, when he
rescued them from the attack. And he had 600 men. And nothing's
changed here. And I think that number, 600
men, refers to what We are imperfect because six
is the number of man. It's the day that we were created,
the sixth day, one short of the perfect day, number seven. And
that's why 666 in Revelation is called the number of man.
it's man is always coming short he's always short of perfection
777 that's really what that's what it is we we cannot save
ourselves by our works and so here's David with these 600 men
and it just jumps out to me just punctuates that that It's fleshly. For what David did here, he shouldn't
have gone here to the Philistines. He shouldn't. But it was of God
that he did. He shouldn't have gone there,
but he did go, and it shows us that all men are sinners and
there's none righteous, no not one. None righteous. This is
not about David's goodness and his good works and what he did
to save himself. This is in spite of David, God's
grace protecting David. And after some time, while he
remained in the city of Gath, likely at the expense of the
king of the Philistines there, Achish, verse five, David said
unto Achish, if I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them
give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell
there. For why should thy servant dwell
in the royal city with thee? Now this proves to be a very
providential blessing of God for David. And I want to emphasize
this point to you. This is the first point. All
men are born sinners. We're all born of the corrupt
seed of Adam. But God has a chosen people. He has a chosen people. which
is here pictured for us in David. And the Lord, just as we see
the Lord providing for David providentially. And we don't
understand what David's doing or why he's doing them. David
probably doesn't know why he's doing this. I mean, he's doing
this out of fear of Saul, even though God protected him and
provided for him. And the point is, is that the
Lord providentially provides for all His people. He's working
all things together for good, for them that love God, for them
who are the called according to His purpose. Even when we
don't see it, even though we don't always understand it, even
though we don't always rightly interpret things and We sorrow over certain things.
We have troubles and struggles and difficulties and hardships
and failures and things that make us wonder what's going on
here. And yet the Lord is providing for us. He does take care of
his children. And he does work all things together
for our good because he's able and he does provide graciously
for his people. And so David's request here proves
to be a providential blessing. It really is. It's a blessing
that this was done here and it leads to David's continued blessings
in God. Verse six, then Achish gave him
Siklag. that day, wherefore Ziklag pertaineth
unto the kings of Judah unto this day." Well, what is the
relevance here of Ziklag in this account that we're looking at
here? What is the Lord telling us concerning
the mystery of godliness, of the gospel? What is the Lord
showing us here? What we see here is that the
Lord is, this city has to do with the promise, the promise
of our inheritance, the promise of the covenant. The covenant
promises, the covenant of grace for us. This city is a city which
was given to Israel in the promise of God for their inheritance
in the land of Canaan. It was given to them of God long
before this Philistine king gave it to David here. And so it isn't
that it's Achish giving him this city. No, this city was given
to Israel by God. And the point here is that it's
all according to the covenant promises. Let me show you that
it was given to Israel. Go to Joshua 15. Let's just look
there. In Joshua 15, this is where Joshua
is giving the inheritance to each of the tribes. And in verse
21, Joshua 15 verse 21, and the uttermost
cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the coast of
Edom southward were, and then it lists all these cities, and
you come down to verse 31, and there at the first one is, and
Ziklag, Ziklag, right? And so this was already given
here, and this is my second point, is that at the heart, of everything
that's transpiring here at these final chapters here with David
in the Philistines. And if you read ahead, you'll
see David was in some very precarious positions here. He almost went
out to war with the Philistines against Israel. And yet, again,
the Lord prevented all that, kept it from happening, and protected
David from doing such a thing. But at the heart of everything
that's going on here, at the close of 1 Samuel, this book
here, is that David is preserved, Saul is destroyed, and it all
has to do with the covenant blessings, the covenant promises. And your
salvation, brethren, has everything to do with You being put by the
Father in Christ before the foundation of the world. All according to
the covenant of grace. All according to what He would
do for you. And so, it's a picture that things
that are going on here are according to promise. They're according
to the covenant of grace. having done neither good nor
evil, that the promise of God according to election might stand,
that it be not of him that works or labors for the righteousness,
but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the older
shall serve the younger. And that's what we see here. And so it's a picture of grace. And the Lord deals very graciously
with David and with his life in preserving him. Though he's
a sinner, he preserves him. Whereas Saul, though he is also
a sinner, he goes forward without a covering, without any protection
from the Lord, without the Lord keeping him, and he goes off
and dies in his sins. And verse seven says, back in
1 Samuel 27, verse seven, And the time that David dwelt in
the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
And so all that time, God's providing a covering for David. He's made
a provision for David to preserve his life, even though David,
if you read it, David does things that could have had him expelled
from the land, if not killed. Just as if he stayed in Judah,
he could have been expelled from that land or killed by Saul in
that land. But the Lord provided for David
and he kept David protected. Now the next two verses here,
while he's dwelling in Siklag, they contain for us a glimpse
of the mysteries of the gospel. The mystery of what Christ our
Savior accomplished for us while as yet we didn't know or understand
what he was doing. We didn't understand what he
was doing, what he accomplished for us. And so Ziklag, this city
here, this town, it's situated perfectly in a spot for David
to have this ability to move freely and to do the things he
does without ever being uncovered or discovered by the King of
Gath so that the King of Gath didn't destroy him. or put him
to death, or expel him out of the land. And so that's the whole
key. It's all about the covenant of
promise. And the town of Ziklag was given
by God according to promise. And that's the thing that's at
the heart of this thing. And so in like manner, according
to promise, we're saved for Christ's sake. Our Lord and Savior accomplished
our redemption. He came in the likeness of his
brethren, laid down his life, shed his blood as our substitute
in our place, delivering us from the wrath of God. And he died
in our place and was buried and rose again for our justification,
so that in him we have life, we are justified of God. all
according to promise. Not because you deserve it, not
because I deserve it, not because we earned it, but because Christ
obtained it. Christ accomplished it. Christ
obtained all that we needed. And so with that eternal truth
in mind, look at verse 8. And David and his men went up,
and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites,
for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land,
as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. Now, here
David is a picture, he's a type of the church. I'm sorry, David
is a type of Christ. And the thing is that the church
and Christ are so intertwined, it's hard to separate us sometimes. We see the church in David, we
see Christ. in David, pictured in David here. And so we're so intertwined with
our Savior, we can't be separated. We are, as it says in the scripture,
we're members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And so David's a type here of
our spiritual David, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we overcome
and have the victory. in him. So first, these nations
of old who are the inhabitants of the land, what are these?
