Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 22. 1 Samuel, chapter 22. Now again,
I'm not going to read many verses here in this passage. Beginning
at verse 3, I want you to look at this. And David went thence
to Mizpah of Moab. 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 I've entitled this message
what God will do for us let's read on verse 4 and he brought
them before the king of Moab And they dwelt with him all the
while that David was in the hold, that is, in the cave Adulim. And the prophet Gad said unto
David, Abide not in the hold, depart, and get thee into the
land of Judah. And then David departed, and
came to the forest of Harith. what God will do for us. That's what I want us to set
our minds upon tonight. This is a passage of scripture
that may seem a little strange because the first thing that
kind of stands out to you is David taking his mother and father
to Moab. Moab, which was infamously like
the Philistines and the Amalekites, enemies of Israel. But I'm going
to show you a little bit about that in just a moment. But the
first thing I want you to consider is we consider, as David's in
this cave, he brings his mother and his father to this place,
Moab, and he says, till I know what God will do for me. And
I want you to think about it in our terms, in our day, in
what we go through in our daily lives, till we know what God
will do for us. But the first thing that we have
to consider, and I believe this is also on David's mind because
of the Psalms that he wrote while he was in the cave of Dullam.
And we read some of them last week. I believe, if I can remember,
I didn't put them down in my notes. I got them last week.
But it's Psalm 142, 142, and Psalm 57. I believe Psalm 34
comes in there. But read those Psalms over again. And I believe David had this
first and foremost on his mind, number one, what God had already
done for David. And I believe that's the first
thing that we're to have on our minds when we consider what God
will do for us in whatever capacity, is let's remember and let's glory
in and let's a bask in the blessing of what God has already done
for us. And we'll find, as David found,
that God had already done exceedingly, exceedingly more than what David
deserved and far above anything that David had earned, that God
had been merciful and gracious to him. Now, when we last saw
David, He had just made his headquarters in this cave, Adullam. Remember
that word, Adullam, means refuge. His family and his followers,
their outcasts, look at verse 2 again. As everyone that was
in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that
was discontented gathered themselves unto him. It is a great, great
picture of the type of people that Christ saves by His grace. Those who are in distress, the
poor in spirit, those who are in debt, who have no righteousness
of their own, those who are discontented under the conviction of sin by
the Holy Spirit. And what do they do? When the
Holy Spirit brings us to that point, what does He do? He causes
us to gather unto Him, unto Christ, for salvation. And what a great
picture that is. David became their captain, just
as Christ is the captain of our salvation. And here we see how
God saves sinners. God doesn't save the kind of
people that the world would have in their churches today. That's
right. The proud, the honored, the respectable,
those who can contribute. What can you do for God? That
kind of thing. He has those who can give nothing
in return because they are nothing and they have nothing. And I'm
sure that David could think about these things too. He'd ran in
fear from Saul. He'd lied to the high priest
in Nob, and then he fled to Gath, to the king of Gath, Achish,
for refuge. And he feigned madness. He faked
being a madman. I think Brother Joe told me,
he said, I love hearing these things about David because I
can identify with him so much. Talking about his failures and
the struggles of the flesh. And what a great, great testimony
to the grace of God in not only saving us from our sins, but
keeping us, preserving us by His grace and His power. As I
said, One time, if God doesn't keep us, we won't be kept. That's
just the long and the short of it, isn't it? Here, David's enemies,
now think about this. David's enemies had reminded
him of who he was. Back up in verse 11 of chapter
21, when he was before the king of Gath, Achish. It says, the
servants, listen to this. Chapter 21, verse 11, And the
servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king
of the land? Did they not sing one to another
of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and
David his ten thousand? And David laid up these words
in his heart." I believe that means it cut him to the quick.
It was a reminder of who he was. You know, that's the way it is
with us. There are times we have to be reminded who we are. We're
the saints of God. We're the children of God. We're
the inheritors. the heirs of an incorruptible
inheritance. We are those who cannot be condemned. We're the elect of God. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. We stand before God, washed in
the blood of Christ, clothed in His righteousness, and no
charge can be laid against us. And yet we spend so much time
downcast, don't we, with a guilty conscience. We need a sin-cleansed
conscience, cleansed not by our works and our efforts and our
performances, but cleansed by the blood of Christ. For there
is our complete, free, open, bold approach unto the holiest
of all by the blood of Jesus, God our Savior. And sometimes
we have to be reminded of that. I hope that that's what I do
in preaching the gospel to you. I hope that I don't just leave
you naked and guilty and downcast, I want to drive you to Christ.
