1 Samuel chapter 30. We'll look
at verse 1. We will look at some of these
verses again as we go through this chapter, but
just not all of them for the sake of time. Let's read verses
1 through 4 again, though. came to pass when David and his
men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites
had invaded the south in Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned
it with fire and had taken the women captives that were therein.
They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away.
and went on their way. So David and his men came to
the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and
their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David
and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and
wept until they had no more power to weep." Now this story as we
just saw As Brother D read this chapter, this is a story of victory.
It's a story of revenge, vengeance. It's a story of restoration,
a story of unspeakable joy. Can you imagine the celebration? But in the beginning here, we
witness great sorrow. Great. Can you imagine? Have you ever? I doubt it. I doubt if you've ever wept till
you didn't have any energy left to weep anymore. Have you ever
wept that hard, that long? This is our story. This is our
story. As believers, if your life was
written out truthfully, without hiding your faults. And by the
way, this is David's fault. That's the reason they were about
to stone him. He had associated himself with the enemies of God
foolishly and gotten himself into this situation without hiding your fault. If
it was all written down and without exaggerating your part in things,
God's going to get all the glory in this story. He didn't read
quite that far, but we're going to see that in a minute. God's gonna get all the glory.
If your story was written out like that, honestly, what kind
of story would it be? David said in Psalm 90 and verse
nine, we live our lives, we live out our years as a tale that's
told. What's your story? You know what
I find is I, quote unquote, catch up with people in my past and
people in my family that I don't see every day. I found that most
people's story goes something like this. They go to work so
they can make money, so they can buy beans, so they can eat,
so they can get the strength to go to work, so they can make
money, so they can buy beans, so they can eat. And so it goes,
and so it goes. What would you add to that? What's
worth maybe making a chapter out of? The drunken parties on
the weekends, maybe? A trip to somewhere, maybe you
could embellish the story by every once in a while, a trip
to somewhere where other people are going to escape the same
cycle, and then it's back to the same cycle again. Is that
all life is? Maybe you get a raise so you
can make more money, so you can buy more beans, so you can get
even stronger, so you can work even harder to make more money.
It doesn't change the story that much, does it? But there's more to the life
of the believer. There's a lot more. There's a
whole lot more. Do you know how David, now you
think about David. We've seen some things in his
life. He faced Goliath. as the champion of God's people,
the representative of God's people. He faced the fierce champion
of the Philistines and slew him. And everybody was singing his
praises. They talked about him slaying
his 10,000. While the greatest men around
him were slaying mere thousands. He won this great victory in
Ziklag that our brother just read about. And again, the celebration,
can you imagine? He went from the sheepfold to
the throne of Israel. Do you know how this man, David,
on his deathbed, summed up the entire experience of his life? He said, God made a covenant
with me. And that's all my salvation and
all my desire. What else would he say? What's
more important than that? Everything else that happened,
the slaying of Goliath, the women singing his praises, his name,
and the songs of praise of the nation of Israel. Was any of
that worth mentioning? No, not really. That which defines
the life of the believer is not some accomplishment or exploit
that we can boast of. It's something that somebody
else did for us. That's what defines our life.
It makes it different. Different as light and darkness.
Different as death and life. Different as night and day. And believer, It is in this world
a life of sorrow, isn't it? It will be. When our Lord took
our place in this world as our representative, he did so as
the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He bore my griefs
and carried my sorrows. In Acts 14.21 it says, When the
apostles had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught
many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue
in the faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter
into the kingdom of God. We must. We must. Our Lord said, in this world
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome
this world. You're not going to. You're not
going to be able to. How do you feel? Do you feel
strong enough to take this world on? without the Lord Jesus Christ,
without the power of God and His grace, if you weren't held
in His hand, would you be bold in the face of your troubles
and trials and difficulties that we face in this world? They wept until they had no more
power to weep. Have you done that? What then? Once you have no more power to
weep, what do you do then? David did the only thing that
you can do, if you know the Lord. In verse 6 it says, And David
was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him,
because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his
sons and for his daughters. But, David was weeping right
with them. He didn't have any more power
to weep either. But who was it, the Apostle Paul that said, when
I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. When we come to the end of ourselves,
something good's gonna happen then, if God's pleased. And David
was at the end of himself, and he looked up. He looked the only
place a man can look when he exhausts his own strength and
ability. David now, was a great and powerful
man of war. He had slain his 10,000. A vicious
warrior. But here he's reduced to weeping
like a little baby. Helpless. Hopeless in and of
himself. But he encouraged himself in
the Lord. What a lesson. This is the way of all God's
people. When Job similarly had lost everything that he had,
he said, the Lord gave it to me. And now the Lord's taken
it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be his name. You think about where David was
here. And we get all upset over the
smallest things, don't we? We're in a down economy and all
of a sudden everybody's all upset over that and worrying and grumbling,
complaining. Can I confess something to you
tonight? Sometimes I wish that the whole
thing would crumble down around our heads and we'd find out what's
real. I don't wish that all the time.
