And the Ziphites came to Saul
to Gibeah, saying, Doeth not David hide himself in the hill
of Hackelah, which is before Jezamah? Saul arose, went down
to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of
Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness. Well, David,
Saul pitched camp in the hill of Hackelah, which is before
Jezamah by the way. But David abode in the wilderness,
and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. David
therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come
in very deed. Now I want to just read down
here to verse 11. And David arose and came to the
place where Saul had pitched, set up his camp. And David beheld
the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain
of his host. Saul lay in the trench, and the
people pitched round about him. Then answered David and said
to Ahimelech the Hittite, and Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother
to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I'll go down
with thee. So David and Abishai came to the people by night,
And behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear
stuck in the ground at his bolster. But Abner and the people lay
round about him. Then said Abishai to David, God
hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day. Now therefore
let me smite him, I pray with the spear, even to the earth
at once, and I will not smite him the second time. David said
to Abishai, destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his
hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And David said,
furthermore, as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him, or
his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle
and perish. The Lord forbid that I should
stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed, but I pray
thee now, take now the spear that is at his bolster and the
crews of water. and let us go. Our blessed, blessed Father,
our glorious God, precious, precious Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the lover of our souls, the one who loved us and gave himself
for us, washed us from our sins in his own blood, made us accepted in the Beloved.
Lord, we bless you and praise you for that. But Lord, we also
come with heavy hearts. We come with heavy hearts for
your people. Your people that are sick, that are hurting, that
are being tried so greatly. Lord, we pray for Bill, Dorotha,
that you'd cause Bill to be able to get up and get around, that
the doctors can fix him. Lord, give him wisdom to deal
with him. And our Father, we pray for Bob. Oh, Lord. What a dear brother. Such wonderful
fellowship. Such wonderful preaching. Such
sweetness. Such a manifestation of the grace
of God in a man. In his wife. Oh, Lord, meet his
needs. Oh, Father, I know he's hurting
in his mind because he can't talk. Can't express himself. So, Lord, give him some peace.
Give him some rest. Pray for Tim. Thank you for him. Faithful brother all these years.
Faithful preacher. The gospel of the free grace
of God. God, restore him back to his church and his family.
But Lord, we especially now pray for Sarah. Oh, Sarah. Such a young woman. Such a great trial. Oh Lord, please be merciful to
her husband and children. May she be brought into remission
so she can raise her babies and take care of her children. We
thank you for Joe and we thank you for what you've done for
him. Please help him to rest and rest in you. Meet with us
tonight for Your glory and our good. In Christ's name, Amen. In our hymnals number 318. 318. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee
I need Thee every hour nearby. Temptations lose their
power when loud are nigh. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I mean I need Thee every hour, most
holy one. O make me Thy seed, Thou blest
Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless
me now, my Savior I come to Thee Well, I trust the Lord meet with
us tonight. I've got that song on there.
I didn't turn it off. Oh my. Well, people hear some
good singing, won't they? Turn with me back here again,
and I want to, subject to my message this evening, is David
Spares His Enemy Again. David Spares His Enemy Again.
David had opportunity to kill Saul. Remember when he was in
the cave? David went in there and cut off
his skirt. Went off and spoke to Saul. And Saul relentlessly
pursued him. And then he said he wouldn't
do it anymore. Well, here he is pursuing David again. And
he has another opportunity to kill him and destroy him. But
David had true humility and understood what it is to be the Lord's anointed.
And he wouldn't touch the Lord's anointing, wouldn't even raise
his hand against him. And he asked Saul one time, am
I a flea, am I a dog? Now it takes a pretty, you don't
have to be pretty to know something about yourself to call yourself
a flea and a dog. He said, you out to pursue a
flea and a dog? And so David, I'm going to start
here in verse 1, we're just going to go down through these verses.
David is betrayed again by the Ziphites. Now this is the second
time they betrayed David. The second time. They betrayed
him once before, over in chapter 23. And it didn't cost them anything
to betray David. No, it didn't cost them anything
to betray David. They would rather, they're like
human religion, they don't want the king that God set up. They
don't want God's anointed. They want the king of their choice.
The king that they want to worship. The king that they like. The
king that will pamper to their flesh. But it's like our Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Lord was betrayed. Oh, He
was betrayed. But you know what it cost to
betray Him? 30 pieces of silver and a kiss. When they went out to get him
out there when he was at the garden, Judah says, the man that
I kiss, that's the one. That's the one. And the money
was jingling in his pocket when he kissed the Lord Jesus Christ.
