If you will, turn back in your
Bibles, 1 Samuel chapter 22, 1 Samuel 22. You can follow me in your pastor's
commentary. So as we thank God for being
chosen to be part of the year 2016, and that's really the case,
you aren't here because you willed yourself into 2016. It's only
by the mercy of God. That means he has a purpose for
you here. that your job is not quite done and that 2016 has
a mark on your life. And you want God and we want
God to show us clearly what he wants us to do this year. Amen.
We show us Lord what you want us to do so that we might redeem
the time and and yield our life a sacrifice of righteousness
to you. I'm in first Samuel chapter 22
verses one through five. We'll be dealing with the title
of our message is the life of David, life in the cave. If you guys recall, we are in
the third of three episodes, the story of three tales, David's
departure from Saul's house, his first subsequent refuge. in the life of Samuel his move
from Samuel to the Temple or the city of the priests where
he met a limelight and a by a thorn there God protected him from
Saul and then he had to flee from there because Saul had destroyed
the whole of the village or the city there and David is now in
the cave of a Doolam and I share it with you that this particular
excursion this this journey this harrowing journey circumstance
that David is in is paradigmatic. It is a model. There is nothing
in the scriptures that do not teach us something about the
work of Christ and his redemption for us, as well as our own practical
lives. Now, we're more conditioned in
the 21st century to want to have quick application to our own
life, but I'm here to tell you, you want to learn about Jesus.
You want to know who Jesus is and what Jesus did because that's
your foundation for glory. And when you are firmly rooted
in your walk with Christ as the only hope for glory, then let
the scriptures make application to you. But only after you have
learned the gospel and seen God's redemptive work in Christ fulfilled. That is your hope for glory. Then to whom is David a great
type? Jesus Christ. He is what we have
called before the protological Jesus and David is the, Christ
is the eschatological David. When you look at David's life,
you are seeing a foreshadow and picturing of Christ's coming,
Christ's suffering, and Christ's subsequent rule. David is playing
the part of now the humble walk of Christ on earth. where David
is exiled, David is being attacked, he's being assaulted by the present
secular king and all those who identify with Saul. And we saw
how that corresponded with the ministry of Jesus Christ. He
came unto his own and his own what? He was in the world and
the world was made by him, but the world what? Knew him not.
And the vast majority of Christ's walk, his life in Palestine was
that of antagonism and conflict with the rulers. Is that not
true? And so Christ was a fugitive, much like many of us have been
in the context of law pursuing us and adversaries pursuing us.
So Christ knows something about suffering, doesn't he? David
knows something about it too. And I told you this by way of
application when God allows trouble into your life or brings trouble
into your life It's designed to humble you the fundamental
Principle of your Christian walk is humility the fundamental work
that God is doing on you and me is Humbling us and I've said
this before if you haven't been here at grace or haven't been
taught accurately the work of sanctification. Humility and
humiliation are two different things. Please get that as I
lay the foundation. God never humiliates his people,
but he always humbles them. All whom the Lord loves, he what?
That's right. And our chastening will not stop
until we are glorified. And so never, as it were, distort
the concept of the work of the Spirit of God in humbling us
with the idea of being humiliated. God would never drag you out
in the middle of the world and humiliate you, but he will humble
you. And David is in a process of
humility, being humbled. Can you see that? How the Spirit
of God would shape a man and prepare him for ministry. how
he would call a man, anoint a man, and then send a man, and then
let that man struggle with the process of growth and maturity
so as to chip away from him those secret sinful tendencies that
would get us all in trouble. One of the reasons we educate
our children is because it's actually a process of humility.
Any discipline that you learn, you have to be humbled before
you learn it. I don't care if it's music, I don't care if it's
education, I don't care what curriculum it is. In order for
you to learn that thing, you must humble yourself and be completely
deconstructed and restructured in order to facilitate that calling
or that particular discipline. That's why school is hard until
people learn this is just the way it is. Once you learn that
this is just the way it is, then you take on a student's mentality
and you are ready to be humbled by your teacher and all that
comes with the demands of that curriculum. And when you are
a child of God, God is going to humble you so that you might
in fact become a disciple of Jesus. There are a whole lot
of Christians, but not a whole lot of disciples. That's a whole
nother concept. But you and I are getting ready
to talk about the cave now. what it means to be in the cave,
life in the cave. What you and I learned last time
is that when God sends us on the run, when he gives enemies
to pursue us, when he has already let us know that we are his and
he is ours, and we've already been given the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry what? and we have learned how to call
upon the name of the Lord in time of trouble. When God gives
you trouble that puts you on your fugitive status run, that
is for you to learn the ways of God. For God to show you how
he shows up in your life and facilitate your needs while chipping
away at your old character in the midst of preparing you for
what he wants you to do for him. So God is doing multiple things
at once. And so even though it feels like
a struggle for David to be exiled from his family, to be hunted
down by the king of all people, to have people in the cities
of Israel to turn against David and spy against David because
there are contracts out on David, even though that's very humbling
for David right now. You know what David is learning?