I'm no different than you. But when I see what goes on,
when I see that the first thing that tends to become neglected
is the things of God, when the smallest trial comes along, I
think, what if God brought the whole thing down? Would you even
look me up then? If we lost every luxury we have,
every one, if it affected our worship in the slightest, it's
not worship. Is that clear? It's not worship. God reduced David to nothing. He didn't even have the respect
of his men anymore. He had nothing. And you know
what he did? He called upon God. What would
we do, I wonder, if brought to that same place? We may yet find
out. I don't know. Maybe the Lord
will just teach us without bringing us to that place. I'd prefer
that, I'll be honest with you. I'd prefer that. Paul said, I have suffered the
loss of all things. He lost his status as a big shot
Pharisee. He lost the respect of everybody.
He used to snap his fingers. And men would turn to him and
say, what do you need us to do? He had the power and respect
and the authority and I'm sure money that came with it. He had
everything and lost it. He said, I've suffered the loss
of everything. I don't even have the religious
hope that I had before. I'm down to nothing. If I have
somewhere to lay down my head tonight, I'll just have to ask
God to give it to me. I'll have to depend upon every
moment. Did you know that you do anyway?
Your job is not what gives you the security that you enjoy.
We tend to feel that way, don't we? Oh, we've got a little savings,
you know, we're secure. It's all His, isn't it? It's
all His. I've suffered the loss of all
things, and I do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."
Is that what we would say if we suffered the loss of all things?
I wonder. I wonder about myself. I truly
do. For us to encourage ourselves
in the Lord our God, we don't need to look any further than
this very text. Because though this is the story
of our lives, in a sense, we all go through trials, we all
react to them, we all either turn to the Lord or not. If you're
a believer, he'll bring you back sooner or later, won't you? You'll
turn to the Lord sooner or later, won't you? If you're his, he's
not gonna let you go. No way he's gonna let you go. This is
a story of God's sheep. And in a sense, it's our story
as well as believers, but there's a greater story here than that.
Did you hear it as our brother read? Do you hear it in these
words? The Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews
10, 5. Listen to this language. Whose story is this in 1 Samuel
chapter 30? Whose story is this in the greatest
sense? Hebrews 10, five. It says, wherefore
when he, when the Lord Jesus Christ cometh into the world,
he saith, he came saying something. He said to the father, sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not. Well, didn't the Lord ordain
the sacrifices? Oh yes, but not because the blood
of animals can please God. Here's why he did it. A body
has thou prepared me. He ordained the sacrifices of
animals to show forth the fact that his son was gonna come down
here and that a body had been prepared for him. That holy thing
that was conceived in Mary shall be called the Son of the Highest.
And the Lord prepared a body for him and he said, in burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
We know the blood of bulls and of goats can never take away
sin. Then said I, When all of our religious ceremonies and
types and pictures fail, he said, Lo, I come. In the volume
of the book, it is written of me. That's why the sacrifices
were ordained to begin with, because of me. It's written of
me. I come to do thy will, O God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
do God's will. Why? Because we haven't done
God's will, and we're not gonna do God's will. We never have,
we're not doing it tonight. If you're accepted before God,
you're accepted in Christ tonight. If you will be tomorrow, it'll
be in Christ. If you are tonight, you will
be tomorrow. Because if you're in His hand, nobody can pluck
you out of His hand. But it's always in Christ, only
in Christ. We never have yet done anything
acceptable in and of ourselves to God. He came to do the will
of God. What is God's will? That all
of His people, lost, taken captive, that all of his people be restored
by his champion, by his king. This is the story Christ said
in the volume of the book. Haven't we seen that in Gideon,
in Jephthah, in Barak, in Samson, in Moses, everywhere in this
book. That's the story. God has a people who are lost,
who are taken captive. He has a chosen people and because
of their sin, because of their own deserts, they deserve where
they are. But they're in deep distress
and they're in debt and they're discontent as we saw last time.
But God has anointed them a champion. And though all the world despise
and reject him, he's still our champion. He's our savior, he's our redeemer.