I want to preach Christ and lift Him up. And if you haven't come
to Him, if you're still in your sins, then I want to point you
to the only way of salvation from sin. But David took these
things to heart. Even though he feigned madness
in fear of Achish, he began to repent and return to the Lord. You can read about that in Psalm
57. And in Psalm 142 that we read last time. And what David
was expressing there was not just the sorrow of getting caught,
not a legal sorrow that comes from a fear of hell and damnation
or loss of reward. He wasn't a mercenary. You see,
he was a child of God. He was expressing what the Bible
calls godly sorrow over sin. We're talking this morning. Someone
said, well, I don't feel like I'm sorry enough. Well, you will.
You won't ever feel that way. I don't either. I don't. But the Holy Spirit will not
let his people go. He will. You know, somebody said
this when I know people don't like talk like this, but it's
so he's got us on a leash. He won't let us. He'll let us
go so far. But he won't let us go completely.
That's one thing a child of God cannot do. He cannot totally
leave Christ. And you know why? Because Christ
will not let him go. That's why. That's why. But this godly sorrow over sin
is not the sorrow of the world that leads to condemnation, which
inspires men and women in the way of Cain trying to do something
to make it right. Lord, what can I do? to make
it right. What can I do to make an atonement? What can I do? I'll join the
church. I'll get baptized. I'll rededicate. I'll start giving
more. I'll start witnessing. You see,
that's the sorrow of the world that leads to death because none
of those things will remove sin. Godly sorrow over sin is a sorrow
that brings repentance by leading a sinner to Christ, to rest in
Him. to find nothing outside of him,
but to find peace in him and rest in him. And you know, just
like I mentioned this morning, he said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Do you
know that's a continual thing? That's not just a one-time thing
for a believer. Peter said it, to whom coming,
to whom coming, a continual coming to Christ. Somebody said, well,
we only come to him when we're in need. And I found that's just
about all the time. Because we're just a needy bunch,
aren't we? Sinners in need of grace. David was a needy man.
Look at what he'd done. Based upon his behavior that's
recorded here up until this time, he had not earned his way to
the throne of Israel. Had he? He had not done it. And whatever good thing or wise
thing that he did by the power of God, he lost it all if that
was the case. But you see, it wasn't about
what David deserved. It wasn't about what David had
earned. And neither is salvation for me or for you. It's not about
what you've earned or what you deserve. It's about what Christ
accomplished at Calvary in his death, burial, and resurrection.
David came to his lowest point. And it turned out to be the best
place that he could be. He was in a cave. His headquarters
was in a cave. But no ordinary cave. This was
the cave of Dullam. This was the cave of refuge.
And that brought him to the place where he saw that in all of his
actings, in all of his foolishness, in all of his sin, that he, even
now, was totally dependent upon the Lord for everything. And
I'll tell you what, that's the best place a sinner can be, right
there. Oh my, do you ever get away from thinking that? Ever
get away from it? You say, well, it may not be
a person standing up and saying, well, I don't need Christ now.
Because we wouldn't say that. But it'd be like you sort of
forget. You sort of put it out of your
mind. That you are right now, as you're sitting in this pew,
feeding on the Word of God, you're still totally dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, your forgiveness,
your righteousness, your holiness, your wisdom, your sanctification,
your redemption. 100% totally dependent upon Him.
David knew that. Again, that's expressed in those
Psalms that he wrote when he was in the cave of Duhem. But
let me show you something that happened that's recorded later
on. while David was in this cave
that gives us a little bit of insight into what's his thought.
You know, I always try to be careful about climbing into the
minds of the men and women of the Bible and trying to make
conclusions that the Word of God doesn't really bring us to.
I've heard preachers get in and say, well, no, these disciples,
they thought this way, or they thought that way. And I'm sitting
there thinking, well, how do you know how they thought? Unless
God tells you. I'll tell you what they're doing.