In the midst of trouble, God draws nearer and clearer and
dearer to those who are in the midst of trouble. In the midst
of trouble, God draws nearer He shows himself clearer and
he manifests himself with overtures of love to us much more dearly
than when everything is going all right. Can I get a witness
on that? I ain't talking about being religious. I'm talking
about knowing what you're talking about. Being in the midst of
trouble when God is right there on your side, letting you know
I'm walking with you through this. And what we learned two
weeks ago was as David is running from Saul, God is building David
an administration. Remember that? at the house of
a limelight. What did God do? He provided
for David and his men bread to eat, didn't he? He gave them
the showbread of which our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed was nothing
wrong with it. And then what did he do? God
gave him not only the showbread, but gave him the sword of Goliath,
which meant now the true king would be the one executing justice
in Israel because he has the sword like no other sword, which
is a representation of God's justice and God's law because
the sword is not executed in vain when God's servants are
using it. We saw that God had given David
a mediator, a high priest by the name of who? Abiathar. Abiathar
came to David running from Saul because he had discovered that
Saul had killed everybody in his family. Abiathar has nowhere
to go but to David. He comes to David with the what?
Ephod. The ephod is for prayer and communion
with God. Do you see how God is showing
up in David's life? Saying to David, I've given you
men, I've given you food, I've given you a high priest, I've
given you a sword, I've given you a means by which you can
mediate and talk to me. In fact, David literally talked
to God himself through the ephod. What is God doing? Showing David
a token for good as we learned in Psalm 86 verse 17. Sometimes,
ladies and gentlemen, by way of application, you and I have
to learn how to look for those tokens of good in the midst of
our trouble. Is that right? Have you ever
heard the phrase, count your what? That's right. And one of
the mistakes we make, one of the fallacies of our troublesome
times is all we're looking at in the midst of our trouble is
our trouble. We're failing to see our blessings.
And as a consequence, we would entertain the notion that God
has abandoned us. But if you would look carefully,
you would see how God comes through again and again and again and
again and provides for you and me everything necessary for life
and godliness. For three reasons. God can't
what? Lie. God can't what? Change. And God
can't what? Fail. When you've got a God that
doesn't lie, fail or change, you're good to go. All you and
I have to do is learn how to see the signal marked blessings
of God in our life. Thus we move to point number
one. This is quite amazing as I think it through. David is
in the cave of Adullam. This cave is actually on the
border of Judah. It's in the land of Judah. And
it's on the mountainside, the westward side of the mountains
of Judah, moving more towards the Jordan. And these caves are
strategically set up in a sort of fortress fashion. In fact,
I use the word caves in the plural because it's many caves in the
area of a dulum. A dulum is a city. And the caves
are many in the area of a dulum and they have many pits. And
in fact, some scholars say that it's not really caves, but pits.
Now here's what David did. to show you the strategy and
the wisdom of God. David moved from the city of
Nod where the priests were to the cave of Adullam because there
David could set his people up in a way that he could watch
for the coming of Saul. When you got all these caves
surrounding you, it's really hard for your enemy to get you
because he doesn't know which cave you are in. And when you've
got your men strategically set up, they can watch from whence
your enemy is coming to let you know. How do I know that? Because
Abiathar was able to make it to the cave and find David. In
fact, the cave of Adullam is said to be a frequent place where
David went in preparation to fight the battles against the
Philistines. You don't have to go there, it's in 1 Chronicles
11. David fought the Philistines subsequent to the death of Saul
and there he would retreat. Why? Because it's a perfect place
to hide. It's a perfect place for protection.
Here's the point and here's the application for you and me. And
we see it in the life of our greater David, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ladies and gentlemen, there is
a time to fight. And then there's a time to retreat.
There's a time to resist and oppose and to stand and to struggle. And then there's a time to avoid,
circumvent, evade, and retreat to a place where you can recover. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So think about what David had done. Now David's not running
out of fear. I need to make sure we lay this down. We'll have
about four more messages with David. David is not some old
man that's tired and ready to quit. David is at best 25 years
old. That's young. strong, virulent. He will take the throne at 30
years old. David's not tired. David's ready
to go, but he has no desire to fight against his own people.
And so David's not running out of some kind of fear, some kind
of trepidation, some kind of exhaustion that's a consequence
of him physically. But I would say that David is
tired mentally. I would say that David is tired
emotionally. I would say that David is tired
spiritually. Have you ever been there? Have
you ever gotten tired, weary mentally, weary emotionally,
struggling over the trials of your life and just needed a retreat? This is where we are. This is
where we are. And so while this is a refuge, it's more than a
refuge because a refuge is a place of protection. A retreat is a
place of recovery, of restoration, of refreshment. More than that,
it's a place of assessment, reassessment, restructuring, and strategizing
your next move. When you retreat, you are avoiding
the same circumstances in order to prepare to do a better job.
When David goes into the cave, he goes into the cave in the
pits in order to think through what his next move will be. I
love it because he's there for a while. This is not a one-day
thing. This is not even a two-day thing.