He's my Lord and my God, that's what Thomas said. That's because
that's who he is. This one, this King David pictures
this so beautifully. He's God's anointed king. God
said to Samuel, anoint him, he's the one. He doesn't look much
like a king here, neither did my Lord. But that didn't change the fact
that he was God's anointed king. Always has been. Always will
be. The king of glory. The king of
kings. And Lord of lords. Despised and
rejected, but the Pharisees didn't think much of him. How about
you? What do you think of him? He's
God's king. He's God's king. He's the redeemer,
the champion of his people. All that was important to these
men, everything, all of the people of Israel, those that were following
David other than the men of war, were taken captive. Verse 3,
we read that. And the scripture teaches, 2
Timothy 2.26, that we by nature are taken captive by Satan at
his will. There's your free will for you. People are captives of the devil. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
the will of your father, the devil, that's what you'll do.
You'll do his will, not your free will, not God's will. We can't even see the kingdom
of God until he causes us to be born again. We're certainly
not going to do God's will. We don't have a free will. We're
going to do Satan's will. That's what the Lord Jesus said
to the Pharisees. Are you better than that? God sent His Son into the world
to do what? We're taken captive. Luke 4.18,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, this is the Lord speaking
again, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives. If you're a captive, there's
not anything you'd rather hear than the message of deliverance.
If you're not a captive, if you have a free will, for example,
or you're just, you know, going through life, doing the best
you can, me and a man upstairs got a good thing going, then
the message of deliverance has no interest for you. None whatsoever. Recovering of sight to the blind
and to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. He said, that's why I came. And
we're prisoners of the law of God. Did you know that by nature?
We're prisoners of God's law in bondage and condemned by the
law and rightfully so. But Christ hath delivered us
from the yoke of bondage. He said, take my yoke upon you
and rest, rest. Wherefore Paul said in Galatians
5, one, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you
free and don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's
the yoke of the law. The yoke of doing, doing, doing
to please God. You can't please God. Christ
did please God. Bow to Him. Receive Him as your
representative. Receive Him as your righteousness.
Own Him as your sin offering. And be holy in the sight of God.
Never, never in yourself. Never by the deeds of the law.
Look back at the text at verse 8. 1 Samuel 30 verse 8. And David inquired at the Lord,
saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered, Pursue. For
thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. Before there was deliverance,
before the king ever went on this mission to save these captives,
there was a council between the father and the son. And it was foreordained. that
the captives, the people of God, would without fail be delivered. It's called the everlasting covenant
of God's grace. The Lord's precious blood is
the blood of the everlasting covenant. It was predetermined.
It was already a certainty before it ever happened. Do you imagine, let me ask you
an honest question now. Do you imagine that if the God
of Israel would not send King David into battle without an
assurance of victory, do you think he would send his only
begotten son into this world on some kind of a fly-by-night
venture, hoping that maybe somebody would get in on it? Who do people
think they're talking about when they preach this miserable nonsense
that passes for a gospel in our generation? Do we have any idea
who this is? This is God we're talking about.
He said, go deliver my people. Without fail, it'll be done. Religion has the Jesus, small
J, that they preach, hoping that somebody will feel sorry for
him enough to make some kind of a profession of faith, as
though that would mean something to anybody. Our king came into this world
on a mission. He had one purpose. The Bible
says in Isaiah 53 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ is going
to make his own soul, his very soul and offering for sin. He
came into this world to do the father's will and he said on
the cross, it's finished. And when he looks at the result
of what he did on that cross, it says he's gonna be satisfied
with it. God doesn't do his best. God doesn't try to do anything. God doesn't take his best shot.
God doesn't go on ventures, uncertain ventures. He said, my hand is
not shortened that it cannot say. He saves whom He will, when
He will. He'll do what He will with you
and with me. 1 Corinthians 15, 54, When this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory over sin, death,
and hell. He giveth us the victory. How
did he do that? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. He sent his Son
down here to win it for us. Not to help us out. to win it
for us. Isaiah 42, one, behold, turn
over there with me. Let's look at Isaiah 42. You
think about the little G God of this religious world and the
Jesus that they talking about waiting on you to come down an
aisle or some nonsense. And you listen to this passage
of scripture and make a comparison in your mind. Isaiah 42 in verse
one, This is God the Father speaking
concerning God the Son. Isaiah 42, 1, Behold my servant
whom I uphold, mine elect. If you're elect, you're electing
him. He is the elect of God. He is
the chosen. He is the man. In whom my soul
delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor even be discouraged. He's not even going to act like
he's going to fail. There's not ever going to be any question
about whether he's going to fail or not. And that word discouraged
there is interesting because what was the word in that text?
