Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 21. 1 Samuel, chapter 21. Now tonight,
after I finish this message, I'm going to expect a real thank
you from Ron Trabant. Because I started to title this
message, Lessons Learned from a Man Who Feigned Madness. And I can just see Ron working
on that computer trying to cram that all into a label and talking
about me badly. So I decided to shorten the title.
The title of this message is Lord, save us from madness, because
that's really the lesson. So Lord, he said, Lord, save
us from madness. Now here in chapter 21, we see
David fleeing, running from King Saul. You know the story up to
this point. God had taken his spirit away
from King Saul because of his disobedience. And he had appointed
and anointed David, the shepherd, to be king of Israel by God's
sovereign providence. God had brought David into the
court of the king. He had united the king's son,
Jonathan, with David, but now Saul had gone completely mad
in his anger, in his envy, in his jealousy, in his self-righteousness
and pride, and he was set to kill, to murder the Lord's anointed,
David. And David had acted wisely up
until this point. He had done that which is right
in the sight of the Lord. We know that any sinner who does
that, even sinners saved by grace, that it is truly the power and
grace of God, Christ working in us to do that which he wills
by his power. We know that we're never on our
own if we're saved by grace. were always led by the Spirit,
led by the power of Christ, and that was David's blessing, the
blessing that God had put upon him. So David now, he's running
scared. He's running from Saul. And even
in his fear of man, now the fear of man, I'm going to show you
something about that in a moment. We're to fear God, but we're
never to fear man. And that fear of God is not running
scared from God. That fear of God is a worship
and a reverence of God. It's faith in God. It's trust
in God. Respect. But we're never to fear
man. And whenever we fear man, we
get into trouble. And that's what David's doing
here. But even in his fear of man, God overrules that evil,
that unbelief. And David does the right thing
because he runs to a place called Nod That's where the tabernacle
was placed at that time. And he ran to Ahimelech, the
high priest, and he ate bread, ate the bread for the showbread
that only the priests were to eat because it was a necessity. And that was a great picture
of a sinner continually running to Christ. The tabernacle is
a type of Christ. We sang tonight about power in
the blood. And that's not just a one-time
power. That's an eternal power that's in the blood of Christ.
And that's what that tabernacle represented. Christ is not just
our High Priest at one time to get us started. He's our High
Priest forever and ever. That's what the Scripture teaches.
He's able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him.
And so we continually flee to Christ. We don't just flee when
we're born again and then stop running to Him. We run to Him
all the time. He is our continual Savior, our
continual Advocate. And we eat of the Bread of Life,
who is Christ Himself. He said, I am that Bread of Life
in John 6. And that's what's typified in
David eating the showbread that the priests were to eat. We feed
upon Christ by faith. We feed upon His Word, by His
Spirit. That's what we're doing tonight,
as I spoke this morning on eating bread in the Kingdom of Heaven,
the Kingdom of God. What we're doing tonight, believers
who know Christ, we're feasting tonight at the King's table.
And it's not just a one-time thing. It's our life. It's our
way of life by the grace and power of God. So, in verse 7,
and of course, as you know, David lied to the high priest, Ahimelech.
He told the high priest, he said, I'm here on the king's business.
Now, that would naturally lead Ahimelech to think, well, you're
here doing King Saul's business. Well, David wasn't doing King
Saul's business. King Saul was trying to kill
him. But we know in the secret annals of the purpose of a sovereign
God, he was certainly on the king of king's business, even
though he himself was not acting wisely. And I see that as God
overruling even our sin to bring forth good. And we're going to
see a prime example in this passage, as we go through it, of that
tonight. But look at verse 7. It says, Now a certain man of
the servants of Saul was there that day. There was another man
there at Nob, where the tabernacle was, and he was of the court
of Saul. And it is said he was detained
before the Lord. A lot of commentators not sure
what that means, maybe he had to do some business ceremonially,
cleansing, he was there to sacrifice, whatever, we don't know. But
we know this, he was there by sovereign purpose of the Lord,
it was no accident, for there are no accidents with God. Everything
is put and set in place as the Lord works all things after the
counsel of his own will. And that's a continual thing.
And this man's name was Doeg. You see his name there. He was
an Edomite. He wasn't an Israelite. And he
was the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. Now, the
implication of that verse is that he's an informer. He's a
traitor. And he's going to inform on David.
He's going to keep Saul. We'll see later on that does
happen. And I thought about this in light of that. There's always
going to be those who are going to sit against the people of
God and be traitors. Our Lord had one in the band
of disciples that he called. That man's name was Judas. And
Judas was a son of perdition. He was a child of the devil.
