I've been out in the sun for
a week. We have very good weather. Second Samuel 24. I'm sorry,
23. Verse 13, And three of the thirty chief
went down and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave
of Adalim. Do you remember the cave of Adalim?
You can read about it in the 22nd chapter. That's where David
was in hiding, and there were a bunch of men who were described
as distressed, in debt, and discontent. That was their description. All
of them came to David. We're going to be looking at
that in just a moment. And David became captain over
these men, and these were his mighty men. These men who came
to him in this cave Everyone that was, I love the way it says
this, everyone that was distressed, in debt, and discontent. That's the sinner, isn't it? And they all came to David. And he was in this cave. And the troop of the Philistines
pitched in the valley Rephiam. And David was then in a hold
and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem, David's
birthplace. And David longed and said, Oh,
that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,
which is by the gate. And the three mighty men break
through the host of the Philistines. and drew water out of the well
of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought
it to David." They heard this desire and they
wanted to bring this to David. They loved David so much. Nevertheless, he would not drink
thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord, and said, Be it far
from me, O Lord, that I should do this, Is not this the blood
of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he
would not drink of it. These things did these three
mighty men. They're not named. We don't know
who they were, but they were three of these men who came to
David in the cave. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. Lord, we come first confessing
our sin. Lord, by your grace, enable us
to truly confess our sin before thee, and to take sides with
thee against ourselves. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel that saves sinners, the gospel of thy blessed Son, We
thank you for the freeness of your grace. We thank you for
the power of the blood of your son. We thank you for our acceptance
in the beloved and we give thanks for him. Lord, bless us with
your presence. We pray that your gospel would
be preached. We pray that you would give us the grace to hear
your gospel, to believe your gospel, to love your gospel,
to love your son. Lord, we pray for your continued
healing hand upon John for Christ's sake. Let your will be done. And Lord, we pray for all your
people wherever they meet together. We pray for those going through
trials we know nothing of. Bless them for their good and
for your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Turn with me for a moment to
1 Samuel 22. Keep your finger there and turn
to 1 Samuel 22. David had been in the land of
the Philistines, hiding, and he acted like a madman to try
to save his own life. You can read about that in the
last few verses of 1 Samuel 21. And he pretty much had reached
his lowest point. And we read in verse 1 of 1 Samuel
22, David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave,
Adalim. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him
and everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt. And everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves unto him. And he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about four hundred men. Now this
is the beginning of the mighty men of David. We read that list in chapter
23. And these men were loyal to David
all their lives. Now, when David was in this cave,
he expressed this desire for water from the well of Bethlehem. Now, what's the significance
of Bethlehem? Well, you know the Lord was born there. David
was born there. love that scripture in Micah,
let me read it to you, you don't have to turn there. Micah chapter
5 verse 2, But thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee there shall come
forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth
have been from of old from everlasting. I love that description of Christ,
his eternality. He never had a beginning. And
he came out of Bethlehem. Well, that's where David was
from. I think it's glorious to think of the Lord being raised
in Nazareth. When Mary and Joseph were pregnant,
they lived in Nazareth. And the Lord caused Caesar to
tax the world so everybody would have to go back to their hometown
to be taxed. And David, Joseph, and Mary went to Bethlehem to
have the Lord Jesus Christ. And David is in this cave and
he expresses this longing, Oh, that I had a drink from the well
of Bethlehem. Now I can certainly see this
being the believers longing for the water of life. The Lord said,
if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. But here we
have David having this longing. And he expressed it. Everybody
heard him. Oh, that I had a drink from the well of water that comes
from Bethlehem. And when he expressed this, these
three men heard it and they did something crazy. They did something
crazy. They broke through this bunch
of Philistines who were in Bethlehem just for a drink of water for
David. Now that's crazy, isn't it? They put their lives at risk
just to get him a drink of water. David shouldn't have expressed
this to them because these men were so loyal to him that they
were willing to put everything on the line. They put their lives
on the line just to get David a drink of water. Now, this seems reckless, doesn't
it? Reckless. But such was their
love to David. Now, I was thinking about this,
and I was thinking about this and the sermon for this morning
after this. I don't know that I know anything
about this. What they did, they did solely
for Him. And they were reckless about
what they did. They put their lives in jeopardy.