David encouraged himself in the Lord. What a picture of Christ
he is. Even David wasn't discouraged in the midst of this horrible
trial. Why? Because God was with him, that's
why. And our Savior shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till
He hath set judgment in the earth. And the isles shall wait for
His law. Thus saith God the Lord, He that
created the heavens." Who's telling you this? Who's telling you that
His Son shall not fail? Who is this that's saying, don't
even think about the possibility that He might fail. He shall
not. He shall not even be discouraged. He will set judgment in the earth.
Who said that? The one that created the heavens,
verse five, and stretched them out. He that spread forth the
earth and that which cometh out of it. He that giveth breath
unto the people upon it. Are you gonna use that breath
to malign his name and to slander his name by saying he's trying
to do something or he's done the best he can and left this
thing up to you? He gave you that breath and he said, my son's
gonna get this done. He's the one that's gonna set
judgment. He's the one that's the righteous one. He is the
one who is victorious. He giveth breath unto the people
and spirit to them that walk therein. I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness and will hold your hand and will keep
you and give you for a covenant of the people for a light of
the Gentiles to open the blind eyes, not to try to do something,
To bring out the prisoners from the prison. Not to stand at the
door and beg them to come, if they would. To bring them out!
Is that what He did for you now, honestly? What is your experience
of grace? Did the Lord come where you are
and save you, or did He try to get you to do something? Them
that sit in darkness, He brought them out of the prison house.
That's what He did for me. And He said, My glory, you can
talk about it all you want to. You can say, well, he's done
most of it, but we've got to take that decisive step. He said,
I will not give my glory to you. He'll be glorified whether you
come to be with him forever or whether he's got to put you in
hell forever. He will be glorified and you're not getting any of
it either way, either way. And I'm not either. Neither my praise to graven images
and it can be a totem pole or the false Jesus of this religious
world. It's the same thing. Exactly the same thing. It's
a God of man's imagination. Whether it's made out of wood
or whether they just put talking about him in their church house.
Behold, the former things are come to pass. Don't you see that
what God says is done? Don't you see who he is? Don't
you see that his word is truth and can be relied upon? Not the
words of man, not those who teach for doctrines and the commandments
of men, his gospel. The gospel of the victorious
Redeemer. He said, everything I've said
to you, it's come to pass. And new things do I declare before
they ever spring forth, I'm telling you they're gonna happen. Do
you trust him? He said, you come to me, I'll
give you red. Do you trust him? He said, I came down here to
do my father's will. And here's my father's will,
that of all those he's given me, I won't lose any of them.
Do you trust him? The one who everything he said
has come to pass. Do you trust him on that? That
he'll save his people from their sin? That he'll do what he came
to do? He who is the chief among 10,000
has come to my rescue. You know why I'm smiling? That's
why. That's why I preach this gospel. And I do it with gladness. I do it without mincing words. I do it without compromise, because
the Lord Jesus is so glorious. And what he did for us is so
wonderful that somebody got to tell about it. And it's so glorious and wonderful.
He is so glorious and wonderful that any adding or subtracting
from it diminishes him. You see, we got to say, thus
saith the Lord, not my opinions, not here's what God said. Now
here's what he meant by what he said. I just need somebody
to tell me what God said. Is that good enough for you?
May he, by his grace, caused that to take place here. The chief among 10,000, the champion
of God's people, God's anointed king, God's Christ, came down
here on a mission. And do you know what it was?
It was to save me. When he said, I lost that one
sheep in the wilderness, I left everything else, I put everything
else aside, I went after that sheep and I took it up and put
it on my shoulders and brought it home. He was talking about
me when he said that. Look at verse 16 in our text.
I've got to finish. You read this chapter, read the
rest of it after where Dee had read, and you'll see a lot more
things that point to our Lord in it. We're just looking at
a few tonight. 1 Samuel 30 verse 16, and when
he had brought him down, behold, now this is that fellow that
had gotten left behind, the enemies when they had taken all the spoil
and all the women and children and they were running. This one
fella was too weak, he couldn't keep up with them and they left
him behind. And David then came upon him
and he told his story what had happened and David said, can
you show me where they are? And he said, if you promise me that
I'll be saved alive, I'll show you where they are. And he did,
and there, perhaps upon the rise of a hill, they're looking over,
they're looking down on this scene, and you listen to it in verse
16, when he had brought him down, when that spy had brought him
down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating
and drinking and dancing. Can you imagine? Because of all
the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the
Philistines and out of the land of Judah. This wicked world has
defied God's king and they're laughing and dancing and having
a big old time in his world. They crucified his son and spit
on him as he was bleeding. And they laughed at him while
their spit ran down his face. They punched him in the face
until he was swollen and bruised and broken. They lashed him until
his back was laid bare. You've pictured this in your
minds. You can imagine what he must
have looked like when Pilate said, behold, the man. That's what you and I did. And
this wicked world now, This wicked world is still laughing at him.
