Thank you, John and Sally. 1 Samuel 22. Most of us have looked at this
quite a few times, at least a dozen or more times. This is one of
my favorites, but then again, if the Lord blesses whatever
story, it becomes one of your favorites. We have 1,000 favorite
stories, We would miss the purpose and
the message of Scripture if we don't see Christ in it. To Him
give all the prophets witness. Christ said, they are they which
testify of me. We miss the purpose and the message
of God's Word if we don't see Christ in it. And we miss a blessing
if we don't see ourselves in these stories, if we can't relate
to what's going on. Read 1 Samuel 22. It's a real
story of a real man and men. and therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave Adilam. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard, they went down thither to him." They
went down there to him. And everyone that was in distress,
and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented
or bitter, gathered themselves unto him, to David. And he became
a captain over them. There were with him about 400
men. Several messages, as I said,
several titles given. Captain over the distressed.
Our captain in the cleft of the rock. The title this time is A Man,
A Man of God, and The God-Man. If this message is not a blessing
to you, I can highly recommend one that's entitled The King
and the Captain and His Sorry Crew. A good one. David is a man. I'm thankful for the men of Scripture,
and women. But the men were those whom the
Lord chose to lead, men and women, God's people. I'm thankful for
the men in Scriptures, but let's remember, they're just men. Yet
men of God. And most of them, if not all
of the leading men, were types of Christ. That's why God raised
them up. None, no man was ever more a
type of Christ than David. In fact, our Lord, God calls
His Son, the Son of David. David was just a man. Just look
at the man. David was just a man. He was
a sinner. A sinner. He was at the mercy and the grace
of God. A man. The first man, Adam, was
a great man, wasn't he? He was a great man. He was a
sinless man. He was a perfect man. Adam. Brilliant. Adam was a brilliant man. Probably
never been another one so brilliant until the second Adam came. Before
Adam fell. But Adam fell, didn't he? Adam
fell. And now in Adam, all fall. All men and women are fallen
creatures. All die. They're all fallen.
Man, but for the grace of God, well, man is fallen. But for
the grace of God, he's fickle. He's finite. He's fallible. foolish and he's a failure. That's mankind in him. That's
you. That's me by nature. All of us. There are no super
men. There are no super men in Scripture. In fact, the Lord records the
failures and the falls of the greatest of men in Scripture,
doesn't he? Beginning with Abraham, who's
the father of the faith. He fell miserably, didn't he?
Terribly. Because he's a man. All men and
women must be saved by the mercy and grace of God. Sinful men,
sinful men, by grace were given faith, strength, and courage
that is not in us by nature. That's not man's state, is it? He's the opposite of all those
things. And God, but God, gives grace, gives faith, gives strength,
gives courage to men like David at times. And yet David's the
one who wrote this. Every man at his best state is
what? Vanity. Altogether vanity. Altogether. Everything about
him is vanity. He's a disappointment. He's a
fallen, fallible, finite, foolish failure. That's man, isn't it? I'm thankful, though, that God
records the falls and the failures of these men, aren't you? I'm
so thankful that God writes the sins and the failures of God's
men. I'm sorry they had to fall, but
yet it gives me hope. Doesn't it, you? It gives me
hope. David at times was courageous,
oh my. The Lord raised him up, 18 year
old boy, 16, most think he was about 16 years old when he faced
Goliath. Don't you love that story? Now
no human being could do what he did unless God gave him the
grace and the strength to do what he did. Gave him the faith.
Right? David is a 16-year-old young
man, probably 5 foot 4 inches tall, 5'6 at the most, 140 pounds. Saul called him a stripling.