In fact, the cave of Adullam, the caves of Adullam, the pits
of Adullam are so strategically set up, Saul never goes into
them. That means David can come and
go, send men in and out to go get provision and go get food
and then come back to the cave. That boy's smart, isn't he? This
is what David is doing. He's seeking a time of recovery,
re-strategizing, reassessment, determining what the Lord would
have him to do. This is going to be the remarkable thing when
we deal with David in the wilderness in our next message. But let
me ask you the question. Have you ever experienced the
benefit of retreat? The word retreat can be used
in terms of its noun form or its verb form. As a verb, it
means, as I stated, to avoid, to retreat, to back up, to turn
away, to go somewhere in order to get out of the situation that
you are in. A retreat in the noun form is
a place of safety and rest. In the noun form, it's a place
where you recover. It's a place where you recuperate. We all need that place, don't
we? So there are four things, I suppose, under this first point,
three or four things I just wanna call your attention to. Retreat
is an inheritance from whom? Retreat is an inheritance from
where? Do you believe that? All right, so when was the last
time you applied that inheritance in your life? That's good, isn't
it? When was the last time you backed
out of the normalcy of life because it beat you up enough and distracted
you enough to where you said, you know what? Something's got
to change. I've actually got to get out of this normalcy pattern
because I'm stuck. And in some cases I'm trapped.
And the blinders are on in such a way as I can't think myself
out of my situation because of where I'm at. I know I'm speaking
to somebody. Right. And so the only way to deal with
being stuck is to retreat. Now retreat. is a humbling characteristic. Because it's backing up, it's
not moving forward. It's actually affirming that there are aspects
of your situation for which you are vulnerable and liable. So you would go forward if you
knew what you was going forward to. But when you go backwards,
you're going backwards because you're saying, I need some space
between me and the circumstance so that it doesn't take me over.
I admit that I don't know what I'm up to. I admit that I don't
know what I'm doing. I admit that my troubles are
over my head. I admit that I don't see where
I'm going. I admit that I'm not hearing as clear from God as
I want to. I admit it. I need to retreat. That's good news. That's good
news. See, it's a humble disposition of going somewhere in order and
hopes that God would show up there and start talking to you. And I'm here to tell you that's
exactly what we're getting ready to learn under point number one.
David is not so much seeking a refuge, because he's not really
scared of Saul. I'm just here to tell you. You
know, some people you fight, when they back up, it ain't because
they don't think they can whip your butt. It's because they really don't
want to, if they don't have to. Now you can rush on in where
fools go and angels don't try and discover that they really
didn't want to do it. And I'm saying that retreat doesn't
necessarily mean that you're giving up or that you're failing
or that you're fearful. It's just that you know your
own limitations. and that's what David is doing here. So retreat
is an inheritance from the Lord. Why do I say that? Because in
Joshua chapter 15 verses 20 and 35, don't go there. Do you know
that God allowed Joshua to destroy all of the rulers of the land
and he took the city of Adullam to give it to, out of all tribes,
Judah. This area that David is in is
his inheritance. Point. Our hiding place, our
retreat. The place where we go to rest
and recuperate is an inheritance from the Lord. God bought that
by the price of Christ's death. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? I'll give you
rest when you can find no rest anywhere else. I'll give you
recuperation when you can find recuperation nowhere else. When
you can't buy it, when you can't pay for it, when you can't earn
it, I have an inheritance that can bring you into a retreat
mode that will bless your socks off if you want it. See, it's
where the believer goes to do what? Seek God. That's point
number one. It's where you go to seek God.
It's not just that you're running from your enemies. And this is
where I would say to you, be careful about the word vacation.
Heaven is not a vacation. Some of us are going to learn
this today in our second class at two o'clock. I know you think
you're going to be floating on a cloud somewhere, just kind
of in the midst of ethereal blob for all eternity, just floating
around, doing nothing. Sorry, that's not glory. That's
lazy. That's not glory. But a retreat
also is not to where you go somewhere and listlessly hang out and just
turn into a blob. That's a vacation. A retreat
is where you go to recalibrate, recover, reassess, restructure. Lay things out before the Lord
and ask God to give you some help on how to organize your
life so you can do better. And that's why I say today, as
we are dealing with the new year, as I do with grace at all times,
we have another year to ask for God's grace to do it better than
we did the year before. That's the only reason he gave
you another year. He didn't give you another year
for you to do the same thing this year that you did last year.
I'm going to say it one more time. He didn't give you another
year for you to do the same thing this year that you did last year.
No, he didn't. He gave you another year to improve
upon your life from last year. And so our theme for this year
is Philippians 3.14. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus.
That's our theme. I press toward the mark. That'll be expanded upon in the
weeks to come. We'll talk about it. I know it's
a concept that for lazy people kind of rubs you the wrong way.
