That was a blessing, Caleb. Thank
you. It's. An encouragement to us
to be able to. Go home and give our folks such
a glowing report of what the Lord's doing here and we look
forward to that. It's been a blessing to be with
you. Thank you all so much. Donnie,
thank you for that message. Reminded me of a statement I
heard a brother say years and years ago. He said the thing
that bothers me most about my sin is how little it bothers
me. And. And I know that's true for me.
Our sins a whole lot worse than we think it is. But our substitute. He he understood. And he felt the full sorrow.
and shame and experience the full separation from his heavenly
father as a result of the sins that he bore in his body upon
that tree. And I'm thankful that I have
one. We can't sorrow enough. The Spirit of God convicts you
of your sin, you know that everything about you is sinful. It's expedient for you that I
go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come.
But when he comes, he's gonna convict the world of sin because
they believed not on me." There's the real root cause of all our
sin. Turn to me, if you will, to 1
Samuel chapter 22, 1 Samuel 22. There's only two things that's
gonna get out of this world alive. Two things. Christ and His church. Everything else is gonna be destroyed,
burned up, judged, condemned. And everything
in this book is about Christ and His church. And Ephesians
chapter five, the Lord tells us that it's a great mystery.
And by that, it's something that has to be revealed. The Bible speaks of a mystery,
it's not speaking about something that's strange or it's talking
about something that's hidden. It's hidden. And only God can
uncover it and reveal the truth of it to our hearts. And every
time we come together and open his word, The mystery of Christ
and his church is there. And our hope and prayer is that
the Lord will open the eyes of our understanding and reveal
to us. Because I want to get out of
this world live. And and only in being a part
of his church and being found in him. Will that be possible? We know that in the volume of
the book, it is written of him. And these stories that are given
to us, particularly these Old Testament stories, all the stories
of the Bible, have a spiritual meaning to them. And it always
has to do with the Lord Jesus and his work of redemption. It's what everything's about,
what everything's about. I mentioned yesterday a friend
that we met from India who had an arranged marriage. And there
was a couple here that, yesterday morning, that were Indian by
descent. And they told me, they said,
we have an arranged marriage. And I thought, well, you know,
that's what the whole world is all about. It's about an arranged
marriage. God the Father gave to his son
a bride in the covenant of grace before time ever was. The Lord Jesus came into the
world to redeem his bride. The Holy Spirit is calling those
for whom Christ died to faith in him. And Revelation chapter
19 says when it's all wrapped up and done, there's going to
be a great wedding feast. where the bridegroom is going
to welcome his bride and parade her before all of creation as
the trophy of his grace. Well, you're talking about a
trophy wife. There she is, right there. There she is. And it's the reason for everything. Nothing else really matters.
Steve and I were talking about this yesterday at the park. And,
you know, nothing else It matters for anything, does it, Steve? So let us read these two verses
together in 1 Samuel chapter 22 and ask the Lord to open the
mystery of the gospel and reveal to us Christ and his church. There's that three simple points
to this message. The title of the message is David's
Impoverished Army. David's Impoverished Army. The
army of David is a clear picture of the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And David surely is a type of Christ himself. So here's
the three simple questions from these first two verses in 1 Samuel
22. Who is their captain? Who is their captain? Where is
he to be found? And who is his brethren? Who's the captain of the army?
Where is this captain to be found? And who are the members of his
army? David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brethren and all
his family's house, there's the church, 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 400
men. Who's the captain of this army?
Where is he to be found? And who are the members of his
army? Well, David clearly, David's
name translated means beloved. Oh, the father's love for his
son. This is my beloved son. In him,
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. The scripture says
that our only hope of acceptance before God is in the beloved,
to be found in him, not having our own righteousness, which
is by the law, but that righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ, his faithfulness to his father and the love that his
father had for him. There's the captain of the army. And the scripture says, as he
is, so are we. Listen to this verse has always
just, you know, David said in Psalm 139, these things are too
wonderful for me. I cannot, I cannot, cannot begin
to understand them. John chapter 17, verse 23. The
Lord Jesus is praying for his bride. And he says, I pray not
for the world, but I pray for them which thou has given me
out of the world for thine they were and thou has given them
unto me. And he's interceding as our high priest before his
heavenly father on behalf of his bride. And then in verse
23, he says this, I in them and them in me that the world may
know that thou, now he's praying to his father, that thou hast
loved them as thou hast loved me. When a sinner is found in Christ,
you see, God's love is perfect love. We talk about loving. our pets and loving our strawberries
and loving our wives. We use that word so loosely,
don't we? We just talk about loving everything.
