Now you'll recall our lesson
ended last week with David making this strong statement of his
faith and confidence in the Lord in verse 24 of chapter 26. He
says, And behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine
eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord,
and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. David is so
confident, just resting in the Lord. And look what he says the
very next day, verse 1 of chapter 27. And David said in his heart,
I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There's nothing
better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land
of the Philistines. If Saul shall despair of me,
to seek me anymore on any coast of Israel, so shall I escape
out of his hand. One day David's so confident
in the Lord, and the next day he's in unbelief. thinking that
God's not going to be able to deliver him from Saul, so he
better take matters into his own hand and flee to the land
of the Philistine. David relies on the arm of the
flesh and on the wisdom of the flesh, instead of trusting in
the Lord to do as he promised he would do. Now isn't that a
shocking difference? From one day to the next, from
one moment to the next, just such a shocking difference. It
is the strength of his faith and the confidence he has in
the Lord, a shocking difference. Can you identify? I can. I can identify with David here.
Because everything about us is so fickle. Our faith included. Everything about us is so fickle.
Now, the object of our faith never changes. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. But the strength of our faith
varies greatly. Just anything can affect the
strength of our faith. One day, like David, completely
resting in Christ. And the next day, we're like
the children of Israel. What shall we eat? What shall
we wear? You know, I'm going to starve to death. Listen to David as
he wrote at other times in his life. He said in Psalm 27, verse
3, Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not
fear. I'm confident in the Lord. I'm
not going to fear even this host encamps against me. In Psalm
34, verse 17, he said the righteous cry. And the Lord heareth them,
and delivereth them out of all their troubles. In Psalm 97,
verse 10, he said, Ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth
the souls of his saints. He delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked. And this day, David said, I'm
going to perish. I'm going to perish by the hand
of Saul. Look at Psalm 46. I want you to see this psalm
that David wrote. Psalm 46, verse 1. David says, God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will
not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains
be carried in the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof. In verse 5, he says, God's in
the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her. and that right early. He's going
to be on time. Verse 7, he says, the Lord of
hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. What do we have to fear if the
God of Jacob is our refuge? In verse 10, he says, be still
and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. And the same man that wrote each
of those scriptures said in his heart, I shall now perish one
day by the hand of Saul. And the problem is David said
these things in his own heart. He communed in his own heart
instead of trusting in the word of God. He communed in his own
heart instead of listening to the word of God. God told David,
David, you're going to be king. You're going to be king. Your
son's going to be king. Your descendant is going to sit
on... your descendants are going to sit upon the throne of Israel.
Now, did God lie? Did the Lord suddenly lose His
power to accomplish His purpose? Well, of course not. Then why
was David afraid? Because David looked at his enemy
instead of looking at the Lord. That's why he became afraid.
And here's a word of advice for you. Don't ever Trust your emotions. Don't ever trust what you think. Because what you and I think
and our emotions are so fallible and so changeable. We change
with the breeze. We change. Don't trust what you
think or your emotions. Don't trust in the flesh at all. Because in the flesh there is
no faith. So don't trust what the flesh
thinks or what the human logic tells you. Trust the Word of
God. It's infallible. Listen to these
scriptures. Isaiah 49, verse 15. Can a woman
forget her second child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget. Yet I will
not forget you. Now, you remember that. You go
through these horrible trials and these things happen. You
think, well, has the Lord forgotten me? He's not sending relief?
I will not. forget thee. That's a promise
from God's own hand. Look in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13 verse 5. Let your conversation, your conduct
in your walk through this life, let your conversation Be without
covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.
For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,
so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will
not fear what man shall do unto me." At the end of that verse
five, the amplified version reads this way, I will not, I will
not, I will not, in any degree, leave you helpless nor forsake
you, nor let you down, nor relax my hold upon you, assuredly not."
You can trust the Word of God. Trust His Word. David could have
known from the Word of God that the Lord would not forsake him.
And secondly, David should have known from his own experience
that the Lord would not forsake him. Look at 1 Samuel 17. David should have known from
his own experience, the Lord will not forsake you." 1 Samuel 17, verse 33. And Saul said to David, thou
art not able to go against this Philistine, to fight with him,
for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
And David said to Saul, thy servant kept his father's sheep. And
there came a lion and a bear, and he took a lamb out of the
flock. And I went after him and smote him, and delivered it out
of his mouth. And when he arose against me,
I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Thy servant
slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine
shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of
the living God. David said, Moreover, the Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."
