Four years ago, I think about
that. It'll be fine now. It'll be fine. My brother Don Former introduced
me to this man. My brother, dear, dear, dear
Pastor Clay Curtis, Pastor Friend. And I have just fallen in love
with him as I have with all of God's ministers that I've been
blessed to meet. Kevin. Kevin and I have become
close friends. We talk probably two or three
times a week. I talk to Clay at least once a month. Gabe. I just had to express how much I love
you, brother. Please come. Pastor Clay Curtis from Princeton,
New Jersey. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
of Princeton, New Jersey. Please come. Bless us with a message from
the Lord. Well, I feel the same about Brother
John. Thankful the Lord made our paths
to cross. If you will, turn with me to
1 Samuel 22. Kevin, thank you for those messages. Thank you all for your hospitality,
and it's good to see you all again. I normally don't read
a long passage of Scripture, but I believe I'm going to have
to. And I'm going to read the whole chapter of 1 Samuel 22. I think it will help us to see
the message. Verse 1 says, David therefore
departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adolim. And when
his brethren and all his father's house heard, they went down thither
to him. And every one that was in distress,
and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented,
gathered themselves unto him. And he became a captain over
them, and there were with him about 400 men. And David went
thence to Misbe of Moab. And he said unto the king of
Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and be
with you till I know what God will do for me. And he brought
them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the
while that David was in the hold, while he was in the cave. And
the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold, depart
and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed and
came into the forest of Horeb. When Saul heard that David was
discovered, and the men that were with him, Now Saul abode
in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having the spear in his hand,
and all his servants were standing about him. Then said Saul unto
his servants that stood about him, Here now, ye Benjamites,
will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards,
and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,
that all of you have conspired against me and there's none that
showeth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse,
and there's none of you that sorry for me, or showeth unto
me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie
in wait as at this day.' Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which
was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son
of Jesse coming to Nob, to Elimelech the son of Ahitho, And Elimelech
inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him biddles, and gave
him the sword of Goliath the flisting. Now that was a lie. It was only partly true. Elimelech
had not inquired of the Lord for David. You'll see that next. It says, Then the king sent to
call Elimelech the priest, the son of Ahithob, and all his father's
house, the priests that were in Nab, and they came, all of
them, to the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou
son of Hathab. And he answered, Here I am, my
lord. And Saul said unto him, Why have you conspired against
me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread,
and a sword, and hast inquired of God for him? that he should
rise against me to lie in wait as it is this day. Then Elimelech
answered the king and said, and who is so faithful among all
thy servants as David, which is the king's son-in-law, and
goeth at thy bidding, and is honorable in thy house? Did I
then begin to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me, Let
not the king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all
the house of my father, for thou serveth nothing of all this,
less or more. And the king said, Thou shalt
surely die, Halimelech, thou and all thy father's house. And
the king said unto the footman that stood about him, Turn and
slay the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with
David. And because they knew when he
fled and did not show it to me, the servants of the king would
not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord.
And the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priests. Doeg the Edomite turned and he
fell upon the priests and slew on that day 85 persons that did
wear a linen ephod. And Nod, the city of the priests,
smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children
and babies, and oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the
sword. And one of the sons of Elimelech,
the son of Ahithob, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar,
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. Abide thou with me, fear not,
for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me thou shalt
be in safeguard. My subject is safety in Christ. Safety in Christ. And here is
the point. And this is what I want you to
have on your mind and in your thoughts the whole message. Abide
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Christ. Abide in Christ. Because all who abide in Christ
are always safe. Abiding in Christ, we are safe
at all times. Abide in Christ. David here is
a believer, and he's being pursued by Saul. Saul has the office
of the king, but David is God's anointed king. And Saul wants
to kill David. And so he's pursuing David to
kill David. But David's also a type of our
Lord Jesus Christ. One of this, this son that escaped
and ran to David, and this is what David said to him, and this
is what the Lord Jesus says to his people. David said, I've
occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house.
Abide thou with me, fear not. For he that seeketh my life,
seeketh thy life. But with me thou shalt be in
safeguard. Child of God, you will be persecuted
for the sake of Christ, and you will face much tribulation in
this world, as Brother Kevin just taught us, as our Lord promised. But abide in Christ, and you
shall be safe. Now, first of all, do you fit
the description of one that the Lord Jesus Christ saves? Do you fit the description of
one Christ saves? Here's the description of those
our Lord saves, right here in verse 2. Everyone that was in
distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was
discontented gathered themselves unto David, and he became a captain
over them. For you who've never come to
Christ, and for you that believe on Christ,
the root cause of all our distress, all our discontent, all our sorrow
and affliction, the root cause is sin. It's either sin and unbelief
in us, or it's sin That's persecuting. But the root cause is always
sin. Don't look to the second causes.