But I'm trying to get in. I'm trying to finish. And I want
Paul's ethic to permeate my life so I can leave a testimony that
you don't accidentally get to glory. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? And I think David actually is
pressing too because the troubles in his life is forcing him to
seek God. You see, he's not walking to
the throne. He's pressing to the throne. And his first act
is a press to retreat in order to understand what God has him
to do. And so Psalm 142, 1 through 5, we won't go there. Psalm 142
is one of those Psalms attributed to David around the cave of Adullam,
where David says, in my calamities, O God, I am struggling. Struggling,
they will overcome me if you don't help me. And then he declares,
as he does so many times in the Psalms, that God is a refuge
for David. that God delivered David over
and over again. And he'll deliver you as well
and he'll deliver me. Point B under our first heading
then, it's where he recovers from exhaustion of service. Do you see that? This is again
where I said in 2 Kings chapter 23, 13 through 17, you have to
go there. There are times when the believer has to rest. Didn't
Elijah have to rest? Didn't God have to feed him after
his assignment of telling King Ahab, God gonna tear this place
up. Then his wife put an indictment out on him and God had to cause
his servant to rest and recuperate and he fed him flesh. So you
and me. Let me ask you the question.
Did Jesus ever have to retreat? Many times. He frequently retreated
from the crowd, and he certainly retreated from his enemies. When
you read the Gospel of John, which is the shortest chronological
narrative of Christ, starting at chapter 11, where he has done
what is called the most remarkable of seven miracles, of which John's
Gospel affirms the seven miracles that affirm the authenticity
of the work of Messiah, and that is the resurrection of Lazarus
from the dead, the final of all of the miracles to testify that
the heart the gospel in terms of triumph is resurrection when
once he raised Lazarus from the dead that was it the rulers now
are openly seeking to kill Jesus by the way kill Lazarus still
and according to John chapter 12 Jesus no longer walked openly
among them but hid himself see Christ is just like David isn't
he and there were times when Christ had to retreat and sometimes
he retreated and he didn't even bring his disciples with him
y'all know that feeling Like, you know, there are loved ones
that you love and care about, but there's a kind of retreat
that you really want where you don't even want them with you. You'll get that in a minute.
You love them, but they're a drain on you too. I know you don't
want to see them little ones you love. You do want some time
off from them too. Lord, if I could just get a day
or two by myself. This is true. And I'm simply
saying if the Lord would grant it to you, do it because the
Lord Jesus did it. He took the greatest apostle
in the New Testament. We call his name what? The apostle
Paul. And he gave Paul a retreat of
three and a half years in Arabia where he could get his theology
straight, separate and spend time with God, get his doctrine
straight. That's why we have a wonderful New Testament epistolary
because of the apostle Paul having worked out his theology in Arabia.
What a blessing. So I'm telling you this year,
if you haven't done it, there are points and times over the
course of these next 362, 61, 64 days, whatever it is, that
you want to find time to do what? Retreat. Get time with your God. Don't be so busy that you end
up doing nothing for Jesus. Point number C is where he collects
his intelligence for the next mission. I love this. Will you
look at me? Look with me at point number verse number five for
a second 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. Do you see verse five?
You know what God has done again? God has provided David another
piece to his administration. Do you notice he just sent the
prophet Gad? That means Gad got in too. That
means Gad let the soldiers that were on Sentry know that he was
on David's side. So Gad got in to let David know
what God wanted David to know, and that's this. Not only has
God provided David provisions and a sword and men and provided
for David a mediation, God has now provided for David a prophet. See Samuel's about to die. You're
gonna see this in the chapter 2. Samuel's gone. But you remember
what we learned? God always has a servant prepared
to take over from the servant that he's using. And so God is
David's. Watch this. God is not Saul's. Shouldn't David be encouraged?
Shouldn't he be comforted? That God is speaking to David
in the cave. Now some of you are in caves.
But if you're the Lord, you can ask him to speak to you in the
cave and God can send a word to you like he's sending to David.
Is that true? See, there's no place where God
can't be found and where God cannot find you. And what I love
about this right here is that, like I stated, what God is doing
with David is building his administration because there are three men here.
that David is going to be highly blessed by. First Samuel, which
will die in a minute, but Gad and another prophet that speaks
to the king. Do you know his name? Nathan.
Gad, David, and Nathan. Remember, Nathan is the one that's
going to knock David upside his head because of the mess he's
going to get into. But now watch this. When God loves you, he
will reprove you of your sin. He's not going to just let you
live like hell. Is that right? So God has given David two prophets,
Gad and Nathan. In fact, we were talking this
morning in Sunday school about the authority of scripture and
its veracity and this inerrancy. And the fact that God spoke through
holy men of old, and this is how we got our book, the Bible.
When you go to 1 Chronicles chapter 29, 29, it underscores that. That Samuel, that Gad and Nathan,
they wrote the Chronicles of David. The life of David is laid
out by these men. That's how remarkable the life
of David is. By the way, they didn't write
about Saul. All we have about Saul is what we have here in
the life of David. You guys see that? That's a remarkable
testimony of what we call silence. Point number two then, let's
move for our final point here as we move to point number two.
Under point number one, retreat is an inheritance from the Lord.