They're telling you how they think. And they're just proud enough to
think the disciples think like they think. Now, I know we're
all sinners by nature and by practice. We all think alike
in one way there. By nature, we think salvation
is conditioned on us, and that's not so. And I know we all think
alike when God brings us to Christ. We know He's our only hope. But
when you try to get into the psychology of these folks and
try to explain that and make a point that really doesn't need
to be made, you get in trouble. But we have some insight here
about David in this cave. As I said, we have some insight
from his own writings as inspired by the Holy Spirit in Psalm 47
and in Psalm 142. But look over at 2 Samuel chapter
23. I want to show you something
here. Now you know, 2 Samuel 23 records
the last words of David before he died. You know that great
passage of Scripture there in verse 5 of 2 Samuel 23, look
at that again, where David on his deathbed, 2 Samuel 23, 5,
although my house be not so with God. He's talking about his earthly
family here, I believe. The house of David, you know
he had problems all of his life. Some of them were his own fault.
And he said, yet he, that is God, hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure." Now, this covenant is
the covenant of redemption, isn't it? It's the covenant of grace.
It's the gospel covenant. It's salvation by grace through
Christ who was to come. And the reason it was sure is
because it was ordered. And the reason that the ordering
is the surety of it is because it's God who's doing the ordering. It wasn't David. You see, if
David had been doing the ordering here, setting things in order,
making his decisions and his choices and all this going here
and going there, if it had been dependent upon David to order
this thing, it sure wouldn't be sure. Well, I take that back.
It would be sure. It'd be sure to fail. Isn't that
right? It'd be sure to fail. But you
see, this covenant is ordered in all things because God orders
it, and it's sure because Christ is the surety of it. It's a guarantee. And so he says, for this is all
my salvation, not just part, not even 99%. This is all of
it. I mean, this is my whole salvation.
This thing, this covenant that's ordered and sure and all, it's
all my salvation. And then he says, it's all my
desire. You know how it becomes all your
desire? When you get a real revelation of yourself and who you are and
what you can do. which is nothing to earn God's
favor and blessings. And he says, although he make
it not to grow. And then he starts in verse six, it says, but the
sons of Belial shall be of all them as thorns thrust away. That's
idolatry because they cannot be taken with hands. But the
man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff
of the spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in
the same place. And what he's saying here is
those who don't have this hope that's ordered in sure and all
things, the gospel of God's grace in Christ, they're going to perish. And then verse 8, listen, it
says, these be the names of the mighty men whom David had. Now
it gives a catalog of David's chief captains, the mighty men
that went to David, followed David and led his armies. And look down at verse 13. It says, and three of the thirty
chiefs, that is his chief captains, went down and came to David in
the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam. Now that is where
David was at the time of 1 Samuel 22. And the troop of the Philistines
pitched in the valley of Repham, and David was then in an hold,
that is the cave of Adullam. And the garrison of the Philistines
was then in Bethlehem. So here's David in a dolem, and
the Philistines had overtaken his hometown. The garrison of
the Philistines in Bethlehem. You know Bethlehem, that's the
house of bread where David was born, where our Lord would eventually
be born. Well, look at verse 15. And David
longed and said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water
of the well of Bethlehem. which is by the gate. What does
he say? I would love to have a drink
of water from my hometown. That's what he say. Just a drink
from home. You know, when you get low like
David was, you start thinking of home, don't you? The old home
folks. We used to sing a song like that
in bluegrass music, you know, wonder where the old folks are
tonight at home, you know. And that's where you start longing
for. And he said, Or that I would long for a drink of water of
the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate. And it says in verse
16, And the three mighty men break through the host of the
Philistines. Now it doesn't tell us a lot
of the details here, but these three mighty men overheard David. And they broke through the camp
of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem
that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David, brought
it back to him in the cave of Dullin. Nevertheless, he would
not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. Why? Why wouldn't he drink it? They
went to all that trouble to get that water, but he wouldn't drink
it. Why? Look at verse 17. And he said,
Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is not this
the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore
he would not drink it. These things did these three
mighty men. Now, what's that all about? Well,
here as I said, in this cave back here in 1 Samuel 22, we're
given a sense where David was brought in his heart, in his
mind, in his state by the Lord, where God brought him to, in
this cave, in this low moment, and he was thirsty. And he longed
for a drink of water from a well in his hometown. And you notice
over in 2 Samuel 23, he did not command these men to go get that
water. He didn't say, now I'm picking
you three out, you go get it. I'm the king. I'm the commander. No, he didn't tell them. It was
just an expression of the need of his heart. And they somehow
overheard it. They heard what David wanted.