He was an unbeliever. Outwardly, he appeared to be
righteous. Outwardly, he appeared to be a disciple. But he wasn't. And I thought about this man,
Doeg. Here he is at the tabernacle, detained by the Lord, but he's
a traitor. He's in opposition to God's anointed, just like
Judas was in his day when he betrayed our Savior. And of course,
when we see things like that, let's never get puffed up, because
we have to understand that but for the grace of God, that's
us. The only reason we're not against
the Lord, the only reason that we're not traitors and false
believers in opposition to the Lord, is because of His grace
and mercy in our lives. He saved us from our sins. But now here in verse 8, look
at verse 8, he says, And David said unto Ahimelech, now this
is the high priest, And is there not here under thine hand spear
or sword? Now David's looking for carnal
weapons now. And you've got to keep in mind
now, how did David defeat Goliath? In the Valley of Eli? With a
sling. But we know it was the power
of God. He had stone and a sling. That was the power of God. So
the indication here is David now, in his fear of man, is now
looking for carnal weapons from which to defend himself and to
defeat man. And so he says, do you have any
weapons here? For I have neither brought my
sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required
haste. So he builds on the lie. He said,
whatever Saul's business was that he's lying about, he said,
I had to do it quickly. I didn't have time to get my
sword, to get my spear. Now listen to this, it says,
And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom
thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped
in a cloth behind the ephod. And if thou wilt take that, take
it, for there is no other save that here. And David said, There
is none like that, give it me." Nothing like Goliath's sword.
David, as I said, looking for a way to defend himself against
the enemy, asking for carnal weapons. Now, Himelech said,
well, there's only one here, the sword of Goliath. Notice
how he describes it. There's no other save that here. David said, there's none like
that, give it to me. Now, what's wrong with that?
Well, we can make a spiritual application of it. And God says
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The weapons of our
warfare are not guns and knives and spears and swords and fists. But the weapons of our warfare
are spiritual. It's the gospel. The gospel. We don't need the sword of Goliath
of Gath. We need the sword of the Lord.
That's what we need to fight our battles. And what is that
sword of the Lord? It's the Word of God, Christ
himself being the living Word, the incarnate Word, the Scriptures,
which is the sword of the Lord, the written Word of God that
leads us to Christ, and by the power of the Spirit reveals Christ
to our hearts. And then we have the preached
Word, the uttered Word, which is in line with the written Word,
which every true preacher of God drive sinners, lead sinners,
point sinners to Christ for all of salvation. That's what we
need. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than
any two-edged sword. It will cut asunder all the thoughts
and the intents of the heart and get to the very quick of
the matter. When John saw the glorified Lord in the revelation
that was given him, his tongue was like a sword. That's the
Word of God. And that's all we need. And if
God's pleased to use it, to make it the power of God unto salvation,
it'll be the saver of life unto life to those who hear it and
believe. But if He's not pleased to do
so, it'll be the saver of death unto death to those who walk
away unaffected or in opposition. And that's what we need. The
Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and there is none like
it. You know, when Himelech said, there's no other Savior but Him,
when we think about Christ, there's no other Savior but Him. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And when we think of his word,
there's none other like it. The effects of the word is like
a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. It's a quickening
sword. I think about Peter. When the multitudes left the
Lord, and he turned to his disciples, and he said, will you go away
also? And Peter looked back at him. He said, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of life. That's the gospel, which is the
power of God unto salvation. James said, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth, or by the word of truth. It's
a convicting word. I think about that when Peter
preached at Pentecost, and those who were convicted said, men
and brethren, what shall we do? They were pricked in their heart
by the power of the Spirit. It convinced them of sin. and
of righteousness and of judgment, convince them of their need of
Christ, of their need of His blood and His righteousness for
all of salvation. It's a reassuring word, for faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It's a heartwarming
word. You remember when the Lord was
walking on the road to Emmaus, speaking to His disciples, and
they said, didn't our hearts burn within us as we heard Him
preach the words of life? It's the filling word. It's the
children's milk and the children's bread, isn't it? And it's the
sanctifying word. Christ prayed in his high priestly
prayer, sanctify his children with thy truth. This salvation
that's of the Lord in Christ, there's none like it. All of
the Lord, it's all of the Lord, it's all of grace, it's all purposed
by God, it's all purchased and performed by Christ in the Spirit,
it's all of mercy, and it's all complete, ready and furnished.
