I miss you all. I feel like it's
been forever, so. If you would, turn to 1 Samuel
chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. The title of the message this morning is
Dated, Recovered, All. Let's read the first few verses
here, and we'll look at the context. 1 Samuel 30, and pick up in verse
1. And it came to pass, when David
and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites
had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and spit in Ziklag, and burned
it with fire, and had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew nine, 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 captive. Then David and the people
that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they
had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken
captive. Say, you know them? The gentle wife of St. Abigail,
the wife of Mabel, the Carmel. Now, I don't venture to guess
that I just read what is likely the worst temporal fear of every
man in this room. And I want you to try to put
yourself in this position, let's say you left home on business,
things like that, you're gone for a while, and you come back
into town, and you find a place with smoke building up. And you
drive up to your house, and it's gonna burn down everything you
own, all your possessions. They are gone. You've been spoiled.
And that is the least of your concerns, to the very least.
The concern of this is that your family, your wife, your children,
your spouse, they are gone. They have been taken by your
enemy. They will likely be abused so your enemy can get back at
you. And you don't know where they're at. Everything you loved,
everything you cherished, everything you held dear was in utter ruin. That's a bad day. How'd he get
there? When you read the preceding chapters,
what you find is that David had been relentlessly pursued by
Saul. Saul was jealous of David, so
he pursued him time and time again. The Lord would deliver
David out of Saul's hands. He'd get close, but the Lord
would deliver him every single time. Several times, Saul was
delivering in David's hand. David could have killed him on
a handful of occasions, but David said, I won't. I won't raise
my hand to God no more, and I won't do that. You get all the way
to chapter 27, and here's what happens. David finally has had
enough, and he forgets. He forgets all those times the
Lord delivered him. He forgets all the promises of
him being king, and things like that, and he doesn't inquire
of the Lord. He just gets fed up and says,
I'm gonna go my own way. And so he defects. He leaves
Israel, he leaves Judah, and he says, I'm gonna align myself
with the Philistines. He figures Saul won't pursue
me. The Philistines are the enemy of Israel. all joined up with
them, he will want to ignite a war with the Philistines, and
so I'll be safe there. And so he goes, and the Philistines
receive him for some time. They even give him this city,
Ziklag, for him and 600 men to dwell on. And after a while,
they say, now, we can't trust him. We can't trust him. If we
go to war with Judah, he may take back up with him, so we've
got to send him away. So him and his men go away. Once again,
what are we going to do? and they come back to this utter
ruin. And if you think things can't
get any worse, look at verse six. And David was greatly distressed
for the people's sake of stoning him, because the soul of all
the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his
daughters. Yeah, things get worse. Now his
men, his 600, turn on him and they say, we're gonna kill him.
Why? They blamed David, and the record
looks up. David was to blame. David defected, he did not inquire
of the Lord. David did not believe God. And in this moment, David's
figuring out that's the case. Yes, I am in fact to blame. All
this ruin, all this destruction, this is all my fault. But look what he does, look again
at verse six. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. In the midst of all that ruin,
In the midst of all that blame that he rightfully bore, he had
kindled this fire at his feet, and he says, he encouraged himself
to the Lord his God. And we do that, don't we? We set fires at our own feet.
We make a mess of things. We always have reason to be encouraged
in our Lord. Why? Because as long as he sits
on that throne, ruling and reigning over all things, which he does,
As long as he continually brings good out of evil, which he always
does, as long as his mercies are sure to his people and new
every single day, for Christ's sake, not for any reason in me,
not looking for a reason in me, but for Christ's sake, they're
new every day, which they are. As long as all those things are
true, as long as the blood of Christ delivers us from every
sin, and makes us holy and unblamable, unapprovable before God. No matter
what circumstances, no matter what fire we kindle at our own
feet, we have every reason to be encouraged in the Lord, and
Dave was. And David said to Abathur, the
priest, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abathur
brought hither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord
saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered him, pursue,
for thou shalt, don't miss this, surely overtake them. And without
fail, recovered all. David did what David should have
done in the first place. He inquired of the Lord. He had a pulse for
the ephod. This is the breastplate of the
priest, the garment of the intercessor. He says, shall I pursue? And
the Lord makes his promise to him. He says, go pursue. Without fail, you're going to
recover everything that's been lost. All your flocks, all your
herds, all your wives, all your children, you're going to go
get every single one of them. Not a one of them is going to
be lost. What a promise. A beautiful promise. But look
what happens when to verse nine. So David went, he and his 600
men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those
that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and 400
men, for 200 bowed behind, which were so faint that they could
not go over the brook Besor. So David takes off with his 600.