Now, why did they do this? Why did they risk their lives? to break through the camp of
the Philistines to give him a drink of water, just a drink. Couldn't
they say, well, there's got to be some wells around here closer,
David. That's a little safer. Why did they do it? I'll tell
you why. Number one, David was their captain. He was their leader. And he was the one who had taken
in the distressed, the debtors, the discontented. And they loved
him. David was loved by his followers.
Think about that. What a great picture of the relationship
that bonds Christ to his people. Why do we do what we do? He's
our captain. He's the captain of our salvation.
Hebrews 2 said that the captain of our salvation was made perfect
through His suffering. What that means is, that doesn't
mean that He was sinned and now He's not sinned because He Himself
was made perfect. It means He completed the work
for us. He went to the cross for you and for me. And I'll tell you what, He took
us in. He gave His life for the distressed, for the debtors.
For the discontented, sinners, like we read this morning in
Luke 14, the haught, the lame, the blind, the maimed, the outcast,
publicans, harlots, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. He took us in when nobody else
would. I'll tell you what, I want you
to think about that and say, well there's all kinds of churches
that take you in. Let me tell you something, if they really
knew who we are, like we know who we are, like God knows who
we are, they wouldn't have anything to do with us. We're just not
the kind of people that meet up. That's anybody who knows
they're a sinner. That's anybody who knows the
reality of this thing. He took us in. He took us in. I'll tell you what, literally
the Bible says he drug us in when we didn't want to go in.
Isn't that something? And he washed us clean and dressed
us in his robe of righteousness and we like Mephibosheth sit
and eat at the king's table all the days of our life. And we're
lame on our feet. Now Saul, look back at 1 Samuel
22. Now Saul, you know in order to
get men to follow him, he had to bribe them. Look at verse
6 of 1 Samuel 22. When Saul heard that David was
discovered, and the men that were with him now saw a boat
in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand,
And all his servants were standing about him. Then Saul said unto
his servants that stood about him, Here now, ye Benjamites. You know, Saul was a Benjamite.
He said, 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? Will the son of Jesse, will David
give you what I give you? You see, Saul had to bribe people
to follow him. They didn't love him. He really
wasn't their captain. He wasn't their redeemer. But
David's men wanted to serve him. They wanted to please him. They
wanted to honor him. He was their king. And this was
an opportunity for them to express their love for the one who had
taken them in when nobody else would. And so they risked their
lives to break through the Philistine camp and just get him a drink
of water from his hometown. They honored David because David
was worthy of their efforts. And here he is a type of Christ.
We honor Christ because Christ is worthy of our efforts. In
fact, he's the only one that's worthy. Worthy is the land that
was slain. Isn't that right? They didn't
go and they didn't go to get a pat on the back. Their king
was thirsty and they loved him. And that's an example of true
love, always ready to serve the object of that love, sacrificial
love. These men put their lives on
the line for David. That's why a lot of times in
the New Testament you'll see that word love, agape, translated
charity. You think of charity, giving.
That's what love does. It gives. Love is a verb. It's
action. How do you know that? Well, what's
the supreme example of love? What's the supreme act of love
in the whole universe? Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son. to satisfy his
justice for us, to be the propitiation for our sins. You know why we
have so much difficulty loving others? It's because we love
ourselves too much. That's the problem. It's not
because other people don't act like they should, even when they
don't act like they should. Our problem is ourselves. Love
requires us to give ourselves to another person, and that's
dangerous. Think about it. Now, it's not a problem when
we give ourselves to Christ, because we know that He's love
supreme. He's wisdom supreme. He's our
Redeemer. That's why the Holy Spirit inspired
the Apostle Paul to use the love of Christ for his church to show
the love of a husband and wife in marriage. It should be a picture
of that. So love is giving up yourself.