It didn't cost him anything to betray David. And David being
like our master, he's betrayed time and time and time again.
And then Saul, look what happens, after his, you remember when
he repented, it said here he came into the wilderness of Ziph
to seek David. To seek David. Came to seek David
in the wilderness of Ziph. Remember his repentance, look
over here in chapter 24, in verse 16 I think it is, with me. You remember when Saul repented?
And what told you the difference between true repentance and false
repentance? Well, here's Saul repenting.
And it came to pass, in verse 16, when David had made an end
to speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this
thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice,
and he began to weep, he began to cry. And he said to David,
You're more righteous than I am. And what he's saying is here
is that I'm righteous, you're just more righteous than I am.
For thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I've rewarded you evil.
And you showed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me.
For as much when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand,
you didn't kill me. For if a man find his enemy,
will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee
good for that thou hast done unto me this day. And swear now
by the Lord that thou will not cut off my seed after me, and
that thou will not restore my name out of my father's house."
Remember when he repented of that? Said, you know, I won't
bother you anymore, David. Wept and cried and carried on.
And said, just remember me. Told David he's going to be established
in his kingdom. But here he comes again with
3,000 men. And he set his camp back over here in chapter 26,
set his camp in the wilderness of Zeph, right where they told
David, where they told us that David was. And he come after
David in the wilderness, and he pitched his tent, pitched
his camp, had his camp down there, and he brought 3,000 men. Every
time you mention him, he's got 3,000 men. David had 600 men. You know what that comes out
to? Five to one. Five to one. It'd be hard to
whip five men at one time. And here there's 600 men of David's. And he comes out there with 3,000
men. Five to one. And David knew what
was happening because it says there in verse 4, David sent
out spies. He sent out spies. David knows
what was going on. He sent out spies. And our Lord,
he understood that Saul was out. He said he understood that Saul
was very come indeed. He said, oh, would he come out
after me again? Well, he did. He did. And our
Lord Jesus, David had to have spies to find out what was going
on. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't have to have spies. He knew what
men thought. He said when He knew what they
thought within Himself, He would answer what they were thinking.
He would tell them, He would answer what they were thinking
and tell them exactly what was going on and why they were thinking
what they were thinking and what would happen over their thinking. And I love that about Christ.
I love that He knows us. He knows our thoughts are far
off. And boy, ain't you thankful, brethren, ain't you thankful
that God knows us and knows our thoughts afar off and knows everything
about us. And bless His holy name that
we are safe and secure until we enter glory because He already
put away all of our sins once and for all. And He will not
charge us with anything we think, say, or do because He's already
borne it. Huh? David had to have spies. Christ don't have to have spies.
They send spies out to check on Christ. See what he had to
say. Tried to tap him in what he said.
Tempt him in what he said. And every time he did, he made
them look like what they was. Fools. Fools. And now David becomes
the pursuer. Saul is out after David. Now
look what David becomes the pursuer. Look in verse 5. David arose
after they pitched camp and everybody went to bed and everybody went
to sleep. David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched,
where the camp was. And David looked and he saw where
Saul lay. And he saw where Abner the son
of Ner, the captain of the host, that was his general. Abner was Saul's general, if
I could say it that way. And Saul lay in the trench. That
means that Saul laid right dead center And everybody laid around
him. And Abner, the captain of the
host, was right there, real close to him to protect him. Well,
David went down there and I said, there's old Saul laying there.
I see Abner too. And all then answered David,
said to Hilimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah,
brother to Joab, which became David's general, saying, Who
will go down with me to Saul to the camp? Now you're talking
about some nerve. You're talking about bold and
having some nerve. He's going to go into the enemy's
camp, him and one other man. He'll go down with me to Saul,
down where Saul's at. Abishai said, I'll go down with
you. I'll go with you. And you find this man over and
over and over again, till he gets to be an old man, and he's
loyal to David, and from now until he gets to be an old, old
man. Loyal and faithful to David. God make us loyal and faithful
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember years ago, I would
think about men that went on before me. When I first started
preaching and I considered, when I met Brother Henry and some
of these men and Scott, I said, these fellas have paved the way.
They've blazed the trail. They opened the way. And boy,
to not be loyal. to not be true to the gospel
that they had blazed the trail for and opened also the doors
for us to go through to preach the gospel. These fellows were
trailblazers and boy to think that you would ever betray The
trust of one and men and women that was so faithful to Christ.