They made themselves vulnerable to all kinds of things just because
of their love for David and their desire to give David a drink
of water. Now, what I thought about was
the woman with the alabaster box of ointment. Remember, it
was very costly. It was worth a working man's
year's worth of wages. And she took that box out of
the impulse of her heart. She loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
And she thought, I want to anoint Him. And she went and got that
box and broke it and poured it on the Master's feet. She did
this out of the impulse of a loving heart. And she was criticized
for it. Shouldn't this have been sold
and used the money to give to the poor? She was criticized
for it by the disciples, too. You know, that reminds me of
us. You know, I'll see you do something. I'll criticize you
for it. You know, I've been trying to make myself feel better about
myself. You know, that's what we do. That's why we criticize.
When we criticize somebody, it's in order to make our own light
shine a little brighter in our own eyes at any rate. It doesn't
work, but that's what we do. The disciples criticized of her,
criticized her. And the Lord's reply was, Let
her alone. She's done a good work on me. That's the point. She's done
a good work on me. You'll always have the poor.
You can help them anytime you want, but I'm not always here.
She hath done what she could. She hath performed a good work
on me. And do you know this is the only work that the Lord ever
calls a good work? I'm sure there are other works
that were good, but this is the one he calls a good work. What this
woman did simply for him. Now, I don't know how much I
know about this. I'm afraid I don't know what
I know about it. Nothing. Nothing. doing something simply
out of love for Christ with no care about trying to show anybody
anything or demonstrate anything to anybody or leave people a
good example. These men did what they did out
of the impulse of a loving heart for David. Now I know I have
a tendency to think about whether something is my duty. or my responsibility, or whether
I'm obligated to do it, or if other people do it. These men did no such thing.
You see what they were doing? They weren't doing this to give
anybody a good example or to show anybody anything. They were
doing this simply out of love for David. No other reason. Now, wouldn't you agree that
this is the highest and most sublime of all motives? They
did what they did out of love for David. They may have been
criticized for the foolishness of it, but they were not doing
this to get a reaction from anybody. They were doing this solely for
him. This extravagant, crazy, wild
thing. Breaking through an army in order
to just get a Glass of water. What they did put them at great
risk. For what? A drink of water. This seems so unnecessary. But
yet God the Holy Spirit has this recorded as to what these men
did out of love for David to show us. I hope this stirs us
up out of love to Christ. Oh, I admire this. Look in chapter
24. This shows you David's attitude. Verse 20. And Arunah looked and saw the
king and servants coming on toward him. And Arunah went out and
bowed himself unto the king on his face upon the ground. And
Arunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant?
And David said, To buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar
unto the Lord, that the plague may be stayed from his people."
Now it's interesting. This is where the temple was. This is
Mount Moriah, this same place. He said, I want to buy this threshing
floor. And Arunah said unto David, let my lord the king take and
offer up what seemeth good unto him. Behold, here be oxen for
burnt sacrifice and threshing instruments and other instruments
of the oxen for wood. All these things did Arunah as
a king and gave unto the king. And Arunah said unto the king,
the Lord thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Arunah,
nay. but I will surely buy it of thee at a price, neither will
I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which
doth cost me nothing. You and I was thinking about
this. Now, I know that this represents the sacrifice of Christ, and
that's why the plague was staved. We're going to get into that
next week, what took place in chapter 24. But David said, no,
I'm not going to take that free at your hand. I'm not going to
offer unto the Lord that which cost me nothing. And I wonder
if I have ever given like that, where it's actually cost me something. I'm not sure that I have. Matter
of fact, I know I haven't. I know I haven't. And these men,
at great cost to themselves, out of love for David, did this
very extravagant thing. I hope and I pray that the Lord will give me grace
to do what I do out of love for him and thankfulness for the freeness
of his grace. I hope the thought of him electing
me before time began, setting his love upon me. When I was born, he didn't kill
me. He revealed Christ to me. He forgave all my sins, past,
present, and future. He made me righteous before God. He made me accepted in the beloved. Wouldn't you like to do what
you do, not to be seen, not to prove something to somebody,
but simply out of love to Him? One of the most moving things
that I've ever heard of, and this is a true story, there was
a young man who wanted to be a missionary, and his parents
were dead set against it. But he felt the call of God to
move to this land, wherever it was, to be a missionary. Three
weeks later, he was dead. He caught some kind of disease
that was native to that land, and he died. And his dad went
back to get his belongings and his remains. And in that young
man's Bible, he found a note that said, no reserve, no retreat, and no
regrets. Now, was that a wasted life?