Deny yourself. Now denying yourself doesn't
mean giving up anything for lint. That's pharisaism. That's self-righteousness. That's legalism. Denying yourself
means admitting that I'm of no value. Christ alone is of value. John the Baptist said it. He
must increase, I must decrease. I'm nothing, he's everything.
He's my all in all. I have nothing, he has everything. And if he's pleased to give it
to me, I have everything because I have him. We're going to put our lives
on the line, these men said. Why? Our king wants a drink of
water. Our king wants a drink of water.
And they disregarded their lives. They gave up themselves. They
gave their blood. Now, there's no indication that
they died, but they were willing to die for him. And the one reason
they did this was because they loved their king. Now, when they
brought that water to David, he wouldn't drink it. But he
poured it on the ground. Now, remember that in the cave,
David's mind was brought to return to the honor and glory of God
in that cave. David knew that he himself was
not worthy of the sacrifice that these men made and the honor
that they gave him. No man is worthy of that. Only
Christ is worthy of that. But His pouring that water on
the ground was honoring the sacrifice of these men. It was a picture
of another great sacrifice. Another great sacrifice. What?
The sacrifice of our Savior for His people. Somebody asked the
question, do you reckon David knew all that? Well, I'll tell
you how you can know, I believe. Read Psalm 22. The Psalm of the Cross. Read
Psalm 69. Read Psalm 23 and 24. Read any
psalm that David read, and I'll tell you what, where do you end
up in that psalm? I'm nothing, Christ is everything. David knew in light of what these
men did that only one person was worthy of such a sacrifice,
and that's his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore,
he wouldn't drink the water because he wasn't worthy, and he poured
it on the ground. These men sacrificed themselves
for water. Our Lord sacrificed Himself on
the cross to give us the water of life that we might never thirst
again, He said. Now what He told the woman at
the well? He poured out His life as a drink offering to God to
save unworthy sinners like us. And the glory of the salvation
of sinners belongs to Christ and to Him alone and not to us. So here David was thinking about
what God had already done for him. But now he is thinking also
about what God would do for him. But I tell you what, if you want
to know what God will do, start here. What has He done? He saved
us from our sins. He washed us clean in the blood
of the Lamb. He clothed us in the righteousness
of His Son. And we are forever, ever safe
in the arms of Jesus. Forever. Well look here, now
David goes to Moab. And I tell you, I told you, some
of us may, I looked at it too, when I first read it and I thought,
my soul, what's he doing, what's he going to Moab? He's going
downhill even farther, looks like. Well here's the second
thing that's shown here, David's returning to his roots. Did you
know that? When he went to Moab, David's
returning to his roots. Everybody's talking about roots,
you know, back in the Seventies that movie roots everybody want
to get back to their roots. Well, that's what David's doing.
He's getting back to his roots Takes his family to Moab for
their safety because the vengeance of Saul was a threat not only
to him But his whole family back then if you somebody was ascending
to the throne You not only and you want to take over you not
only had to kill him yet to kill his whole family So David realizes
that and he expresses both his love and respect and honor for
his father and his mother And that is commendable. Honor thy
father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20.12. That had
a real practical application under the old covenant in the
land of Canaan because those who did not honor their mother
and father, those rebels, were to be punished by death. And
then when Paul quotes it, I believe in Colossians. It doesn't have
to do there with length of days, but quality of life, that it
may be well with them while they are upon the earth. And so the
Lord confronted David with this issue. Your family is in danger.
And David honored his mother and his father, and in doing
so, he honored the Lord. Our Savior did the same on the
cross. When he died on the cross, he died there to honor the Father.