And Saul said to David, son, go to it, go to it, and the Lord
be with thee. David should have known from
his own experience, and we should too, that the Lord will not forsake
us. David can look over the course
of his life, as can every child of God in this room. Look over
the course of your life and say, well, the Lord delivered me there. He delivered me there. He delivered
me there. He delivered me there. What about
this present time? Reckon he'll deliver you here
too? He will. He will. He hasn't changed. The
Lord didn't bring Israel out of Egypt to go in that wilderness
and die of thirst, did he? The same God leads his people
today. Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. T'was grace that brought me safe
thus far. And it's God's sovereign, immutable,
eternal grace that will lead me home by His grace. He's not
going to leave you. Now we know that, don't we? I'm
not going to tell you something you don't know. Yet often, we
find ourselves like David in unbelief. And that's discouraging to us
because unbelief is wicked. It's wicked. That's what it is.
Unbelief is so wicked, it is closely related to an atheist. The atheist denies the existence
of God, doesn't he? He says, God does not exist.
And what fool? He foolishly denies the existence of God. Unbelief
knows God is, but denies the power of God, the faithfulness
of God, and the goodness of God. You tell me which is worse. Hard
to tell, isn't it? Hard to tell. And I feel sorry
for men like David and Elijah. Elijah did the same thing David
did. Remember after Elijah killed all those prophets on Mount Carmel?
He ran away scared to death of Jezebel. I feel sorry for these
men. None of us would like to have
our falls and our false published for people for generations and
generations and generations to read. Yet this is written for
our learning. So let's see if we can't learn
something, or teach us something. Now I have experienced far too
much unbelief, and I'm sure you'll say the same thing. Now I understand
where unbelief comes from, and would never make an excuse for
unbelief, because unbelief is simply doubting God. That's all
unbelief is, is doubting God. And we have here in this chapter
six results of unbelief. Now we'll go through these and
give us here a warning of the dangers of unbelief, and then
a word of comfort. First, unbelief makes us fools. Makes us fools. Look back at
1 Samuel 21. David had made this exact same
mistake before, and now in unbelief he's repeating it. In 1 Samuel
21, verse 10. David arose and fled that day
for fear of Saul, and he went to the land of the Philistines.
He went to Achish the king of Gath. 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 thousands? And David
laid up these words in his heart." See, here he is communing with
his own heart again. And what happened to him? He became so
afraid of Achish the king of Gath. And he changed his behavior
before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled
at the doors of the gate, and let his fiddle fall down upon
his beard. And Achish said unto his servants, Lo, ye see, the
man is mad. Wherefore then have ye brought
him to me? Have I need of a madman, that ye have brought this fellow
to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come to my
house? Get him out of my house." Now, David left the land of the
Philistines and looked over Psalm 56. He wrote when he left that
place. He went to a cave and he wrote
Psalm 56. This is what David learned from
that experience. Psalm 56, verse 3. We have verse
2. He says, My enemies would daily
swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me, O thou
Most High. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. David said, I've learned that
lesson. Look at verse 11. He says, In God have I put my
trust, and I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Verse
13, For thou hast delivered my soul from death. Will not thou
deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in
the light of the living? Davis has not learned that lesson.
Yet in unbelief, he foolishly repeats the same mistake. He repeats it all over again.
Isn't that the definition of insanity? Making the same mistake
over and over and over again, yet each time expecting a different
result. That's what unbelief does. It makes us fools. And
not only did David repeat his mistake, he repeated the mistake
of his ancestor Elimelech. Remember, Elimelech left the
land of Judah and he went down to Moab in a time of famine.
He thought it would be better for him in the land of Moab,
in that land of idolaters. And look at the heartache he
caused his family. Went down and took his family
down and went down there. And he died, his sons died, left
three helpless widows down there in that land of idolatry. Now,
I promise you, David heard that story many, many times as he's
growing up. This is great-grandmother Ruth.
He heard that story many times. And now he's repeating the same
mistake of her father-in-law. And I've seen nothing under the
changes under the sun. I've seen people make this exact
same mistake. They think they've got to leave
the place where the gospel is preached and go to a place where
they cannot meet with the people of God, where they can't hear
the gospel preached. And why do they do that? Unbelief. Unbelief. And I'm not saying
these people don't know the Lord. I'm not saying that at all. What
I'm saying is this. Unbelief makes us fools. Second, unbelief leads us into
disobedience. David said, I'm going to perish
at the hand of Saul. I'm going to escape into the
land of the Philistines. Now look back at chapter 22, 1 Samuel. Unbelief led David to disobedience. In 1 Samuel 22, verse 5. And
the prophet Gad said unto David, abide not in the hold, depart
and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed and
came into the forest of Herod. Now you read every verse between
there and here. You will not find where that command was rescinded. David went there because he communed
with his own heart in disobedience. Unbelief will lead us to disobedience. He went to the land of the Philistines
because he thought he would not be safe in Judah, where God told
him to be. And the only thing you can call
that is disobedience. And our unbelief will always
lead us to nothing but disobedience. It's disobedience in the first
place, to trust in the flesh instead of in the Lord, isn't
it? That's disobedience. So then whatever we do when we're
trusting in the arm of the flesh, I promise you, it will be disobedience. We'll do what we think is right
instead of what God's word says. Unbelief leads us to disobedience. Third, unbelief will cause us
to be numbered with the enemy. Look at verse 2 in our text,
1 Samuel 27. And David arose, and he passed
over the six hundred men that were with him, unto Achish the
son of Mahah, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at
Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David
with his two wives, Ahinoan the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the
Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that David
was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. And David
said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let
them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may
dwell there. For why should thy servant dwell
in the royal city with thee? And Achish gave him Ziklag that
day. Wherefore, Ziklag pertaineth
unto the kings of Judah unto this day." And the time that
David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year
and four I'll tell you what makes this disobedience of David even
worse. David is the leader of this band. David is responsible for these
people. And where does he lead them?