That's the root cause. And the only cure is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has purged
the sins of His people. He has put away the sin of His
people. And if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you come to Him, you will be saved. Now,
if you've never believed on Him, believe on Him today. Believe
on Him right now. Cast all your care on the Lord
Jesus Christ to save you and your soul eternally. And if you
do believe on Christ, believe Him right now. Cast all your
care into the hand of the Lord Jesus. Cast your burden on the
Lord and leave it there. Believers, never stop coming
to Christ. We need Christ to save us from
the first hour to the last. Believe on Christ right now,
and I pray the Lord will use this message to cause you to
do so. I pray He'll do that right now. I really pray for you and
for me that the Lord will cause us to cast our care on Christ
and believe on Him. There's safety in Christ. And
here's why. Because number one, Christ is
our Lord. Number two, Christ is our Savior. And number three, Christ is our
safeguard against the devil and all falsehood in this world and
every temptation. I want you to see these three
things. First of all, all who believe on Christ are saved because
Christ is our Lord. He's our King. He rules everything. It says here, Verse 3, David
went thence to Misbe of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab,
Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and be
with you till I know what God will do for me. And he brought
them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the
while that David was in the hall, while he was in the cave. Here
you have King David. He's king of Judah. And here
you have the king of Moab. Christ is The King. He was David's King and he was
the King of Moab's King. Christ is the King of Kings. He's ruling over all. He's the
Lord of His elect Jews in Judah and He's the Lord of His elect
Gentiles in Moab. He's the King of Kings. All who
trust Christ are safe because He's our King. He's our Lord. Seen and unseen things, He rules
it all. And most of our warfare is with
unseen things. We're not wrestling against flesh
and blood. We're wrestling against spiritual unseen things that
we don't, we're no match for. But Christ is King ruling all. Now we see this by considering
who the Moabites are. What in the world is David going
and taking his parents to the Moabites for? Who are the Moabites? Lot was the father of the Moabites. Lot's herdsmen had a disagreement
with Abraham's herdsmen. And over a piece of ground, over a piece of ground, Abraham
told Lot, pick whatever you want, Lot. And Locke should have submitted
to Abraham, because Abraham was the man God used to preach the
gospel to him. And that's where the gospel was
in that day. And he should have just submitted
to Abraham and stayed right where he was. But Locke looked out
and he saw that fertile plain of Sodom. And it just made good
sense. Carnally, to the carnal eye,
and to the carnal reason, it made sense. I'll take Sodom. I'll take some. Never judge by
carnal reason. Never judge by carnal sight.
Never judge by God's providence alone. Judge what you should
do by what God's Word says. By what God's Word says. But by grace, because Lot was
a chosen child of God, Christ our King delivered Lot out of
Sodom. He delivered him out of Sodom
and saved him. Now, we don't understand how
important it was to have a son in those days. We just don't
get how important that was to them. But they had the promise
that the Messiah was coming through the woman, the seed of woman.
And that was very important in those days. And so, after the
Lord delivered Lot out, There was no man for Lot's daughters
to have children, and in order to preserve seed, Lot's daughters
got their father drunk and laid with their father. I think that
was an act of faith. But whether that was so or not,
it does, this is so, sin's mixed with our faith. Sin is mixed
with our faith. Never look to your faith. Faith
looks to Christ only. But Christ our King saved Lot. And he overruled his errors,
he overruled his sin, so that the Moabites descended from Lot. That's why you have this nation,
Moab. And then there was a man named
Bilimalek. And he also made a terrible error in judgment. Judging by
carnal sense, by carnal sight, he was in Judah in the house
of bread. He was where God's gospel was. He was where God promised to
meet with his people. He was where he could hear the
gospel of the Lord and worship the Lord. The house of bread. And there was plenty of spiritual
bread there. But God sent a famine of physical
bread. And he looked at Moab, and it
was fertile, and they had plenty of physical bread. They didn't
have the gospel. But Elimelech said, we'll go
there, and we'll sojourn there. And then his sons, against God's
law, took them Moabite wives. That was a sin against God in
what they did. And the Lord killed Elimelech,
and he killed his two sons. But God saved Naomi, his wife,
and one of the wives that his sons took was a woman named Ruth. And these were God's elect children. And God saved them and delivered
them back to Judah, back to the house of bread, where Ruth met
Boaz, the near kinsman. A picture of Christ, our kinsman,
redeemer, and his elect bride. And so God did all of that. He
overruled Lot's sin. He overruled Elimelech's sin.