That's one thing about Goliath's sword that you can say, you didn't
have to make a new sword here. It was already there. And that's
the way it is with the Word of God. We have the completed revelation
of the Word of God right here in the Scriptures. And I tell
you, when a lot of these fellas come along, they say, well, I've
gotten a revelation from the Lord. Let me tell you something.
If they speak not according to this Word, you mark them off.
There's no light in them. Isaiah 8 and verse 20. God doesn't
give new revelations anymore. It's completed. He said, any
man that adds to or takes away from this Word, remember what
He said, he'll perish. And this issue of the Word, you
see, the Word that leads us to Christ. as the only sacrifice
for our sins. Christ and Him crucified. That's
what Paul said he preached. In 1 Corinthians 2, he said,
I strive not to know anything among you, say, Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That word that shows us and identifies
for us who Christ is, that He's both God and man in one person. That's our glorious Savior. What
a Savior! Hallelujah, we sing. Man of sorrows. He's our substitute. He's our
representative, He's our surety. God made Him sin. Christ who
knew no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. So it's the word of substitution.
It's the word that leads us to the God of all grace for justification
based solely upon Christ's righteousness imputed. It shows how He did
it all and bore our sins away. It shows how He's the eternal
Lamb. slain from the foundation of the world, and who will stand
on the earth at the last day and hear his people sing the
song of the redeemed, worthy is the Lamb that is slain. He
is our prophet, our priest, our king. His righteousness is the
only one that justifies sinners like us before God, and therefore
he is our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption.
There is none like it. There is none like it. And it
is the only one we have that will bring life. But now look
at the next episode here in this chapter. Now, David rose, verse
10. Look at this. David arose, and
he fled that day for fear of Saul. So now, the scripture here
tells us that who he's running in fear of is not the fear of
God here that's driving him. It's the fear of a man. It's
the fear of Saul. And he ran, he fled, and he went
to Achish, the king of Gath. Now, you might have noticed in
the psalm that Brother Aaron read. We'll come back to that
in just a moment. But that psalm was written during
this time. And that's a miracle of grace.
And I'll show you why. Let's read on. Verse 11. The
servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king
of the land? Now, a lot of commentators argue,
how did they know he was anointed to be king? I don't know. I'm
sure word began to spread. I'm sure the gossip lines were
as hot back then as they are today, even though they didn't
have mass communication. But they said, 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 thousands? David laid up these words in
his heart and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So
when David heard that, he became afraid of Achish the king of
Gath. Now listen to verse 13. And he
changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad. Now
what does feigned mean? That means he faked it. He played
the madman. He played the fool. So, he feigned
himself in their hands. You know, in the book of 1 Timothy,
it talks about faith unfeigned. Well, that's true faith. That's
not false faith. That's not a faking it. You say,
well, here David's faking madness. Playing like he's a crazy man.
That's what he's doing. And so, he feigned himself mad
in their hands and he scrabbled on the doors. Now, that doesn't
mean he's playing scrabble. That means he's making marks.
That's what that literally means. He's just scratching on the doors,
making marks on the doors. And he says, "...of the gate,
and let his spittle fall down upon his beard." Like he's foaming
at the mouth. Now, this is the man after God's
own heart. This is the anointed, appointed
king of whom it was said in chapter 18 three or four times that he
behaved himself wisely before men. But now he's afraid of Saul.
He's afraid of Achish, so he says, I better act crazy. We've
been acting crazy all along in this episode here. But now he
acts like he's not in his right mind, like he's insane. Well, look at verse 14. It says,
Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see that the man is mad? You see the man is mad. Now over
in your concordance it says, place the madman as if Achish
knew that David was just faking it, but that's not really a good
translation of that. I don't believe Achish knew what
was going on, but it says, wherefore then have you brought him to
me? Why did you bring a madman to me? Have I need of madmen? Does anybody need a madman? I don't need them. He probably
is thinking, I've got too many of them as it is. But he said,
have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play
the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my
house? Is this the kind of man I want
in my house, Achish said? OK. David running in fear. Now, there's no doubt in our
minds that David was one of God's elect children. That David was
a sinner saved by the grace of God. That David was a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no doubt in our minds,
the scripture tells us plainly, even before this, that David
was a man who was washed in the blood of Christ. He knew the
power of the blood that was to come on the cross. when God would send his Messiah. He was a man who was clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. And even at that now, in his
life, he was anointed to be king in Israel. He was going to ascend
the throne of Israel. He was going to be the first
king in the line of Judah. And it would be from his line
that the Messiah would come. There's no doubt that David knew
that and believed it. And yet, here he is, running
away because of the fear of men, from one enemy to another, you
see. And what happens? He has to change
his behavior. That's the way it is when we
run in the fear of men and we get among the heathen, we get
among the unbelievers. If we're going to be accepted,
we have to change our behavior. Not that he was a sinner and
then stopped being a sinner, or he wasn't a sinner and started
being a sinner. But now, it wasn't the fear of
God that was driving him and motivating him. It wasn't the
grace and mercy of God and salvation that was driving him. It was
the fear of men. What kind of behavior do men
engage in when they fear men? Turn to John chapter 12. Let
me show you what the fear of men will do for you and for me.
