I want to read you a passage
of scripture from the book of 1 Samuel. If you'll turn with
me to 1 Samuel, chapter 22. 1 Samuel, chapter 22. Just two verses. Verses 1 and 2 of 1 Samuel
22. departed Fence and escaped to
the cave of Dullam. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And everyone that was in distress
and everyone that was in debt And everyone that was discontented
or bitter of soul gathered themselves unto him. And he became a captain
over them, and there were with him about four hundred men. Our Lord Jesus Christ answered
to the title, Son of God. For he was verily the Son of
God, the Son of God. This is my beloved Son. Thou art the Christ, Peter said,
the Son of the living God. And our Lord said, Blessed art
thou, Simon, the Father revealed that to you, the Son of God. Christ answered to that title,
the Son of God. Our Lord also answered to the
title, Son of Man. He said, the Son of Man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost. The Son of Man. Frequently, he identified himself
as the Son of Man. But one day, as our Lord walked
out of the city of Jericho, and masses and multitudes of people
converged upon him and about him, and he walked steadily through
the gate of the city going out. And a voice rang out, Jesus,
thou son of David, not son of God, not son of man. This voice repeatedly cried,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And the scripture
said, and Jesus stood still. He recognized that title too,
and he stopped dead still. Jesus, thy son of David. What is this son of David business? We know he barely is the son
of God. Jesus Christ is the son of God. We know that Jesus Christ was
made in the flesh the Son of Man. That is, he was bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh. He was identified with us. God
became man. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. I know something about this Son of God. I honor and
hallow his name, Son of God. And I'm glad that he is my surety
and representative and federal head of a new race. Given him
by the Father, he is verily the Son of Man, made of a woman,
made under the law. But what is this Son of David?
Son of David. Now, nothing is more common in
Jewish writings, and I say that, that's not exaggerating. We're
prone to exaggerate, all of us are, in making our points. But
I'm not making a point by exaggeration. I'm making a point by truth.
Nothing is more common in Jewish writings in regard to the Messiah. Nothing is more common than the
term Son of David. That's right, Indy. Nothing is
more common. When the Messiah was referred
to, no term is more commonplace and used more frequently than
Son of David. Son of David, Son of David. The
Pharisees recognized him. Hold the scripture right there
a minute and turn to Matthew chapter 22. The Pharisees, the
scribes, the Sadducees, the religious leaders, the religious rulers,
those who studied the prophets and the scriptures, they knew
that the Messiah was to be the Son of David. Now listen to this,
Matthew chapter 22 and verse 41. Now look at it. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Now, he's not saying, What do
you think of me? He's saying, What do you think of Christ?
Of course, I know he's the Christ. You know he's the Christ. They
didn't know he was the Christ. What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of Messiah? What think ye of that prophet?
Whose son is he?" And they said unto him, now remember these
are the Pharisees and the Sadducees, these are the religious leaders
of his day. And they answered, the son of
David. The son of David. That's how
they recognized him. That's the reason this blind
man cried out in his need, in his darkness. in his misery. Jesus, I know you're the Messiah. I know you're the Christ. Have
mercy on me, thou son of David. That's the way he identified
Jesus Christ. Turn, if you will, to another
scripture in Matthew. Matthew chapter 12. Matthew the
12th chapter and verse 23. Matthew 12, 23. Now, watch this
carefully, what I'm saying. Our Lord answered to the term,
Son of God, Son of Man, but no term is more common in reference
to the Messiah, the Christ, the Redeemer of Israel, than Son
of David. And here in Matthew 12, 22, Then
was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb,
and healed him. In so much that the blind and
dumb both spake and saw, and all the people were amazed, and
they said, Is not this the Son of David? Is not this the Messiah? Is not this the Christ? Is not
this the one for whom we look? And then if you'll turn, not
now but later, we'll move along with these scriptures, but in
Genesis 49, write this down if you're taking notes, Genesis
49, 10, Jacob, was blessing his sons, the twelve
sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes. He was blessing each one, individually. It came to Judah. Judah now is
the tribe from which David came. Judah is the tribe of Jesse,
David. Judah is the tribe of Christ,
Mary and Joseph, both were the tribe of Judah. They went to
Bethlehem to be taxed, county seat of the tribe of Judah. Listen
to this, the scepter, when Jacob came to Judah, he said, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes, till he comes who