I hope you take that up. It's where the believer goes
to seek his God. It's where he recovers from exhaustion
of service. Don't be afraid to say you are
tired sometime. It's where he collects his intelligence
for the next mission. And finally, point number D,
the believer's retreat is home. You better know it. Jesus is
our hiding place. Colossians 3 1 tells us if you
be risen with Christ seek those things above where Christ is
Because you are dead and your life is hidden Christ and David
said it in Psalm 91 the secret place of the Most High God Abiding
under the shadow of the Almighty Blessed is the man that does
so Learning how to put your trust in God and seek your refuge from
God not only for protection but for recovery Point number two
then, David's family meets him where? This is good, this is
good. You know when you are in trouble,
this is when you discover who your real friends are. Let me
get at this for just a moment. Look at verse number one and
two again. So David therefore departed this
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, they did what? They went down
there to him. Stop. So this is really amazing
because if you and I remember mama and daddy, especially daddy
and his brethren, a minute ago, they was jacking on David, weren't
they? I mean, a minute ago, they were saying, you are mischievous,
you are naughty, we don't want you, go back to the field, go
do this, go do that. Remember that? His daddy even
acted like he didn't exist when the anointing came. Oh yeah,
that's right, I do have another boy, what's his name? when my mother and my father
forsake me, the Lord will take me up. But you see how the tables
turn? Can I teach you something? Don't
hate it and don't hate on them when they don't understand how
God is working in your life. Because your own family members
going to get it twisted. Don't hate on them when what
God is doing is working in your life in order for you to do the
will of God. It is always true. This is not
sometime true. It is always true. You and I
never know what God is up to in another person's life. It
is not sometime true. It's always true. You and I don't know what God
is up to when he's working on somebody's life. It is true all
the time, not sometime. Often when God is working on
somebody's life on the outside, it looks bad. It is true, not
sometime, but all the time. When God is shaping and honing,
and God is, as it were, working in your life, outwardly it looks
bad. And when people judge you after
the flesh, John chapter seven, verse 24, they are missing the
inward work of grace that God is doing in your life. And when
people determine whether or not God is blessing you by virtue
of external favors, They are still judging you carnally. If
you've got friends who only like you because everybody else likes
you, they are not your friend. If you've got people who are
going to love you and affirm you and be by your side only
when everything is in your favor, they are not your friend. They
are convenient constituents for the moment. Use them, but don't
commit yourself to them. In John's Gospel chapter 2, the
Bible says Jesus did not commit himself to any man because he
knew the heart of man. He knew that men would smile
at you one day, the next day frown, the next day stab you
in the back, the next day turn you in. Turn you in. Now watch this. It's something
that I've learned and I know many of you have too. As David
is going through his troubles with Saul, God is separating
the elect from the non-elect. God is determining and showing
to us those who actually see David for who he really is, the
King of Israel. Remember what we learned? That
the Philistines knew David was the King of Israel, didn't they?
They said, this is King David, the King of Israel. He has slain
his 10,000. But those who are nearest to
you often will not see what God is doing in your life. Be very
careful then when the winds blow in the opposite direction by
those you are hoping that will affirm you. Now, let's flip that. If you are patient with people
who actually abandon you and forsake you and do not run with
you in those times when you are going through trouble, if you
are simply committed to, well, Lord, if it has to be you and
me alone, it's going to be you and me alone. Watch this. When
the tables turn and they got issues in their life, guess who
they gonna come to when they start to reflect upon how you
handled your situation and how God brought you through in your
situation, how God showed up in your situation, how he gave
you a token for good in your situation, how he caused those
who did not like you, your haters, to be ashamed in your situation.
Psalm 86, 17. Do you see it? Did anybody missing what I'm
saying? Psalm 86, 17 is coming to pass. And you know what David
is discovering while he is in his humility? His family members
now get it. They now get it. They now see
that King Saul is absolutely lunatic and insane. and that
for them to have had an allegiance to that political, secular system
just because it had an appearance of righteousness was for them
to miss the glory of God and the redemptive work of God in
Christ in David. Because see, the gospel always
demands that we see things spiritually, not carnally. Never judge on
the outward. This is just religion. When you
do that, if you're going to join a church or be part of a church
because they're big or large or they got things going on or
they got just the right program for you, you've missed the gospel. Totally missed the gospel. The
church, if it's doing its job, is not here to cater to you,
but to manifest the glory of God in Christ. And if you have
seen the glory of God in Christ, then now you might contemplate
being part of that church. But if you're going to go to
church just because it meets your felt needs, you're going
to be deceived again and again and again. You saw how happy
people were when God allowed Saul to be king? You saw how
happy they were? The tides have turned now. Let
me tell you what's going on in Israel right now. Israel is jacked
up. Every city is in fear and trembling. Every tribe is in trepidation
and want. Why? Because Saul is running
through every city, snatching up every man he can get, taking
more taxes from them, putting more burdens on them, troubling
them more and more and more. And on top of that, he's out
to kill the very man that all those people liked. The whole
of Israel is in trouble now. Are you guys hearing me? And
now they're beginning to see exactly what Samuel told them.