He did all of that so that Christ Jesus our Lord, according to
the flesh, would be born for Ruth. Now is anything too hard
for our King? No. Do you see what He did? Is anything too hard for Him?
That's why Moab exists. Brethren, sin not. Do not sin,
and I know this, if you're born of God, you don't want to sin,
and you long for a day when you'll be free from this body of sin
and death. But sin not, do not sin. Our
sin is never excusable. It's our own fault, and that's
just period. Period. But God sovereignly overrules
our sin. He overruled Lot's sin, He overruled
Elimelech's sin to bring His eternal purpose to pass that
Christ might come into this earth and our kinsman-redeemer save
all His elect people. And that's what He's able to
do for me and you. That's what He'll do. He rules all things
in this world. When it says He works all things
work together for good, they don't just work together. He
works them all together. for the good of His people, according
to His eternal purpose. That includes our errors in judgment,
that includes our sins, that includes everything in this world. Our King shall save His people. That's the first reason we're
saved, is because Christ is our King. Brother Kevin just preached
it. He taught us, abide in me, for
without me you can do nothing. Now that means what it says.
Without Christ, we can't do anything. He said, these things have I
spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. You're not
going to have peace anywhere else. You will not have peace
anywhere else. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. Are you in tribulation? Are you
suffering affliction? Do you have trouble? All God's
people do. And our Lord told us we would.
In this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer."
Christ said, I have overcome the world. So the first thing
is, we're safe in Christ because He's our King. Abide in Him. Abide in Him. Secondly, we're
safe in Christ because Christ is also our Savior. He's our
righteousness. He's our holiness. He's our redemption. He is all to his people. He is
salvation. We see here David took his mother
and his father to safety and in that we see the law being
fulfilled. The law said, honor thy father
and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee. Now, God's saints want to obey
God. We want to obey every commandment
of our Lord. His law is holy, just, and good,
and we want to do what the Lord tells us to do. It's only for
our good. Why wouldn't we? But that was
not David's righteousness. There was a lot of sin and selfish
reasons that David was taking his mother and his father down
there for safety, to protect them from Saul. And sin's always
mixed with what we do. We cannot look to any obedience
of our own and think we're made righteous by it. No sinner will
ever be justified by the law. We have never kept the law in
righteousness. You haven't, I haven't. No fallen
son of Adam has ever kept the law in righteousness. But you
look at David as a picture of Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled the law for God's elect people in perfection. He did
it in perfection. He fulfilled not just that law,
he fulfilled the whole law of God. And we are justified by
Christ and we are righteous in Christ Jesus. The scripture said
what the law could not do and that it was weak through the
flesh. There's nothing wrong with the law, it's us. What the
law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who are born of God, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Let me tell you what
that doesn't mean. That doesn't mean, as some preach, that Christ
fulfilled the law and righteousness, and when you're born of God,
now you can fulfill the law and righteousness. That's not what
it means. What it means is Christ fulfilled the law. and perfect
righteousness. And when He gives you faith to
lay hold of Him, the righteousness of God is imputed to you because
Christ made His people righteous by His obedience. There's a whole
other message in that chapter about imputation. I could preach
a long time on it. Saul imputed treason to Elimelech,
but that didn't make it true. Him imputing a treason to Saul,
that didn't make it true. And you're not made anything
by imputation. Somebody can charge you with
a false charge and that don't make it so. Somebody can charge
you with a true charge, that don't make it so. Might not be
so. Imputation is God imputing what
is fact due to a prior act. God made Christ sin, that's the
prior act, and therefore he was numbered with the transgressors,
and Christ put away the sin of his people, and by his obedience
made his people the righteousness of God. And therefore, when God
imputes righteousness to you, it is because Christ made you
righteous by his obedience. It is a just charge, because
that's what he made us be. Imputation is the imputation
of what is true based on a prior act having been accomplished.
He imputed sin to us because Adam sinned and made us disobedient.