Little youth, you know. Ruddy youth. An 8 1�2 foot tall
giant. Everybody in Israel was scared
of him. Who represents Satan. And David represents our Lord,
doesn't he? Who had no former accomplice. And I'm going to
get way off if I don't stop right there. But David went out there
and said, is there not a cause? And he fought and slew that giant. And that story is not a story
for David's and Goliath's sort of what you can accomplish. That
story is about Christ who defeated our great adversary. That's why
it was written. Nevertheless, the Lord did give
David But David was courageous, but here he's a coward. He's a coward. He's running scared
for himself. So every man can, by God's grace,
do something courageous. Like Elijah, there was never
a stronger, more resolute, fearless prophet than Elijah. But when
Jezebel said, I'm going to kill him, You know what he did. Faithful? Oh, David was faithful. Well, here he's fearful. Strong? I mean weak. That's every man
at his best day. David, as I said, was chosen
of God, called young, zealous, courageous, bold, outspoken,
upright. But, you know, the Lord gives
Out of the mouths of babes, he has to ordain strength. That's
what the scripture says. Psalm 8, you just read that.
Look at the distilled avenger, and that's what he did with David
then. David wrote that. As a young man, but time wears
on, and you get older, and the enemies keep coming. And they
keep coming. And they won't let up. And you
get tired of fighting those battles. You understand what I'm saying?
Sure you do. The older ones especially. And David looked at himself and
said, I can't do this anymore. And he lost confidence. He looked
at himself and quit looking at the Lord. If you look at yourself,
what you'll see is a weak failure. A helpless, hopeless sinner is
what you'll see. Right? With no strength. Just
nothing but weakness. Paul was arguably not a bolder,
stronger man in all of the Scripture, including David. But Paul said, who's weak and
I'm not weak. So he began to look at himself. He lost confidence.
He lost courage. And he acts badly. He goes where
he shouldn't be and he mixes with the people of the world.
And you can't tell any difference between David and the people
he's around. He loses his mind. He's not acting
in his right mind. That's the story right before
you. That's sad, isn't it? That's really sad. Do you see
why we must be saved by grace, kept by the power of God? We
can't keep ourselves. You can't. Oh, my. So he ran away and he ran into
this cave. And that's when he wrote Psalm
34. He said, this poor man cried. And the Lord heard him. He flew to this cave. David's
sin, David's cowardice, David's falling proves him to be a man at best.
But you know what? It doesn't make me love him less.
And it doesn't make me esteem him less. Does it, you? I remember
one time asking you what you thought of Rahab the harlot. Now, her former life was a harlot. But I remember asking you that
one time, and every one of us can't wait to meet Rahab. Mary Magdalene. No, we don't
esteem each other less or love each other less for our faults,
our sins, and our failures. We're able to relate in our way.
It makes us have compassion on one another. And David, what was David's hope? Out of what? David's help. David's salvation. Same as you and me. You see that? He can't do anything without
Christ. He can do nothing. He's just a man. Doesn't that
help you? If you'd ask David, he'd talk
about sheep. He was a shepherd, you know,
and he loved to talk about sheep. And the Lord is my shepherd.
And if you'd ask David, you know what he'd say? He'd say, I'm
the black sheep. He'd argue with you, Karen. No, it's me. He said, I've received more grace
and mercy and love and kindness and benefits and blessings from
our Lord than any man on earth, and look what I did. Right? That's what he'd say.
Is that what you said? So David ran. Where did he go?
To the cleft of the rock. Rock of Ages. What is that rock? What is that cleft of the rock?
Christ. Over a hundred times in the Old
Testament alone, the rock is spoken of. Christ is that rock. That rock followed him. That
rock was smitten. That rock where the Lord put
Moses in. Moses stood on the rock and the
Lord put him in the rock. And you know what that means.
