Now when we last left David,
David was in a fix. You remember he had taken his
men and their families and taken them to the land of the Philistines,
stayed there 16 months. David joined himself to the king
of the Philistines. He swore allegiance to this man,
and David and his men became the king's honor guard. David's
in a fix. How's he going to get out of
this one? Well, verse 1 of our lesson, chapter 29, Now when
the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, and
the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel, and the
lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands,
but David and his men passed on the reward with Achish. Achish
is gathering his army to go to war with Israel, and David is
right there marching in the military parade with the Philistine army
with the king of the Philistines, the king of the enemy of Israel.
And this is the kind of mess we get ourselves in. When we
don't follow the word of God, when we begin to compromise the
gospel, compromise the truth, it's hard to run up to the brink
of sin and then stop and not fall in. And that's the precipice
that David's on. Now here they are marching this
military parade. You reckon David He's marching
down the street wondering, how on earth did I get here? How did I get here? Have you
ever wondered that? I have. How did I get here? And
if you find the honest answer, I got here because of my fault.
I so frequently find I'm my own worst enemy. Now, can a believer
do this? Can a believer do what David's
doing right here? Can I do this? Can you do this? Or is this just
David? Yeah, a believer can do this. If you don't believe me, ask
David, ask Jonah, ask Peter. Can a believer do this? You reckon
when Jonah was in that fish's belly, he sat there at some point
over the course of those three days, I know he thought, how
did I get here? How did I get here? As Peter
was warming himself by the fire, there was all surrounded by those
unbelievers. He had to wonder, how did I get
here tonight? The night didn't start out that
way, did it? He started out with the Lord. He ended up around
that fire with those unbelievers, just in one night. He had to
wonder, how did I get here? There is no telling how far this
flesh will go. Without God's preventing grace,
without His almighty restraining hand, there's just no telling
how far this flesh will go. And we, believers, us right here,
we're capable of committing every sin. And we do commit every sin
in thought and in heart, don't we? Every sin. And we're capable
of committing every sin externally, too, in action. And the only
reason we don't do what we're capable of doing is God's restraining
hand. He's kept us back from it. That's
the only reason. If we can just get a glimpse
of this depraved flesh, this nature that we carry around with
us, we will cry with the Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from this body of death? And I reckon that's
what David was thinking as he's marching down this a wretched
man that I am. How did I get here? Maybe David
thought, I can't be a child of God at all. I'm too far gone.
And he just gave up. He gave up on God. He gave up
on the promises of God and thought, I'll just stay right here in
the land of the heathen, live a quiet life and be done with
it. Now we know that's not possible. Not if David's a child of God,
that's not possible. David may have given up on God.
Maybe he did. But we know this, God never gave
David up, did he? Never did. We know God will not
allow David to live down there in that land of the heathen too
long. And that applies to every believer. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the great Shepherd of the sheep, is always going to go get that
one, Marcy. The ninety and nine are safe in the fold, but one's
missing over there in the land of the heathen. He's going to
go get it and he's going to bring that sheet back to the fold.
I'm sure David wondered, how did I get here? And then I bet
you he wondered this. How am I going to get out of
this mess? I mean, I'm here now, but how am I going to get out
of this fix I'm in? How is God's will going to be
accomplished now? I don't see how it's possible.
I'm too far gone. Well, the Lord's not going to
let David go. He's not going to let David become
lost. But how is God going to accomplish his purpose? How is
he going to accomplish his will here? Well, I can promise you
this. David's not going to deliver
himself. He never will. He's not capable of doing it.
Neither will we if we find ourselves in the same fix. God's going
to deliver David and God's going to deliver David in a way that
clearly shows us Our sovereign God delivered us. That's how
he's going to do it. So let's read on here in verse
3. Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews
hear? And Achish said unto the princes
of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul, the
king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these
years? And I found no fault in him, since the day he fell unto
me, and to this day. And the princes of the Philistines
were wroth with him. And the princes of the Philistines
said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again
to his place which thou hast appointed him. And let him not
go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary
to us. For wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master?
Should it not be with the heads of these men? Is not this David,
of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew
his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Have you What
David has done to us in the past, all these men he's killed in
the past, these are our brethren. He's devised all these brilliant
military plans in the past. Maybe this is another one. He's
going to attack us from the rear while Saul's attacking us from
the front. We're all going to end up dead. And this is the
danger when we do what David has done. Man leaves the Word
of God. He leads the way of the Lord.