To the land of the enemy. He didn't just go visit. He was
there for 16 months. And this is disobedience. But
even here, God is overruling this sin to accomplish his purpose. just like he did Elimelech when
Elimelech went down there to Moab. Ziklag, I think this is
in Joshua chapter 15, Ziklag was given to the tribe of Judah.
When they came into the promised land, that city was given to
the tribe of Judah. But they never fully had possession
of that city until now. Akish had no idea he was accomplishing
God's purpose, but he gave that city to David and it belonged
to the kings of Judah from then on. Even in this disobedience
and unbelief, God's overruling. He will accomplish his purpose. In no way is that an excuse for
our sin. But even here, God's overruling
this situation to accomplish his purpose. And like I said,
that does not excuse David. going to an unbeliever, going
to the land of an idolatrous country and seeking help from
the king of his enemies. Now, the name Achish means only
a man. David don't go looking for help
from that fellow. He's only a man. He's just a
man. There's no help in him. But the name Achish also means,
I will blacken. David looked for help in darkness. in darkness, this one who will
blacken. And he led his people into a
place of darkness. And Manoch, Achish's father,
his name means oppression. David led his people into darkness
and oppression. Sounds to me like David's leading
his people back into bondage to the law, doesn't it? Does
it sound that way? Look at Galatians chapter 5. Sounds like David
is leading his people into darkness, a time of darkness and bondage
to the law. Galatians 5 verse 1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if ye be circumcised, if you be circumcised in order to
obey the law, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the
whole law, and Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever
of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace." Now,
I'm pretty sure I know this to be a fact. Nobody here thinks
you have to be circumcised in order to keep the law, but in
times of Have you ever thought, has this thought ever crossed
your mind? Boy, this trial will be over faster if I just pray
more. This trial will be over faster
if I just read my Bible more. This trial will be over faster
if I just am more loving to God's people. That thought ever crossed
your mind? You know what that is? That's
trying to earn our way out of the trial. That's exactly what
that is. Now, we should read our Bible
more. We should pray more, but not in order to be saved or in
order to make God indebted to us to bless us. We ought to read
our Bible more to learn more of Christ. We ought to pray more
to draw closer to our Heavenly Father. And we ought to do it
out of a grateful and thankful heart, not out of a mercenary
attitude or spirit. That's the same attitude the
enemies of grace have. The Armenians, that's their whole
system of theology to make God indebted to them. Isn't that
right? You've sent Jesus as your personal
Savior. God's indebted to save you. That's
what they say. You invite Jesus into your heart
and God's indebted to you to save you. Unbelief will cause
us to do the exact same thing. Unbelief will cause us to be
numbered with the enemies of God. Back in our text, unbelief will
cause us to fall into open sin. In verse 8 in our text, David
and his men went up and invaded the Geshurites and the Gezerites
and the Amalekites. For those nations were of old
the inhabitants of the land as thou goest to Shur, even under
the land of Egypt. And David smoked the land, and
left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep and the
oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel, and returned
and came to Achish. And Achish said, Whither have
ye made a road to-day? And David said, Against the south
of Judah, and against the south of the Jeromelites, and against
the south of the Kenites. And David saved neither man nor
woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should
tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all
the while he dwelt in the country of the Philistines." Now, the
writers say that David did the will of the Lord. When he went
and killed those Amalekites and the Geshurites and the Gezerites
were all related to the Amalekites and David did the will of the
Lord by going and killing all those people. You may recall
back in chapter 15, the Lord told Saul, you go down there
and you kill every one of those Amalekites, every man, woman,
child, and baby, you kill them all. You kill every one of their
animals and you burn the city to the ground. And Saul didn't
do it. Remember how he kept the best
of the livestock for himself, and he saved the life of the
king, and God took the kingdom from him for it. Now the writers
say what David's doing is he's finishing that job. And they
may be right. I normally operate under the
assumption that John Gill and Matthew Henry know more about
things than I do. But I don't read anywhere of
the Lord telling David to go do this. Sounds to me like David
did this so he could enrich himself and so he could feed his men.