That's Christ. His rib and side, out of which flowed blood and
water, salvation of God's people. Christ is the cleft of the rock,
rock of ages. Oh my, David said this, what
time I'm afraid, I'll trust in thee. He was his truth. He said,
I flee unto thee to hide me. But now David was a man of God,
wasn't he? God's man. Aren't you thankful?
for men of God. And women, but I'm talking about
men now that God has raised up to lead His people. Though sinful,
though fallen, though fearful, though fallible, God chose them
and God chose David and raised him up to lead His people. And
I'm so thankful. So were His people. Who better
to lead sinners than another sinner? If you were in the Army, you
called into the Army, Ron was and John was and Kate is a veteran
and on and on, there are several of you. Would you rather go out
to battle with a man who has been there and fought those battles
and had a few defeats and seen the bullets flying and was scared
or a fellow fresh out of officers training school. Ron, you remember
some of those fellows, don't you? Would you follow them? He's been sheltered. It's all
book learning. He doesn't know nothing. Take
an old sergeant that's been there to teach him a lesson or two. Who better to lead centers than
a sinner? Who can relate to sinful men
but sinful men? Our Lord, the God-man, and I
want to get to him as fast as I can, but he was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, tempted in all points like as we are.
That's why he's called, he's perfect to be captain of our
salvation. He knows where we are. In fact, he stood out in
front from the very beginning and faced our adversary. by himself
and took every shot, every fiery dart, every temptation for it. And you know what? He won. And that's what gives us courage. The battle's over. Remember,
that's what Hazel, I forgot his name, doesn't matter. That's
what he said. The battle's not yours, it's the Lord. God chose, God calls sinful men
to lead His sinful people. Look at 2 Corinthians 1. He calls sinful men to lead sinful
people. Sinless angels can't preach the
Gospel. You know that? The angels who
did not fall, they cannot preach the Gospel. They can't from the
heart speak of mercy. Again, grace, forgiveness of
sin, pardon. Only a sinner. Oh, my self-righteous, self-assured,
sheltered, sinless seminarians, seminary graduates, they can't
preach the gospel to you. You need a man like Simon Peter.
He's been out in the world. tempted by the God of the world,
and fail. And fail. Because the first thing
He's going to tell you is, you know what? You're kept by fire. 2 Corinthians 1. Look at this. Verse 1. Paul, an apostle of
Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother under the
church. The church. Verse 3. Blessed be God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God
of all comfort, who comforteth us. in all our tribulations,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted. We need comfort. The messages, Brother John Chapman,
I listened to a message about him on the way home yesterday. When did we come home? Yesterday?
Sunday. And he said, somebody asked him, about a message he was working
on. He said, how do you get a message? He said, the messages that bless
me are not the ones I'm working on, but the ones that are working
on me. I like that. I've worked on a lot
of messages, but the ones that really work on me that touch
me, that speak to me, that comfort me, that convict me, that warm
me, that comfort me. Those are the ones I know are
going to comfort you. Why? Because we're just alike.
We need the same thing. If we look at chapter 3, 2 Corinthians
3, verse 1, do we commend ourselves? Do we need, as some others, epistles
of commendation, letters of recommendation? Do we have any degrees behind
our name? No, God doesn't call men with
degrees. No, He doesn't. He calls men of low degree. You've
got to start low. Because that's who you're preaching
to. Lonely sinners then. The meek and the lonely. The
man, David, how did David start? Following sheep. And the Lord
didn't let him forget that. Look where I found you, David.
Following sheep. Now look where you are. That
would make a man appreciate. And keep him humble. Keep him
humble. Realize, I'm a nobody from nowhere. I'm not worthy to lead anybody. Right? In verse 5 of 2 Corinthians
3, he said, We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything
of ourselves. Our sufficiency, where? He said,
of God. A man called of God, you see
your calling, brethren? All of God's people, same calling.