is the king of peace, son of David, son of David, son of David. Then I want you to turn to this
one in Acts 13, Acts chapter 13, now stay with me, Acts 13
verse 21, here the apostle Paul is preaching. and Antioch, that
Jesus is the Christ. You see you're heading up there
at the top of your Bible where Acts 13 is, Paul preaches at
Antioch that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is
the one for whom we look. He's the Redeemer. And down here
in verse 22, verse 21, now let's read it. Verse 21, Acts 13, And
afterward they desired a king, and God gave unto them Saul the
son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40
years. And when he had removed Saul,
he raised up unto them David to be their king. To whom also
he gave testimony and said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man
after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will, and of this
man see. hath God, according to his promise,
raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus." Son of David. Son of
David. And then in Romans 1, let's look
over here, Romans 1, and here, like Brother Bruce said last
night, is a definition of the gospel. Is the gospel declared
in Romans 1? Verse 1 through 3, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the
gospel of God, which he promised before by his prophets, which
he promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scripture, concerning
his son, his son, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David, which was made of the seed of
David, according to the flesh. Why are you saying all that,
Pastor? I say all that to justify my use this morning of David
as a type of Christ. I'm using David as a picture
of Christ, as a type of Christ. And there's no more fitting type
in the Bible, no human being in God's Word anywhere that is
a more fitting type of Christ than David, for he verily is
called throughout the Word the son of David. The son of David. All right,
now go back to our text in 1 Samuel 22. What's going on here? What is happening here? When
David was a small, was a young lad, let's put it that way, and
I think we make David to be a lot smaller than he was. David was
quite a man, but when he was a, when he was we judged to be
a teenager, somewhere in his teens, God was angry with Saul. Saul was raised up and made king
of Israel by demand from the people. They wanted a king. They
said, give us a king like the other nations. Give us a king
like the Philistines and the Malachites. We want a king. God
said, all right, I'll give you a king. You want a king? There's
a king, Saul. And Saul departed from the ordinances
of God, from the worship of God, from the And the Spirit of God
left Saul, and the people were burdened and oppressed under
this man. So they asked for him. Just like
in the Garden of Eden, we asked for Satan. We rejected God's
kingship and lordship, and we obeyed the voice of Satan. We
asked for and got a king. Servants of a king caused sin. Well, Israel asked for a king,
but God raised up the true king. The man after his own heart.
God raised up David and so Samuel the prophet went down to the
house of Jesse to anoint a king. God didn't tell him the king's
name. He just told him he was the son of Jesse. And so Jesse
had seven sons. Is that right? Seven sons? Seven
sons. And he had one called David. He was the youngest son. He had
seven sons beginning with the oldest, handsome, strong, clever,
intelligent, all these things. Well, David was those things
too, but he was a youth. He was a youth. And his father,
thinking naturally, thinking like any natural man would, just
said, he's not going to make my baby king of Israel. There's
just no way that God's going to take this kid. There's no
way that God's going to take this boy over this man. My son thirty-five, my son with
strength and intelligence and power. This boy is unproven,
this man is proven. And so he sent David out to take
care of the sheep, while Samuel anointed a king. Well, you know
the story. He went through all those boys, all six of them. And Samuel would say, surely
the Lord's anointed is before him, and God rejected every one
of them. He said, I've rejected. And finally Samuel, when he got
through the last boy, he turned to Jesse and he knew his orders.
He knew he came down there to anoint a king. And he turned
to Jesse and he says, Are these all the boys you've got? Well,
Jesse said, No, I've got one more. Well, where is he? Well,
he's out taking care of the sheep. I didn't think you'd be interested
in him. He said, Well, I will not eat till you go after him.
And he went after him and brought him back. And the minute, David
walked in the door. The Lord God said, Samuel, arise,
anoint him. For the Lord God seeth not as
man seeth. Man looketh on the outward countenance,
God looks on the heart. And God had given David a heart
to love God. A heart to love God. And Samuel
anointed him. Well, you know how David slew
Goliath. You know how David became a favorite
of the people? They sang, Saul has killed his
thousands, David his ten thousands. And boy, that got under the skin
of the king. They came back from battle, and they'd be marching
into the city, and they'd pray Saul for killing his thousands.