That's why our Lord said, fear not what man can do unto you
or do unto us. Those who can kill even kill
the body. And let me tell you something,
you know as well as I do that they can't even kill the body
unless the Lord lets them. That's right. Our lives, our
physical lives, our spiritual lives, our eternal lives are
certainly in the hands of the Lord. So are our earthly lives. The Lord giveth and who takes
away? The Lord. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. That's what Job said. He didn't
say the Lord gives, but the devil takes away. That's what most
people believe. But that's not so. The Lord gives. Our times
are in the hands of the Lord. The hairs of our head are numbered.
Now, who does the numbering? The Lord does, not the devil.
The devil couldn't touch Job except the Lord allow it. You
see that? But let me tell you, he said,
fear not them which can kill the body, but fear him who can
cast body and soul into hell. But look here what the fear of
man does for people. Look over in verse 42. Here's some men who claim to
be believers, but they weren't. They claim to be professors,
but they weren't. Verse 42, nevertheless, among
the chief rulers, Also, many believed on him." Now, it's talking
about a claim to believe on him. When that claim is tested, look
here, "...but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess
him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue." They wouldn't
confess Christ before the Pharisees because they were afraid of the
Pharisees. They were afraid the Pharisees would throw them out
of church. That's what that is. That's synagogues,
the religious gathering of the Jews. Well, why were they afraid
of the Pharisees? Well, what did our Lord teach?
He taught salvation by God's grace based upon His righteousness,
His obedience unto death. What did the Pharisees teach?
You have to make yourself righteous by your works in the sight of
God. What did our Lord say? He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. What did the Pharisees
teach? They taught that they were just
before men and they despised others. They taught that their
righteousness is in what they did and what God enabled them
to do. Christ taught that righteousness is wrapped up in his obedience
unto death alone. So in other words, if they would
confess Christ before the Pharisees, the Pharisees would understand.
Now, you're against us. You're saying we're lost. You're
saying what we preach and what we tell men and women to do to
be saved is nothing but heresy. That's what you're saying. Now,
you get out of our church. That's what they're saying. Well,
look at verse 43. It says, For they love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. Now, I don't believe David
back here is Loving the praise of men more than the praise of
God, I believe he's just running for his life. He's afraid for
his physical life. But I wanted you to see that
just to understand what the fear of man can do for some people.
It can expose their false faith. So don't fear man. Don't fear
man. David was resolved not to fear,
but he did. It reminds me of another disciple
who was resolved not to fear. When the Lord turned to him one
night, he said, Peter, you act so bold, but you are going to
deny me before this night is over three times. And Peter said,
I will not. I will not. And before the cock
crew thrice, the Scripture says, Peter denied him three times
and went away weeping and sobbing in shame. Look back here at 1
Samuel 21. The Philistines, they found David
out. here in Achish's town, in his
kingdom. And they concluded he was the
king of the land. And then, David, instead of standing
bold, we see his weakness, his human weakness. We see that a
lot in the Scriptures. But I'll tell you what, we see
it a lot in ourselves, don't we? Don't you? Somebody says,
not me. Well, you're with a sorry bunch
then, that's all I can tell you. You're just with a bunch of sorry
people. You're the only righteous fellow in the whole bunch, I
guess. Yeah, not me. No, all of us. I think about
Elijah, the prophet Elijah. You know how he stood before,
I think it was like 500 prophets against him. I know there was
at least 350, but somebody said 500, I think it was more. And
he called down fire from the Lord in that 63-word prayer.