God chooses nobodies and nothings from nowhere. Not the wise and
mighty and the prudent, but nobodies from nowhere. Look at chapter
4. I love this. 2 Corinthians 4
is just a marvelous passage of Scripture. Go back and read the
whole thing for yourself. But look at verse 7. He says,
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, clay pots, that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We have
this treasure in earthen vessels. Men just like us. Finite, fallible,
fallen, sometimes foolish men. The apostles, all of them were
just working class men. None of them had degrees. They were just common, ordinary
men. God gave them great grace and
wisdom and courage most of the time. And so people knew, look
at it, we have this treasure that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. When these fishermen went out
preaching, how do you think they felt when the Lord first sent
them out? Thomas, if all you'd ever done in your life was fish,
fishermen don't talk much. You can't catch fish when you're
talking. Like that fellow said, you going to fish? You talk all
day. They're quiet. This is why I
wrote a whole article one time on why God calls fishermen. But
they're out there by themselves. They've got to be solitary. They've
got to not mind a life alone. But anyway, the Lord called them. They didn't go to school. They
didn't learn those languages. And God and Christ said, go preach. How do you think they felt, Kenneth?
Oh, my. You going to send somebody with
you? Yeah. Yeah, I'll send another one with you. You can help one
another. But, man, I remember, you know,
we'd go out preaching, us young fellows. None of us went to school
except my pastor. That's how preachers are trained,
you know, under another preacher and pastor. That's the Bible
way to train a preacher. There is no other way. Okay? Every single preacher in school.
Titus and Timothy under Paul, Elisha under Elijah, Joshua under
Moses. Paul studied Gamaliel and he
had to unlearn it all. But we'd go out as young men
and, oh boy. And we helped each other. God
helped us. So, look at verse 8. Paul says
this of himself, of Silas, of Timothy, and all of us. We're troubled on every side.
We're not distressed. We're perplexed. Anything perplexes
you, perplexes me. But we're not in despair. Persecuted. Not forsaken. Cast down. We're still here. That's that psalm. John, the
psalm begins, destroyed not. We're not destroyed. Why? We have a rock to flee to. It's
higher than the cleft of the road. So that's who God calls. That's who God calls. Go back
to the text. Now the thing is, the one who
preaches Christ is the man who needs Christ. You know why I
preach Christ? Because I need Christ. You know
why I preach Christ to you, that Christ is all? Because He's all
in me. It's all I know. You know what? It is. He is. In Him dwelleth. Since I found out that in Him
dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, I'm determined
not to know anything about Him. I'm determined not to preach
anything. That's what the other Paul said. Paul the greater.
I'm Paul the lesser. But that's what God will show
His men, and that's why they preach Christ. Because Christ
is all of them. His salvation. He's my salvation. He's my strength. He's my hope.
He's my help. He's my righteousness. He is
my all. I am nothing at all. And what
I'm here to do is to point you to Him. Okay? So God chose David. He chose
a sinner and raised him up to be shepherd leader of God's people.
And it says in our text, look at it, All his father's house
heard that he was there. His brethren, his father's house
heard, and they went down thither to him. I love that, don't you? Psalm 119, I quoted that in Georgia. I've quoted it all the time to
you. It said, those that fear thee will be glad when they see
me. I'm so glad to see you. Are you glad to see me? I'm so glad to see you. It ought
to show by now I go around and speak to every one of you. I
don't want to not speak to any of you. Why? I'm sure glad to
see you. Are you glad to see me? I'm a
companion of those that fear God. You're my companion. I have
no other friends in this world. I promise you. I don't hang out
with anybody but you all. I can't. I don't have anything
in common with anybody. But I'm sure glad. You're my
companions. You're my people. Your God's
my God and your people are my people. I don't want to die with
you. Yes, I do. Just let me die right here. Wouldn't
that be nice, for me to just die right here? His brethren went to him. They
went to him. His enemies lied on him. His
brethren believed him. His enemies hated him. His brethren
loved Him. His enemies persecuted Him. His
brethren supported Him. His enemies rejected Him. His
brethren followed Him. His enemies spoke evil of Him.
His brethren spoke highly of Him. His enemies are glad He's
gone. His brethren said, We're going
to go to Him. We're going to find Him and we're going to stay
with Him. And that's the way it is with
brother. Love, never. Faith. Is that right? Some of
you have come long distance. I'm just a man. And you're not
here for me, but some of you have come long distance, haven't
you? Moved, took your family and moved
down here, didn't you? Didn't you? A heavy burden on
my shoulders. But no, it's not on my shoulders.