God's love is perfect love and it's a holy love and he only
loves one way. He only loves one way. He doesn't
have degrees of love like you and I do. So he loves his children. Oh, and it's the love of Christ
that constraineth us. It's the goodness of God that
leads us to repentance. It's his love that brings us
to bow before him. And we love him in such a small
way because he first loved us. David, the beloved, And the Lord
Jesus is called the son of David. And the Jews understood very
clearly that that title was in reference to the Christ. When blind Bartimaeus said, thou
son of David have mercy upon me, he was confessing his belief
that Jesus of Nazareth was none other than the Christ, the son
of the living God. And he knew that he was able
to save him and give him sight. because of him being the son
of David. And the Lord Jesus, in dealing
with the unbelieving Pharisees, said to them, what think ye of
Christ? Whose son is he? And they said,
well, he's the son of David. And the Lord Jesus looked at
them and said, well, if he be the son of David, why then did
David Call him Lord. When David said, the Lord, speaking
of the Father, said unto my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. The Lord Jesus is in the heavens. We come into this world by nature
at enmity with God. And what does he do? He brings
us one by one, like Mary, to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be at his footstool and to look to him and listen
to him and believe on him. And I love the response that
the scripture gives us to these Pharisees who could not answer
that question. You see, what the Lord Jesus
will say to those Pharisees is, Yes, the Lord Jesus, the Christ
is the son of David according to the flesh. And he is the son
of David in according to fulfilling the types that David represented
in the Old Testament. But he's Lord. And the problem
that you have with me is that you will not bow to me as Lord.
That's always the problem with unbelief. It's always the problem
of unbelief. You know, the scripture says
some believed and some believe not. And I looked up those two
words in the dictionary and in the original language and found
out that the first word believed is in the passive tense. And
the second word believed not is in the active tense. It just simply means that when
God brings one to believe upon him, they are passive in their
faith. God gives them faith and they're
brought, but those that believe not are active in their unbelief. They are participating in their
unbelief. They are saying, and let a man
come up with whatever excuse he wants for not believing the
gospel, here's the only reason why he doesn't believe it. I
will not have that man reign over me. Period. That's the only
reason why a person won't believe the gospel. No other reason. And the only reason that a person
will believe the gospel is because God made them to. What am I saying? I'm saying
if you're a believer, it's all God's fault, and if you're an
unbeliever, it's all your fault. That's what the Bible teaches. No, they would not bow to the
Lord Jesus. They said, well, he's the son
of David. Why did David call him Lord? Your problem is you're not bowing
to me as Lord. That's the problem. Now people
in religion talk about making Jesus Lord too late. God's already
done it. He made him Lord over the living
and the dead. We don't make Jesus Lord of our life. He reigns sovereign
over you whether you're a believer or an unbeliever. Whether you
want him to or not, he will do with you and with the armies
of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth whatsoever he wills
and no man can stay his hand and no man can say unto him,
what doest thou? He is God and he reigns and what faith does
is willingly and lovingly bows to that. And what unbelief does
is rebels against that. It's just that simple. Son of David. Here's David. Here's Christ. And David's called in the Bible
the man of war. And the Lord Jesus Christ defeated
an enemy that you and I can't defeat. He defeated Satan. He
defeated sin. He defeated death. He defeated
hell. And we are no match to any of
those things. We need a man of war. We need
a captain. And what's the clearest picture
of that in the Bible, as far as an Old Testament type? Well,
it's when David went up against Goliath. You remember, Goliath
came before Saul and the army and said, you send out one representative,
one man, And I'll fight against him. And whichever wins, wins
for the whole other army. You know, no sense in all of
us going to battle against each other and dying. Let's just let
one man die, and that man will win for the entire nation. That's
what that battle is about. The Lord Jesus going up against
Goliath and killing him, and then cutting his head off with
his own sword. Oh, what a picture of Christ. And he got the victory. He got
the victory. And he won it for all Israel,
and the Philistines were routed, and Israel got the victory because
of their one captain, the man of war. The Lord Jesus, David
as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a shepherd. and the Lord Jesus
is our. David said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. And I don't think we're adding
anything to the scriptures by saying the Lord is my shepherd
and I shall not be in want of anything. He will provide everything
that I need in order to stand in the presence of a holy God.