They have the promise of God. You're gonna recover everything,
David. Everything you lost, you're gonna go get it, and nothing's
gonna be left behind. And they have that promise, and
they go on, and they get this little lake, this little brook,
this little river. And 200 of these men say, Dave,
we can't do it. We're too weak. We're too feeble. We can't ford this river. We
can't arch on anymore. We can't do it. We need you to
go recover everything for us and bring us back. We can't be
part and parcel of this. We've got no strength. Now, you
think about this. That's 200 men out of 600. How
do you think the 400 reacted to that? What were they saying to each
other as they left those 200 back at the riverbank? Cows? Weaklings? Their wives and children
that they can't muster the strength to get over Little Brook? What's
their problem? Will they expect us to fight
for them and bring everything back to them? Certainly, that was
the conversation of the day. And that will play into the story
later on. But first, when you first arrived. And they found an Egyptian in
the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread that
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 had eaten, his spirit
came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any
water three days and three nights. And David said unto him, To whom
belongest thou, and whence art thou? He said, I am a young man
of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because
three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion upon the
south of the Chetroites, and upon the coast which belonged
to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag
with fire. And David said to him, canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swear unto me by
God that the devil will neither kill me, nor deliver me into
the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company. Consider the cruelty of this
master. This is Malachi. He's got his servant. They're
leaving after the fire of Ziklag. And he's marching along, and
all of a sudden, he falls sick. He falls ill, drops down to the
ground. The master says, get up. He says, I can't get up.
I can't go any further. Fine, leave him for dead. This master
had absolutely no love for his servant. But the feeling was
mutual, wasn't it? That servant didn't want nothing to do with
that master. He said, I'll take you wherever you want to go.
I'll show you this band. I don't mind at all, right? Just don't
give me back my master. Don't kill me. Don't give me
back my master. I don't want to go back to him.
There was no love from the master to the servant, and no love from
the servant to the master. But consider the graciousness
and the mercy of David, This young man confesses to him, we
just came from a little city called Ziklag, and we burned
it with fire. Took all the women and children, took them all away.
He has absolutely no idea who he's talking to. He has no idea
that he is talking to the man whose city that is, who that
whore took his two wives. He has absolutely no idea who
he's talking to, but what does David do? He nurses him back
to health. And he sets him free. If you were run through the sword,
would anybody have had a problem with it? Meaning, what mercy,
how gracious is David? Verse 16. And when he brought them down,
behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth. These are
the Amalekites, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the
great spoil they had taken out of the land of the Philistines
and out of the land of Judah. And David smoked them from the
twilight, even into the evening of the next day. And there escaped
not a man of them, save 400 young men which rode upon camels and
fled. 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 they had taken of them. David
recovered all. all, and David took all the flocks,
and the herds which they drave before those other cattle, and
said, this is David's spoil. David recovered all, everything
that was lost. And notice that, the spoil, the
spoil of the Philistines, everything they had, he took it, and David
had the choice's spoil. Verse 21. were going back to
the Brook Beasel. And David came to the two hundred
men, which were so faint that they could not follow David,
whom they had made also to abide at the Brook Beasel. 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. What do you think these men were
expecting? They're back there at the brook. They said, Dave,
we can't do it. We can't be part and parcel of
this. You've got to recover all for
us. And they see him coming back. Some of those guys think he's
going to be mad, right? He's going to berate us, call us weaklings.
They're the best we can hope for. Maybe get our families back
and just be exiled. But what did Dave do to these weaklings?
