Would you turn to 1 Samuel, chapter
22? 1 Samuel, chapter 22. I have entitled this message,
Distressed, In Debt, and Discontent. That would pretty much describe
the average adult American in our day, wouldn't it? Stressed
out, in debt up to their eyes, and discontent and disillusioned
with life as they know it. But you know, this can be a good
thing. It can be good. to be distressed. It can be good to be in debt
and it can be good to be discontent as we shall see. Now that title
was taken from verse two of first Samuel chapter 22 and everyone
that was in distress And everyone that was in debt
and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves under him. And he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about
400 men. Now, David had hit rock bottom. This was the lowest point of
David's life. Look in verse 13 of chapter 21. This one who God had used to
slay Goliath, this one who was the toast of Israel, this one
who had the maids singing his praises, all of Israel, Saul's
killed his thousands, but David's killed his tens of thousands,
this man who was anointed by God. This man was a special man,
but look how far he's fallen. Look in verse 13. And he changed
his behavior before them, scared to death and feigned himself
mad in their hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate. And
he let spittle fall down his beard. acting like he was mad,
acting like he was crazy, scared to death before these people,
and he actually changed his behavior. Now, he was fleeing, terrified of
Saul, verse 10 of chapter 21. And David arose and fled that
day for fear of Saul. and 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, and dance, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and
David his ten thousands? And David laid up these words
in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.
And he changed his behavior before them. And he feigned himself
mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and
in his spittle fall down his beard, then said Achish unto
his servants, lo, you see, the man is mad. Wherefore have you
then brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that you
brought this fellow? Notice the word fellow is in
italics. It's supplied there by the translators. But what
he's saying was, have you brought this zero to me? He's not even fit to be called
a man. I won't even give him the dignity to call him a man.
He's a, what is it? What this, this zero to play
the madman in my presence, shall this, what do you call it? This zero come into my house. Now, do you see how far David
has fallen? David therefore in verse one
of chapter 22, departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam. And when his brethren in all
his father's house heard of it, they went down thither to him."
He's truly an object of pity at this time. He's pathetic,
isn't he? He's pathetic. King David, this mighty man of
valor, this mighty man of war, letting spit fall down his beard
in fear, trying to act like a madman in front of these people. And
so he goes down into this cave, and there was a very unusual
group of people that came to him in this cave. Everyone that was in distress. And you know, that word doesn't
simply mean stressed out. I looked the word up in the Hebrew
dictionary. It's disabled. Disabled. The anguish that is brought about
by a disability. Disabled people. I don't know
what all kinds of disabilities they had, but they had plenty
of them. What a motley crew this must have been. Disabled people.
Here they come to David in this cave. And everyone that was in
debt, they were bankrupt. They had no way of paying their
debts. For some reason, they were drawn to David in this cave.
And everyone that was discontented, disillusioned, disappointed with
life, not satisfied, these were the men who became David's men
and were loyal to David. and recognized him as their king. Now we know that David was a
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is called the son of David
and everything in David's life is given to us to illustrate
some aspect of gospel truth. And this story of his fall, would
you call it? Oh, he fell so far. This gives
us a beautiful picture, seeing his descent of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you think of how far our
Lord went down. He left heaven. He left the praises
of angels and he came here into this world and was hated by all
men. You know, David is spoken of
with such contempt in this passage of scripture, this zero. What
do you call it? Well, the Lord was spoken of
with content. His own friend said he's beside
himself. He's gone crazy. Just as Achish
said, he's not even fit to be called a man. Listen to what
Christ said of himself. Turn with me to Psalm 22. Now
I want to establish in this Psalm who is speaking. Psalm 22, this
is what is called the psalm of the cross. Look in verse one. Psalm 22, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And why art thou so far from
helping me and from the words of my Roy? Those are the very
words of the Lord Jesus from the cross. Look what it says
in verse seven. All they that see me, laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They
shake the head saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou
art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near, for there's none to help. Many bulls
have compassed me, strong bulls of basin have beset me. They
gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint.
My heart's like wax. It's melted in the midst of my
bowels. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. And my tongue
cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into
the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierce my hands and
my feet. I may tell all my bones. They
look up and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast locks upon my vesture. This is the words of our Lord
from the cross. Now look what he says concerning himself. There's
no doubt that this is Jesus Christ himself speaking. And look what
he says in verse 6. But I am a worm, not even fit to be called a man,
a reproach of men, and despised of the people. Now there is,
this is something that can't be understood, only believed. Christ so truly became seen on
the cross that he said regarding himself with such depth of meaning,
I am a worm. And that is literally I am a
maggot. That's what Christ said of himself.