They are a picture of our nature, of our sin nature in Adam. They are a picture of our corruption
of our unrighteousness, of the sin in this land, in this body,
by nature, that's what these things, that's what these nations
picture here for us. And that sin has to be destroyed. It must be put to death. What's going on here is that
these were the nations, these were the peoples that were in
Israel when God gave them, when he brought them out of Egypt,
and he brought them into the land, These were the people that
were among those nations that lived there that the Lord said,
drive them out. And he didn't drive them out
immediately, lest the people would have other problems. But
they were supposed to continue driving them out and taking possession
of their inheritance in each of the tribes. And eventually,
they got to a point where they didn't. They stopped doing it.
Either they couldn't get rid of them, or they wouldn't get
rid of them. But it eventually stopped. And
so these nations, the Gesherites, the Gesrites, and the Amalekites,
were still there. That's who David went out and
was attacking from Ziklag. He was out there attacking them.
And I believe the Gesherites were in league with the Philistines. This would have been bad had
they survived and told the Philistines what David was doing to them,
but he destroyed them completely. And Egypt is referenced here,
right? As thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. What does Egypt picture? It pictures
our bondage. It pictures that land of darkness. It pictures the bondage and the
darkness and the death that all God's children are delivered
out of through Christ's redemption. So when Christ came and he laid
down his life What did he do? He destroyed our enemies. He put them to death and delivered
his people out of bondage. And that's what's being pictured
here with David. And so he came and did battle
with our enemies, and he successfully accomplished that battle, which
he came to do. He delivered us from the hand
of our enemies. And it had to be done, because
we can't do it. You can't do it. I can't do it.
Christ did it. Christ did it. For this purpose,
the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works
of the devil. And that's what these enemies
here, they picture the works of the devil, the sins of this flesh. And so
providentially, David was there according to purpose, and he
gained that victory according to the covenant promises. And
you think about our Lord and Savior. When he came, nobody
knew what David was doing. The Philistines didn't know what
David was doing. Even the people in Israel didn't
know what David was doing. No one knew what he was doing.
Well, in like manner, when Christ came, the people didn't know
what he was doing. The princes of of this world, they didn't know
what he was accomplishing. They wouldn't have crucified
the Lord of Glory if they knew what he was come to do and that
he was the Son of God. And even his own disciples were
confused when he died on the cross. They didn't understand
it yet. The Holy Spirit wasn't yet given
and they didn't know what he was accomplishing. And here's
David in Ziklag doing this work And that needed to be done that
the people themselves weren't doing. These inhabitants, he
was purging them, getting rid of them, all according to the
covenant promises. The covenant promises there.
Now verse nine, and David smote the land and left neither man
nor woman alive and took away the sheep and the oxen and the
asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and came
to Achish. Now, this verse here speaks more
specifically to the redemption of Christ, to the redeeming of
His people. And the scriptures teach us that
when our Lord came, He laid down His life. When He died, we died
with Him. We were put to death in Christ. This flesh of ours is the dust
of this land. We are the dust. this flesh is
dust for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt shalt thou return
and so David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive
and when Christ came and redeemed his people we were in him He
took us unto Himself, bearing our sin, our iniquity, as the
sin-bearing sacrifice. He laid down His life and put
us to death in Him to those sins, to the justice of God, so that
it's satisfied for us in Christ. We've paid the price. There's
no price to pay because Christ has paid that price. And what
Paul said, he said it this way in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live." We were
crucified with Christ. We died with Him on that cross
under the wrath of God, satisfying the justice of holy God so that
there's no more penalty. There's no curse against us. There's no wrath against us in
Christ. It's all put away because we
died in Him. and we die to the law, we're
dead to it. It has nothing more to say to us. I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live, which I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. And then again, Romans 7, 4,
wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. That's what our Savior was doing.