He shows respect. He salutes them. What an amazing
thing. Look at verse 22. Then answered
all the wicked men, the men of Belial, these are the four hundred,
of those that went up with David and said, Because they went not
with us, we will not give them aught of the spoil that we have
recovered, save that every man his wife and his children, that
they may lead them away and depart. Then said David, ye shall not
do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us,
who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against
us into our land. For who will hearken unto you
in this matter? But as his part is to go with them to the battle,
so shall his part be that it tarry by the south. They shall
part alike. And it was so from that day forward
that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto
this very day. These 400 men, these strong men,
these capable men, what are they so mad about? They hated grace. They hated the idea that a man
who didn't earn anything, who was too weak, who is too feeble,
would be given the same thing as them, that are thinking of
themselves so strong, so capable. You know who hates grace? People
who don't need it. You know who loves grace? People
who need it. Now, in every Old Testament story,
after we read it, we always have to ask the same question. Where's
the gospel in the letter? Where is Christ in all this? The story picks up with Ziklag
being attacked. It was attacked by a band of
people known as the Amalekites, and that is so important. Who
are the Amalekites? Well, in the scripture, in spiritual
matters, what they represent is this. They represent flesh. This is what Galatians 5, 17
says, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary to one to the other, so that
you cannot do the things that you would. The flesh, that old,
sinful, wicked, dead nature, dead in trespasses and sins,
that every man is born with. The Amalekites represent the
flesh. And I find this interesting.
When did the Amalekites attack? Do you remember? Look at verse
1 again. And it came to pass when David
and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites
invaded. It was on the third day that
the Amalekites attacked. What's the significance of that?
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He died. He was put to the earth. Three
days later, his father raised him from the dead. Why? Romans
4.25 says, He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again
for our justification, or rather because of justification. He
went to that cross, bearing the sins of all His people. He was
put down into that earth, and in three days He emerged victorious,
alive, resurrected, and all His people in Him. And the reason
that was done is because He's a just God. Because he did what
he came to do, because he put away all the sins of all his
people, he had to be raised from the dead. And here's my point.
This is when the Amalekites attack. This is when the flesh attacks.
When this resurrected Christ becomes all your hope. When you
don't have anything but this, this is my hope, this is all
I've got. This isn't overly simplified, this is really it. My hope is
that Christ came and He kept the law for me and I kept it
in Him. My hope is that He was made my sins. I died on that
cross with Him. When He died, I died. That's
where I was punished. And when He was raised again
because of justification, because the just God had to raise Him
from the dead, I was raised again in Him. That is all I've got. And that's all you've got. You
know what that means? It means you have the Spirit. There is
a new man dwelling inside of you, a perfect man, a holy man,
a man who does not sin. The very Spirit of God dwelling
in you, the evidence of that is faith. That resurrected Christ
is everything you've got. And you know what? That's exactly
when the battle begins. That's when the flesh is going
to attack and the war inside the believer begins, once that
new man's there. If all you have is the old man,
there is no battle, there's nobody to fight. It's only when that
new man is given that the war happens inside of you, and it
rages on your entire life. I'll give you another example.
Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 17. You'll find this interesting.
When the children of Israel were delivered from Egyptian bondage,
who do you think the first tribal people was that attacked in the
New Orleans? It's the Amalekites. As soon as they were delivered
from bondage, the Amalekites attacked. And you guys know this
story real well, more than likely. The Amalekites attacked. Moses
goes to Joshua, and he says, you go down there, you go and
fight with me. Take the choices, man. You go on to the battle.
I'm going to go up on this hill with Aaron and Herb. I'm going
to view the battle. And he got up there, and he watched
the battle. Moses had the rod of God in his hand. And when
his hand was up in the air, Children of Israel prevailed. When his
hand fell down, the Amalekites prevailed. So what happened?
He gets tired, right? That arm's up. It's getting shaky.
Aaron and Herb come up, and then they put a rock underneath him.
Aaron gets on one side. Herb sits on the other, holds
his hands up just like that. The Amalekites, for that day,
were defeated. What does it tell us? Believe
you're going to have victory, because the victory is already
won. Christ already accomplished this victory, your sins have
been put away. Temporally they're here, but eternally they have
been put away by the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you are going to persevere to the very end. You're gonna win
this battle. What does winning this battle look like? Until
your very last breath, this is your hope, Jesus Christ after
me. That's it. And why are you going
to win that battle? Why are you going to persevere
to the very end? Because you're seated on a rock.
That rock, Christ Jesus. Because Aaron holds up your arm. Aaron, the priest. The intercessor. The priestly work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Him making intercession for you. You know what Herb means?