That's what made us sinners. So you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. The law is not against the promises
of God. If life could have been given
by the law, then righteousness would have been by the law. Life
and righteousness are one and the same. Just like sin and death
are one and the same. But you can't have life through
the law because you can't have righteousness through the law
by your works. But the Scriptures have concluded all under sin
that the promise by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ might be freely
given to them that believe on the Son. And that's why you're
safe, believer, if you believe on Christ, because He has fulfilled
all righteousness, and He has made His people the righteousness
of God in Him. And be sure to get this now.
Because Christ satisfied justice for His people, That same justice
that demanded you die because Christ died in the room instead
of His people and justified His people, that same justice now
demands His people must live and be saved. Justice is your
friend, child of God. The justice of God is your friend. So abide in Christ. He's our
King and He is our righteousness. But somebody might say this,
the preacher, I can't see Christ. I can't see Him. No, but we see
Him by faith. We see Him by faith. And though
Christ right now is at God's right hand, you are as secure
in Christ Jesus the Lord as when He walked this earth amongst
His disciples. I want you to see that in this
verse. In verse 3 it says, David went from the cave of Dullam
to Misbe of Moab. Now David had not left the cave
of Dullam yet. He was still abiding there, going
there at night, but while he was still abiding in the hold,
he went to Misbe of Moab to provide refuge for his father and his
mother. A Dullam was a cave underground, and what it means is Justice
of my people. That's what Adolo means. Justice
of my people. And misbe in Moab means watchtower
of his father. That's the definition the Greek
lexicon gives of both those terms. Adolo means justice of my people. Misbe in Moab means watchtower
of his father. Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
justice for His people on the cross and was buried in a tomb
bodily, just very similar to that cave being underground.
He was in a tomb. But when our Lord's body was
in that tomb, in spirit, because He had accomplished redemption
for His people, in spirit, He already entered into the holiest
of holies in the presence of His Father, and all His people
were in Him. And so while as yet his body
was in that tomb, his disciples at that time, scared to death
because they saw their Savior crucified, but though his body
was in that tomb, they were as safe and secure in Christ as
they were when he walked among them bodily when he was alive.
And believer, Christ has risen. Gad told David, get out of the
hole and go to the forest of Horeb. All the prophets prophesied
Christ would arise, and Christ arose from the grave, and He
is at the right hand of the Father in body and spirit, and all His
people are there in Him. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. You are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God, and you are as safe right now because
of Christ as you would be if He was walking this earth bodily.
He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He said,
I'm with you always. And that's so. He's there right
now bodily, but He's with His people all the time. And He will
keep you, and you're safe in Him. So that's why we're safe,
brethren. And this is what Peter said,
Whom having not seen, ye love. You don't see Him. We don't know
Christ after the flesh. We don't even know our brethren
after the flesh anymore. We know Him in spirit. Because
your brethren have been made new creatures in Christ. They're
new in Christ. And you know Christ in spirit.
You see Him by faith. And so, in whom though now you
see Him not, yet believe Him. You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving right now, even right now, when
you're in trouble and you're in a trial and you're in affliction,
you receive right now the end of your faith, which is the salvation
of your soul. Through faith right now you see
Christ in any trouble you're in and you know, I'm safe and
secure in my beloved. So you believe Him and you abide
in Him. Now I want to get to this last
thing. Christ is our safeguard against the wiles of the devil. Saul here is a type of the devil,
and he's a type of that false Jesus that men preach, and they're
one and the same. The devil and this false Jesus
men are preaching, they're one and the same. It says there in
verse 6, when Saul heard that David was discovered and the
men that were with him, And it says Saul was abiding in Gibeah
under a tree in Ramah, had his spear in his hand, all his servants
were standing about him. You picture Saul there, he's
in Gibeah, that means he's in a grove. And throughout the Old
Testament, will-worshippers, and that's what the false religion
is, that's men who are worshiping another Jesus, are worshiping
their will. That's the idol, it's self. And
we don't look down our nose at them, because we're just like
them by nature. And you couldn't save yourself.