The Lord Jesus is my shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything. He will provide it all. All my
righteousness, all my justification, all of my holiness, all of my
sanctification, everything that I need, he will provide. And when David, before he went
up against Goliath, you remember Saul wanted to put his armor
on and David said, a lion came into the sheepfold And God gave me the strength
to kill that lion and to deliver that sheep from the very jaws
of the lion. Now, Satan is a roaring lion
and he seeketh whom he may devour. And the Lord Jesus says the good
shepherd delivers his children right from the jaws of the lion.
Oh, what a shepherd we have. Here's Here's the answer to the
first question, who is the captain of this army? It is none other
than the Lord Jesus himself. And sheep are dirty, sheep are
dumb, sheep are dependent, sheep are vulnerable. We need a shepherd, don't we?
David's called a man after God's own heart. And the Bible said
that our hearts are deceitful above all things, desperately
wicked, who can know them? We can't know our own hearts. The Proverbs says a man follows
his own heart, he's a fool. You hear people say, you know,
well, just do what's in your heart. Oh, be careful. God hasn't put that in your heart,
don't do it. We need a new heart, don't we? We don't need heart surgery. People have heart surgeries.
We've got a man in our church that's in need of a valve replacement.
I know another brother here in Pennsylvania that's about to
have some stents put in his heart. Because their hearts are weak
and their hearts need a little help. We need a heart transplant. We need God to take out our heart
of stone, that heart that is dead, that heart that's cold,
that heart that's hard, that heart that cannot believe, and
put in a beating, warm, living heart of flesh. And only then, only then, Can
we be called a man after God's own heart? The Lord Jesus Christ,
he's got to give us his heart. That's what it is to have the
mind of Christ. That new nature that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that nature that cannot sin, that perfect nature. It's Christ in us who is our
hope of glory. Left to ourselves, we're nothing
but sin. And in Christ, we have no sin. Scripture has asked this probing
question when it comes to the King of glory, who shall stand
in his presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul to vanity, he can
stand in the presence of God. Now our hands are a picture of
our works, and everything that we do is defiled. That's why
God said, don't put your hand to the altar. When Uzzah touched
the Ark of the Covenant to try to steady it to keep from falling
off the Ark, God killed him right there on the spot. Why? Because
he put his dirty hand to that which was holy. There's only
one who's holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, and higher than
the heavens, and his hands are clean. and we must be found in
him. And he's the only one that has
a pure heart. He's the only one who's never lifted up his soul.
That means every single one of us in this room have lifted up
our, maybe we haven't done anything with our hands yet today, or
at least in this time that we've been sitting here. But I guarantee you, I speak
for myself. Lifted up my soul under vanity.
Had a vain thought since we've been here. Is that you? Ah. Most of my thoughts are vain
thoughts and God just gives me those moments when I can have
a holy thought and listening to his word and listening to
the gospel and the spirit of God. But the majority of the
thoughts that go through our mind are not lifted up his soul
to vanity. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
one who's holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners.
And every thought that he ever had, Every imagination of his
heart was only holy and that continually. A man after God's own heart. He's the captain of the army.
He's the one that the family and friends came to. Go back with me to our text.
David, the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore departed thence and
escaped to the cave of a dulem. Turn with me to Psalm 57. Psalm
57. And you understand that in the
Psalms, the small print in your Bible before verse 1 is actually
part of the text. That's part of the inspired text.