For it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God had to be just when
He justifies the ungodly. And He did it not just to save
us from our sins, that was part of it, but the issue of salvation,
why Christ had to go to the cross, was to honor the Father. To honor
God as a holy and just God. How can He be both a righteous
judge and a loving, loving Redeemer? Not but one way, and that's the
blood of the cross. And our Lord himself, even on
that cross, he honored his own mother when he was on that cross,
when his last sayings on that cross. He looked down and he
saw the Apostle John. It says in John 19, 26, it says,
When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing
by, which we believe is John, the disciple whom he loved, he
saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. And then saith
he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that
disciple took her unto his own home. In other words, our Savior
made provision for his mother. Well, what about Moab now? Moab,
you know, there's nothing good in the Bible said about Moab,
to be honest with you. Moab was a place of great idolatry. Moab was steeped in idolatry. Moab was an enemy of Israel. Twice in the Psalms, You know
what God calls Moab? His washpot. That's twice in
the Psalms. Washpot. A place to wash your
filth off. Now, why did David go to Moab
to find refuge for his family? Well, I put it to you, it's God's
providence. God's government of things. God's
in control. And God had long ago made provision
for David even in Moab. And David took his parents to
Moab because his great-grandmother, his great-great-grandmother,
was a Moabitess. Her name was Ruth. You've read
the story. Ruth, the Moabitess. You know how it went. How Naomi
and Elimelech went down from Bethlehem, the house of bread,
into Moab. How things didn't go well there. The Lord visited again the land
of Canaan and brought plenty there, and Naomi went back, and
one of her daughters-in-law, I believe it was Orpah, stayed,
and the other Ruth said, I'm going with you. Where you go,
I'll go. Your God will be my God. And
how she came up there and met the kinsman-redeemer, Boaz. And they were married, and Boaz
had a son, and he married, and they had a son, and his name
was Jesse. And Jesse had a son whose name
was David. God made provision for David
in Moab. And you say, well, why Moab?
Well, let me ask you this question. Are we by nature any better off
than Moab? I mean, what are we by nature?
God's washpot. God saves his people even out
of Moab. He has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. You suppose that God is not merciful
enough or powerful enough to save a sinner out of Moab? You
suppose He's not powerful enough to turn that king's heart to
have favor towards David and his family, even though they
themselves are idolaters? I'll tell you what, our roots
are in Moab spiritually as well as all, as we all fell into sin
in Adam and ruined. But our roots go farther back
than the fall of Adam. Our roots are in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That One who saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Yeah, we can trace our roots
back to Adam. Moab of sorts. But don't stop
there. Go on back to the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And God in His providence made
provision for His people all along, even for David and his
parents in Moab. What a God we serve. Isn't that
amazing? Let's never forget our roots
in sin, the pit from which we were digged, but let us never
forget our spiritual roots in Christ. who conquered sin, who
overcomes sin. And then, what's happening here,
David here in verse 3, he says, I'm going to leave my parents
here until I know what God will do for me. Here's David recognizing
God's sovereignty in providence. Speaks of God's providence in
David's daily life. Now, David knew what God had
purposed for him. But you see, he didn't know the
details of how God would accomplish his purpose in David's life.
I'm sure that when God told David, through the prophet Samuel, that
you're going to ascend to the throne of Israel, I'm sure David
didn't imagine in his mind, in the back annals of his mind,
that he would be scratching at a door, feigning madness, in
Gath, in the king of Achish. I'm sure he didn't imagine he'd
be in the cave of Dolem, and all these outcasts coming to
him. He may have, he's like us, probably figured that it's going
to be some other way. You see, he didn't know what
each day, what each hour would bring. God was working his will
in David's life, but David did not use this as an excuse now.
Even though he acted foolishly at times, he still knew he was
responsible to act wisely in obedience to God and glorify
God in his life. But you know something, that's
the way it is with us. We know what God has done. And
then we have God's revealed will by way of commandments. You know,
there's a verse of scripture that I rely on quite heavily.
Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. Mark that down in your Bible.
It answers a lot of questions for people like us. And here's what it says. It says
the secret things belong unto the Lord, our God. What are the
secret things? Well, if it's secret, that means
he hadn't told you. If I could tell you what the
secret things are, they wouldn't be secret things now, would they?
The secret things belong to us. That's the thing God hadn't told
you and God hadn't told me. They're unrevealed. They're uncovered.
They're kept secret. He knows them. You don't. I don't.
But it says, those things which are revealed belong unto us and
our children forever, that we may do all the words of this
law. Now what's he talking about?
Well, he's talking about God's secret counsel, his purpose in
all his ways throughout this span of time that we just don't
know about. That's kept secret. The things
we don't know. I don't know what's going to
happen tonight. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow,
the next day. But there are some things we do know because God
revealed them. For example, we know, here's
what's revealed, we know the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back
again to receive His people and to judge this world. Now here's
the secret thing. We don't know when. Could be tonight, could be tomorrow,
could be 20 years, I don't know. That's secret. I know some fellas
say that He has revealed it to them. Stay away from them fellas. Here's another thing. I know
that God has purpose to save a people from their sins. He
chose them from the foundation of the world. He justified them
in Christ. He sent Christ to redeem them.
