Let's be turning to 1st Samuel
chapter 21. 1st Samuel 21. It's been a while since we've
been here. As I read this a number of times
in preparation for this message, I was stumped because there are
so many small details here and it seems that They're insignificant,
or it seems that they're randomly put together. But by the grace
of God, I was able to consider them in the light of the hope
of the sinner, the hope that God has given to us in Christ,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's our hope, brethren. And so there is, when you look
at it in the light of Christ, there's an intention with these
details. There's an intention of what
is put together here. and declared in this relatively
short chapter of 15 verses. And they're put together to show
us, to give us an outline of the accomplished redemption of
Christ for his people. This is concerning the ministry
which the father gave to his son to accomplish for the salvation
of his people. And our Lord tells us when he
sends a spirit what the spirit would do. He says, when the comforter
has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me. He shall testify of me. And Paul, writing to Timothy,
said, From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Jesus Christ. So is it any wonder, then, that
the Spirit should lead the prophets and lead the man that wrote this
book? and show us Christ and His redemption
and what He's accomplished for us? It's amazing, indeed, but
it truly shouldn't be any wonder to us at all that this speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we conclude this message,
my hope is that you will behold Jesus Christ, our prophet, priest,
and king. And that's what he's made to
his people. Now, I understand that the natural man, the natural
man for him What he sees, it causes him to tremble when he
sees Christ. It causes him to despise Christ
and reject him because according to the natural wisdom of man,
he doesn't see Christ. He doesn't understand what the
emphasis of Christ is for. He doesn't see it as needful
or necessary and he keeps missing the beauty and excellency of
the Lord Jesus Christ in all his word and what a comfort that
gives to believers to know that all my hope fix in him is exactly
what the Father purposed for his people is to see Christ and
to see the glory of Christ that he be glorified in our hearts
And so while it's unseen by the eye of natural man, faith is
wrought in the heart of every child of God who's a sinner,
who needs salvation, who needs mercy, grace, and forgiveness
by God. For that's our hope, brethren.
That's our hope. And so I pray that when we're
done here, you'll see Christ here as prophet, priest, and
king. Now we begin in verse 1. Then
came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was
afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou
alone, and no man with thee? David has left the courts of
the king. And he's reduced to a very low
man. He is humbled here. He's in the
place right now of a common man. And he's very low and in a dark
place. In fact, he's even lower than
a common man because he's left the king's courts. He's left
the courts. And he has no court companion
with him. And that would be very strange
at this time. that David, a man of David's
stature, has no peer with him. There's a couple people with
him. We're told in this chapter that there's a few men with him.
But David doesn't have a companion of the king's court with him?
Just these scrubby looking guys out here with him? What's going
on here? Something doesn't seem right.
And so Ahimelech recognizes that. And with his leaving the king's
court, we know that he's actually being pursued by Saul at this
time. Saul is looking to kill David,
and so anyone who finds David, knowing what Saul is intent on
doing, would receive a lot of favor from the king if he took
David's life at this time. Now continuing in verse 2, David
said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a
business, and hath said unto me, let no man know anything
of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded
thee. And I have appointed my servants
to such and such a place. Now, in these two verses here.
We are beginning to see, by the grace of God in these two verses,
we begin to see a variety of similitudes in our Lord's coming,
in the humbling of Christ at his coming to the earth. Our Savior left heaven's courts,
did he not? He left his glory in heaven. When he came to earth, he left
heaven's courts above and he was humbled. as a man. He laid aside his robe of glory. He laid aside his power and authority
and took the form of a servant, came in the form of a servant.
Paul said, he made himself of no reputation. He took upon him
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Our Lord was born into poverty. Think of His parents. He didn't
come into a rich, wealthy family. He was born to parents of a very
mean background, a low background. These were poor people. people
of no reputation whatsoever. And when his ministry began,
his disciples who followed him, they weren't of the scribes and
the Pharisees. They were not of the Sanhedrin.
These weren't learned men. Most of them were fishermen,
lowly fishermen from a little fishing town, a little podunk
fishing town of no reputation themselves. Very low people were
with him. Paul says to the church, ye know
the grace of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that we through
his poverty might be rich. And our Savior came to do the
business of his father who sent him. He came to do his father's
business. He asked his parents, according
to the flesh, when they were looking for him, he said, how
is it that ye sought for me? How is it that ye didn't know
where I was? Know ye not that I must be about my father's business? He had to be about his father's
business. And yet, even then, the scriptures
tell us that they understood not the saying which he spake
unto them. A man to this day still doesn't
understand Christ's business. He still thinks that Christ is
a good man, that Christ is a signpost, just telling him how to get himself
saved, telling him how to live right, telling him how to fix
himself and how to fix his life. That's what he sees Christ. He
doesn't see Christ to understand that Christ came because we cannot
fix ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous.