It's not just a title for that psalm. It's actually part of
the Word of God. And so let's read that small
print at the beginning of Psalm 57. To the chief musician, Altasketh,
and Mishtam of David when he fled from Saul to the cave."
That's the cave of Duluth. It's where David's at when he
writes this psalm. He's writing this psalm in that cave. Be merciful
unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee,
yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these
calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high
and unto God that performeth all things for me. David's family and friends came
down to where he was, in the cave of the Dulem. Caves are significant in the
Bible. I'll only mention two in addition to this one. And
one of them, somebody, one of you men mentioned it already
this morning. The cleft in the rock that Moses
had to be placed in. at the Mount Sinai. That was a cave. That was a cave. And God said to Moses, there
is a place near unto me. And I'll put you in that cave,
in that rock, and I'll cover, and I'll cause my backside. I think Caleb, you mentioned
this. to pass by. I'm going to show you my glory
in light of what I've done. It's David. Moses had to be put
in Christ. That's the, that's the cave.
That's the cave here. And, and of course the cave that's,
that's most significant in all of scripture and all of time
is the tomb in which the Lord Jesus was, was placed. That was
a cave. And so Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
on the third day. And when he died, I died. And when he was placed in the
tomb, I was placed in the tomb. And when he rose from the dead,
I rose from the dead. Buried with Christ in baptism
and raised to walk a new life in Christ Jesus. Where do we
go to find David? We go to a cave. We go to this
place where God's mercy is found. David's praying in Psalm 57 for
the Lord to have mercy upon him. The Lord shows mercy to Moses
by putting him in the cleft of the rock and God's mercy is satisfied
through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find our David
through a cave. And the significance of this
cave is its name, Adullam. And that word translated means
justice. Justice. The justice of God was
satisfied through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the
day in which you sin, you shall surely die. Death is the penalty
for sin. Our God is a God of mercy and
He's a God of grace, but He will in no wise clear the guilty. He will not sacrifice His justice. Sin must be paid for. And the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only blood that will cover
our sins. No amount of sacrifice. I hear
sometimes people say that someone who's had a very difficult life
or has made great, you know, great sacrifices in their lives
for things and for other people and been very sacrificial. And
someone will say after their death, and you know something
about this person, you know, they're in false religion. And now, you know, they're so
much better off now. No more sacrifices, they paid
their debt, no. No, things are much worse now
than they ever were when they were here in this world. No, there's only one sacrifice
that will meet the justice of God, and that's the sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus made. That's why Moses had to be put
in the cleft of the rock. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
had to die, because the wages of sin was death. And God's not
satisfied with any sacrifice that you and I make. He's satisfied
with the sacrifice that his son made. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. And God saw the travail of his
soul, Isaiah 53. And God said, I'm satisfied.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that bore sorrow for
sin sufficient to satisfy God's justice. He's the only one that
experienced the separation from his father and the full weight
of justice to satisfy the demands of his father. Where do we find
the Lord Jesus Christ? In the cave of the Dulem. through
his death and by his resurrection. And that cave is not just a picture
of the death of Christ, it's a reminder of the success that
he had in his death, because that's what the resurrection's
all about. A wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign,
God will give it no sign, except for the sign of Jonah. That's
the resurrection. God raised his son from the dead
as the testimony of God's satisfaction that justice has been met. And
so when the women went to the cave, why seek ye to live in
among the dead? He's not here. He's not here. He's raised from the dead. Where do we find our David? Where do we find our captain
of the army? We find him in the cave of Adullam
where justice was satisfied. Salvation was accomplished. God
is giving proof, positive testimony of it by the resurrection of
his son. The Lord Jesus met all the demands
of the law. In word, in deed, in heart, in
mind, he dotted every I, he crossed every T. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill it. I came to satisfy everything
that God requires of the law. And David tells us in the Psalms,
mercy and truth. Yes, mercy. We need the mercy
of God, but we need truth. Righteousness and peace. Mercy and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Where did
that happen? It happened at the cross. God is able to be just and justify
sinners at the same time through the sacrifice that our David
made on Calvary's cross. The cave of a dulem. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three, verse 19. Now we know, and we
know it only if the Lord teaches it to us. We know it only if
the Lord opens the eyes of our understanding and makes the mystery,
unveils the mystery to us. And if he does, this is what
we'll know. And we know that what things soever the law saith
that saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God.