We're worshiping the will of our Father, and we're saved by
His will. And so we can't very well be
high-minded toward those that are in Will Works religion. But
they always worshiped in the groves where the shade was, just
because the shade was there. That's why they went there. And
will worshipers today do the same thing? They look for a church
based on carnal things. Do you have something for the
kids? Do you have programs? Can you entertain us while we're
on our way to hell? That's basically what men are
looking for. Christ has always been worshipped at God's appointed
place. It's in God's house at Jerusalem
in Mount Zion. That's where He was worshipped
in that day. And brethren, today Christ is in Heavenly Mount Zion. He's in heavenly Jerusalem, and
he is ministering to his people Through his preacher when the
gospel is being preached That's how Christ is ministering to
his people and now if you will be safe in Christ Stay in God's
house United with his people under the preaching of the gospel
of Christ Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as a manner
some is, but exhorting one another so much so more as you see the
day approaching. Now Saul had heard where David
was, and he heard about these men that were with him. And the
devil knows Christ is victorious. He knows Christ has risen, he's
accomplished redemption, and he knows he has an elect people,
and he knows them there is. Saul had a spear in his hand
that represents power. Later, David took that spear
from Saul, but David gave it back to him. The devil bruised
Christ's head on the cross, but our Lord Jesus Christ crushed
the devil's head. I mean, the devil bruised his
heel, but Christ crushed the devil's head. And he's the accuser
of the brethren. He'll use men to accuse the brethren. But Christ took all his power
from him by taking all the sin of his people away. The devil
has nothing with which to accuse his people before the Father,
because Christ put our sin away. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? That's a broad brush. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God to justify.
It's Christ that redeemed us, and it's that God's right hand
interceding for us right now. So the devil has no power to
accuse his people. For our safety, brethren, and
remember this, the devil can only do, David took that spear
from him, Christ took the power from the devil, but David gave
that spear back to him. You can find that in chapter
23. Well, Christ took all the power from the devil, but he
will only permit the devil to do what fulfills Christ's purpose. That's all the devil can do.
That's all he can do. But for our safety, brethren,
the devil, he's wanting you to be separated from Christ. He's
wanting you to be separated from your brethren. But for our safety,
the Lord's given us spiritual discernment. So that you hear
Christ's voice when the gospel is preached. And Christ said,
and my people will not follow a stranger. They will not follow
a stranger. Saul gives us here a picture
of what men preach when they preach that false Jesus. But
this is what the devil would love for you to believe. This
is what the devil would love for me and you to think when
we're in affliction, and when we're opposed, and when we're
persecuted, and when we're in trouble. This is what he would
love for you to think. Look what he did. Verse 7. Saul
said to his servants, Here now, you Benjamites, will the son
of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, or make
you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? The
preaching of that other Jesus motivates with the promise of
earthly rewards. Just like that's what Saul was
doing. He was trying to motivate them with the promise of earthly
rewards. Now, get this, and this is so important. When the scripture
speaks of blessing his people, God blessing his people, it often
uses temporal things. That covenant God gave to Israel
was only an earthly covenant. It only promised earthly blessings
and an earthly inheritance in an earthly land called Canaan. But it pictured heaven. And so
when you read of those earthly blessings, brethren, the blessings
are not earthly blessings that God gives His people. The blessings
are spiritual blessings. Those things picture spiritual
blessings. They picture righteousness and
holiness and peace in Christ. They picture preservation by
our Lord and salvation by our Lord. That's what they speak. But carnal men only speak about
temporal blessings. And they speak of heaven's reward
as being just like temporal blessings. You've got a richer, bigger mansion
on the rich side of heaven and all that stuff. Christ Jesus
is the true Son of Jesus. He's the true David. And He gives
every one of His people fields and vineyards. He will provide
your earthly needs. And He gives you fields and vineyards. But here's the blessing. It's
being united in one to Christ Divine. That's the reward of
His people. That's the blessing of His people.
Being inseparably united to Christ. Christ makes all his people captains
of thousands and captains of hundreds. He does that. He has
made us kings and priests unto God, and we're going to reign.
We do reign with him on earth right now. He's given us multitude
of brethren, and when we die, we're going to be joint heirs
with Christ. But brethren, the blessing is
that we're one with the captain of our salvation who has accomplished
our warfare. That's the blessing. That's the
blessing. Christ is the reward of his people
right now, and in glory, Christ is the reward of his people.
And here's what the blessing is. Every one of his people have
the exact same righteousness and holiness in and by our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the blessing. One, one
in Christ. But Christ's blessings, and please
get this, it's not health, it's not wealth, it's not prosperity,
because brethren, that's not what we need. That's not what
we need. When all is peaceful and everything's
going well, your children will play with their toys and they're
just happy and they're playing with their toys, everything's
peaceful. Soon as trouble comes, they'll start calling out for
mama and daddy, and we're the same. When everything's good,
everything's peaceful, we're focused on our earthly toys,
and we become consumed with our earthly toys. And so the Lord
will send you affliction, and he will send you trouble to make
you turn and call out to him. Because he's going to keep you
knowing he is the one thing needed. He's not going to let his child
forget that. He'll provide you what you need in this earth.