And He's going to send His Spirit to give them life. And they're
going to end up in glory. Now, here's what's secret. I
don't know who all they are. But here's what's revealed. Go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Here's what's revealed, if pleased the Lord by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe. Here's what's revealed, faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Somebody
says, well, if God chose a people, we just might as well not do
anything. Oh, no, you don't operate on the secret things of God.
He hadn't told you that. Here's what he said. You get
out there and preach the gospel. You tell them about Christ. You
tell Him who He is and what He has done and why He did it and
where He is now. God's secret purpose and counsel
and revealed will by way of commandment. We make our plans. We have our
choices. We suffer our consequences. And
God is all the time, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11, working
all things after the counsel of His own will. David wallowing
on the ground, scribbling on a door, Biddle down his beard. God is at that time working all
things after the counsel of his own will, and he's not the author
of sin. Now, you explain that. But not
to me, because I don't have time to listen to you on that. Because
you can't explain it. I just know it's so. It was God's
will all the time to send Christ to die for the sins of his people.
And yet, the men who put Him on that cross, fallen humanity,
and I include myself in that, it was commanded by His revealed
will by way of commandment, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not
bear false witness. God is sovereign. He was working
all things according to His predetermined counsel and will, and yet He
holds us fully accountable for the crimes that we commit. That's
so, isn't it? It sure is. You say, well, I've
got the answer to that. Well, stay away from me. Because
you don't. I know the proud religionist
thinks he has the answer. He says, well, God is sovereign
in everything except man's will. God's will is subservient to
our wills. God's just waiting to see what
you'll do. And he'll operate in response to what you'll do.
That is not the God of this book. That's an idol. He doesn't operate
that way. I think about that preacher up
in Akron, Ohio, years ago who made the statement when he was
preaching a message making people feel sorry for Jesus. And he
made this statement about the crucifixion of Christ. He said
this, he said, if I had been there, I would have stopped it.
My friend, what a fool. I'll tell you exactly what I'd
have done if I'd have been there. One of two things. I'd have been
crying crucify him or I'd have been running scared like the
other disciples. And left him alone. Denied him
like Peter. That's what I'd have done. And
you too. Because he walked that winepress alone. He didn't have
anybody with him drawing a sword out saying anybody touches you,
I'll get no sir. And I'm going to tell you something.
No preacher, no army in heaven or on earth could have stopped
that great It was all determined by God. Well, what the Lord will do for
me? David knew the Lord was going to take care of him. He didn't
always keep that in mind. Neither do we. The Lord's going
to take care of us. I think about our dear brother,
Jim Coleman, laying up there in the Cleveland Clinic. Tomorrow
morning, they're going to split his chest and they're going to
do bypass surgery and then go up in this left side. And I pray
that the Lord will bring Jim home, and that he can be sitting
right over there behind you, Joe, with Brenda, and all of
them sitting here just feeding on the gospel with us again.
That's my prayer. But you know what? I don't know
if that's God's will. I'm just groping in the dark.
Do you know that? I'm just telling God what I'd
like to see. But that may not be the best
thing for Jim or for me or for family or anybody, Joe. We just
don't know. That's His secret will. Somebody
asked me one time and said, well, how do you know it was God's
will for you to be the pastor of 13th Street Baptist Church?
You know what I told him? I said, well, I'm here, aren't
I? If it wasn't His will, I mean,
I'm not here against His will. He'd put me somewhere else, maybe
in a cave somewhere. I don't know. But I'm here. That's
about all I can tell you. Anything else, daily, I'm just
groping in the dark. But I know this. I know this,
in Christ it is well with my soul. And with you too, in Him. He's going to take care of us.
We're going to grow up in the dark. We're going to complain.
We're going to feign madness every now and then, just like
David. But He's going to take care of us. And you just watch. And He'll show you. But I tell
you, look to Christ. There's your kid. Rest in Him. Alright, let's sing Praise the
Savior, hymn number 51.