That's all the law can do. All the law can do is condemn.
All the law can do is make guilty. All the law can do is, Make a man, well, utterly sinful,
as the scripture goes on to say. Look, therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. We may justify one another. Somebody
accuses us falsely. We stand up for ourselves. I'm
not guilty of that. I didn't do that. God accuses us of something.
There's no justifying ourselves. Guilty, Lord. Guilty as charged. I've never been able to keep
one of your laws one time. Not once. And people say, well,
you know, I ask people, are you keeping God's law? I'm doing
the best I can. That's not good enough. Not good enough. You say, well, I've never murdered
anybody. I'm sorry. The Lord said, you have heard it said.
that if you commit murder, if you kill a man, you're guilty
of murder. But I say unto you, if you have
ought in your heart towards your brother without a cause, you've
committed, what is that? How many times we've gotten angry
at somebody because they offended us? How many times we've just
had If you've had ought in your, not if you've harbored bitterness
for a long time against someone and unwilling to forgive them.
No, God says if you have ought, a momentary thought of anger
or disappointment or resentment towards somebody because of something
that you perceive that they did. In the sight of God, you've already
murdered them. You see, man looks at the outward appearance. God's
looking at the heart. You and I have never been able
to keep one of God's laws one time. Love the Lord your God
with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul?
All the time? Love your neighbor as yourself? Oh, never. The Lord Jesus did. He kept the law. He satisfied
justice. No flesh should be justified
in God's sight, for by, look at the end of verse 20, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, but now, the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. That's what this story in 1 Samuel
20, 22, and every other story is about. It's a witness of Christ. having fulfilled the demands
of the law, and having accomplished the salvation of his people.
Our David in the cave of Adullam, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, verse 22, even the righteousness of God, and
I hope you have a King James Bible, because every other translation
I've ever looked at changes this verse. Changes this, there's about five
or six of these verses where it talks about the faith of Christ. And in every other translation
of the Bible, it says your faith in Christ. Big difference, big
difference. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. For there's no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I ask
you again, my brother and my friends, what in your life falls
short of the glory of God? Because God says, that's your
sin. You see our sins, Donnie you're
talking about the sins of ignorance. Father forgive them for they
know not what they do. You and I don't have a clue what
we've done. We don't have a clue. The sin
that you've experienced the worst pains of guilt over. The most
shameful thing that you've lost sleep over, the thing that you
feared someone else finding out about it, you don't know what
you did. You have no idea how bad, it
was a whole lot, people say to me, oh preacher, my sin's a lot
worse than you think it is, or my sin's too bad, and I say back
to them, it's a whole lot worse than you think it is. However bad you have felt bad
about your sin, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they've
done. They don't know what they've done. They have no idea how bad
their sin is. I'm the only one that's ever
experienced sin. That's why the scripture says
he was tried in all ways that we are yet without sin, but he's
able, he's able to sympathize with us. Why? Because though he did not commit
sin, what is there about sin that bothers you? Is it not the
shame of sin? Is it not the sorrow of sin?
Is it not the separation that you experience from those that
you've sinned against and most importantly from God? The Lord
Jesus knew that to its infinite degree. He knew sorrow, he knew
shame, he knew separation like you and I have never known because
of the sins of his people that he bore. And he knew it about every sin. Sometimes we allow the guilt
and the shame of a sin to do for us what it did for Adam and
we run and hide and try to cover our nakedness and don't do that. You know what the Lord Jesus
is saying? Child, I know that sin. When I was on the cross,
I experienced that sin. I know what you're feeling and
I felt it and experienced it infinitely more than you could
possibly know that sin. You know, oftentimes we just
think about this great massive sin that the Lord bore, but our
Lord as God, He knew every single sin that you and I, that you
and I experience. And so we have a Savior that's
saying to us, child, I know that sin. Come, come. All you that labor and are heavy
laden, come. A lot of people laboring, laboring
with the law, laboring with their sin, but they're not heavy laden. They're not overwhelmed with
it. They're not crushed by it. They've
not been brought to the point to where, Lord, I can't do anything
about this. I can't fix this problem. Lord,
I've got a sin problem that only you can deal with. All you that
labor and are heavy laden, come unto me. Come unto me. I'll give you rest. My burden
is light. My yoke is easy. I bore the burden
already. That's what I did on Calvary's
cross so that now my burden is light. The weight of sin has
been put away. Sin's been separated from you
as far as the east is from the west. I remember it no more.