He didn't say I'm treated as if I were one. He said that's
what I am. I am a maggot. Not even fit to be called a man. Now you see how far he went. David ends up. He's not even
fit to be called a man. He ends up in a cave. You know
somebody else who ends up in a cave? Where did our Lord close
his descent? In a cave. And in this cave,
at David's lowest point, a very peculiar group was drawn to him. The distressed, the disabled,
those who were in debt, and the discontented. Now, this group
of people was a very complete number. The Bible says around
400, maybe it was 394, maybe it was 402, we don't know, but
it was an exact number. And there is an exact number
of people who come to Christ, we just read about it. Our Lord
said, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. This was
a very exact number who came to David. And I think it's interesting
relative, humanly speaking, it was a small number, an insignificant
number, 400 people in this entire nation. That's not many people,
but you know, the number of God's elect upon the earth has always
been at any given time, a small number. A remnant, it's always
been that way. Now, by the time it's all said
and done, it's gonna be a great number. 10,000 times 10,000 and
thousands and thousands. I mean, that's a whole lot of
people. But at any given time, God's people on the earth have
always been a remnant, a small number. 400 men gathered themselves
to David and they were drawn to him in this cave. Now, what
this lets me know is that we're drawn to Christ
in his death. Yes, he's the living Christ,
but if all he did was live, what good would that do to me? Not
a thing. There's something about his death
that draws people who are thusly described distressed, in debt,
and discontented. There's something about the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ that draws these people. Now these
people were distressed. Let's consider these three descriptions
of these people who came to David. Like I said, what a motley crew,
distressed. Now the word means disabled. It has something to do with the
anguish that's brought about, the stress that's brought about
by disability. Now, what is a disabled person?
It's a person who lacks ability. A blind person lacks the ability
to see. He can't see. You can tell him,
well, you ought to see, but he can't. He, a lame person, lacks
the ability to get up and walk. A deaf person lacks the ability
to hear. That's what a disability is.
It's a lack of ability, a lack of strength to do. Now, I think
this is very interesting. As long as you think, or I think,
that we have some spiritual ability, right down to the freedom of
our will, if we think we have any spiritual ability, we'll
never come to Jesus Christ. It's not gonna happen. If you
have any spiritual ability. If you even think that maybe
I don't now, but when I decide to accept Christ as my personal
savior, I can be saved whenever I decide I want to. If you even
think something like that, you still have some spiritual ability.
And as long as I believe I have any spiritual ability at all,
I will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is meant by
disability? What does the Bible mean by disability?
Well, let me give you some scriptures. First, to be disabled, spiritually
disabled, means you lack the ability to keep God's holy law. To be spiritually disabled means
you cannot not sin. Now, do you hear that? To be
spiritually disabled means you cannot not sin. You'd like to not sin, but you
cannot not sin. Paul said in Romans 8, 6, and
7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed. Anybody know the rest of the
verse? Can. It lacks the ability. So then,
they that are in the flesh, what I am by nature, they cannot please
God. To be disabled spiritually is
to be unable to receive or understand the things of the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 says the natural man, that's
what I am by nature, The natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for there are no foolishness unto him,
neither indeed can he know them. He lacks the ability to know
them because they're spiritually discerned. You know, this is
a, I can't even do that which is
easiest. I can't even receive grace without grace. I can't
even receive the Lord Jesus Christ unless he gives me the grace
to do it. That's spiritual disability.
What is spiritual disability? It's another verse we just read
in that passage you read in John chapter six. No man, our Lord
said, can come to me. Except the father which is sitting
and me drawing, I lack the ability to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's spiritual disability.
You can't keep the law. You can't even receive the things
of the Spirit of God. You can't even come to Christ
except He draws you. Now ironically, all who cannot
come to Christ do. And all who can, don't. That's true every time. You see, necessity is the mother
of invention. You come to Christ for this reason
because you can't. And that's why you come. And
you come the same way that leper did. I talked about him a couple
of weeks ago, but I love thinking about that leper. I can identify
with that man so much. He came to the Lord. He said,
Lord, if you will, you're the Lord. If you will, I'm not real
sure about your willingness and I understand him thinking that.