He'll provide you the temporal stuff that you need. There's
a big difference between want and need. He'll give you what
you need. But He will take away those things from you, be it
health, be it anything else He gives you, children, loved ones,
whatever it is, to keep you knowing Christ is what you need. He is
the one thing you need. He's life. He's all. He's all. He'll provide for you though.
He'll provide you with general stuff. David said, I've been
young and I'm now old. I've never seen a righteous forsaken,
never seen any seed breaking bread. He'll provide these things.
But Christ, He's going to keep you knowing Christ is your need.
Saul here tried to make these men feel sorry for him. And in
the trial, that's what the devil wants you to do. He wants you
to think everybody's conspiring against you, just like Saul felt,
and nobody feels sorry for me, and what have you. That's what
he wants you to think. And he wants you to do that so
that you'll turn from Christ. You'll leave his gospel. You'll
leave the brethren. Brethren, get this now. Saul's
son, Jonathan, he was in league with David. He was in covenant
with David. And every one of God's people
are in a covenant with our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is ordered
and sure in all things because God didn't leave anything in
mind in your hands to fulfill. He fulfilled it all. He fulfilled
it all. Christ himself is the covenant.
God said, I'll give thee for a covenant of the people. And
Christ said, this new covenant is the New Testament in my blood. That's how sure it is. That's
how sure it is. David suffered a lot of trials.
Are you in trouble? Do you suffer affliction? Are
you suffering sorrow because of affliction? David suffered
a lot of it. David was in the wilderness more
than he was in the palace. He wrote three-fourths of these
Psalms, or the majority of these Psalms, in the wilderness. Do
you know Paul wrote three-fourths of the New Testament from prison?
We wouldn't have these words. David, I mean of Moses, he wrote
the first five books in the wilderness, being rejected by the children
of Israel. We wouldn't have the Scriptures
if God didn't put his people in a fixture. That's when you
get the most blessing. That's when you see Christ really
is all, and his other things is not what's saving you. But
here's what David said at the end of his life. He said, although
my house be not so with God, his own son tried to kill him.
Although my house be not so with God, God made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure, and this is all my salvation
and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. This covenant's
all our salvation. Christ, our covenant, and all
that he's accomplished for us is all our salvation. Now the devil's got his dough
eggs, just like Saul made dough egg, slayed 85 priests that day. And women, children, babies,
cattle, everything, slew everything and none. But one son escaped
and he ran to David. And David said, I've occasioned
the death of all the person of thy father's house. I've got
one more thing to show you and I'm done. David said, I've occasioned
the death of all your fathers, all these priests. How did David
occasion their death? David came to Nob, to Elimelech,
and asked him for the showbread. And he was asking that showbread,
because he had men with him that hadn't eaten in three days, and
he's trying to provide bread for them. And you know how he
got that bread? He lied to them that day. That
saved Zola King's business. There's a beautiful picture in
that, brethren. Christ Jesus, who knew no sin,
was made, sent for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. David, in order to provide the
showbread for his men, became guilty that he could provide
bread for them. That's what Christ did for His
people. And He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. And you that believe, He's given
you the holy bread, the bread of life, and it'll never be taken
from you again. And so this is Christ's word
to you. Yes, you'll be persecuted for believing Christ. It was
for David's sake that those men died. And so now here comes this
son of one of the men that died to David. And David said, your
father died because of me. But David's heart went out to
that boy because of it. And Christ is touched when our
infirmities. He is touched when any of his
people are persecuted for his sake. But the very one who caused
the suffering, who caused the death of this boy's father said
to him, abide thou with me, and fear not. He that seeks my life
seeks your life, but with me you shall be in safety. And that's
what Christ says to you and me, brethren. When you're persecuted
for his sake, abide in Christ, You'll be safe and proud. Amen. Wow. What a fitting song for
us to finish this morning's service with. Page 353, would you stand
with me please? All I can say to what was just
preached is this, seven more hours and we get to hear another
wonderful message from our Lord, Brother Gabe Stockton. Can't
wait for tonight. Shelter in the time of storm,
353.