It doesn't look to me like David is in the frame of mind to wait
on the Lord to provide. Doesn't you? But either way,
when Achish asked David, David, what you been doing? David lied
about it. And he lied about it because
he was ashamed of what he'd done. He didn't want Achish to find
out what he'd done. If David was going there to accomplish
the will and purpose of God, he'd have told Achish exactly
what he was doing. This is what God told me to do.
He didn't do that, did he? He lied about it. David made
it sound like he was attacking his own people in Judah. He made it sound like he was
attacking his own brethren. And isn't that the only way?
Any believer can get along with someone who's telling a lie on
God, a false prophet. That's the only way you can get
along with a false prophet is by telling a lie yourself. The
only way you can get along with a false prophet is taking the
edge off the gospel so you can get along with him and telling
a lie yourself. That's the only way we can get
along. So unbelief makes us fools. Unbelief leads us into disobedience.
Unbelief causes us to be numbered with the enemy, and unbelief
causes us to fall into open sin. And fifth, unbelief makes us
the servants of sin, servants of the flesh. Look at verse 12,
And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel
utterly to abhor him. Therefore, he shall be my servant
forever. Now David is my servant. That's what everybody believed,
because that's the way David is conducting himself. That's
the only way Achish could see it, is now David's going to be
my servant forever. There's no way Israel, and there's
no way the God of Israel is ever going to take him back now. He's
mine. He belongs to me. And that would
be true if it weren't for the unchanging, eternal grace of
our God. Unbelief makes us the servants
of sin and of the flesh. And last, unbelief will bring
the child of God a trial of our faith. For whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
And we'll see this in a couple of weeks in chapter 30. While
David is away, being numbered with Achish as he's getting ready
to attack Israel, David's there numbered with him. He's holding
the horses. He's kind of trying to hide behind.
He's staying at the back lines, you know, kind of as a support
group. He's there numbered with the enemies of God. And while
he's away, Those wives and those children are there in that city,
Ziklag, unprotected. And another enemy comes in, takes
every single one of them captive. Leaves them all away. And David
and his men get back to the city, it's empty. Their wives and children
are all gone. And David's men are so angry,
they're ready to stone him to death. Because they know this,
this never would have happened if David had stayed in Judah
where God told him to stay. Brought a trial of his faith.
Now here's the conclusion, and you listen very carefully to
what I'm about to say, because if you don't get what I'm saying
here in the next minute, you're not going to understand the lesson
being taught in this scripture. I'm not saying that we have to
fight off unbelief. It's your responsibility to fight
off unbelief and fight off weak faith or you'll lose your salvation.
Thank God that's not the message of scripture. Here's the lesson. Salvation is in our Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Alone. Alone. It's in Him alone. Salvation is by grace from Alpha
to Omega. From beginning to end. Christ
is all. He's all. We're not saved through
the strength of our faith. Did you come to Christ because
of the strength of your faith? We're saved because of the object
of our faith. Because we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Well, by the same token, we do
not keep our salvation through the strength of our faith. We're
kept by the object of our faith. The one who will never leave
you nor forsake you, we're kept by the power of God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And the cure for unbelief is
looking to Christ. You cannot doubt Him when you're
looking at Christ. It's an utter impossibility.
Now, again, I'm not making an excuse for unbelief because there's
not one. We never have reason to doubt
our Lord. But when we do, and we will because
we're in this flesh, that's what we're going to do until we put
this flesh in the ground. When we do, when we doubt, when
we find ourselves in unbelief, here's our comfort. Salvation
is by grace. Not because we deserve it. It's
by grace. Grace for the undeserving. And
no matter how long we live in the faith, we may live a long
time in the faith, we will never get past this point, the point
where we very first came to Christ, that I confess I am totally,
completely dependent upon Him. We'll never get past that point.
This will be our prayer. From the moment God ever first
gives us eyes to see Christ, to the moment of our dying gasp
on this earth, this is the believer's prayer. Lord, I believe. Now, I do. Do you? I believe
God. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. And this is comfort. That is
not an excuse. I'm in no way excusing unbelief,
but here's a comfort. After everything David does in
his life, I mean, you know the life of David. David made a lot
of mistakes. After everything David does in his life, what
does our Lord call David? Here's a man after my own heart. The only conclusion that you
can draw from that is salvation is by grace in our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I don't have the words to
tell you how thankful I am. All right. Lord bless you.