I bear it in the depths of the sea. It's gone. It's gone. Come, learn of me. Yes, we must be taught of God,
but when, you know, he's not only the teacher, but he's the
subject. They shall all be taught of God.
Yeah. And learn of me. He does the
teaching and he teaches us who he is and what he's done. He's
our David. our commander, our shepherd,
our man of war, the man after God's own heart, who went to
the cave of Adullam, satisfied the demands of God's justice.
For who? For who? Well, look at the description,
and I would just simply ask you, do you fit this description?
Because this is who he did it for. This is who he did it for,
and everyone that was in distress. Now in the South, we call that
being put between a rock and a hard place. To be in distress
means that you're trapped. You've got no place to turn.
You see, coming to the Lord Jesus Christ is not a choice. It's
not a decision. You have a choice between Christ
and something else, you will always choose something else.
Always. The only way you'll come to Christ
is if you have no choice. You say, preacher, you say man
doesn't have free will? Yes, he does, and he doesn't. You
and I make choices every day. When we have two or more options,
we choose one over the other. And we always choose the one
for which we have the greatest inclination. You say, well, that person made
me do something against my will. And I speak from personal testimony
on this. You have a barrel of a gun placed
right there between your eyes. And a man says, give me your
money. I promise you from my personal experience, he didn't
take my money from me. I was happy to give it to him.
There was nothing I wanted to do more in that moment than for
him to have my money and move that gun. You see, I had a choice. I had a choice. I had a choice to give him my
money or die. And I chose that which I had
a greater inclination for, and I freely chose it. I was happy
to do it. Take whatever I got. You can
have it all. God doesn't put a gun to our
head. He shuts us up to Christ so that you don't have a choice. You've
taken away all my choices. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. It is not by choice. You did
not choose me, I chose you. And when the Lord reveals to
us our sinfulness before God, he puts us in distress. He puts
us in a place where we've got no place else to go. The Lord
asked the disciples one time, will you lead me also? They made
a choice. I just fed 5,000, and I told
them they just wanted their bellies full. They all turned around
and went home when I told them that they had to take up their
cross, deny themselves, and follow me. They didn't want any part
of it. Aren't you going to? And the Lord invited his disciples
to go with him. Aren't you going to lead me too?
What did Peter say? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou alone has the words of eternal
life, and we know and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. You have shut us up to Yourself.
We've got no place, we don't have a choice about this, and
we don't want a choice. You've made us willing. You've
taken away, that's why free will is such a It's such a, you see, it puts
the power of salvation in that. Well, I have a choice. Just decide
for, choose Jesus, invite Jesus to come into your heart. Let
him become Lord of your life. You know, he's given you a choice.
You'll never be saved that way. Because if you have a choice,
you will always choose something else. You'll only come to Christ
if Christ is all you've got. He's all you've got. And everyone
that was in distress, Are you in distress? And everyone that
was in debt. Oh, we have a debt we can't pay.
I cringe to think about hell and
I cringe to have to talk about it. But hell's eternal. It's forever. Why? because an
eternal punishment in a lake of fire will not satisfy the
debt that you and I owe to God. We'll always be owing Him. The debt has to be paid, and
it has to be paid in full. And that word, that word, it
is finished that the Lord Jesus cried from the cross before He
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. It is a
word in the original language that they would have used to
stamp on a paid bill. If you went to the bank and you
paid off your bill, what do you get? Paid in full. That's what
that word means. Paid in full. The full debt's
been paid. Nothing else. You go back to
the bank, try to pay something on that debt. If they're a reputable
bank, they say, I'm sorry, I can't take any more money. It's already
paid. I heard about a man who worked
all his life sending deposits into the bank, looking forward
to his retirement. And one day, after many years
of making deposits in the bank, he showed up at the bank. He
said, I've retired from my job. I've been putting all this money
away, and I want to draw it all out. And they asked his name. And the teller said, excuse me,
sir, just a moment. She went to the bank president.