I never looked up that name before. It literally means a hole in
the earth. Because Christ died and he was put in that hole in
the earth and he was resurrected again. You're going to persevere
all the way to the end. You must. The very spirit of
God must strengthen you and hold you up. You're not going to persevere
because you're strong, because you're capable, because you're going
to muster it. You're going to persevere because you were bought
with a price. Because the price paid for you, therefore, he must
have you. And you're going to persevere all the way to the
end. It has nothing to do with our
strength. It has to do with his strength and what he's done and
what he's purchased. That's it. But look at this promise at the
end. Look at verse 13 in Vectors 17. says in Joshua discomforted Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said
unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. That's exactly what happened
at the cross. The sins of everybody Christ
died for, put out, gone, not to be remembered anymore. But
listen to this, verse 15. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi, for he said, because the
Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. You're going to have to fight
this battle your entire life. The flesh lusting against the
spirit, the spirit lusting against the flesh from generation to
generation, but one day, When you close these eyes for the
last time, that old man is going to die away. He's going to be
gone. And that new man, that perfect man in Christ Jesus,
he's going to live on. The victory is then. He was accomplished
at the cross, but we're still going to have to deal with it
this entire time, this flesh, this sin. Here's what that looks
like. Turn over the room. We have to
set up in front of it. The best way I can describe this
is this. What I'm about to read makes me feel like I'm home.
Let's see if you feel home when you read this. Romans 7, verse 17. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold on our sin. For that which I do, I'll
outmark. For what I would, that do I not,
but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent on the law that it is good. Now there is no more
either to do but sin that dwelleth in me, for I know that in me
that is in my flesh, that old man, dwelleth no other thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not.
There's no more I that do it but the sin that dwelt within
me. That's sin in nature. I find in the law that when I
will do good, evil is present with me. That I won't do evil? I would. I would never sin again? I would believe God perfectly.
I would never worry. I would never feign to trust
my Savior. I would love Him with a full
heart, with every fiber of my being. I find it not. What I
do, I hate. The motivations I have, even
though the best work is backed by self-serving motivations,
sinful thoughts, sinful actions, I hate all those things. And that's the war. that war
that's going, that rages inside every believer. I'm gonna rage
like this to the very day we die. But then, no more war. It's over with, and we will see
Christ face to face. Now, there's an advantage to
this. When you have this new man, and
this battle rages, you see things that you could not see before,
before that new man was given. When David went to Ziklag, what
did he find? He found that everything he loved,
and everything he cherished, and everything he found so dear,
was ruined. It was a heap. It was in rubble. Do you know how that bite works? Have you seen it? That the very
best thing I do, it's sin before God. It's just evil, it's just
wickedness, it's just another sin that had to be atoned for
on that cross. from me, those things we cherish
so much. Well, at least that's true. At least that was a good
thought. At least there was a good motivation there. When you have that new
man, you have the eyes to see, it's just sin. There's nothing
good about me. You can actually see things for
the way they are, in part. We don't see our sin for the
release. And I'm thankful for that, don't get me wrong. Just
enough that Christ could be everything to me. But you see for the first
time. What else does David see? For
the first time he saw this, it was all his fault. He got there,
the rubble heap. This is all my fault. I did this.
This is the other thing you see. Everything you held dear, your
works, it's all ruined. It's just rubble. It's just sin.
And it's all my fault. I can't blame Adam, I can't blame
the sovereignty of God. My sin, it's my fault. I'm doing exactly what I want
to do. I want to control it all, and
yet I do what I want to do. Now, it's kind of boring, but
what did David say at the end of verse six? I'm gonna read
it again. The last words there. but David encouraged himself
in the Lord, his God. You know, everybody who's like
this, who has this battle raging inside of them, they are nothing
but a sin, they have no good works, it's all their fault.
You don't have every reason to be encouraged because that's
exactly who Christ died for. Now think back to that broke
visual. These men go to David. We can't
forward the river. We can't get across. We don't
have the strength. We don't have the ability. We can't do it.
David, we need you to go and recover everything for us. We
can't put our hand in this. We don't have the power. We don't
have the strength. And David left. He recovered
everything, left nothing, brought it all back, gave it to these
men. And when he saw them, what did he do? He saluted them. He showed these men respect. I remember a story about that. Two brothers approached the Lord.