And that's what David is now. He is faithful. O Abishai is
faithful to David. And oh, he went down to the camp
and he went in there boldly. He didn't sneak in. You know,
I believe he walked in there upright. I don't believe he snuck
in on his elbows and crawling. I don't believe he snuck in on
his belly. look what it said verse 7 so David and Abishai
came to the people by night and behold Saul lay sleeping within
the trench and his spear David got right up to where Saul was
Walked right up to the king's lair, sleeping. And he had his
big pillow, they called it a bolster. Y'all ever remember what a bolster
was? Years ago, a bolster would take the whole bed at the top
as a pillow, an old bolster. I remember when I was a kid,
they had old bolsters and they would take the whole head of
the bed. It was great big long pillows. You know, everybody
didn't have their own pillow back in them days, you know.
Everybody used to say, big old bolsters. But anyway, he had
that, he had him a big pillow. And oh, and there he had his
spear stuck right there by where he lay, right there by his head.
And there was a jug of water right there. And Abner and the
people was laying everywhere around him, everywhere around
him. And then said Abishai to David,
God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand again. Oh, today,
today. Now let me smite him. David, you don't have to do a
thing. Just stand here. Let me smite him with the spear
to the earth and I'll just stick him one time. I'll just plunge
that spear in one time. And David said to Abishai, destroy
him not. Don't you do it. For who can
stretch his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be getless?
And I tell you this, when he went down there, and he still
believed he was the Lord's anointed. And the reason why he would not
put forth his hand against him, because God said, touch mine
anointed, and do my prophets no harm. And he's down there
in the enemy's camp. And our Lord Jesus Christ, all
the days that he was on this earth, he was among his enemies,
all the time. They hated him without a cause.
They planned and plotted his death time and time and time
again. How many times I preached on
Sunday morning, how they were planning on all the things it
was going to do to him and he told what was going to happen
and then he departed out of their presence. And here David goes into the
camp of his enemy, Christ spent all of his life in the camp of
his enemies. And when it come time for him
to die, who in the world stood by him? Peter denied him. John run off. But they did do
this. Three Marys and John went back
and stood beside him there on that cross and had a conversation
with him before he died. And so they come down there and
they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. And he said,
listen to this. Now look what David says. Look
what David says now here. David said, furthermore, you
know, if you lay your hands on the Lord anointed, you won't
be guiltless. It's like when Judas betrayed Christ, he went
and hung himself and said, I've betrayed innocent blood. And
when they crucified Christ and they delivered him up, said,
let his blood be on us and on our children. And when he, and
Herod wanted to see Christ, he said, you go tell that fox. That
I do miracles today and I do miracles tomorrow and then the
third day I'm going to rise again. Oh, listen. So he said, and David knew that
the Lord was going to take care of him. Look what he said here
now in verse 10. And David said, furthermore,
as the Lord lives, Listen to this now. He trusted. You talking
about trusting God and believing God. He's one of God's elect.
If God be for us, who can be against us? And David said, furthermore,
as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him. I don't have
to smite him. God will do it. God will get
him. God ain't going to let people
get by. And then look what else he said about it. Or his day shall come to die.
One of these days he'll just lay down and die. Or he'll descend
into battle and perish. But he said, I'm not going to
be the one, I'm not going to take my throne by By taking out
vengeance, by destroying my enemy, if I get my throne, God's going
to put me on it. If I ascend to the throne and
a crown's put on me, God's going to put me on that throne. I'm
going to leave Saul in the hands of God. I'm going to leave my
enemies in God's hands. He said he's going to die, God
Almighty, or else he'll die in battle. It don't make no difference
to me, but I'm not going to be responsible for my enemies. Isn't
that what our Master taught us? Love your enemies. pray for them
that despitefully use you and he told us all those things and
I tell you what David goes on to say verse 11 the Lord forbid
that I stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed but
I want you to take now the spear that is at his bolster and the
crews of water and let us go So David took the spear and the
crucible of water from Saul's bolster and they got them away.