Of course not. Of course not. Would to God that
that would be the way you and I serve the Lord with no reserve,
no retreats, and no regrets. These men did what they did out
of the impulse of a loving heart that made them put themselves
at risk just to get David a drink of water. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Now when they brought David this
water, what did he do? He wouldn't take it. He wouldn't
take it. I imagine he probably felt guilty.
And probably he should have felt guilty. He probably felt guilty
for putting these men, putting their life at risk for this desire
he had. Maybe he was thinking he shouldn't
have expressed it in the first place. Maybe he shouldn't have,
but he did. And they gave him that water and he poured it out
unto the Lord. And he said, I'm not gonna drink
this water where these men put their lives in jeopardy for my
sake. Second Corinthians chapter five. Verse 13, For whether we be beside ourselves,
you know what that means? Even if we appear crazy and people
think, you're insane, that's mad, that's ridiculous, that's
extravagant. Whether we be beside ourselves
and seem like fanatics, it's to God Or whether we be
sober, clear thinking, logical, not the opposite of beside ourselves. Or whether we be sober, it's
for your cause, for the love of Christ constraineth us. Now, he's not talking about my
love to Christ. You know, if I think of my love to Christ,
all I feel is ashamed. that I don't love Him more than
I do. And the best thing to do when
you start thinking about your love to Christ is you just quit
thinking about it and think about Christ Himself. When you start
thinking about your love, it doesn't seem very good, does
it? But when you think of Him, His glory, His majesty, His meekness,
His humility, His power, His sovereignty, all of His glorious
attributes, you think of Him, that's when your heart is in
playing with love to Him. He says the love of Christ constraineth
us and He's not talking about our love to Him. He's talking
about His love to me. The love of Christ, His love
to me, His saving love to me, His powerful love to me. I don't understand it. One of
my favorite lines in the hymns that we sing is, I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could
love me, a sinner condemned, unclean. And I stand amazed right
now to think that He could love me. The love of Christ constrains
us, presses on us, because we thus judge that if one died for
all, then we're all dead. I think it's interesting that
people use this verse to try to teach universal redemption. See,
that proves he died for all. Well, he died for all he died
for. He did. He died for all of his people. He died for all
the elect. He died for the whole. He did
die for all. Everybody he died for, he died for. For the love of Christ constrains
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. If he died to me, I'm dead. I'm
dead. The law has nothing to say to
me. I'm dead. Verse 15, and that he died for
all that they which live. Who lives? Everybody he died
for. Everybody he died for. And that he died for all that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. Now may God give us the
grace to be like these men. Don't you want to be like this?
From the impulse of a loving heart. I tell you, like I said,
I've never done anything like this. I've never put myself at
risk. I've never Just haven't done it. You know,
I was talking to Lynn on the phone over here. I said, I feel
totally unqualified to talk about what I'm going to talk about
this morning. I'm going to talk here in a minute about Lord crying,
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What do I know about
that? I feel like a beast even trying to talk about it because
I have such little understanding, but it's revealed in Scripture
when I see this. And I think of that woman with
the alabaster box of ointment. I want to be... I feel like a
hypocrite for saying that, but I want to be that person. And
I know every believer, every believer wants to be that person. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would give
us the grace, and Lord, it's only a gift of your grace, that
you would cause us to love the Son of David, the Lord Jesus
Christ, your only begotten and well-beloved Son. Lord, give
us the grace that we would love Him to the point where we would
break through the wall of the Philistines and put ourselves
at risk for His sake, being constrained by His amazing,
saving, giving love to us. Bless us with
this love to Him. And Lord, give us grace to not
look at our love, but at His love. Lord, grant us faith in Thy beloved
Son. We pray for Your presence in
the worship service this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.