One's name was Cain. Cain was the tiller of the ground. And he went up to the altar,
and he brought the best that his hands could do. He's a farmer,
so he brought the best fruits, the best vegetables, the best
flowers. He laid them all on that altar, and he said, this
is the best I can do. I'm seeking acceptance based
on this, what I've done. for the best I can come up with.
That's major religion. Lord, this is the best I can
do. This is what I've done. Give me acceptance because of
what I've done. How did the Lord react to that?
On the cane and his offering, he had not respect. There was
no salute. None of the others stepped up,
though. Able. On that altar, he put one thing,
one thing. the slain lamb alone. What was he saying? I am so weak. I am so helpless. I am so sinful. The only thing
I have, the only thing that could possibly appease you, the only
thing that I have is Christ and Him crucified alone. That's it. And it says, unable in His offering,
God have mercy. You know everybody was like that.
Sinner, weak. I can't do it. I can't keep the
law. I can't take a step forward. Not one time, not on any job,
not on any title. I can't believe God. I can't
muster the strength. I can't muster love. I can't
muster spiritual life. I can't give myself life. I can't continue on. David, you
have to go. You've got to go and recover
everything for me. Christ says to every sinner, respect. I'll
be your servant. This world's religion is wrong.
You're just wrong. The religion of this world will
tell you this. Salvation is dependent on what you do in some way. And
there's various forms of that, but there's only two religions
of this world. There's great and there's worse. And everything
from this world is worse. Somehow or another, salvation
is dependent on what you do. But you know our text, it actually
tells salvation's true story, and it begins with the origin.
Look here at verse seven in your text. David's a very powerful type
of Lord Jesus Christ here. And David said to Abathur, the
priest, and Melech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abathur brought hither the
ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord,
saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered him, pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake
them, and without fail recover all. You know what that's talking
about? That's talking about that covenant of grace that it took
place in eternity before the world ever began. David called
for the ephod, the priestly garment, the garment of the intercessor,
the breastplate of the intercessor. In that covenant, he became our
surety, our intercessor, our mediator of that better covenant,
that covenant of grace. And I love this. It put Christ
on the offensive in this thing. He said, shall I pursue? Father,
just give me the word. Just say the word, I'll go save
every single last one of them. Everybody you gave me, I'll go
take every single one of them. The Father says, go pursue. Without
fail, you shall recover all. Why? Because Christ can't fail. It is impossible. Now, let me
give you another commentary on this. This is a beautiful passage.
Turn over to Isaiah 59. These are complementary verses
to what we just read. Isaiah 59, pick up at verse 15. Isaiah 59, 15. Yea, truth faileth,
and he that departeth from me will make himself prey. And the
Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment,
there was no righteousness, there was no justness, there was no
justice. And he saw that there was no
man, and he wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore
his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness, it
sustained him. For he put on righteousness as
a breastplate and an ephod, and a helmet of salvation upon his
head, and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and
he was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly
he wore pay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to
the islands he shall or will pay recompense. Now don't misinterpret
that. It's not like man fell and the
Lord pivoted Plan B, and it became the wonderful purpose and plan of
God. No, this is it. This language is given here to
show the loving kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is great
mercy. He is great love to his people. His father was displeased. There's
no righteousness. We need judgment amongst the people. Righteousness
for the people. And he looked down and he saw
no man. They don't have surety. None of them can honor the law. None of them could put away their
own sins, let alone the sins of many. That's impossible. There
was no man. He saw there was no man. And
he saw they had no intercessor. No intercessor for God's people.
And when he saw nothing, he took it upon himself. And he put on
that ethan, that breastplate of the intercessor, making effective
intercession for his people by his own blood. He put on the
helmet of salvation. What does that helmet do? Same
thing a shield does, it takes the blows so the head is protected. It's exactly what happened on
the cross. He became our helmet. He took the blows and the body
is protected. And I love this. Read that last
verse again. This is beautiful. According
to their deeds, accordingly he will repay. Fury to his adversaries,
recompense to his enemies, and to the islands he will Everybody's
going to get exactly what they deserve. To his enemies, wrath,
judgment, recompense, but he's gonna recompense his people as
well. I say this reverently, but this is the truth of the
scripture. We're gonna get exactly what we deserve. Favor, acceptance,
the very love of God, being kings and priests unto God. That's
what's right because Christ made it that way. You know what this
world never wants to talk about? They never want to talk about
the justness and the justice of God. It's too terrible a thought. A God who is holy and he will
accept nothing but perfect righteousness? Even an unconverted man can say,
yeah, I've sinned, yeah, I've done some things that are wrong.