All right, you're asking for a king. We're gonna give you
a king and this is what he's gonna do. And now we have that
graphic depiction in verse two of the characteristics of those
who have come to King David. Notice what it says in point
number two. David's family with him in the
cave, point A, B, and C. Their identification with him
made it what? All right, so pastor, what are
you talking about? This is very simple. Are you ready? If I am
a dignitary and I have a contract out on me for my life to be taken,
and particularly in the context of the monarchy, because right
now King Saul has told everybody that David is trying to take
over the throne. You know what everybody knows? David has to
die, and everybody in David's family has to die. Now David's
family has to ask the question, and this is a gospel truth. Here
it is. Am I willing to die with David?
That's the gospel. Christ says, except you take
up your cross and deny yourself and follow me, you can't be my
disciple. Identification with Christ means
you have to be ready to die with him. Is that true? Yeah, am I
telling the truth? So for David's family to finally now come to
David means that they have been baptized That they have received
the Spirit of God That they have had their eyes open and David
has been made manifest to be the king not only the king family
So now the true family is gonna identify with David in the cave
You got that Very important, saints. I remember when our Lord
Jesus Christ was in his popular mode of ministry, and his mom
and daddy were outside, not his daddy, but his mother and his
brother were on the outside of the doors. It's Mark's gospel,
chapter three. And the people were saying, hey, Lord, mom and
brother on the outside, they want to get in. And you remember
what Christ said? Who is my mother and who are my brethren except
they that do the will of God? And in one gospel account, he
pointed to the people who were following him and said, these
are my mothers and my brothers. Now that wasn't in any disrespect
to his mother or his physical brothers. It was establishing
the priority. Was it not? True brotherhood
is commitment unto death. There's a such thing. There is
a reality to this fact. There's more. than the blood
relations of kindred. I mean, it's great for us to
all be family members, but if we're not in Christ, those who
are spiritual brothers and sisters are closer than those who are
physical brothers and sisters. This is just true. It's hard,
but it's so. So the identification with him
made it necessary. Point two, true believers identify
with Christ in his humility, don't we? Show you a reward principle
that I'm going to be talking about later on today. This is
Luke's Gospel, chapter 22, verse 28. This is where the disciples
have fundamentally talked to the Lord Jesus Christ about their
struggles with him over the three and a half years that he was
doing ministry with them. And they were really wondering what's
going on because ministry was going down for Jesus. The enemy
was talking and all kind of stuff was going on. And here's what
Jesus says in Luke 22, 28. Are you there? You are they which
have continued with me in my prosperity. Is that what it says?
In my what? Trials. Do you see it? Watch
this. You are they which have continued
with me in my temptations. What is Christ's temptations?
It was his earthly journey. From the time he was conceived
in the womb of his mama, the enemy was going after him. From
the time he was born, from the time he grew up, from the time
he entered into ministry, all of that was his trial. Every
disciple that joined with Jesus for those three and a half years
were in his temptation. Here's what he said, I want you
to get, this is a key, this is a key. He said, you are they
which have continued with me in my temptation for three and
a half years. He was right up on the brink
of being crucified. Guess how many people had come and gone
over that three and a half year period? Thousands. Now I'll show
you a truth. Notice what he says in the next
verse. This is what he says in verse 29. This is just a wonderful,
wonderful insight into the fact of what Hebrews 11 says. And
I appoint unto you what? Is that huge or what? Is that
huge or what? Huge! Watch. As my father hath what? The disciples
had no idea what was coming. They had no idea how large they
would be a major role in the kingdom process. But because
they followed Jesus, because they followed him in his temptation,
because they went to the cave, because they took the hitch,
because they walked with him in his humility, he promised
them a kingdom. Did they receive it? Did the
disciples receive it? Did the apostles get the blessing
of the anointing to be the foundation of the New Testament church?
Are they hugely known all around the world? Does their rule and
authority which came from Christ affect the whole church? You
better believe it. Is God a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him? Because they believe that He
what? Is. Huge. Let's go back to our point
so I can wrap this up. Their identification with Him
made it necessary. True believers identify with
Christ in His humility, not just His exaltation. And then thirdly,
true friends and real family are there when you what? So Proverbs
17, 17, simple. A friend loveth at all times. That's how you know when you
got real friends. If they don't love you at all times, they're
not real friends. Quit wasting your time. I mean, you can kick
it with them, but don't call them your friend. Because John's
gospel chapter 15, Jesus defined it. If you are my friends, you'll
keep my commandments. and I'll love you, and my father
will love you, and we will both manifest ourselves to you. If
you are my friends, you will keep my commandments. And because
I'm your friend, I'm gonna die for you. Y'all got that? This
is the foundation of biblical friendship. It's rooted in accountability. So now let's go to our last point.