Because God did this. I didn't have anything to do
with it. I'm convinced of that. I know it is. You must be. You wouldn't be here. His brethren, all his family's
house heard. God's man is down there. I'm
going to go there. And they went to him and they gathered themselves
to him. How often does it talk about gathering? Gather my people together. David
said, I'm going to gather with the saints. I'm going to be with
a great congregation. That's where you'll find me.
David was the greatest man in Israel, John. He was king, wasn't
he? He had to sit under Nathan. He had to hear Nathan. He thought
Nathan was head and shoulders above him. Nathan was a faithful man, wasn't
he? a seer, a prophet, a preacher to David, and David esteemed
him higher than himself. He needed to hear Nathan preach
to him. The sweet psalmist of Israel
needed a man to preach to him. I went down to Georgia, and I
was one of the older preachers there. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But I am none the
less. And young David, Gabriel David,
got up and prayed. And man, I'm with him 1,000,
1,004. And he heard me and delighted. A little competition. Let's read this thing together.
They gathered themselves to him. They gathered themselves to a
man. Yes, they did. a man, and he became their captain. Did he make any mistakes? Oh,
my. Have you? Anybody run a business
or have to leave any people at any time? Have you been faultless? David made many mistakes and
he knew it. Nobody knew it more than he did.
Nobody grieved over it more than he did. What did he do? I'm quitting.
No, no. Lord, forgive me. I got to go
on. Should these men, could these
men follow him? They must. They must. God commands it. He's
God's man. And I told Mindy on the way over
here, I said, it's difficult to say things and preach and
teach things in the scriptures that so clearly allude to me,
my occupation, but I must. Okay. And what we both concluded
was, what I concluded, I am so glad. I am more thankful than
anything I know other than our Lord that He sent me a faithful
preacher of the gospel, a man who led by example, by character,
whose faith, Hebrews 13 says, follow. You can follow this man.
And God sent me a man that I followed implicitly. And the Scripture
says that. Paul said, follow me, as I follow
Christ. And you can. You must. You must. God said, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart. Yes, He did. Lord gave all His men and still
gives His men wisdom, gives them heart. This is what Solomon asked
for more than anything else at the beginning. He said, Lord,
I don't know how to come out or go in and I'm supposed to
lead these people. I don't know what I'm doing.
I can't lead myself. He said, I need wisdom. Where does real wisdom come from?
From God. Only from God. Not human reasoning. Paul said, I didn't use wisdom
of man's words or words of wisdom and impressive speech and all
that, but the Word of God. That's our sufficiency. That's
our power. That's our wisdom. Christ is
our wisdom. And David said, I need wisdom. And so God gave him wisdom
above everyone he had to leave. And then God gave him something
else. You know what it is? Largeness of heart. Wisdom, knowledge,
all these things is no good unless you have a heart. God said of
David, I've sought me a man after my own heart. He has a heart for you. He has
a heart. Whatever happens to me, if and
when, not if, but when, you find you a man with wisdom who knows
Christ and preaches Christ, and you find a man who loves you
and has a burden for you and your children. If he ever loses
that burden, if he doesn't have it, don't hire him. If he loses
that burden, If he doesn't keep, like Paul said, warning you with
tears day and night, he's not God's man. Okay. The God man. Look at our text now. David was in the cave, down in
the cave of Adullam. Christ is the cave. Christ is
all in all this. Christ is the cleft of the rock.