And then the next time we see him, he's running from a woman,
Jezebel, running scared, complaining, Lord, am I the only one? The
Lord says, well, don't fret, Elijah. I've got 7,000 who have
not bowed the knee to Baal. That's us. That's why not only
must we be saved by grace, but just like Elijah, just like David,
just like the Apostle Peter, we have to be kept by grace. Don't let anybody ever tell you
that you can be saved one day and lost another. That's not
the testimony of the scriptures. It's not the experience of God's
children. It's not the testimony of the
gospel. It is not. Salvation is by free,
sovereign grace. And I want to tell you something.
When David, back in chapter 18, acted wisely, he still had nothing
to boast in. He still had nothing from which
to earn God's favor. He was still a sinner saved by
grace. For it is God which worketh in
you to do his good pleasure. But he changed his behavior.
You know why he had to change his behavior? You know, down
here in verse 13, he changed his behavior. The reason he had
to change his behavior is because he was a regenerate man. He was
a born-again man. He was a believing man. So, in
other words, to play the fool, to play the madman, he had to
change. Now, the natural man doesn't have to change to play
that way. That's what he is by nature, I'll show you that. David
was a man of God. But now, here's the thing about
it. And people have a lot of trouble
with this, but we shouldn't. Sometimes believers can appear
like unbelievers. Carnal. Paul wrote that to the
Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3. He said, you're yet carnal. You're acting like a bunch of
fleshly people. And believers can sometimes do
that. Thank God He will not let us go. Thank God that our Salvation
is assured because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And then sometimes unbelievers
can appear like believers. 1 Corinthians 11 deals with that. He even spoke of Satan himself
appears as an angel of light, so don't marvel that his ministers
can appear that way too. But here's the thing. These things
are put here for a reason. You know, when the Lord writes
a biography of a man, he doesn't hold back like men do. You know,
we want to, you know, just talk about their high... unless somebody's
mad at them, you know, and they want to just air the dirty laundry.
The Lord's not airing dirty laundry here. He's showing his sovereign
power, his sovereign mercy and grace. And let me give you these
things. Why did he do this? Why did he allow David to do
it? Why did he record it? And here's one thing that you
need to understand. Here, he's illustrating how we all, by nature,
spiritually are mad men. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. This is what David's playing like here. That's what we all
are by nature. Brother Tim James said it this way. He said, by
nature, we are all spiritually insane. By nature, as we're born
into this world. You don't believe somebody got
mad at him for saying that. I say, Amen. And what that means, you know
what insanity means. It means you don't know the difference
between right and wrong. Between good and evil. Well,
by nature, without a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit to set
us in our right mind, we're just like that garrisoned demoniac. More like David, who's playing
the fool here. Scratching at the door and foaming
at the mouth. Spiritually insane. Look here
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. He says, But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. Now, you'd look at David playing
the madman, feigning madness, and you'd say, he's acting like
a fool. Well, the natural man, when he hears the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ, who Christ is? The God-man mediator. Son of God incarnate, has no
beginning, has no end. God in human flesh. That's foolishness
to Him. How can you have one person who's
both God and man? And I'll tell you how. I don't
know, but it's so. It's so. He's without sin. He knew no sin. He committed
no sin. He thought no sin. He imagined
no sin. He was perfect in every way.
I can't imagine what that's like. But it's true of him. He went
to the cross not as a defeated martyr and not as an example. He went there as a substitute,
a sin-bearer, a sacrifice to justify his people by bearing
away their sins. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. One person dying for the many. That's foolishness
to the world. You mean to tell me that my works
and my efforts to be good will not save me or make me righteous
or earn my rewards in heaven? I'm telling you just that, that
all your efforts to earn God's favor and blessings are nothing
but filthy rags in the sight of God. That's foolishness to
the natural man. You know what, I think it was
Felix or Festus, I can't remember, that Paul was preaching in front
of in Acts chapter 26, and he said, Paul, much learning hath
made thee mad. You're a madman, Paul. That's
what he told him. And when the natural man hears
these things, naturally speaking, he looks at you, that preacher's
crazy. He's gone mad. Well, it's foolishness
to him. Look over at 1 Corinthians 2
that I read, verse 14. Here's the reason. The natural
man, that's a man or woman born of Adam, born dead in trespasses
and sin, ruined by the fall, who has not been regenerated
by the Spirit. He said, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. I'll tell you, it's like this. It's like a fellow
who has cancer and doesn't know it. He walks around like he's
got a hundred years to live. That's madness. You say, but
he doesn't know it. He doesn't know it. That's the
way the natural man is. He doesn't know his sin. He doesn't know
his need. He doesn't know his problem. You see, we need Christ. We need his blood and righteousness.
So it's an illustration of what, that's what David's doing here.