Let me close this down. This is beautiful. So David's
family meets with him. And finally, we have a description
of these folks. Verse two says, and everyone,
that was distressed and everyone that was in debt and everyone
that was discontented gathered themselves unto him. Now, if
David was living in 21st century America, would he felt like this
was a blessing or a curse? So I got to work with you for
a moment. I'm almost done. I'm going to let you go. I'm
ready to eat too. The people that are coming to
David, our family, according to our second point, they are
those who are willing to identify with him. And they are those
who identify with David in the difficult times. That's real
friends. But this text is teaching us something about why you come
to Christ. Okay. That's what this text is
teaching. So everybody talks about coming
to Jesus, but the reality is you won't come, not for real,
not in a serious way, until you meet these three conditions.
Until God has wrought a work of grace in your life to reveal
to you your real spiritual condition. You're not coming to Jesus in
the cave. You're not coming to the lowly
Jesus. You're not coming to the Jesus who was willing to take
his place with transgressors. He made his grave with the rich
and the wicked in his death. He was numbered among the malefactors.
You won't come to the Jesus of the cross. You come to the Jesus
on the throne ready to pour out blessings, but you're not willing
to take up your lot with the Jesus that's hated by everyone
in the world. Am I making some sense? Until
you realize that the Jesus on the cross is the Jesus you really
need. that the Jesus who was crucified
as the sinner's substitute to bear the wrath of God, to atone
for your sin, is the Jesus that you need. You won't come. So
mark how the Spirit of God clearly lays out the attitudinal characteristics
of those that are coming. First, they are distressed sinners. Distressed sinners. I gave you
the political context, didn't I? Israel's jacked up. That means
its economy is already falling apart. Its political infrastructure
is falling apart. You can't trust nobody because
everybody's betraying one another. So you're distressed. That's
political. It happens. And folks come to
church when we have bombs blowing up stuff everywhere. 9-11, the
day after 9-11, the week after 9-11, all the churches were filled. I think we had five more people
show up. But once the smoke clears, they
went back to doing things as normal. Stay with me. Stay with
me. Because when your distress is merely circumstantial and
existential, that's not enough to drive you to Jesus for real. All you coming to Jesus for is
a little pat on the back so he can tell you everything's all
right, so you can go right back to doing what you did. And generally,
people do. Now that take a tag and say in
the name of Jesus, but the reality is you are not coming to Jesus
until you are distressed. Distressed. And the word here
distressed means to be pressed in on all sides. It means to
be sieged. It's actually the Hebrew word
that's only used six times in the Old Testament. And it's given
in the Deuteronomy curse of Deuteronomy 28, 53, where God says, if you
disobey me, I'm going to send enemies in
on you and I'm going to distress you on every side. And they're
going to besiege you all about. And they're going to cause you
to be so distressed because you won't see your way out. Now that's
distressful, isn't it? But ladies and gentlemen, until
God shows us our sin in the same way, until we see our sin as
so distressful that you and I are mounted about with enemies, that
would destroy our soul. And the ultimate enemy that will
destroy your soul and mine is what? The wages of sin is what? Death. And the death God has
in view is eternal damnation, eternal destruction. See, we
know that until God wakes you up and shows you for what you
really are, you're not coming to Jesus. You might come to church. You might come to an orthodox
church. You might even come to a gospel preaching, Christ exalting,
God glorifying church, but you still haven't come to Jesus until
he has revealed to you that you are a sinner on the way to hell
and that your distress amounts to you perishing under the wrath
of God. That's point number one. Point
number two, not only did distress sinners come seeking, they came
seeking the sure mercies of what? See they came to David. They
came to David. That's Isaiah chapter 55 verses
3 through 5 where the proposition of the prophet was is incline
your ear, bow down your ear in here, incline your ear to me
and listen and I will give unto you the sure mercies of David
and your soul will what? Live! That's the proposition. Humble yourself, listen to the
propositions of the gospel, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you will be what? Saved. That's what the prophet
is saying. Incline your ear. Come unto me,
here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure what? Don't you want them? I want them. I want the mercies
of David. Because if I got the mercies
of David, it's going to solve my sin problem. It's going to
solve my weakness. It's going to solve my fears.
It's going to solve my stumblings. I need the mercy of God. Do you
see? And so when you when you come
to Christ, you're coming for mercy. You're coming for mercy
and he will give it to you if you call upon him. That's the
subsequent text. Call upon the Lord while he is
near. Let the righteous man forsake his thoughts, the wicked man
his ways, let him return unto the Lord. For the Lord will abundantly,
what? Pardon you of your sins. Because
his ways are not our ways, our thoughts are not his thoughts.
The Lord is quick to forgive sinners who truly come to him.
Point number B then, not only must we see our sin as so distressful
that we've got to go to David for mercy, but we've got to see
that we are indebted sinners. Do you see it? and all that were
what? Indebted. Indebted. I love it. Now, politically,
that's a shame, isn't it? Why, pastor? Because every one
of the children of Israel was given an inheritance in the land.