Now let me ask you, how in the world did David, what made David's
going into the enemy camp, what made it successful? What made
him bold enough to go down in there and take Saul's spear,
right by his head, reach and get his spear, bottle of water,
jug of water sitting by him, just get the water and let's
get his spear. And I just walked out of there. And the scripture
says that no man saw him. Didn't see him come, didn't see
him go. I'm going to tell you why it happened. Look here in
verse 12, in the last part of the verse. Because a deep sleep from the
Lord was falling on him. I tell you, if God be for you,
who's going to be against you? That's what I say, he walked
in there. And he didn't know what God was
doing, but he knew that the Lord was leading him. God was telling
him, go down there and do this. And he went down there, and I
tell you, God caused a deep sleep to fall in. It's like the last
time he was getting ready to kill David and take David. Remember
that message come? It said, the Philistines invaded
the land. He had to turn around and leave. And he thought he
had David just right up against him. But I tell you, you know,
God is the first cause of all things. Even with all the news
that we have about all of our brethren and people that we love,
God's the first cause of everything. I don't know what second cause
He'll use to take us out of here. If it's old age, if it's a heart
attack, whatever it may be, He's the first cause. And He's the
first cause to cause this deep sleep to fall on these people.
You know the first time that God caused a deep sleep to fall
on anybody? You know where he was? He put
Adam into a deep sleep. Why did he do that? Well, he
wanted to make him a woman. He put him in a deep sleep and
done an operation on him. When he woke up, he had a woman.
God woke him up and said, listen, the operation is over. He looked up and seen this great
big beautiful, this beautiful woman. I believe Eve and Adam
was the handsomest man and the beautifullest woman. Fresh from
the hands of God. And then he said, that boy said,
who's this? He said, this is the woman I
gave you. And let me, let me look over
here in Isaiah 29, 10. Let me show you this about a
deep sleep. deep sleep. There's a lot of
people sleeping the sleep of death. And David said, let me
not sleep the sleep of death. And there's a lot of people sleeping
the sleep of death. And the reason is because God
done it. But Isaiah 29 and 10. Look what it says here. For the Lord hath poured upon
you the spirit of deep sleep, and closed your eyes, and the
prophets and your rulers and the seers, that's what they called
preachers back then too, hath he covered. He said, I caused
you to have a sleep, the prophets to have a sleep, the seers to
have a sleep, I put a deep sleep on all of you. You don't know
anything that's going on. Now that would be a horrible
place for God to put you. Put you in a deep sleep. Put
you in such a sleep that you cannot be woken up. He said, I'll put you in this
deep sleep. And I tell you, David said, oh
Lord, please don't let me sleep the sleep of death. So David
takes his spear, he takes his water. No one saw anything or
knew. David wasn't going to take his
throne by by violence and God God rendered Saul utterly and
absolutely helpless Saul could not do anything Saul was laying
there God had put him in that stupor and he was laying there
and he was utterly helpless and David could have done anything
he wanted to Why didn't he? Why didn't he? Well look what
happens over here then in verse 13 I love this. David did this over another time
too, you know, when he cut off his skirt. Then David went over
to the other side. Stood on top of a hill afar off.
He put a great space between them. You know, I tell you, I
would too if I was just five to one. He put as much space
between him and that bunch as he could do. Oh my. He begins to cry out to the people.
Hollered at all the people down there. and to Abner the son of
Ner, David's general, the one supposed to protect him. And
answerest thou not Abner? Then Abner answered and said,
who art thou that cries to the king? Who are you? He didn't know. He didn't care.
He just thought, boy, I'll put an end to this in just a little
while, he's thinking. And David said to Abner, are
not thou a valiant man? Aren't you a valiant man? Who's
like thee in Israel? You're running all the army.
Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? You didn't
keep him because somebody came in to people to destroy the king
thy lord. Somebody come in there to kill
him. And you didn't know it. You did not know it. Now watch
this. This thing is not good that you've
done. Oh, what you've done? Not protecting the king? Somebody
come in there to get him. As the Lord liveth, you know
what you are? Because you fell so miserably at your task, at
your responsibility, you're worthy to die. You're worthy to die. Because you've not kept your
master. The Lord's anointed. And he said,
now go back over there and look where Saul's at. Go see where
the king's at. And see where his spear is and
where his water is. He said, go back and look, see
where his spirit, where his water is. And oh my. Oh, he went over there and he'd
do it. And then listen to old Saul. Oh, Saul. Now listen to what he has to
say now. Saul knew David's voice just like he did over there.
We know our master's voice. We know our King's voice. We
know them. We know our Savior. Is this thy
voice my son David? David said it's my voice oh Lord
oh King. And David began to ask him some
questions. He said why do you pursue me?
I'm just your servant. What have I done? What evil is
in my hand? What have I done? What evil?