They'd praise David for ten days. Everything they'd say about Saul,
they'd say something better about David, and Saul became jealous.
I'm sure that Saul got wind of that anointing down there in
Jesse's house, too. I'm just confident of it. And
so Saul had a son called Jonathan, and Jonathan really was the heir
of the throne. But Jonathan knew that David
was going to be king. David was God's king and David
was going to be king. And it couldn't anything be changed.
It's like Haupt said last night, his purpose is set and his mind
can't be changed and no one can change his course. God has made
up his mind. God has ordained David to be
king. And Saul did everything in his
power to destroy David. He tried to throw a spear at
him one time and kill him and missed it. But Jonathan went
to David, they loved one another, and Jonathan said, now you're
going to have to leave here, my father's going to kill you, but
now we'll make a covenant, we'll make a covenant between you and
me. He said, you're going to be king, and when you become
king, you take care of my family. And David promised, and David
left. And on the way running by himself, running from Saul,
he stopped in at this certain place in the same chapter, he
stopped in at this place. And he told the priest there,
there were something like 85 priests, the priest of God, the
worship of God was carried on there, and David told him he
was on an errand for the king, and he needed something to eat.
And he had some men with him. That's right, he had some men
with him at that time. And so the priest gave him the
holy bread. You remember the show bread he
was going to put in the tabernacle? He gave it to David to eat. And
David said, I need a sword. And the priest said, well, don't
you have a sword? He said, no. He said, do you have one? He
said, we've got Goliath's sword, that when you killed Goliath,
we had his sword right here behind the ephod, wrapped in a cloth.
David said, give it to me, there's none like it. And so he left. He left, and that was the chapter
before. That's when he was alone. That's
right, that's when he was alone. And he left, and he took that
sword, and he went down, and I'll show you how low David had
stooped. Not by choice, but he was running from Saul. Saul was
trying to kill him. And so when he left with the
sword of Goliath, he came to Gath, G-A-T-H. That's where Goliath
was from. And the king there, he thought
he'd hide out there, and the king discovered him. And David
was afraid of the king. Gap and so he acted like he's
crazy. He let his spittle run down over his beard He scratched
on the walls and he just did all these you read it back in
chapter 21 David acted like he's crazy He'd scratch on the walls.
He'd spit and slobber, you know, and and the king says get that
wild man away from me get away from me and David went over to
this cave. That's how he got there He's
gonna hide out in this cave a dullum now then When his father's house
and his family heard where he was, they went to him. And 400
men who were in debt, who were discontented, who were distressed,
came to David. Now David, watch it, is king,
right? By God's decree. He's in a cave. He's not in a palace, he's in
a cave. He's not wearing a crown. He's wearing a peasant's hat.
He's not wearing the robes of royalty. He's wearing the attire
of a common man, but he's king. He's God's king. He's God's king. And my friends, Jesus Christ
is God's king. He's God's king. He came down
to this earth, and He had their spittle on His face. They spit
in His face. And they plucked out His beard.
He was rejected, despised, acquainted with grief, a man of sorrows.
And we hear it as it were our faces from him, everybody, it
was anybody turned thumbs down on him, but he's king. He's king. Listen to these scriptures. Psalm
2, 6, I've set my king upon the holy hill of Zion. Psalm 24,
8, Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. Matthew
21, 5, Behold thy king cometh, Zechariah prophesied, riding
on an ass. Matthew 25, 31, when the Son
of Man cometh in his glory, he shall sit upon the throne of
his glory. Matthew 28, 18, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth, King of kings and Lord
of lords. And Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6,
15, Christ is the blessed and only potentate. He's King. He's King. And in God's own time,
remember this. In God's own time, his kingdom
and his kingship and his royalty will be revealed to all the world.
Now, David was sitting in there in that cave, running from Saul, hiding, clothed
in the poorest of garments, but that's the king. That's the king. And in God's own time, he'll
sit on the throne, the most powerful, richest throne in all the world. And Jesus Christ, I'm here to
tell you, is God's King. And while He's despised and rejected
of men, a man of sours, acquainted with grief, He's God's King by
decree, by design, by God's purpose. He's the King. And His kingdom
will one day in God's own time be revealed, like the thief on
the cross said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. But
Saul still reigned in Israel. Saul was sitting on the throne.