I'm not real sure about your willingness, but if you will,
you can make me clean. I can't make myself clean. I'm
completely dependent upon you to do something for me. Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. Turn with me for a moment
to Matthew chapter nine. Matthew 9, verse 27. And when Jesus departed
thence, two blind men, what's a blind man? He's unable to see,
completely disabled. Two blind men followed him, crying
and saying, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he
was come into the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus
saith unto them, believe ye that I am able to
do this. I love the simplicity of that
question. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is able
to do this? to make you clean, to make you
perfect in God's sight. You're convinced that you don't
have the ability to do this, but do you believe that he is
able? I love their answer. They said
unto him, yea, Lord. Then touched he their eye saying,
according to your faith, be it unto you. In your inability, do you believe
that he is able? Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he
was able also to perform. You see, it's good to be disabled. It really is. It's a blessing
to be disabled because everybody, without any exceptions to this
rule, and the text points that out, everyone that was distressed,
everyone, no exceptions to the rule, everyone that was disabled,
they came to Him. And everyone who has a spiritual
disability will come to Him who is Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. Now, the next thing
we read of in 1 Samuel 22 of these people that came to the
Lord Jesus Christ was everyone who was in debt. Everyone, without
any exceptions to the rule, everyone who was in debt. Now stay with
me. All who believe inhuman ability. All who believe in human ability,
all who believe in salvation by works in any form, make God
the debtor. Let me verify that from the scripture.
Romans chapter 4 verse 4 says, to him that worketh is the reward. not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. If I believe that there's anything
that I can do that will obligate God to do something for me, I
make God my debtor. He's the one who's the debtor.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now, if there's
anything you can do that will render God obligated to save
you, he's your debtor. That means he owes you salvation.
And that thought's blasphemous, isn't it? It sure is. But for
those who are in debt. Now, if you're in debt, it's
your fault. You can't blame somebody else.
You owe God and you can't come up with the payment. You're bankrupt. Your sin is all your fault and
you don't have a penny's worth of merit to pay. You are in debt. Now to everyone who could be
described in debt, listen to this. When he said it is finished,
Your debt was paid in full and you owe absolutely nothing. Remember, it's these people who
were drawn to him in his death and it's his debt. You see this,
the son of God who said, I'm a worm and not even fit to be
called a man. It's because he was made sin. And remember him dying. It's
not like me dying or you dying. This is Christ that died. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made sin. He put away
sin. His righteousness is given to
everybody that he died for and their debt is completely paid. I do not owe a thing. You know, I really believe that.
I'm perfect before God because of his death. You see, David
didn't stay in that cave and Christ didn't stay in the tomb
because the debt was paid. Everyone who is in debt, no exception
to this rule, they all came to him and their debt was paid. And then we read of everyone
who was discontented. Everyone, no exceptions to this
rule, everyone who was discontent, unsatisfied, disillusioned. They certainly were not satisfied
in a state of disability or debt. I don't want to stay there, do
you? I don't want to be permanently disabled. I don't want to be
in debt. I want to be free from my debt.
I want to be enabled to believe. They certainly were not satisfied
in a state of disability. They could find no contentment
in this world. They really couldn't. You think
of the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes and the
pride of life. It has an attraction, doesn't
it? To your flesh. The lust of the flesh, the desires,
the cravings of fallen, sinful nature. The lust of the eyes. What's the difference between
the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh? The lust of the
eyes is being concerned about what men see rather than what
God sees. It's really the fear of man. It's keeping up with
the Joneses. It's being concerned about what
men think. The lust of the eyes. It's amazing
how people are so concerned about what men think. The pride of
life, self-righteousness, human religion. When God teaches you
who he is and who you are, these things lose their glimmer. They really do. There's pleasure
in sin for a season, But it's only for a season. Being concerned
about what men think and what they see, really, who cares? And the pride of life? What's
there to be proud about? I'm nothing but a sinner. You're
made to see and become disillusioned and discontent with the things
of this world. We're certainly discontent with
the religion of this world. Salvation by works, I can't find
any contentment in that. I can't find any satisfaction
in that. I can't find any rest in that.
No, the religion of this world, I'm discontent with it. I don't
like it. I don't find any comfort or joy or peace in any of this. I'm discontent. You know, I am
discontent with this world. I really am. I mean, it's a soap
bubble. It's temporary. The smile of
this world means absolutely nothing. Everyone that was discontent,
they came to David and they found contentment and satisfaction. And listen to me real carefully.