And you know, the Philistine princess said that David could
do this. And the king said, no, this is
David. He's not going to do that. He's
been with me all this time. Man leads the work of God. He
leads the way of the Lord and he dwells with the ungodly. Here's
the danger. You begin to act like them. Begin
to act just like them. You don't change them. They change
you. Just like that good apple put
in a basket of bad ones. That good apple doesn't make
those bad apples good. Bad ones make the good apple
bad. Be not deceived, Paul said, 1 Corinthians 15. Be not deceived. Evil communication is crucked
with good manners. And this is why we cannot tolerate
false religion in our midst. Even if they say some good things
and do some good things, if they don't preach the truth and the
gospel, we cannot dwell with them. You can't dwell together. I've heard several men say this. It was their experience that
they were in false religion, maybe they were teaching a class
or something, when they first heard the gospel and the Lord
saved them. And what did they do? They tried to stay right
where they were and tell everybody else the good news. And you know
what they found out? Invariably what they found out.
Those two cannot dwell together. It's an utter impossibility. If you're going to get along
and have peace, either you've got to change your message or
they've got to come to Christ and be saved one or the other.
The only other option is you have to leave. And invariably,
that's what they all eventually did. And wasn't that what you
did? You had to leave. You couldn't stay there. You
know why that happens? The Lord will not leave his sheep
in false religion. You're not going to leave his
sheep in false religion. You're not going to leave them
to starve to death. You're not going to leave them there. He's
going to bring them back to his fold. He's not going to leave
his sheep away from his presence and away from a place where you
can worship him. He's going to bring them back.
And the Lord will use many different means to accomplish his purpose.
Here, the Lord didn't put it in David's heart to suddenly
buck up and take a stand for the truth and leave, did he?
No. He put it in the hearts of his
enemies to kick David out. The Lord used those means to
show, now I'm sovereign over all things, I'm the one that
delivers you, not yourself. Look at verse 6. Then Achish
called David and said unto him, Surely as the Lord liveth, thou
hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me
and the host is good in my sight. For I have not found evil in
thee since the day of thy coming unto me, unto this day. Nevertheless,
the Lord's favour thee not. Wherefore now return, and go
in peace. that thou displeased not the lords of the Philistines."
Well, there's David's primary objective, isn't it? Don't displease
the lords of the Philistines. Now, David obviously had a good
report among the heathens, and he should. Every one of us should.
We should be known as people of honesty and integrity and
generosity and kindness. The heathens should recognize
that in us, and they recognize that in David. But this has gone
further than that. I'm sure these Philistine princes
were never comfortable with David being in their army. They never
could get comfortable with him. And this is the first real complaint
they had against David to get David removed from their army.
Well, that tells me David changed his behavior so that he fit in
with those heathens. That's exactly what he did. He
compromised the gospel. He kept his mouth shut in the
face of idolatry so that they could get along. Achish is a
heathen king. He's opposed to everything David
stands for. He's opposed to everything David's
supposed to believe. Yet he says, David, we have had
one disagreement in these past 16 months, not one. Well, the
only way that could happen is if David compromised the truth
by keeping his mouth shut in the face of idolatry. He compromised
the character of God so he could get along with these heathens.
Now, in the past 16 months, David's here, he's lived. He's lived
in peace and harmony with these heathens. For 16 months, he hasn't
done one thing right. Not one! Yet the Lord overruled
all these events to provide David a way out. To deliver him from
this fix that he's in. Now, does David jump at the open
door God's given him to get out of this situation? Oh, he's so
thankful God's opened him a door. I'm getting out. Not what he
did. He argues and tries to stay and
fight against Israel, against God's people, against his brethren.
Look what he says in verse 8. And David said unto Achish, But
what have I done? And what hast thou found in thy
servant, so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that
I may not go fight against the enemies of my Lord the King?
David just keeps making mistake after mistake after mistake,
doesn't he? Reminds you of anybody? That's how David got in this
mess. And that's how he's going to stay in this mess if Lord
leaves him alone, if he leaves him to his own devices. Now David's
just fawning over this heathen king, trying to let him stay
with him so he can fight against the people of God. You think,
David, what are you doing? What are you thinking? Why is David doing this? Because
Achish has been David's benefactor. Achish has protected David and
provided for David. And David thinks, now if I leave,
if I leave Achish, I'm going to be all alone without my benefactor,
without my protector, without my provider. That's what David
thinks. But we know this. The Lord will
never leave his people alone. He'll never leave his people
completely alone. Christ our Savior. was left completely
alone. As he hung there on Calvary's
tree, the father turned his back on his son and left him there,
completely alone, so that his sheep will never be left alone.