It says next there that David took away the sheep. He put to
death this old man, every man and every woman. He put us to
death in the land and he took away the sheep. He led his people
out of captivity. And all these precious things
here picture our being led out, and it pictures all the blessings
of his redemption, of what he accomplished for us. And so,
in this we see, in what David did here, that our old man is
crucified with Christ. We were put to death, and we
go forth out of that captivity, out of that bondage, led by our
spiritual David, from that and we're free now in Christ and
we live with him we return with him we're we're we're with Christ
right now brethren and so when he returned rising from the dead
and And when he ascended, he led captivity captive and gave
gifts unto men. All pictured here in what David's
doing. And so this is all a picture
there in Ziklag, in that covenant promise, that city which was
promised beforehand by God long before Achish ever gave it to
David. It was already there. David assumes that and goes forth
and does these works. And it's all a mystery. Nobody
knows what's going on. The people of Israel don't know
and the Philistines don't know. Look at verse 10 now. David came
to Achish, and Achish said unto him, Whither have ye made a road
today? And David said, Against the south
of Judah. and against the south of the
Dromulites and against the south of the Canaanites. That's not
what he did. We saw what he did. He didn't
go here. He didn't do this. But that's
what he's telling Achishir. And David saved neither man nor
woman alive to bring tidings to Gath. saying lest they should
tell on us saying so did David and so will be his manner all
the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. And
Achish believed David saying he hath made his people Israel
utterly to abhor him therefore he shall be my servant forever. Well, that's not so. That's not
so at all. So having shown that this town
of Ziklag, it gives us an understanding of why God loved David and provided
a covering for David. All the while, he left Saul to
himself. And in this, we're seeing that
the types and the shadows and the pictures of what Christ accomplished
for us. And it was a mystery that people
didn't know what was going on. And then when David comes back
and reports to Achish, Achish isn't hearing the truth. It's
a mystery still to Achish what David did. And so it is in the
preaching of the gospel and the testimony of what Christ has
done for us. Even in seeing Christ here in
this scripture is a complete and utter mystery to this world,
like Achish of the Philistines. He didn't hear the truth. He
couldn't hear the truth. It was kept from him. He was
blinded by the God of this world. He could not hear. And he didn't
know. And so it is when we declare
this gospel and report unto you and testify what Christ has accomplished
in redeeming his people and sending the Holy Ghost to regenerate
his people, to give us life in himself. It's a mystery revealed
to you. You hear it. You see Jesus. You hear his voice and believe
him. That's not so of this world like
Akish. They hear another tale and they
don't know what it's saying. They don't hear the truth. And
that's what's being pictured here. Their heart is hard. They have a veil over their heart.
They cannot hear nor receive the things of God, the things
that you and I hear and rejoice in. And so Achish never knew
what David accomplished. There's a lot of people that
will even say nice things about Jesus that have no idea what
he accomplished. They just think, well, I know
he's the son of God and I'm supposed to believe on him. And he's mad
and I gotta do what's good and try my best to do better. And
then he'll save me. And if you agree with me on those
things, we're all Christians, right? That's their knowledge. They don't know what Christ accomplished.
They don't see themselves as sinners. They don't see themselves
as needing of his grace and redemption and what he's done. There's no
joy in their heart. what Christ has accomplished. Let me show
you this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We'll pick up in verse 6. 1 Corinthians 2, 6, how be it
we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. See, all that we saw with David,
not known. We didn't see these things until
God showed us the picture of what Christ has done for us,
which none of the princes of this world knew, like Achish.
He didn't know, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor... Wait, did I agree with verse
seven? Let me read verse seven. But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory. which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor heard, neither I've entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And so
the Lord has revealed this accomplished redemption of Christ unto you. And it's hidden from those of
this world for whom it's not been given, for whom it's not
been done for them. And they're kept hidden from
these things. And so he remained in darkness
to what David did all his days. It never was shown to him nor
understood by him what David accomplished, just like people
in this world. But to you? We see it now. Israel would later see it and
understand how David was out there doing great things for
them, accomplishing those things which were in the covenant made
with them when God gave them the land and said, drive these
nations out and take possession of the land. I've given it unto
you. That's what David did. And so having seen these things,
do you see the beauties of what Christ accomplished? what He's
accomplished for you, brethren, in salvation. Do you rejoice
in what He did for you as sinners and for your brethren as sinners? Or are you just ignorant like
Achish? blind to these things and but
we see here what Christ did and and there are other scriptures
that show these things that testify these things more clearly but
we're in 1st Samuel and I want to show you these things in 1st
Samuel that you see in all the scriptures even though it's hidden
sometimes very hidden but it's there these truths are there
these truths of what Christ has accomplished for us are there. They're hidden in the mind and
by the grace of God we bring them out and show them unto you
to rejoice your heart. Otherwise it's just a history
lesson of what David did then. And it's really not clear why
David was here and what the Lord was doing. Well now we see what
the Lord was doing. He was accomplishing his covenant
promises in our spiritual David.