His gospel is preached and they make fun of it. They mock and scorn us. Paul
said, we're the off scouring of the earth. We still are. It's
all right. I wouldn't want to be praised
by this world, would you? I wouldn't want to be a somebody
in this place, would you? Oh my. The word says if you're the friend
of this world, you're the enemy of God. I don't want any part
in that. They murdered God's son and they
said, let his blood be upon us and our children. And they laughed at him as he
bled out on Calvary and they played craps to see who would
get his robe. As his precious blood fell to
the earth, the prince of life, God's King sits upon the hill
and looks down on this scene and he sees his loved ones. Can
you imagine what was going through David's mind and heart as he
comes to this place? And perhaps he was wondering
before, is this spy leading us into an ambush? Did they leave
him behind on purpose and set up some kind of, and now he sees There's our women, there's our
children. They're so close, we've come to get them. Those that
we love, they're not dead, there they are. They're held captive
down there, and it's up to us to get them. And can you imagine
what went through his mind and heart when he saw those enemies
laughing and dancing after they had spoiled everything that was
dear to David and his men? He didn't come down here to make
a deal, did he? He didn't come down here to make them an offer
of peace. He came down there to kill them. I can't speak strongly enough
concerning the wrath of God, concerning the terror of the
Lord. The scripture says it's a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God. Will you laugh? Will you mock?
And that's what you're doing when you despise His Word now.
That's exactly what you're doing. You're saying, I know better
than God, and I'll do as I please in His world, and I'll take the
breath that He gave me, and I'll use it how I want to. I'll take
the strength that He gave me, and I'll do what I want to do
with it. And I don't need His chains, I don't need His cords,
His bands upon me. And here God's King sitting upon
the hill, And he came down there to kill his enemies and to save
his loved ones. What do you think God's going
to do? Verse 18, we've got to be through
here. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried
away. And David rescued his two wives,
and there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great,
neither sons nor daughters, neither spoiled nor anything, that they
had taken to them. And if it wasn't clear the first
time, he says it again, David recovered all. Do you know our
Lord is referred to as David in the scriptures? Because he's
David's son and David's Lord. He's a king like unto David.
He was of the lineage of David, born in Bethlehem like David.
David is a picture, a beautiful, clear, wonderful picture of our
Savior. Christ recovered all. We lost
everything in the garden, didn't we? We lost everything. Those words, when it says Adam
took and he ate of that fruit, we have no idea the tragedy of
that, the absolute utter tragedy of it. May God impress it upon
us, we lost everything. We lost our comfort, we lost
what wisdom we had, we lost our refuge, we lost our safety, we
lost our love. Adam and Eve loved God. They had perfect fellowship with
God, gone in a moment. They lost utterly everything
and we in them in Adam. The best bless God. Though in
Adam all died in Christ, all should be made alive. Do you
know why they wept until they had no power to weep because
their loved ones in their mind and heart were dead? They were
goners. But David recovered all. David
recovered all. Our Lord Jesus Christ, let me
be as clear as I can, he was sent by his father on a rescue
mission. When he was born into this world,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, Joseph, you
son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for
that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she
shall bring forth a son. And thou shalt call his name
Jesus. And there's a good reason for that. He shall save his people
from their sins. He prayed to his father in John
17 as he began to bear the weight of my sin and yours, if you know
him. Of those that thou hast given me, I have lost none. This is my champion. This is
my David. This is my King, my Savior, my
Redeemer. The one who recovered all, recovered
me and all that I lost in Adam and more. We are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. We had a perfect righteousness
then, but now infallible, the righteousness of God in Christ. The righteousness of God. That's
unimaginable, isn't it? That's unfathomable. How can
I be the righteousness of God in Christ? He's my righteousness,
and He's the very righteousness of God. Adam's righteousness
failed. How can the Son of God fail?
How can His righteousness fail? Impossible. We're more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. Adam was close to God, near to
God, perfect relationship, perfect fellowship, unbroken fellowship. But now I'm one with God. One. Christ said that they may
be one with us, even as we are one. That's how we're more than
conquerors through him that loved us. And our Lord Jesus Christ
came down here and accomplished that. We lost everything in Adam
and we recovered everything in Christ and then some. His first recorded words in scripture,
do you remember what they were? I must be about my father's business.
And his last word, Bob, was this, it's done. It's done. That's
my savior. That's my Savior. Let's bow in
prayer.