Saul still reigned. Turn with me to Hebrews 2. I
want you to see a scripture over here. David is the king, right? David is the rightful king because
God has made him king. God has ordained him to be king
over all Israel. But Saul is still occupying that
place in the eyes of men. In the eyes of men. Now look
at Hebrews 2. Thou hast put all things," this is talking about
Christ, "...in subjection under his feet," verse 8, Hebrews 2.8,
you see it? "...Thou hast put all things
in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection
under him, God left nothing that is not put under Christ. But
now we see not yet all things put under him." No, you go out
here and tell the world, turn to 1 Corinthians 15. You go out
here and tell the world tomorrow Jesus Christ is King, and they'll
laugh and say, well, who's running Russia? Who's running Red China? Who's King of this country? Certainly
not Jesus Christ! Yes, He is. Yes, He is. What about when the stars collide,
and the tempests roll, and earthquakes break the earth open, and the
snows cover up the people, and the floods ransack? Looks like
the devil's raining to me." No, he's not. No, he's not. It looks
that way to you, but he's not raining. David's king. Where's the king of Israel? The
fellow down the road, you stop him down the road and say, where's
the king of Israel? The natural man says, his name's
Saul, he lived in Jerusalem. If you had asked the prophet,
what was his name, Nathan? Where is the king of Israel?
They'd say, he's in a cave up in Adullam. That's what he'd
have said. He's up there in a cave. You
say, who's the king of this world? Well, whoever happens to be sitting
on the throne. No sir. He's sitting at the right hand
of God. That's where he is. He's king.
He's king. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, verse
24. Then cometh the end. When he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put
down all rule, all contrary rule, all authority and all power,
for he must reign till he puts all enemies under his feet, and
the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. One of the
Lord's children dies. And you say, is Christ king?
Then how come his child died? Well, the Lord will take care
of that enemy one of these days, too. He'll take care of that
enemy, too. He's going to destroy all his
enemies. He's sitting on the throne expecting till all his
enemies be made his footstool. No, it required a revelation
to see David as king. It required an understanding
to see David as king in his present state. Samuel knew he was king,
just like old Simeon the prophet. Samuel knew who the king was.
God said, Samuel, I've rejected Saul. Anoint David. And brother Samuel anointed him,
and Samuel knew who the king was. He knew who was running
Israel at that time. He knew who was sitting on the
throne at that time. He knew who was wearing the robes at
that time. He knew who was wearing the crown,
but he knew he wasn't king. He knew the king was in the cage.
And brother, by special revelation, one day there was an old man
in the temple, an old white-haired man by the name of Simeon, going
about his duties in the temple. And God told him, said, you're
not going to die until you see the Messiah. And old Samuel,
I bet you he looked at everybody that came in that temple for
years and years, but he hadn't given up. And one day a young
woman came in by the name of Mary. And she had a baby in her
arms, she came to do after him, or for him, after the ceremonies
and traditions of the Jewish people. Our Lord was born under
the moral law, the civil law, the law of the home, and the
ceremonial law. And everything was done just like those Jewish
children. Because he fulfilled them. You
say, why don't we do those things now? He fulfilled them. He fulfilled
all the types and ceremonies and feasts and laws and everything
else. He is our Sabbath. He is our circumcision. He is
our feast day. He is our thank offering. He
is. And so she came in that baby, and she laid that baby in his
arms, in the arms of the priest, to pray and do what he's supposed
to do. And he took one look at it, a man of understanding, a
man to whom God had spoken. And he lifted his eyes and he
said, Lord, now let me die. I've seen your salvation. I know
who the king is. I've seen the king. I've seen
the king. Yes, sir. Alex said, Are you
a king? You sure don't look like one.
They sure don't look well. God's king doesn't look like
man's king. Man's king is covered with the
glitter and glamour of the world and vanity. God's king is filled
with peace and righteousness and holiness within. He's like
the tabernacle of old that's covered with badger skin that
looked like any old tent till you got inside. Well, David was in the cave.