He's showing us an illustration. That's what God's doing through
David, showing us an illustration of what we are by nature until
God steps in and puts us in our right mind. Look at verse 15
of 1 Corinthians 2, but he that is spiritual judges all things.
Yet he himself is judged of no man for who hath known the mind
of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of
Christ. That's the only way that you
and I can be in our right mind spiritually, is to have the mind
of Christ. The mind that's full of the glory
of God. The mind that's full of the conviction
of sin, so to the point that we know that Christ is our only
hope of salvation. Here's another thing. God's showing
through David, who's feigning madness, that even though we're
saved, we're still sinners. And still vanity at our best.
We do not need our best. We need God's best. We need Christ. That's humility. It's of the
Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. That's just as true
of me right now, this evening, as I'm preaching here, as it
was when I first began the race. And it'll stay true throughout
eternity. We have a treasure. David had
a treasure. He had the Word of God. God used him to write a
lot of the Psalms. He was a man after God's own
heart, but he had that treasure in earthen vessel, clay pot. And that's what we are. And then
another thing that he's showing us through David's vain madness
is this, don't put your trust in man. Don't do it. Not even the best of men. Not
even in a believer. Not in a preacher. Put your trust
in Christ. That's right. Don't put your
trust in princes or in nobles. Let me read a passage from the
book of Job, chapter 15, verse 14. You mark this down, read
it on your own. Here's what Job said. He says, What is man that
he should be clean, and he which is born of a woman, that he should
be righteous? There's none to be found. It
takes the grace of God. He said, Behold, he, that is
God, putteth no trust in his saints. God doesn't put any trust in
us. Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight, how much
more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like
water." You see, God didn't put His trust in you or in me, we
put our trust in Him. Lean not to the harm of the flesh.
The most mature believer is totally hopeless and helpless without
Christ. And then here's another thing. We're not yet sinlessly
perfect in ourselves. David wasn't, and we're not.
Our perfection right now is in Christ. Our righteousness right
now is in Christ. We've not yet been made perfect
in ourselves. There's nothing perfect in us
or about us except, you might say, the Holy Spirit Himself.
And that's not me or you. That's the Holy Spirit. You're
not God. I'm not God. And when we're born
again, We're brought into the kingdom. We're enabled by God
to do things that was impossible before. Marvelous things. Miraculous
things. Powerful things. We can believe. We couldn't do that before. We
were unbelievers. We can repent. That's the gift
of God. But we're not yet perfect in
ourselves. And then here's another thing. Without God's grace and
power, And without God's Word, we're no more than madmen, insane,
going our own way, the way of fools. If God would leave us
for a second, we'd be scratching at the door and foaming at the
mouth, spiritually speaking. Madmen. You say, well, sometimes
I feel that way, or sometimes we act that way. When you go
your way against the Word of God, that's insanity. Here's another thing. When we
go astray, there's no excuse. There's no justification for
it. There's no way for us to make it right. There's no way
for David to make this right over here. It's just wrong. It
always has been wrong. It is wrong. It always will be
wrong. Thank God that he imputes not iniquity to us. David said
that blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed not iniquity.
Thank God that David was not claiming or dependent upon a
righteousness of his own, but Christ. So there's no excuse
for it. Now, God can and does overrule
our evil for His glory and our good. You see? But now, we can't do that. Now,
let me show you that. Turn to Psalm 34. This is the
psalm that Brother Aaron read. Out of this sad episode of David's
life, God brought good. Because out of this episode,
God, the Holy Spirit, inspired David to write this beautiful,
wonderful Psalm 34. And we have it right here before
us. It says underneath Psalm 34,
Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech,
that's Ahimelech, same one, who drove him away and he departed.
And that's when he went to Achish. At this point he says, I will
bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Now you can read the rest of
the psalm again on your own. But what a beautiful psalm that
is. And so the last thing is this. Out of David's evil, out
of David's unbelief, God's grace was magnified in the salvation
of sinners, in the preservation of sinners, the righteousness
of Christ, His blood alone. There's power in the blood. We
see that in David's case, but I'll tell you what, I can see
it in my case. There's power in, no power in me, but there's
power in the blood to save this old sinner from his sins, to
preserve us, and to bring us to godly sorrow and repentance. You think about it. These are
the lessons of grace, aren't they? Lord, save us from our
madness. Keep us with the mind of Christ
in our right mind. Keep us focused on Him and in
His Word as we're energized and motivated and stirred by His
grace and His mercy in Christ.