Why are you after me? Now he makes a statement right
here that lets you know something about David. You're talking about
the fear of God and humility. Now therefore I pray thee let
my Lord the King hear the words of his servant. Listen to me,
please. He says, if the Lord stirred
you up against me, if God has raised you up and stirred you
up, God has made you to go after me. I said, I'll tell you what
I'll do. I'll go and I'll offer sacrifice,
I'll offer an offering to God and I'll offer an offering to
sacrifice, a sacrifice to God and then God will be appeased. But if they'd be children of
men, if it's just men, Let them be cursed. If it's men that's
causing you to come after me, let them be cursed before the
Lord. And ain't that what Paul said? If a man brings another
gospel, let him be cursed. And I tell you what, for they
have driven, listen to this, what David says, for they've
driven me, all of you all have driven me this day from abiding
in my inheritance, going back into Bethlehem, going to my father's
inheritance, going into Judah and sitting as the king. You've
driven me out. And you're saying, you say to
me, go serve other gods. And David says this, oh my, What
a statement. David said, let my blood fall
to the earth before the face of the Lord. Let me die. Let
my blood just flow out of my body. Let me die right now. For the king of Israel come out
to seek a flea, as when one doeth hunt a partridge in the mountains.
Well, Saul against the claim to have a change of heart. It's
like that jailhouse religion I talked to you about. And Saul
seems to have a change of heart. And he said, I've sinned. I've
sinned. And what he says to David, he
said, David, just come on and return with me. Return with me. And I won't hurt you anymore.
Because my soul was precious in your eyes. I played the fool
in the verdict scene. And you know what David did?
He said, send a fellow over here and I'll give the king's spear
back to him. The one who seeks to kill me,
I'll give his weapons back to him. Because there ain't nothing
going to prosper against David. Like anything ain't going to
prosper against God, anything ain't going to prosper against
the Lord's elect. And then look what David says, I'll wind this
thing up. The Lord, verse 23, the Lord rendered to every man
his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord delivered thee in
my hand today, but I would not, would not stretch forth my hand
against the Lord's anointed. If I'm guilty, the Lord stirs
you up, I'll offer a sacrifice. And he said, your life was set
by me this day in my eyes. I said, oh listen, your life
was was something in my eyes today so let my life now this
is the difference in Saul and David behold as thy life was
much set by these days in my eyes now listen to what David
says so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord in
the eyes of the Lord may I listen may my life be God look at my
life and say that that's my that's my child that's my son and let
him, let God deliver me out of all tribulation. And Saul said go ahead on David
and David would not return with Saul. So David went his way and
Saul returned to his place and they never saw one another again. Never saw one another again.
Now let me mention a couple of things. You know what kept David from
killing Saul? Was the fear of God. Was the
fear of God. And the fear of God keeps us
from doing lots of things. It really does. The fear of God
does. Me and Bruce Crabtree was talking
about this the other day. The fear of God holds us back
from doing lots of things. The fear of God. And you know
what I fear? I fear, it keeps us back from
sin, but I fear that if I cross a certain line, and I don't know
how to say it any other way, if I go so far, there may come
a time when God said, I'll just let you go all the way. Now that's
what the fear of God does for you. And Saul was double-minded. Repents and then pursues. Repents
and then pursues. Repents and then pursues. God
keep us from being double-minded. Keep us from being double-minded. And help us to be like David
and like our master. Our master faced his enemies
head on. Head on. But the greatest enemy
he faced, the greatest enemy, you know what the greatest enemy
our Lord Jesus faced? He faced our sin. And that's why it says, my soul
was now troubled. He went and wept exceedingly
because He was facing our sin. Punishment due to our sin. And
you know why? He whipped our enemy for us.
He whipped it for us. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is like unto Thee, O Lord, who
is like unto Thee, we read about Your servants in Your blessed
book, and they're like Christ in so many ways. Lord, fill us
full of Your grace. Fill us full of wisdom. Fill
us full of understanding. Fill our hearts with love. And
always keep us fearing, fearing displeasing you, fearing dishonoring
you, fearing shaming you, fearing falling before the wicked. Oh, Lord, please work in us.
Bless your dear people. Keep your dear people, those
we've mentioned tonight. Oh, God, help us to be mindful
of them. Lord, help us if we can't remember,
Lord, help us to Write their names down and pray for them.
Joe. Tim. Bob. Rebecca. Joe. Sarah. Oh Lord Jesus. Oh Lord Jesus. Bill. Dorotha. God help us to
remember them. Thank you for allowing us to
meet tonight, allowing us to call on you and look to you for
all things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior.