Think of how when he was just
a boy and all of his other brothers were rejected and God calls for
him to be brought in and Samuel the prophet said, rise, this
is he, the Lord's anointed. And he was anointed by Samuel
as God's king. He had been enabled by God to
supernaturally kill with his bare hands, a lion and a bear. And you want to talk about miraculous.
He said, I grabbed the lion by the beard and I smote him. He was given a lot of assurance
that the Lord watched over him. Look what he said when he slew
Goliath in first Samuel chapter 17, beginning in verse 42. And when the Philistine looked
about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth,
and ruddy, and of a fair countenance." He was a pretty boy. And the
Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to
me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David
by his gods. And the Philistine said to David,
Come to me, and I'll give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air
and the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine,
Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts. the God
of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied, this day will
the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee,
and take thy head from thee, and I'll give the carcass of
the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air,
and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may
know that there is a God in Israel, and all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword nor spear, for the battle
is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." Look at
the faith he displayed at this time and the way the Lord used
him. Turn over to 1 Samuel chapter
20. This is the covenant that he made with Jonathan. And we
read, beginning in verse 14, look what Jonathan says. He says
to David, and thou shalt not only while I yet live, show me
the kindness of the Lord that I die not, but also thou shalt
not cut off thy kindness from my house forever. No, not when
the Lord had cut off the enemies of David, everyone from the face
of the earth. You see the assurance he was
given. He would have no enemies. The Lord was going to protect
him. Look what Saul said about him in first Samuel 24. This
is after he spared Saul's life. Beginning in verse 20, Saul says, And now, behold, I
know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom
of Israel shall be established in thine hand. He was giving
this assurance. Look in chapter 26, verse 25.
This is Saul again. Then said Saul to David, blessed
be thou my son, David, thou shalt both do great things and thou
shalt prevail. So David went on his way and
Saul returned to his place. Now he was given all this assurance
of the Lord's favor and the Lord's protection. We even read in the
scriptures several times of the sure mercies of David. Sure. So where does this come from
in chapter 27 verse one? And David said in his heart,
I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. After all this
assurance of God's favor, after these supernatural deliverances,
here he says, I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul. There's nothing better for me
than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines,
God's enemies. And Saul shall despair of me.
to seek me any more than any coast of Israel shall I escape
out of his hand." Now, where does this come from? Do I really
have to ask? Do I really have to ask? How
many times have you and I done this? How many times have we
duplicated this? After such assurances from the
Lord, yet such strong statements of unbelief. So instead of seeking
the Lord, he came up with a plan. I'll leave Israel and I'll go
into hiding into the land of the Philistines. Good verse two.
And David arose and he passed over with him 600 men that were
with him into Achish, the son of Maok, king of Gath. And David
dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his
household, even David with two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitus
and Abigail the Carmelitus, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that
David was fled to Gath in the land of the Philistines and he
sought no more again for him. And David, verse five, said unto
Achish, if I've now found grace in thy eyes, let Then give me
a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there, for why
should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish
gave him Ziklag that day, wherefore Ziklag pertained unto the kings
of Judah unto this day. And the time that David dwelt
in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months."
Now think of this, he was in this position away from Israel. in a compromised position with
the Philistines for 16 long months, all because of this unbelief
and look at his, um, what he did. And, you know, whenever
unbelief overcomes us as it did David, we can sort to the wisdom
of the flesh like he did, but look what he did in verse eight.
And David and his men went up and invaded the Gesherites and
the Gezerites and the Amalekites. For those nations were of old
the inhabitants of the land as thou goest to sure, even under
the land of Egypt. And David smote the land and left neither
man nor woman alive and took away the sheep and the oxen and
the asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and
came to Achish. And Achish said, Whither have you made a road
today? And David said, Against the south of Judah. He lied.
He lied. He said, I went into Judah and
got this stuff. He killed everybody. So there
wouldn't be anyone to say where it actually came from. And he
said, I got this stuff out of the land of Judah. against the
south of the Geromites and against the south of Canaanites. And
David saved neither man or woman alive to bring tidings to Gath,
saying, lest they should tell us on saying, so did David, and
so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country
of the Philistines. And Achish believed David, saying, he hath
made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he'll
be my servant forever." Now, because he didn't attack Israel,
but he said he did. He told the king he did and the
king thought, well, he's the Israelites are going to despise
him and he's going to be my servant forever. I can trust this man.
He's going to be my servant. Look in chapter 29 now. Now the Philistines, David is
still with them. Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies
to Aphek and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel.
And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by
thousands. But David and his man passed on the rearward with
Akish. He was still with the Philistines.
Then said the princes of the Philistines, what do these Hebrews
hear? And Akish said unto the princes of the Philistines, is
not this David the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, which
hath been with me these days of these years? And I've found
no fault in him since he fell unto me this day. And the princes
of the Philistines was wroth with him, this king of Kish.
And the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow
return, that he may go again to his place, which thou hast
appointed him. And let him not go down with us to the battle,
lest in the battle he be an adversary to us. For wherewith should he
reconcile himself unto his master? Should it not be with the heads
of these men? Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another,
and danced, saying, Saul slew his thousands, but David his
tens thousands? These other kings of the Philistines didn't trust
David. And they said, you can't have
him go down to battle. He might turn on us. Now, David was in
a position right now where he might have actually had to go
fight Israel with the kings. Now, would he have done it? Would
he have done it? Well, that'd be a horrible thing,
wouldn't it? Would he have done it? You know, I don't know. I
don't know. Maybe. But the Lord mercifully
preserved him by putting this paranoia, if you want to call
it that, or this lack of trust with the kings of the Philistines.
They said, we can't trust him. Why? He'll turn on us. We can't
trust him. So the Lord prevented him from being able to go to
the battle. Aren't you thankful when the
Lord prevents you from sinning against him? If you don't, it's
because the Lord prevented you, isn't it? You know that and the
Lord mercifully prevents David from committing this sin. And
that's when the king of Achish tells him to go back to Ziklag.
Now there's a three day journey back to Ziklag and beginning
in verse one of chapter 30. And it came to pass. When David
and his men were come to Ziklag, he'd been delivered from fighting
against Israel, and he was going back to his town on the third
day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten
Ziklag and burned it with fire. That's the town that King Achish
had given David and his 600 men to live. And they'd taken the
women captives, and there were therein, they slew not any, either
great or small, but they carried them away and went on their way. Now, when David returns to Ziklag,
he finds that his wife, his children, his wives, his children, and
everything they had, had been carried away captive by the Amalekites. Now, the Amalekites have a great
typical significance in the scripture. You remember in Exodus chapter
17, the first battle the children of Israel ever had after they
left the promised land was with the Amalekites. And the Amalekites
represent the flesh. You're going to start having
trouble with your flesh after the Lord saves you. That's when you
start finding out what the flesh really is. And remember, God
determined that they would battle against the Amalekites forever. But here the Amalekites come
and they take everything that David has. As a matter of fact,
if you go and read back in Samuel, 1 Samuel 15, you remember when
Saul refused to kill all the Amalekites and he saved Agag,
the king of the Amalekites, and kept the best sheep when God
told him to destroy them all. And God took away the kingship
from Saul because of that. Now these Amalekites have invaded
Ziklag and taking everything that David had. Verse 3, verse
7 to 30. 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. Now put
yourself in their place. What if your whole family had
been carried away? by a bunch of wicked people like
the Amalekites. And you don't know what's happening
to them. You don't know if they're being abused or how they're being
treated. Can you imagine how heartbroken
and stressed you would be in a situation like that? Well,
what's it? So David and his men, verse three,
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. They were
so distraught over this. And David's two wives were taken
captives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelites, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal,
the Carmelites, and David. was greatly distressed for the
people spake of stoning him. They were so upset. This is David's
fault. We've lost our wives. We've lost
our children because of David's indiscretions and because of
David's compromise. Let's stone him. He deserves
to be stoned. David had everybody against him.
Oh, he was greatly distressed. And all of his 600 men were turned
against him. Because every man was grieved,
every man for his sons and for his daughters. But then David
did something that only a believer can do. David encouraged himself
in the Lord. Now, why didn't he do it in chapter
27? When he said, I shall now one day perish by the hand of
Saul. Why didn't he do it then? I can answer that question. Because
the only time you'll encourage yourself in the Lord is when
he enables you to do it. That's why. If he doesn't enable
you, if he doesn't enable me, we'll be just like David. We'll
make all these fleshly plans and carnal schemes to get ourselves
out of the trouble we're in. But now when the Lord enables
him, David encourages himself in the Lord. He didn't have anything
else to be encouraged about, did he? Everybody was against
him. He was against himself. He had suffered great loss, but
now he encourages himself in the Lord, his God. Now, Beloved,
as long as salvation is in Christ, and I wish I could describe or
speak sufficiently how that salvation, all of God's salvation, is utterly
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was manifested to take away
our sins and in Him, in Him, is no sin. He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. Salvation's not in you. It's
not in your plans. It's not in your schemes. It's
not in your works. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. As long as God is, as long as
He is ruling and reigning in absolute and uncontested sovereignty,
as long as he's all-powerful, as long as he's good, as long
as he's just, as long as God is all-wise, as long as salvation
is by grace, as long as there's saving efficacy in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as long as God is gracious and as
long as God is merciful, there's reason to be encouraged. I don't
care how bad everything is. There's reason for encouragement
in the Lord. If this is all you have to be
encouraged by, do you need anything else? David encouraged himself
in the Lord, his God. Verse seven. Now David said what
he should have said all along or did what he should have done
all along. And David said to Abathar the priest, Ahimelech's
son, I pray thee bring me the ephod. And Abathar brought thither
the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord.
He didn't speak in his own heart. He inquired at the Lord saying,
shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he,
the Lord answered, pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them. And without fail, recover all. Now, this is precisely what the father
said to the son. He said, you go, you pursue,
you rescue them. You will, without fail, recover
all. And that is why our Lord came
to this earth, to without fail, recover all. Do you know that
the Bible knows nothing of an unsuccessful Christ? That's foreign
to the scriptures. He is to come and without fail,
recover all. Scripture says he shall not fail
nor be discouraged. He said, I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which
he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. Now, because he's not going to
fail, we're not discouraged, are we? I don't mind the term
limited atonement, but there are words I like better referring
to the successful redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like
definite atonement as opposed to indefinite. I like successful
as opposed to unsuccessful. Every man, woman, boy and girl
that was captured would be recovered. Every one of them. You see, there
won't be anybody in hell that Christ died for. You know that? He shall without fail recover
all. Verse 9, 1 Samuel chapter 30. So David went, he and the 600
men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those
that were left behind stayed. But David pursued. Now, there
were some who couldn't, they'd been traveling three days, they
were tired, they were worn out. And evidently this brook had
a current and they were too weak to get across. So they stayed
behind. So David just took 400 of the
men to pursue. Verse 10, but David pursued he
and 400 men for 200 abode behind, which were so faint that they
could not go over the brook Besor. Now after they got over the brook,
verse 11, and they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him
to David and gave him bread and he did eat and they made him
drink water and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and
two clusters of raisins and when he'd eaten his spirit came again
to him for he'd eaten no bread nor drunk any water three days
and three nights. when he had been with the Amalekites,
when they had invaded Ziklag. And David said unto him, to whom
belongest thou? And whence art thou? And he said, I'm a young
man of Egypt, servant to Amalekites, and my master left me, because
three days ago I fell sick. We'd made an invasion upon the
south of the Charites and upon the coast, which belongs to Judah,
and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire. Now, I love seeing God's providence
here. Here was a young man that was
a servant to the Amalekites, and he became sick. And his cruel
master just left him alone to die. He didn't care a thing about
him. We've got all these goods, we're
going to go on. He just left him alone to die.
And that fellow didn't know that he was feeling his own destruction
by doing that. You see, this is the man that
was going to betray them and lead David to them. So he had
ill intention, just let him die. He didn't care. But the Lord
caused this man to be sick. The Lord moved this man to leave
him alone in his cruelty. He was in control of that because
the Lord intended for David and his men to find all of these
Amalekites and deliver everyone whom they had captured. So he's
left there sick, and you see the adorable providence of God,
verse 15. And David said to him, canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swearing to me by
God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me in the hands
of my master, and I'll bring thee down to this company. And
when he brought him down, behold, so he brought them to where the
Amalekites were, verse 16. And when he had brought them
down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating
and drinking and dancing. They were having a party because
of all the great spoil they'd taken out of the land of the
Philistines and out of the land of Judah. Oh, they were so happy. And David smote them from the
twilight even unto the even of the next day. And there escaped
not a man of them, say 400 young men, which rode upon camels and
fled." Now there was some smiting going on. There was some supernatural
smiting going on. Now there were only 400 men here.
And yet they destroyed this entire army. David and his 400 men.
And we know of another place where there was some smiting
going on in the dark. Awake, O sword, smite the shepherd
and the sheep will be scattered. This is when Christ was made
sin as the sinner substitute. But you know, he was not the
only one who was smitten at this time. This is also the fulfillment
of the ancient prophecy of Genesis chapter three, when it says the
seed of woman shall crush the serpent's head. This is all going
on in the dark, just as God said it would. Victory, you shall
without doubt recover all. Did you notice, though, how 400
men escaped? And how many men fought? 400.
Do you know what this is a reminder
to us of? These 400 Amalekites escaped. You're gonna be dealing
with the Amalekites till you die. And you are. You're gonna be dealing with
them until you die. We're gonna deal with our flesh
until we die. And God in his wisdom could have made it to
where we didn't have to deal with this anymore. He could have
made it to where you don't have to deal with your sin anymore,
your unbelief anymore. But I know this, I don't use
this as an excuse for sin, the fact that God's left me with
my flesh. That's not an excuse for sin. But also know this,
I'm made to realize even now, The only way I'm saved is by
his righteousness. And I still have these Amalekites
that escaped away on camels. Now back, look in verse 18. 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 had been taken
to them. David recovered all. And David took all the flocks
and the herds which they draved before those other cattle and
said, this is David's spoil. Now this is just like God said
it would be. He said, without doubt, you'll surely recover
all. And this shows us the completeness
of his salvation. Now, even though those Amalekites
escaped, there's still nothing lacking, is there? Nothing lacking. You know why? Because you are
complete. I say this to every believer,
I don't care how you feel, I don't care how you think, I don't care
what your attitude is. If you're in Christ, you are complete in
Him and there's absolutely nothing lacking with you. You are perfect
before God. Now, I realize the Amalekites
make it to where you can't see that you're perfect before God.
It's something you're going to have to take by faith, isn't
it? There is absolutely nothing lacking. Verse 20 points out that they
actually had more after the recovery than they did before. He took
all those flocks and herds, which the Amalekites had stolen from
all these other countries and brought them back to Ziklag.
And they actually had much more afterwards than they did before. Now, what that makes me think
of, Adam, before the fall, had some sort of human righteousness.
He was created upright. He did not sin before the fall. The believer has Christ's righteousness,
which one is better before the fall. Adam had an
innocent nature. That's a good thing. But after
the fall, you know what happened to him, but the believer doesn't
have a innocent nature. A believer has a divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature,
the new birth. Oh, we have much more than we
did before the fall, before we were raided by the Amalekites
and carried off. Adam was subject to fall. He did. But a believer can't. He can't
fall away. Oh, he can fall. He does fall.
The righteous fall seven times. That means that's all he does.
But a believer cannot fall away because he's preserved by God. Adam knew nothing of the joy
of forgiveness. He knew nothing of the joy of
free grace. He knew nothing of being accepted
in the beloved. Truly we have received of the
Lord's hand double for all our sins. Oh, they had more after
this glorious deliverance. Now let's go on reading. The
story is not over. And David came to the 200 men.
Remember those fellows that were so weak and so faint that they
couldn't ford the brook and they were just left behind. They didn't
share in this battle. They just left behind. They didn't
fight the fight. They didn't do anything. They
were just left behind because they were too weak. They knew
that. They were too weak. They couldn't do anything. And
David came to the 200 men, which were so faint that they could
not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook
Besor. And they went forth to meet David
and to meet the people that were with him. And when David came
near to the people, he saluted them. He treated them
with kindness and respect and love. That's the way our Lord treats
us. He came near. Oh, he draws near to that one
who is so faint. He draws near. And with kindness
and respect. He saluted them. Verse 22. Then answered. All how many all. All the wicked men and the men
of Belial, sons of wickedness, every one of them, then answered
all the wicked men. This was their uniform thought. of those that went with David,
and said, because they went not with us, we'll not give them
out of the spoil that we've recovered, save to every man his wife and
his children, that they may leave them away and depart. Now these,
all the wicked men, every one of them without exception, said,
we did a lot more than these fellows. We're the ones that
worked, we're the ones that fought, we put our neck on the line, they
get nothing, we'll give them back their wives and children,
but we're not gonna give many the spoil, because we did all
the work. You know, wicked men always hate
grace. All of them. They always hate
grace. Without exception. They're like
those 12 hour workers. We did more than the one hour
workers. We should get more. And look at their complete lack
of love for their brethren. They didn't care about these
guys at all. We're not going to give them anything. They didn't
do anything. And that is the wicked man's Attitude. What's
this tell you about rewards in heaven? That these fellows who
get higher rewards in heaven because we did more, we ought
to get more. That's the attitude of the wicked men, according
to the scripture. Wicked men. All the wicked men wanted this.
But look how David responded to this. Then said David, you shall not
do so, my brethren." It's not going to happen with that which
the Lord hath given us and hath preserved us and delivered the
company that came against us into our hand. Now, David uses
three words to describe what the Lord has done. He said, first
of all, You think about what the Lord has given us. We've got this spoil, we've got
this deliverance, it's what the Lord has given us. Now don't
you know, if you're saved, don't you know everything you have
is what the Lord has freely given you? Don't you know that? Who
makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you
didn't receive. Everything, the forgiveness of
sins, the faith you have, the repentance you have, the love
you have for Christ, the love you have for your brethren, anything
you have, doesn't matter what it is, He was giving you. As
a matter of fact, everything you have was given you in Christ
Jesus before the world began. So you obviously didn't have
anything to do with it as far as your works. He saved us, He called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace. which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Now, whatever you have by way
of salvation, it's what he gave you, isn't it? He gave you. And
the next word he uses, the Lord hath preserved us. The Lord hath
preserved us. Right now, do you look to Christ as everything
in your salvation? then the Lord has preserved you. The reason you're doing that
is because of the preserving work of Christ. Now unto Him
that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before His presence with exceeding joy. Aren't you thankful for
preserving grace? Kept! Kept! by the power of God through faith
unto salvation. And you think you deserve a higher
reward than somebody. All you have, he's given you. And the only reason you believe
now is because he's preserved you. And you know that. And the
third word he uses, he hath delivered us. He hath saved us. us. He did this and you want
these 200 men that were so faint to not get anything when the
Lord has blessed you like this? Salvation is of the Lord and
He did it all. Now he says in verse 24, who
will hearken unto you in this matter? Who's going to listen
to this foolishness? Who's going to believe like this? Not me.
Not anybody that believes grace. For who will hearken unto you
in this matter? But as his part is that goeth down to the battle,
so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff. They shall all
part alike. And it was so from that day forward
that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto
this day. And I love this. Every believer is saved the same
way, by the same grace, and they get the same reward. You know
what that reward is? It's Christ himself. He said,
I am by exceeding great reward. What could you add to him to
make it better? It's impossible, isn't it? David's spoils. Everybody gets
the same thing. Now, David is a type of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You know that Christ is called
the son of David. And he's the one of whom the
Lord sent him to come down and to without doubt recover all. He must be successful in all
he does. I love to think about a successful
savior, don't you? You know, the thief understood that Christ
must be successful, didn't he? He had no concept of a redeemer
who'd come down and make an attempt to do something and fail. Nothing
of it. He said, remember me. I know
you're not going to stay nailed to that cross, but you're going
to come back as a mighty reigning ruling king. Remember me when
you come into your kingdom. You know what the Lord said to
him? Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. May the Lord enable us to be
like these. I want to be one of the ones
battling. I do. You do too. But I also
want to be one of these fellows who just are totally dependent
upon him to win the battle for him and give us the spoils because
of his grace. These are David's spoils. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for the son of David, David's
son and David's Lord.