And when His brethren heard, Christ said, My sheep hear My
voice. What do they do? They come to
Me. They follow Me. The world rejects Him. We receive
Him. Oh, the world speaks evil of
Him. We speak highly of Him. Where are my notes on that? The
world wants Him gone. We want Him to come back. The
world doesn't want to be with Him. They killed Him. We want
to live with Him forever. Oh, man. When His brethren heard,
in all His Father's house, you see that? All that the Father
giveth me, Christ said, shall come unto me. Most religion quotes
half of that verse. You know that. John 6, 37, most
religions say, Him that cometh to me, I'll know whys against
that. That's just half of that verse. That takes God out of
it. That takes the glory of God completely out of that scripture
then. That scripture says, All that the Father giveth me shall
come unto me. Right? That's the sheep. Where did Christ give the sheep?
The Father gave them that. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. And Him that cometh to me. Why
do they come? The Spirit and the bride said,
come. Christ said, come. They come. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. These men came to David
and they were in debt. They had debts to pay that they
couldn't pay. They were in distress. They were
discontented. They were bitter. What does he
need with them? What can they do for him? There's going to be nothing but
a burden for Him. Right? What does our Lord need
with any of us? What can we do for Him? Nothing. He doesn't need us. We need Him. We need Him. to David and all of God's people,
God's children come to cry. Look at verse 1. They went down.
How do you get to Him? You've got to get down. You've got to go down. You've
got to humble yourself. Don't you? You're coming to a king.
You're coming to a Lord. I've decided to accept you, Jesus,
my good buddy. Judas went up and kissed Him
on the cheek. Mary kissed His feet. Who's in heaven right now
with Christ? Mary. You come down. You've got to come down. When
you come to Christ, you've got to come down. Oh, Naaman the
leper. Has anybody never heard of Naaman
the leper in 2 Kings 5? Anybody? Admit it, please. I'll preach on it. All of you
better be saying, no, I haven't heard it. That's one of the greatest
stories in the scriptures. Naaman the leper. And the prophet
sent out a little servant to tell him to get down. Go down,
mighty man. And he did. He did. Saul of Tarsus had to
come down off his high horse. Nicodemus had nothing but questions. And the Lord said one thing to
him. You're not even saved. You must be born again. That's
all he said. And then when he's born again,
everything's clear. Everything's clear. That's part
of my message Sunday. But they all went down. Thither. Look at verse 1. Thither. They went down thither. What's
thither? That means that's where he is.
The Lord send thee help from where? Anybody here last Wednesday? The sanctuary. Why? That's where
He is. Thither should you go? Thither,
this place, where Christ is promised to be. They gathered themselves.
You're not going to find help. You're not going to find salvation
if you don't go where He is. You hear me? Alright, look at
it. Everyone that was in distress. In distress. Oh, my. Heavy laden. David said, in my
distress, I call upon them. Distress. These men were under
Saul, a wicked, hard taskmaster. And all of God's people are held
captive by the God of this world. When they find out about it,
boy, there's nobody to run to but Christ. He said, come unto
me, all you that are laboring, heavy laden, under stress. It's
no coincidence that the Scripture says in the last days, men's
hearts shall fail them. You know what the leading cause
of heart failure is? Stress. That's no coincidence. You nurses,
that's not cause of heart disease because they eat the wrong thing.
It's stress. Acts 8, they look to the world
and look to the things of the world and nothing but darkness
and dimness and anguish of spirit and their hearts fail them. Our Lord says, no peace for the
wicked. An actor died recently and is everywhere. Rest in peace.
He's not resting in peace. He doesn't know Christ. There is no peace for those that
don't love God's Son and believe God's Son. But those who do,
perfect peace. Thou wilt keep them in perfect
peace. Are you in distress? Let me tell you where to go.
Don't come to me. Come to Christ. If you come to
me, you know what I'm going to tell you? Go to Christ. If you
come here, you know what I'm going to do? Lift Him high on
the pole. Those bitten and in distress
will go away healed. When you hear the gospel, tell
me, doesn't your stress kind of go away for about an hour? Doesn't it? Distress. Debt. Those in debt. Oh, how much I owe. I sing that song, How Much I
Owe. First heard Bridget Harding sing it. Debt. We owe a debt
to God's law. You know that? God's law says
this do and live. God's law says the soul that
sinneth will surely die. God's law says this do, this
do, this do, this do not do. Do not, do not, do not, do not.