There's no reason for an Israelite to have been broke or in debt
or in bondage. because God had cast a lot to
all of the tribes. But what God had put as a provisio
in the law was this. If somehow you abused your inheritance
and lost your inheritance and became a slave, now you got to
work off your debt. But in the Jubilee, you could
be let go or you could pay your way out or a Redeemer could deliver
you. Am I making some sense? Now watch
this. But all that changed when they
asked for a king. Remember what I taught you? Samuel
said I'm gonna tell you what your king gonna do. He's gonna
take every dime from you. He's gonna raise your taxes Inflation
is gonna be so high you you might as well put a tattoo on your
back slave of Saul Because he's gonna own you and that's the
way the devil works in your life, too The devil is a very hard
taskmaster and he brings you into bondage and when you and
I are sinners we become debt sinners and debt sinners, slaves
of sin, heaping upon ourselves the debts of sin, of misery,
of bondage, of slavery. And the enemy owns our conscience.
This is true. This is true. And until you see
Jesus Christ as the great liberator of those who are in debt, you
won't come to him. But see, when you realize that
every day your sin is mounting up, You are treasuring up to
yourself wrath against the day of revelation and judgment of
the righteous judgment of God until you see you are treasuring
up to yourself wrath. You won't see yourself as an
indebted sinner. I am an indebted sinner. I'm indebted to the grace
of God. I owe God everything that's in
me because of the grace that he gave to redeem my soul from
hell. I'm an indebted sinner. I'm indebted
to his grace. Now I'm free because he paid
my debt. but I'm a slave of Jesus Christ
and I am indebted to his grace. Do you know some of what I'm
talking about here? Finally then, as we begin to wrap this up,
it says not only those who were distressed and in debt, but those
who were what? Discontent. Ladies, y'all know
anything about that? Why am I picking on y'all? In
my mind, I just think, when I think about discontentedness, I think
about my sisters. Pray for me. I know we're in
the new year. I'm confessing right now. I'm just confessing
right now. Why do I think about my sisters? That's rhetorical. You don't have to answer it. But see, discontentedness is
when you are helpless in the circumstances that you are in.
That things are taking place that are wrong and bad. And you can't do nothing about
it. And you have come to a point where you don't like it anymore.
And you are discontented. Discontented means you are no
longer what? Content. And again, this word
is a very, very powerful word. Watch this. And maybe the ladies
will get this on a larger spiritual level. The word discontented
here simply means that you have come to the place where your
circumstances have made you bitter. Can I get a witness? Well, your
circumstances have made you bitter. That's our Hebrew term. And interestingly
enough, it's attached to the law of God. In the curse, God
says, if you violate my law, I will bring about bitterness
of heart. And I'm going to share with you
what that means as I close here. This point is very important.
When you and I persist, on sinning against God, the blessings which
He allowed us to live in, the comfortable life that we have,
the comfortable material things, the comfortable resources. When
God starts dealing with you for real, He takes away that contentment. So you no longer can hide under
the rubric that I'm all right with God because I feel all right.
And a lot of people are like that. A lot of people are like
that in their pagan Christianity, where you determine that God
is smiling on you because of how you feel. Do you know there
are going to be a whole lot of happy people going to hell? Say
with me, I'm almost done. The blessing of a bitter heart
is that when your heart becomes so bitter, you finally begin
to notice it. Yep. In other words, this is
redemptive, ultimately. Although, in the judgment, when
God casts men and women into hell, there will be weeping and
what? Of teeth? Because the bitterness
of an unrepented heart is toxic infinitely. It's the bitterness
of a heart that hasn't humbled itself before God. Do you meet
people like that? Bitter against God. Bitter because God is being God.
Bitter because they're not having things their way. Bitter because
they don't understand that God is leading you to repentance.
And so you keep hardening yourself against God until your soul is
bitter. And this was a condition of national
Israel. Ladies, remember our root series? Remember what Naomi said when
she went back home? Do not call me pleasant. Call
me bitter. God has destroyed everything. But one thing, he gave her grace
to turn around and come back home. And she came back home. Did she come back home? Did she
come back home? Did she come back home? And didn't the saints,
when she got back home, weren't they happy when she got home?
Didn't they have a place for him? Oh, this is good news as
we close. When you are outside of Bethlehem,
because you clowning enough to think you can do it without Christ,
and in his mercy, he causes you to be distressed, and in his
mercy, he causes you to be in debt. And in His mercy, He causes
you now to be discontent with your circumstances. Now you're
ready to come home. Now you're ready to come to Christ.
Now you're ready to meet a God of mercy who is able to cleanse
you and forgive you and wash you and restore your soul and
then return the bounty of His blessings in your life. I'm here
to tell you, can I get a witness? When God turns you around, When
he recovers you, when God restores you, it's as if it never happened. Can I get a witness on that?
How God makes a bitter heart sweet, a bitter soul sweet, a
bitter attitude sweet. There are some people who would
look at you after God has showed his mercy, and they would say,
there's no way that that little sweet woman, talking about my
mama, could have ever been a mean, nasty, bitter, hell-raising woman. ever. But that's the grace of
a God that loves us enough to come get us and bring us to the
cave of Adullam where he can meet our needs by his son Jesus
Christ.