Even if he doesn't have eyes to see that he is in utter ruin,
he will at least admit he has made some mistakes. He's a holy
God who can accept anything but perfect righteousness. Nobody
wants to talk about that just God that must punish sin, except
for us. I don't wanna talk about that
just God all day long. Because that means if Christ
put away my sin, it is only just, it is only right that I be received
by the Father favorably in Christ Jesus. That just God is all my
hope. Now, this point is, continue
on our text. Go back to your text, look at
this again. We saw the origin of salvation
there with the covenant. Now read this, 1 Samuel 30, look
at verse 16. And when he had brought them
down, behold, they were spread out abroad upon all the earth, eating
and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they
had taken out of the land of Philistines, out of the land
of Judah. And David smoked them. See, this is salvation's accomplishment
right here through smiting. David smoked them from the twilight,
even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped not
a man of them, say 400 young men, which rode upon camels and
fled. And David had recovered all that the Amalekites had carried
away. And David rescued his two wives.
And there was nothing lacking unto them, neither small nor
great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that
they had taken of them. David recovered all. Christ recovered all God had
left. Everything he promised in that
covenant, he did when he came to this earth. and did it through
smiting. Smiting. What does that sound like? Sounds
like Isaiah 53, four and five. Surely he had borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we had seen him stricken, smitten
of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our inequities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are presently healed. It was through this great smiting,
this great offering of himself. Don't let this ever go over your
head. If you're a believer, this is your hope going to happen.
Before the world began, Christ agreed to be your surety. He,
a holy man, was willing to be made your sin. Don't let us just jump over that
and say, well, you can't bring the gospel to us without that.
You're right, you can. He didn't want to be made your sin. He's
going to be estranged from God for you. He's going to suffer
the equivalent of eternity in hell for you on my cross. Don't
let it ever go over your head. It was through this smiting that
we are presently healed, if you're believing. You owe nothing, absolutely
nothing. And David made full recovery
through this fighting, and David took all the choice spoils for
himself. The Swistians raided many villages,
had a whole bunch of stuff, and David took it all. They were
actually better off after this than they were before, because
David recovered all. You think about that in this
context. We lost everything to Adam, right? Adam was born an
upright, he was born innocent, but he wasn't holy. Being recovered by Christ is
so much better. We've been spoiled. We have perfect
union with Christ. We have holiness in an immutable
state. That state between God the Father
and his people, it cannot change. It is sealed in blood for eternity. We can't mess this thing up. It's perfect, it's so much better.
We have all these spoils. David got all these spoils. David
had the choice of spoils for himself, as Christ will have
all the glory in this thing of salvation for himself. But notice
what he did with these spoils. Look at verse 26, this is amazing. And when David came to Ziklag,
he sent the spoil unto the elders of Judah. Even to his friends,
saying, behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enmity
of the Lord. David took all these great spoils. As the spoiler,
he gets them. David recovered all. It doesn't
say David, 400 men recovered all. It says David recovered
all. So David took all the choice spoils for himself, and what
did he do with them? Shared them with his friends.
You think about that. This is talking about union with
the Lord Jesus Christ and how real it actually is. What is
Christ to have? He is fully glorified. He has
reached the pinnacle. I don't understand. I don't understand
how there's a pinnacle in this picture. He has reached the pinnacle.
He is fully glorified. Right now, you and I are glorified
in Him. That's what Romans 8 says. Romans
8, 29 and 30 says, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that we might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. It doesn't say
He will glorify them. It says they are presently Right
now, glorified, our union with Christ is so real that as he
sits fully glorified in the heavenlies right now, we sit there too. Someone should explain that.
I couldn't possibly. Nobody takes that. But that's the truth of
the matter. We are fully glorified in Christ. When he came back from doing
his father's will, saving his people, he was greeted with his
father full acceptance and full honors of heraldry. You imagine
that? Coming back, this conquering
king, this one who had done the Father's will. And you know what?
That same acceptance, the Father taking him and embracing him
and loving him and holding him up, that same acceptance, we
have it in Christ. David shared all these stories.
We have it in Christ, that full acceptance. It says we're going
to reign as kings and priests with God. Can you imagine that?
What's that all about? I have no idea. No, I can do
what you want. But as he reigned, we reign in
him for all of one. Therefore, he's not a shame cause,
brother. That's backed up here. Look at
verse 24. David is talking to those men
of Bealiel, the 400, who were so strong, they hated grace.
Said, 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 deterioreth by itself. They shall part alike. We tarried
by the stuff. Weak, wounded, couldn't cross
the river, couldn't recover for ourselves. Just tarried by the
stuff. And David, Christ, went and recovered all. But the part
that he got, the one who did it, we get the exact same part. Talking about things right now
is just hot water. Couldn't possibly understand. What we have here is a beautiful
illustration of the grace of God. And I'm gonna leave you
with this, this final thought. The greatness of grace. What
I'm about to tell you is your story, if you're a believer.
If your only hope is in that resurrected Christ, that's all
you've got. This is your story, it's the
story of that Egyptian boy that you found along the way. He's
an Egyptian, bondage. We're all born the same way,
in bondage to a cynical nature, and in bondage to a law he can't
keep. This man's master carried nothing
for him and left him for dead. I want to be as respectful as I
can be. I love God's holy law. It declares the righteousness
of God. It declares the holiness of God. It's perfect. But folks,
the law don't care. The only thing that an Amalekite
master cared about is whether that servant could keep up. March. I can't march. I'm sick. I'm
falling down, leaving for dead, and I don't care. You either
meet the standard or you don't. The law don't care. The law demands
full obedience, every job, every title, every single time, your
entire life. And if you're offended in one
point, you're offended in the entire thing, and the law says,
leave him for dead. And here's the one thing the
wall can't produce. There's many things the wall can't produce.
All the wall does is declare our guilt. That's it. But here's
one thing the wall can't produce, love. There is absolutely no
love from that servant to his master. He says, just don't give
me back my master. But David, Christ, this is what
produces love right here. David becomes the wall's boy.
He's face down in the ditch, almost dead. Can't move, can't
speak. David's not so good, but he knows
this is one of the men who attacked his village. And he comes up,
and he feeds him, and he gives him water. Once he was done dealing
with him, he said, all right, tell me what you did. And he
said, we went, and we destroyed Ziklag. Same thing he does for
his people. He says, tell me about who you
are. I'm the enemy of God. I made myself his enemy. I possess
that nature, that fallen, evil nature. If I would have been
there at the cross, I would have driven him in the nails through his hands and
spewed myself. I would have killed God. It's all one nature. It's
all the same. And David says, OK, you're free.
I'm not going to give you back to your master. You're free from
the law. You're free. Full mercy, full compassion.
Go your way. Go any way you want. That's how
the devil beats on us. came to us where we were at,
not seeking him, had compassion on us, nursed us back to health,
and said, now you're free. You're free from that law. The
law's been satisfied. It's over. Just go do as you
please. You're free, complete and utter
liberty, myself. If David had just kept on riding,
see that boy in the ditch, that same one who had rented his bills
and taken away his wives and all that. If he had just kept
on riding, left him alone, Does anybody in this room have a problem
with that? Why do people get so upset with
election? What's wrong with God passing
by and just leaving a man to do what he wants to do? It's
an election of race. He came to us where we were at.
He nourished us back to health. He said, you're free. You know
what he said that to Barnabas? Barnabas had an interesting response. Says, when Jesus said unto him,
go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And this was Barnabas's
response. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus in the way. Everybody he does this for,
everybody he sets free, you're free from the law, you don't
have to go back to the master. Here's what they all do. They just follow
him. How do you follow him? You just
keep looking at him. You just keep trusting Christ
day in, day out. You just trust that he has done
everything that is necessary for a sinner to be safe, and
you just trust him. Just hold on to the very last breath. And
I implore you, if you're like these men of Beazle, these men
who can't continue on, these men who are weak, unable, frail,
you need David to recover all for you. Please know he did. This is a faithful saying worthy
of all expectation that Christ Jesus came into this world to
save sinners. of whom I am chief. Therefore,
trust them, although they regard the Lord. I'm going to leave
you there, son of a blood.