Bank president came, looked at his ID, looked at his name. Bank
president turned to the guard in the bank and said, lock the
door and call the Secret Service. This is the man. This is the
man that's been sending us counterfeit money for the last 40 years. Men spend their whole lives thinking
that they're making deposits in God's bank for their ultimate
retirement, only to find out that God's gonna say, Judge of
the Earth, lock him up. He's been sending counterfeit
money all his life in hopes of being saved by something that
he did. There's only one legal tender
before God, and that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
went to the cave of a dueling and he redeemed his people. And those that are in distress
and those that are in debt. You and I have a debt that we
cannot pay. He's the only one that paid it.
And those that notice, do these words describe you? Are these
accurate descriptions? Because this is who he came to
say. And those that were discontented.
Now, I hate it when I'm discontent. I do. And I get that way a good
bit. Complain, murmur, like children
of Israel. And the Lord convicts me of,
you know, you talk, Dottie, I was convicted when you said stand
up and preach of God's sovereignty. I've gotten you in complaint
about your circumstances and about his providence. I do that.
I do that. Lord, make me content. Make me
to believe that you're working all things together for good,
for them that love thee and those that are called according to
your purpose. Lord, forgive me for my discontentment. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. And here's the mystery of godliness,
that Christ was manifested in the flesh. If I have Christ,
I'm godly and I'm content with him. And though we oftentimes
are discontent when it comes to our circumstances, and even
when it comes to God's good providence, faith is not discontent with
Christ. We're content with that which
God's content with, as far as Christ being my righteousness. We have brought nothing into
the world And it is certain that we should take nothing out. Having
food and raiment, let us therewith be content. What a blessing it
is when God makes you content. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. I want
to be content. But I can't find any contentment
before God outside of my David. I can't find contentment with
my works, with my wisdom, with my knowledge, with anything. I can't find contentment. I must
have Christ. And only when I come to the cave
of Adullam and meet my captain and sit with him can I say, I'm
satisfied. And I'm satisfied with him as
all my righteousness before God. But look at what David said,
I will behold when I die, I will behold thy face in righteousness,
and then I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. You see, there's a part of me
that's still discontent when it comes to Christ. You say,
what are you talking about, preacher? Well, here's what I'm talking
about. I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press towards the mark for
the prize of the high calling. Oh, that I might know him and
the fellowship of his suffering. I just want to know Him more,
and I'm not satisfied with how much I know of Him. If you know
Christ, and if you've tasted of His grace, you want more of
Him. You want more of Him. You want
to see more of His glory, more of His grace, more of His forgiveness.
And in that sense, you're discontent and you're gonna remain discontent
in this world until you behold His face in glory and then you'll
be satisfied when you're made like Him and you have no more
sin. As long as you're struggling
in this world with your old man, you won't be discontent. Discontent
with yourself, discontent with how much you know about Him. Go back with me to our text. Verse one, David, the son of
David, the captain of our salvation, the man after God's own heart,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, therefore departed, and thence
our savior has departed. He's ascended into glory. He's
seated at the right hand of God. And he escaped to the cave of
Adullam, that place where God's justice is satisfied. And when his brethren, they're
the only ones that are gonna go, his brethren, and all his father's house, They're
the ones that are gonna follow Him. They went down thither to
Him. And everyone that was in distress,
they had no place else to go. Everyone that was in debt, they
had a debt they couldn't pay. And everyone that was discontented
with their righteousness as the hope of their salvation, And
with all that they could possibly know in this world of him, they went down. And they gathered themselves
unto him. And he became a captain over
them. And there were about 400 men. Brother Caleb, thank you all.
It's been a blessing to be here with you.