It will never be left without the presence of the Lord. But
David thought, if I leave Acheson, I'll be left alone, be left without
protection, be left without provision. And men compromised the gospel
for the exact same reason. They think they've got to please
men in order to keep men coming and put money in the offering
plate because men are the one providing for them. That's what
they think. They think I'm dependent on these people, on their generosity
and on their giving. If they don't, I'll be left without
provision. I'll be left without protection.
And I gave you this warning last week and it bears repeating.
Once you compromise the gospel, this is where you're going to
end up. You'll end up as the enemy of God, as the enemy of
the gospel of God, and the enemy of the people of God. And that
will scare a child of God absolutely to death. We're afraid. I hear that. I read that. I think,
I'll fall away. That scares me to death. I'll
fall away. And we think that because we know ourselves. When
the Lord told the disciples, one of you is going to betray
me. Every believer in the room, every child of God said, Lord,
is it I? Even Peter. Lord, is it I? Well, then what's our confidence?
If I know if I can fall away, I will fall away. Then what's
your confidence? Look at Psalm 116. What's your confidence? That
you won't fall away, that you won't leave Christ, that you
won't leave that you won't leave his people? Psalm 116, verse 6. This verse has brought me so
much comfort this week. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped
me. The Lord preserveth the simple.
This is our confidence. The Lord will preserve his people,
even though we're simpletons. I mean, at best, that's what
we are, simpletons. And that word simple, the Lord
preserveth the simple, it means foolish. The Lord will preserve
the foolish. But you know, that word also
means open-minded. Open-minded. The foolish, the
most foolish, are people who are open-minded to false religion,
to false preachers. And they say, well, it's close
enough, you know. No, it's not either now. Rat
poison is 99% good food. God will preserve the foolish,
the simple, the open-minded. He will preserve His elect so
that they will not be deceived. Look back a few pages at Psalm
37. Here's our confidence. Psalm 37, verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, they're established by the Lord, and he delighteth
in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down,
for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." Now you know very
well this good man is not a man who's good in himself. There's
none good, no not one. I know that in me, that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. There's no goodness in us. This
man is good in Christ. In Christ, we are made, Eric,
that's what you're talking about Wednesday night, made as righteous
as Christ himself. We are made what he is. So that
there is no chance in a believer's steps, in a believer's walk,
in the places that he goes and so forth. All those steps are
fixed by the Lord so that there is no chance he will utterly
fall away and lose his salvation. And the scripture says that the
Lord delights in his way. In this good man, the Lord delights
in his way. Well, how's that possible? There's
no goodness in us. How's it possible that he could
delight in our way? Only in Christ. Only in Christ. There's a couple at work have
a baby. She's learning to walk and they
bring her into the office every so often. You know how parents
are. We sit them down and show off
to everybody what she can do. She's learning to walk. She staggers
around and falls down. She can't walk in a straight
line. She can't walk more than a few steps at a time. But buddy,
everybody cheers for her. Those parents delight in her
way. Even though she's stumbling and
bumbling around. They'd send me home if I was
walking around the office that way. Think the guy's drunk or
something. Send him home. But they delight in her way.
Now, we will fall. We're just like that toddler.
At best, we're like that toddler. We'll toddle around, we're going
to fall. But the Lord won't let us fall away. He won't let us
fall away. He will graciously uphold us
with His mighty hand, and He will not let His children fall
away any more than you let your children fall down the stairs
when they're learning to walk. You can prevent it, if you can.
He can, and He does. That's our confidence. He will
not let us fall away. But you notice here in verse
23, that word good is in italics. It's been added by the translators.
And I know David is talking about a believer here. You know, though
he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. That's a believer.
That's a child of God. But what that verse is saying
is the steps of every man. Every man is ordered by the Lord. Even the heathen. Look back in
our text, verse 9. 1 Samuel 29. The steps of every
man is ordered by the Lord. Here, Achish's steps, his decisions,
are ordered by the Lord. And Achish answered and said
to David, I know that thou art good in my sight as an angel
of God, notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said
he should not go up with us to the battle. Wherefore now rise
up early in the morning with thy master's servants that are
come with thee, and as soon as ye be up early in the morning
and have light, depart. So David and his men rose up
early to depart in the morning to return into the land of the
Philistines, and the Philistines went up to Jezreel. The Lord used his enemies to
accomplish his purpose, to keep David from going into battle
against Israel. He allowed David to escape the
situation and ultimately go back to Israel and become king, and
he used his enemies to accomplish his purpose, to get David out
of that mess. Now did these Philistines, did
they know what they were doing? Of course not. They were just
doing what their evil hearts wanted to do. But in so doing,
they accomplished the will and the eternal purpose of God to
get David out of that land of the heathen, back to Israel.