He's God's king. He'll be on the throne in God's
own time. In God's own time. Somebody else,
an imposter was on the throne. An imposter. And there's an imposter
on the throne in your life too. You're trying to run it. Christ
is not your King and your Lord. He is by God's decree and God's
design. But he's not permitted to reign.
You've got an imposter. You've got self-reigning. You've
got self reign, you've got sin reign, you're a servant of sin,
you're in service of an imposter, a counterfeit king. God's king
is Jesus Christ. If thou shalt confess without
mouth Jesus to be your Lord, and believe in thine heart God
has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But he's
not going to be your savior while that imposter is reigning over
your life. Well, David's not going to stay in the cave and
leave Saul on the throne. This is what's wrong with modern
preaching today. They say, make Jesus Christ your
Savior and you can be your own Lord. If it's convenient later
on, you can make Him Lord. That's like leaving David in
the cave, Jay, and Saul on the throne. That can't be done. He's
got to be brought out of obscurity and placed on the throne if a
man's his subject. But bless your heart, some of
these men, look down here at verse 2, and everyone that was
in debt, that was in distress, and everyone in debt, everyone
discontented, gathered themselves to David. Now most of the people
followed Saul, because he, by default, as an imposter, he occupied
the throne. But God's king was in the cave,
and four hundred men came to him. You see 1 Samuel 22 verse
2? Now let me point something out
to you here. To come to David after he was
crowned in Jerusalem, after the ten tribes and two tribes came
together and made David king, to come to him then, well, that
To crown him then is expected, everybody did it. You see what
I'm saying? When Saul was finally killed,
when Saul was killed, disposed of, and David walked down the
streets of Jerusalem in this coronation parade, and they put
that crown on him, the whole nation of Israel bowed and acknowledged
him as king. Now that's going to happen sometime,
Christ is going to be enthroned. Publicly, the angels are going
to be witnesses. The devils are going to be witnesses,
the saved are going to be witnesses, the lost are going to be witnesses,
the believers, unbelievers. Every knee shall bow in heaven,
earth, and hell. Isn't that what scripture says,
Philippians 2? And they shall acknowledge he's
Lord. Some of them willingly, some of them unwillingly, but
they're going to acknowledge him. Are you with me? That won't help you
any. Not then. Not then. The time
to acknowledge David as king is while he's in the cave. Are
you there? This is the picture of Christ.
To acknowledge David as king after he was crowned, after he
was enthroned, after Saul had been put away, after his kingdom
had been revealed, that's nothing. That's expected. That did happen. But the time to acknowledge David
as king is when God acknowledges him as king, in his humiliation,
in his poverty, in his humiliation and time of despair. That's the
time. And let me tell you something.
These 400 men who came to David in the cave, who do you think
walked down the street with him, say so, when they crowned him?
I'll tell you who did, boy, them 400 men. That's exactly right. You know who attended the first
feast when David threw a party? You want to guess? These 400
men. I guarantee you, family, that's
who it was. Do you know who got the honors? Who got the praise? Who got the
glory? Who were his friends? David knew
that other outfit. He knew, well, it proved it when
he left, when Absalom tried to take over, they followed Absalom.
If John Doe had been raised up, they'd have followed John Doe. If Henry Mahan had walked in
with a big crowd, they'd have followed him. It all depends
on who's running the purse strings and who's holding the control,
you know, they'll follow him. Whoopee! Hail David, hail Saul,
hail Solomon, hail Absalom, hail anybody you know that's boss.
But there's 400 men, 400 men. They turned their back on Saul
and everybody else, and turned their back on their lives, they
turned their back on their families, they turned their back on their
jobs, they turned their back on everybody, and they went out
there to a cave where there was a young man whose beard had grown,
whose clothes were not the best, who was in humiliation and shame,
who was being hunted by Saul. And they went to him and they
said, You are our captain because God made you captain. You are
our king because God made you king. And we're not going to
serve Saul no matter how popular he is. We're not going to serve
Saul no matter how much power he's got. We're not going to
serve Saul no matter how deceptive he is. We're not going to serve
Saul. We're going to serve David. They
made him captain over them. Why'd they come to David? Why'd
they come? Well, number one, they came because
they knew something these other folks didn't know. That's right,
I'm sure of that. They came to David because they
believed the Word of God. The prophet told them, David's
the king. Samuel told them. His father,
you see here in verse 1, and when his brother and his father's
house heard it, they went to David. They knew who David was.