Christ came because he is the very righteousness of his people. Praise be God. that he's all
our salvation. And so man looks at this book
as his how-to manual. Tell me how to live, he wants
to know. Tell me how to fix this, how
to make this right. I am telling you, I'm preaching
Jesus Christ and him crucified to you. He's the one who heals
all our wounds, all our sicknesses. He's the one who saves us to
the uttermost. And we preach Christ because
man keeps looking past him. and doesn't understand, doesn't
know what business he's about. And it's kept hidden, kept hidden
from men. And our Lord kept it hidden too,
right? He made sure that people didn't
know what he was doing because he had a business to do. He had
a work to fulfill. And until that was done, it was
not widely known except by revelation to a few people. just his few
disciples, to them he revealed himself. And he said it and they
still didn't even get it. He told them many times a son
of man will be taken and he'll be crucified and slain and rise
again the third day. And they would look at each other
wondering, what is he talking about? But they were afraid to
ask him because the business was kept hidden from them. It
was kept secret until it was accomplished and done and all
things were made ready. And so here's this David, the
anointed king of the Jews. Samuel had already anointed David
a long time ago and nobody knew it. Nobody even knew that he
was the King of the Jews and now he must flee because his
life is in danger from the King of that land. King of that land,
Saul there. Likewise, man doesn't know that
Christ is come except by special revelation. And we don't even
know that he's born King of the Jews. He's born King of the Jews. That's what he's come to do,
to save his people. And he's so obscure and hidden
from man's understanding and man's wisdom, even the court
of the king in Israel at the time of Christ's birth, which
was Herod. Even Herod had no idea until some wise men from
another country came and said, where is he that is born, king
of the Jews? For we've seen his star in the
sky. Where is he? And what did it
say there? When Herod, the king, had heard
these things, he was troubled. He was troubled and all Jerusalem
with him. Matthew 2.3. Just like Ahimelech
here. He's troubled. What's going on
here, David? What business are you on? That you're all alone.
That you've left the courts of the King. You know when the world
knew who Christ was? When Pilate wrote a title and
put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King
of the Jews. This man doesn't get his revelation
from God. And his word, he gets it from
the news. He gets it when it's posted up there on what it says
is going on. That's how man knew, oh, that's
Jesus, the King of the Jews, and they didn't even like that.
Brethren, this world doesn't know him, but you who are of
faith, you who have a need, you that are sinners and see Christ
and behold him and rejoice in him, you see him. Your eyes see
what the eyes of man cannot see. Your ears hear what the ears
of man cannot hear. Because God has been gracious
to you to show you Christ, to show you your need, to show you
the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is all. And he was persecuted and despised
and rejected by this world, and yet In that very thing, he finished
the work. He finished the business that
his father sent him to do when he sent him out from his courts
into the world in weakness, humbled as a servant to do that work
which we cannot do for ourselves. And he's given you life in Christ. Praise be his name. Next, I want
to show you three pictures. We're going to go through three
pictures here. I just wanted to show you that,
that this is speaking of Christ. This is a picture of our Lord
and what he's accomplished for us. Now, we have three pictures
that describe something of our Savior as our prophet, priest,
and king. First, in verse three, David
asks, Now therefore, what is under thine hand? Give me five
loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. Now,
when you see that, five loaves of bread, is there not something
of Christ in that that you hear? When he said, give me five loaves
of bread, that's all I need, five loaves of bread. What do
we see of that? David requested five loaves of
bread. Turn over to John 6. Let's go to John chapter 6. You
know, this, besides the redemption of our Lord, the miracle of his
redemption, his death, his burial and resurrection, besides that,
this is the only miracle that all four of the evangelists record. This is the only miracle that's
in every single one of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right here.
So John 6, verse 5. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto
Philip, When shall we buy bread, that these may eat? Now Peter
speaks up in verse 9, There is a lad here which hath five Barley
loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? But our Lord took those five
Barley loaves and those two small fishes and he blessed them. He
thanked God and blessed them and he fed 5,000 souls of the
men that were there plus the women and the children and He
fed every one of them, satisfied their every need, provided for
them fully with that bread. And we're told there what the
people's response was to that in verse 14, John 6, 14. Then
those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did in
feeding the five thousand, said, This is of a truth, that prophet,
that should come into the world. That's the prophet that Moses
told them would come. When God said in Deuteronomy
18, 18, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren
like unto me, and will put my words in his mouth. And he shall
speak unto them all that I shall command him. Jesus, brethren,
is that prophet that we are to hear. He has the words of eternal
life and we are to hear him. We are to look to him. And he
lifted up his eyes upon a great company of all that the Father
gave to him. And he took pity upon us and
has satisfied our every need. He satisfies our hunger. and
thirst for righteousness, because he is our righteousness. What
did he tell the people there in John 6, verse 50 and 51? He said, this is the bread which
cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. This is about eternal life, as
opposed to eternal death, brethren. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Now,
back in 1 Samuel 21, verse 4, the priest answered David and
said, there is no common bread under mine hand. Amen. Christ is no common bread. He's
the hallowed bread. There's hallowed bread if the
young men have kept themselves at least from women. Brethren,
Christ is the hallowed bread. He is our sanctification and
he delivers his people out from the doctrine of the whore of
Babylon. That's the picture there and being kept from women. Flee
from the whore of Babylon. Flee from her doctrine of works
and bondage and slavery and wickedness. It cannot save. It cannot save. Flee to Christ. Fly to him. He is the salvation of his people. Come out of her and come to the
fountain filled with blood which was shed for the sins of many. by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
sandwiched in between this exchange here between David and Ahimelech,
there's an ominous thing that's mentioned. And it'll come to
light later, but it's mentioned here, it's necessary to be mentioned
here because, again, we're seeing what Christ accomplished. We're
seeing Christ our prophet, our priest, our king. So drop down
to verse seven, verse seven. Now a certain man of the servants
of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name
was Dueg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged
to Saul. Now that's all that we're given
about Dueg at this time in this chapter here. But from this we
know this man's no lover of God. It says that he was detained
of the Lord. Probably Saul would give a portion
of his herds, a portion of his cattle, to the priests to take
care of them, right, as Israel was supposed to do. And so that
herdman was probably there dropping off some cattle or something
to that sort, but he was detained. He didn't want to be there. He
doesn't love God in any way. But God put him there according
to purpose. Because he's going to do the
wicked works that wicked men do in fulfilling the purpose
of God for his people. In order that he might accomplish
the purpose of God according to the election of grace. And
that's what's brought out here in Ahimelech. In helping David,
Ahimelech must die. He's going to die. To help David,
he's going to die. He must die because Saul, as
we'll see in the next chapter, when we get there, Saul accuses
Ahimelech of committing insurrection against him and helping David.
Saul accused him of that wrongly. Ahimelech wasn't trying to create
an insurrection in helping David and doing what he did. I'm not
going to go into all of it, but over in chapter 22, 1 Samuel
22, verse 13, Saul accused him of inquiring of God for David,
that he should rise against me. And then for that charge, in
verse 16, the king said, thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech,
thou and all thy father's house. Amen. There's a picture there. of Christ and what he did for
us. They charged our Lord with insurrection against Caesar that
they might crucify him, that the Romans would put him to death
and crucify him exactly as it was prophesied our Lord would
die, according to the scriptures. They charged him with insurrection,
saying, he says he's the king of the Jews. We have no king
but Caesar. And Christ never said that. Christ,
he is, but he was in his kingdoms, not of this world. And so they
wrongly accused him and nailed him to a tree, though even as
Pilate said, I find no fault in him. This man's done nothing
wrong. Let him go. Let him go, but he
wouldn't. And so he's guilty, just as guilty
as the Jews. And men of God tell us in Acts
2.23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain. Ahimelech here testifies of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who as our high priest, laid down his life,
offered himself to the Father to atone for the sins of the
people and reconcile us to God, to Holy God, to do what we cannot
do. He did all that in laying down
his life, for by one offering he hath sanctified, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Christ has done that as our High
Priest. Next, We see the triumph of our
glorious King's victory. There's a triumph spoken of here.
Though he died in weakness, our Lord rose again triumphantly,
victoriously, having soundly defeated all his enemies. Let's see our King triumphant
described in verses 8 and 9 of chapter 21. And David said unto
Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand, spear or sword? For I have neither brought my
sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required
haste." Now this, brethren, is a picture, what we see just in
this, just the faithfulness of Christ. When He came, humbled
as a man, He came with no weapon. Christ came as a lowly servant
and we see him praying all the time to the Father in everything
because he made himself so low that he depended entirely upon
God as Father. He brought no weapons himself.
He depended entirely on his father. And that's how faithful he is
in all that he did in accomplishing our salvation. That's how faithful
the Lord Jesus Christ is. And he depended upon him who
sent his son, who sent Christ, spared not his son, but delivered
him up for us all, that we might have life and hope in him. who otherwise have absolutely
no hope, no understanding, no wisdom, no light on God. But
Christ came to give us light and life and salvation and hope,
forgiveness and joy and peace and gladness in Him. This triumph
was preserved under the hand of our High Priest. It was by
His sacrifice that we had that victory. It's by His sacrifice
that we have that triumph, that glorious triumph over all our
enemies in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation is entirely
in the hand, under the hand of Christ. Verse 9 says, And the
priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest
in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here, wrapped in a cloth,
behind the ephod. If thou wilt take it, take it,
for there is none other save that here. And David said, There
is none like that. I'll take it. Give it to me.
Give it to me, brethren. Our faithful David slew the mighty
Goliath. He pictures that mighty foe that
is too mighty for us. Like all of Israel, hiding out
in the hills, they were afraid to go down there. But our David
went down there, and he defeated the mighty foe, Goliath. And
he gained the victory with that sword that Goliath would have
used after he ran David through. He would have taken that sword
of his and cut David's head off. But instead, David cut his head
off with that very sword. Look at chapter 17 in verse 51,
1 Samuel 17, 51. Therefore David ran and stood
upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of
the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistine saw their
champion was dead, they fled. They fled. Brethren, There's
all kinds of kings and presidents and princes in this land, but
there is one king of kings and Lord of lords, and that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, right now reigning and ruling triumphantly
over all our foes, brethren. Even the Philistines, as we see
a little later in this chapter, said, is this not David, the
king of the land? they knew and understood that's
the king, not Saul. That's the king. Just like in
this land there's people that might think the devil is having
his way, he's not the king. Christ is the king. Christ is
the king reigning and ruling right now. Our Lord and Savior
himself is the mighty sword of the Lord. The Word of God wrapped
in cloth. the cloth of this flesh. He came
humbled in this cloth, this flesh here, and he is the sword as
the sword of Goliath, wrapped in the cloth, and there it is,
behind the ephod. The ephod, meaning that he is
the wisdom of God. By him, he reveals the Father
unto us. We don't know who the Father
is, except by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we worship
God in spirit and in truth, by the Lord Jesus Christ, through
faith in Christ. That's how you worship God. That's
how we know the true and living God. Otherwise, we'd be coming
with blood sacrifices, and coming with works, and coming with this,
and coming with that, thinking that that's our righteousness,
only to die and find out, no, you're not righteous. But now
we have Jesus, we have Christ. He is our hope. We come in the
blood of Christ, boldly to the throne of God, trusting Christ,
our mighty Savior, our Almighty Conqueror. our hope, our joy,
our forgiveness, our fullness, our life, our light, our salvation,
our all. We come in Christ. And he inquires
of the Father for us. And he speaks to us. And he takes
our questions. And he speaks to us and answers
our questions and settles our fears and calms us down and assures
us that we are in his hand and no foe can touch him. Nothing
can take you from his hand. You have an eternal inheritance
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a king. That is the king
that can do that, that can say that, and nothing's going to
change his word because once he spoke it, it's finished. It's
finished in him, brethren. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Believe him. Trust him unto the
end. Don't be turned from Christ. I preach Christ here. I delight
to show you Christ in this, because I see more and more that this
world can give you everything else. You can get your health
care from the world. You can get your mental care
from the world. You can get your entertainment
from the world. You can get banking and jobs and all kinds of hobbies
and other things in this world. You can get everything in this
world. You can even get religion. in this world. This world can
give you everything, but you know the one thing this world
can't give you? It's Christ. They cannot give you Christ.
They'll tell you about everything to keep you occupied and your
eyes off the truth, but they can't give you Christ. Well,
my religion is Christian religion. Yep, there's plenty of that in
the world too, and it's still dead letter religion. We need
Christ, and that's the one thing this world won't give you is
Christ. And so, praise God that he shows us Christ is all and
in all because we cannot miss him. We could be very religious.
We could find all kinds of things to do from this book, but it
wouldn't be salvation. But when you find Christ, when
Christ finds you and shows you himself, what else is there? What else is there? So you enter
into the gate, And then you say, all right, I got that part down.
And then you leave Christ behind and go on to other things? No.
You're lost then. You've gone off the track. You've
gone left or right. But you're not in the way, because
the way is Christ. You're not in the truth, because
the truth is Christ. You're not in the life, because
the life is Christ. So we preach Christ crucified. And that's
what he's shown us. And he shows us Christ in it,
because he's shown us, yeah, he is the salvation of God. He's
the voice we need. He's the word we need. Now, when
all this was done, come back to 1 Samuel 21 and verse 10.
And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went
to Achish the king of Gath." So David was refreshed by Ahimelech. He was refreshed. He was helped
by Ahimelech. And Ahimelech, what he did, provided
everything David needed for what? For the wave of persecution that
was now going to be coming his way. for the truth, right? He was about to go through a
wave, weeks, a much time of persecution now, because he's the king, he's
the true king, and the king of the land, Saul, wants him dead.
He wants to destroy him, he wants to snuff that out altogether,
and so he's prepared now for the persecution, and so David
arose, and that, brethren, is a picture of Christ rising in
our hearts. He arose, he arose from the dead,
and he gives life to these dead bodies. He makes us to see and
to know Christ in all things, brethren, to see him. He rises
in our hearts, the hearts of the redeemed, and he testifies
those for whom he laid down his life by revealing faith in them. That's how we know, is by faith. that were the Lord's, because
we believe Him. We trust Him. We need Him. We
desire Him and love Him by the grace of God. And so He testifies
of Himself through the Word, and He conquers our hearts, and
He settles every question. He heals every wound through
the Word, the Word which is Christ Himself, and He preaches the
Word to us. Now turn to Acts 11. I just want
to show you a few things. This is the, verse 10 is where we're gonna
stop, but in Acts 11, verse 19, what do we see about this persecution
here? Because this is still part of
our Lord's redemption. This work right here is part
of the Lord's redemption. It's his accomplished redemption.
witnessed here by us in the church. Now they which were scattered
abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled
as far as Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene. which when they were come to
Antioch spake unto the Grecians, that is the Gentiles, preaching
the Lord Jesus. They preached Christ, and the
Gentiles heard the word. They heard the word, and faith
was wrought in their hearts. And that's what we're seeing
here with David. When he fled from Israel, he was being persecuted. He was being hunted. But that
word went out. A picture of that word traveling
out to the Gentile lands. Out there to Gath. And that's
what our Lord did through persecution. He spread the gospel. The gospel
went out. It went out from the land of
the Jews only out to the Grecians, out to the Greeks. And that's
because the men were preaching Christ and not preaching the
law of Moses. They preached Christ. And the
Jews hated it and persecuted them and drove them out. And
so the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas out to speak to these
believers among the Greeks. And look at verse 23. When he
came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them
all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Now, eventually, just as we see
here in this chapter, at the end there, they drive out David
too. The leaders of Gath, they drove out David as well because
they rejected him and they didn't believe. They called him mad,
basically. They called him a madman and
wanted him out of the place there. And it reminds me of what Festus
said when speaking to Paul. When Paul preached the gospel,
Festus said, thou art beside thyself. Much learning hath made
thee mad. You're a madman, Paul. You're
a madman. Are we mad, as the world supposes,
for the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ? The world
says you are. The world says you're a madman.
You're nuts. What are you wasting your time
for with him? Oh, we love him. We love him. We can't help but love him and
stay upon him and believe him and trust him. And Paul said
to him, we speak forth the words of truth and soberness. Brethren, our hope is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've heard what the Spirit saith
unto the churches, and we can't unhear it. And as Barnabas said
to the church, I say to you, cleave unto the Lord with all
your heart. Because that is the one thing
this world seeks to take away is Christ. You can have your
religion. You can have your your ways and
your works and everything you want that fits in fine with this
world But don't bring Christ into it that they cannot have
and that's the one thing Barnabas said you cleave to the Lord. He's the one thing needful By
him we have access unto the father by him. We have inheritance by
him. We have life and without him we have nothing Nothing. Nothing to help us at all. And Paul said that, those words
to Festus. He called him Most Noble Festus.
We speak forth the words of truth and soberness. But now, that's
not Festus' title. All his titles, all his accolades,
all his works, everything about Festus is laying dead in the
grave with Festus. And he died in his sins under
the wrath of God. We don't want to be like Festus.
Let us be madmen like Paul. in Christ. We have a glorious
Savior, brethren, whom we've been freely given, the one promised
from the foundation of the world that the Father told us of, that
He would come. And with that, He crushed the
serpent's head. He crushed his head. He took
that sword of Goliath, as it were, and cut his head off. And
we have the victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise God
in Him. This world persecutes Him, mocks
Him, rejects Him, but you that believe have ears to hear what
the Spirit saith that the world doesn't hear. You have a heart
that receives His word. You have a new creation. in you
by Christ that believes the word, that cleaves to Christ. So I
pray that with purpose of heart you would cleave unto the Lord
our prophet, priest, and king. Amen.