And you know, the Lord frequently does things this way. And he
does things this way to constantly teach us and constantly remind
us that he is completely sovereign. over everything that moves, everything
that happens in his creation. I'll give you three examples.
First, Joseph. This is an obvious example. Joseph's
brothers hated Joseph. They sold him into slavery because
they hated him. They had no other purpose than
to get rid of him because they hated him. They wanted to be
rid of him forever. They meant it for evil, didn't
they? God meant it for good. He used their hatred and their
wickedness to accomplish His purpose to save many people alive
during those seven years of famine that are way out there in the
distance. Nobody knows anything about them yet. God does. And
He used the hatred of men, the hatred of one of His children,
to set that in motion, to save many people alive during the
time of famine. And He used their hatred to set
in motion to bring all Israel to Egypt, so that 400 years later,
he could show his might and his power in delivering his people
from Egypt. That was God's purpose, and he
used the hatred of those men to bring it to pass. Second,
Satan, in the Garden of Eden, tried his best to destroy man,
to destroy God's creation. He tempted Eve, got Eve to sin,
who got Adam And that brought horrible consequences on this
creation, didn't it? It brought separation from God. It brought spiritual deadness
on all men. It brought physical pain and
suffering and death, just horrible things. Yet God meant it for
good. He meant that for good so that
He could show His greatest glory, His sovereign mercy, salvation
for sinners. He used Satan as a pawn so that
he could show his greatest glory and mercy and salvation in his
son. Third, Satan again entered into
the heart of Judas, Judas Iscariot, to betray our Lord. Satan worked
in the hearts of those people so that they'd yell, crucify
him, crucify him. And that brought awful results,
awful pain and suffering on God's son. God meant it for good. That didn't happen by accident.
God used those means, Satan himself and those wicked men, to accomplish
his purpose of eternal good. Without that death of Christ,
there'd be no redemption. If Satan hadn't entered into
the hearts of those people so that they would kill him, there'd
be no sacrifice for sin apart from the death of Christ. If
Christ had not suffered and bled and died, there would be no bloodshed
to put away the sin of God's elect. And the Lord used wicked
means, wicked people, wickedness itself to accomplish His purpose. Here the Lord used those wicked
Philistines to deliver David from that mess he was in. Now, that in no way excuses sin, does
it? In no way. Now David's delivered,
and we're going to see this in the next chapter. He's delivered,
but now there's still consequences for his sin. There's still going
to be consequences. Jonah, he was delivered from
the belly of that fish, wasn't he? There are consequences for
him being delivered from that fish's belly. You go read it.
He was vomited out on dry ground. There he was on that beach, covered
in fish vomit. There are consequences. was forgiven
for denying our Lord Jesus. He's forgiven, wasn't he? But
now there are consequences to that. He went out and wept bitterly. Can you imagine the sorrow? Peter felt his entire life for
what he'd done. Oh, he was so sorry. It gave him compassion for others
when others would fall. But he had to live with that. He was so sorry. Aren't you thankful? Our salvation
is not dependent upon us. Keeping our salvation is not
dependent upon us. Our salvation is entirely in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And believers, God's children,
are delivered from every sin. Without exception, we are forgiven
and delivered from the consequences, eternal consequences of every
sin. We know that, don't we? And we
know this. I know God's sovereign, and nothing
happens on this earth without His express will and permission.
That's true, and you know that. But now, does that give us an
excuse for sin? Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Well, shall we sin and say, well,
you know, it was the Lord's will that I do that, and I know I
shouldn't have done it, but now that was just the Lord's will.
God forbid. God forbid that we blame God
for our sin. Believers are forgiven of every
sin. But there's still consequences
for our sin. Isn't there still consequences for it? Look over
Romans chapter 7. I'll quit. Here's our comfort. There's still
consequences for our sin. We still fight this. battle and
suffer the consequences of our sinful nature every day. But it won't last forever. It
will not last forever. There's an end to this. Romans
chapter 7, verse 24. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
should deliver me from the body of this death? Here's how. I
thank God I'm going to be delivered from the body of this death through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I serve
the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." This thing's
not going to last forever. Not going to last forever. As
long as we are on this earth with spirit, we'll serve the
law of God. With flesh, we'll serve the law
of sin. There's coming a day, that's
going to be over. We're going to be delivered from
even the presence of sin. because of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was made sin for us that we
might be made to righteousness of God. All right. Well, I hope
the Lord blessed that too.