How many laws? How many have you kept? What if you were guilty of breaking
every single law and it was put on your account? You were charged
with breaking every law. How many years? Man's justice
is so ridiculous. They'll give a fellow who's,
you know, lived a life of crime, they'll give two life sentences. That's the wisdom of the world.
Two life sentences. Oh, so he's going to serve one
life and serve another one? The fact is, that's exactly what
he's going to do at the hands of God. He's eternal soul. But man says,
you know, but they commute the sentence for good behavior. Not
God. He's just God. Every sin shall
receive a just recompense of war. The soul that sins shall
surely die. We have debt. We've broken every
one of God's laws. What are we going to do? Stand
still. Sit down. Shut up. Listen to
a man tell you the Lord Jesus paid it all. The Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Sin debt was laid on him. He paid for it all. His soul
was made an offering for sin. Not for everybody. If Christ
died for everybody, everybody's sins are gone. God's just. He must let them go. If their
sins are gone, if Christ paid for them, they're justified. That's why when men stand up
and say Jesus died for you, it's a lie. He said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. The sheep and the goats. And
they're going to be divided. In the end, Matthew 25, the sheep
on the right hand, the goats on my left hand. He's going to
say, the sheep enter into the land that I've prepared for you.
The goats, cast them out. He didn't die for them. He died
for them. That's why they're coming in.
You know why they're coming in? Not their good work, not their
will, not their choice, not their decision, not their baptism.
Because Jesus Christ died for their sins. Paid for them all. These men came to David in the
cave, and you know what the first thing he did was? They're in
debt. How much do you owe, Joab? One hundred million dollars.
You know what he did? Blotted it out. Forgiven completely, frankly,
freely, finally, forever. Everybody that came to David
was completely absolved of all debt. Nobody owes one thing. Is that good news? Some of you
literally owe some money on this earth. And if somebody went down
and paid everything you owe, would that make you happy? We
owe a much greater debt to God. What about our debt of gratitude,
thanksgiving? We went years without giving
God any thanks. God's angrier than we get every
day. He ought to be angrier than us, shouldn't he? How many years
did you forget God? How many years did He did this
and did that and fed you and clothed you and provided for
you and saved you and kept you and you didn't give Him one single
thanks? You owe Him a debt of thanks.
And that's why forever in glory we're going to be thanking Him.
The chief of sinners is going to be singing. We're all going
to be singing loud, aren't we? Love so amazing, so divine, deserves
a loudest song. And those that were discontent.
Discontented. Are you discontented? With yourself? With the world? Ecclesiastes,
Solomon lived in the world and tried everything. I have to.
You know what I found? It's vanity. It won't fulfill
you. It won't satisfy you. In fact,
when it's all over, it disappoints you. It hurts you. Everything in it, everyone in
it, everyone in this life is going to hurt you at some point,
whether they mean to or not, because man is a sinner. And
your worst, you should be discontented more than anything with yourself.
I've disappointed myself more than anybody. And they came to David and so
we come to Christ and he becomes a captain. What's that mean? He's fully in charge of them. He has their safety, their welfare,
their everything charged to him. He is the captain of their salvation. And that's what Hebrews 2 says
of Christ. He's made perfect. The captain
of our salvation. Let's see if I can find this.
I may not be able to. Oh, yeah. The last part. Look
at it. 1 Samuel 22. The very last verse. The very last verse. Here's what
David said to a man that came to him. And the enemy had killed
a lot of these priests. Eighty-some priests. And this
one fellow came running to David. Listen. Read it with me. 1 Samuel 22, 23. David said,
You abide thou with me. You fear not. He that seeketh
my life, seeketh thy life. With me. Shalt thou be in safe guard.
You're safe with me. You're not safe out there. You
hear me? You can't save yourself. Christ
said, you come unto me. With me, you're safe. Okay, let's
stand.