I hope I'm speaking honestly. I hope I'm telling the truth
regarding myself. I think I am. Hope I am. We'll
find out one of these days, won't we? But I am satisfied to be saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ in a way where he gets all the glory and none goes to
me. And I find perfect satisfaction
in that. I don't find any satisfaction
in anything else. I find perfect satisfaction to
be saved by sheer free grace. I find such contentment in that.
It just makes me happy. It makes me feel good. I enjoy
being saved by the grace of God. I find satisfaction in that which
God finds satisfaction in. Is God satisfied with the death
of His Son? Is God satisfied with the precious
blood of his son? Is he really? I mean, is God
satisfied with Christ? You better believe he is. That's
what he said when he raised him from the dead. And I find complete
satisfaction in what God is satisfied with. Now, remember. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. These dissatisfied people came
to David in the cave. It has something to do with his
death. The blood of Jesus Christ. It wasn't so much shed for you.
It was shed for God. For God to do something for me. He first had to do something
for himself. And the blood was shed for God to satisfy himself. And only when God is satisfied
can he be satisfied with me. I really believe that God, the
holy, thrice holy God, looks at me, and I have some understanding
of who I am, maybe just a little bit, don't know much, but I know
a little bit. He looks at me and He's satisfied. He can't
find anything to be dissatisfied with. He's content with me as
I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I find such satisfaction
there. I find such contentment there.
You know, Paul said, I've learned, and this is such a valuable lesson.
He said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased. You know, every now and then
the Lord gives you a glimpse of what you are and who you are. You're
abased. And what's that cause you to
do? You know that Christ is your only righteousness before God,
don't you? I know how to be abased. You
know, it's, it's really easy. It makes things less complicated
to be nothing but a sinner. It's easy to trust Christ just
like that. And I know how to abound. When
God gives me grace to feel his presence and to walk in joy and
walk in faith and so on, I know where that came from and it didn't
come from me. It's the gift of his grace. I've learned in whatsoever
state I am there with to be content, to be satisfied. And you know, I can say this,
I believe I hope I'm being honest. Anytime I say something, there's
a question mark with it, just because I said it. I realize
that. I mean, that's true of all of us. But I'm satisfied with
His will being done. And I really don't care what
happens to me. I don't. If His will being done
means I'm trampled in the ground, that's fine. I really, truly
say, by the grace of God, Thy will be done. Isn't that what
we're taught to pray? Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. You see, these discontented people
became content. What a group. The disabled. They came to Him who is able.
Those in debt came to Him and their debt was paid. And those
who were dissatisfied, discontent, came to Him and found satisfaction.
Now, look what it says regarding these people in 1 Samuel 22. Everyone that was in distress
and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented,
what a resume, they gathered themselves unto him. And he became a captain over
them. And you know, these are the men
that stood with David through thick and thin. These men right
here, they stayed with him the whole way. He became a captain. over them. He's the captain of
our salvation, isn't he? Lord's our captain. He's our
captain. The captain of the Lord of hosts
is my captain. And I love what this last thing
says. He became a captain over them
and there were with him about 400 men. Now, you know where
I want to be? With him. With him. Now, wherever he is, That's where
I want to be. Um, I don't say he's with me. My plea is I'm with him. I'm with him. You know, the Lord said in John
chapter 17 verse 24, father, I will. Boy, there's such power in that.
You and I can't say, Father, I will. We say, Lord, if it be
thy will, but he could pray to his father. Father, I will, that
they whom thou has given me be with me where I am. Not that they will be with me,
but that they be with me right now where I am. You know where the Lord is right
now? He's seated at the right hand of the father. You know,
who's there's with him. Who's there with him. Every believer turn to Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. Verse four, but God who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. When Christ was quickened, When
Christ was raised from the dead, you know who else was? Every
believer. He quickened us together with
Christ. When did you live before God?
When Christ was quickened. I was. That's my life before
God. Now go on reading. Even when
we were dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ by grace,
ye are saved and have raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I'm already in
heaven. People say, I'm as sure for heaven
as if I'm already there. I'm already there. That's how
sure it is. Near so near to God, nearer I
cannot be. For in the person of his dear
son, I'm as near to God as he. Dear, so dear to God, dearer
I cannot be. For in the person of his dear
son, I'm as dear to God as he. Everyone who is distressed, everyone
who is in debt, and couldn't pay their debt, everyone who
was discontented gathered themselves to him. And he became a captain
over them. And there were with him about
400 men. Amen.