They knew he was king. They were there when he was anointed.
And these other men, they had word. Why did Noah enter the
ark when everybody else stayed out? He knew what they didn't
know. Why did Abraham pack up and leave
his father's house and leave all his friends there? He saw
what they didn't see. Abraham saw my day, Christ said.
My day. My day. Huh? Why did Abel bring a sacrifice
like he did and Esau bring something else, or Cain bring something
else? Abel saw what Cain didn't see.
And these 400 men came to David because they saw what nobody
else saw. They saw in David the king. But
that's not all. And I don't think that's the
chief reason. The main reason they came to him is given right
here in the text. They were in distress. They were troubled
about the reign of Saul. Oh, they were troubled. They
knew Saul was an imposter. They were in trouble. They were
in debt. They were discontented. They
were worried. They were concerned. They came to David because they
needed David. They needed him. They had a revelation
of who he was, and they needed him! They needed his leadership. They needed his love. They needed
his strength. They needed his comfort. They
needed his help. They needed him! And that's why
they came. And I'll tell you this, why did
I come to Christ? Well, number one, to be perfectly honest with
you, I need him. I need him. Desperately need
him. Because I'm in distress, distress because of my sins,
distress because of my future, distress because of God's wrath,
distress like Jay read a moment ago, my sins are ever before
me. I'm in distress. What's to be done about my sins?
How can man be just with God? I'm in debt. I'm so far in debt
spiritually that only God can bail me out. I'm in debt to the
law, I'm in debt to justice. And the only thing with which
justice will be satisfied is my life, body and soul. And the only thing that can please
the law is a perfect obedience. And I can't give that perfect
obedience and I don't want to give my life. I need Christ. And then I'm discontented. Aren't
you discontented with all that this world has to offer philosophically? with all it has to offer. So
I came to Christ, and they came to David. And brother, let me
tell you something. When the day came for God to
put David on the throne, marching up that street with David in
his glory, in his glory were 400 men who loved him in his
humiliation. Four hundred men who loved him
in his distress and who stood with him. That's where it's going
to be when Christ walks into glory. His sheep are going to
be with him, his people, those who have made him captain. Now
one more story and I'll quit. You remember I told you that
that priest gave David that sword and David went to the cave? Well,
right behind him came Saul. a few days later, and he saw
these priests, 85 of them, and their families. And he said,
I'm told that David came through here. And the priest said, yes,
he did. He said, I'm told that you gave
him bittles, food. Yes, we did. I'm told that you
gave him a sword. Yes, we did. He turned to his
men and said, kill every one of them. Kill all 85 of the Lord's
priests. And his men wouldn't do it. They
just stood there. They were afraid. Saul was a
bloody man. But they were afraid to lay hands
on God's priest. And there was another fellow
there rightly named Dog, D-O-E-G, Dough Egg, but I call him Dog.
But he was there and he said, I'll do it. And he whipped out
his sword and killed 85 priests. and all their wives and children.
That's what it says there. And one boy escaped, there in
chapter 22. Turn over there to verse 20. And one of the sons of Ahimelech
escaped. See verse 20, 1 Samuel 22, verse
20, and fled to David. Abartha was his name, and Abartha,
verse 21, see that, verse 20, one of the sons of Elimelech,
that's the high priest, the priest, he fled to David, and Abartha
showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And David
said unto Abartha, I knew it that day when Doeg, the Edomite,
was there that he would surely tell Saul. I have caused the
death of all these people of your Father's house." Now watch
verse 23. Get the picture now. David's
there and this young man came to him. He doesn't want to escape
the sword of Saul. He came to David. And David said,
Son, watch this. You stay with me, abide with
me. Verse 23. And fear not, for he that seeketh
my life seeketh your life. With me you'll be in safety.
I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad. And I told
him my story. And he said, you stay with me.
The one who seeks your life seeks mine. And he can't get to you
until he gets through me. With me you'll be saved. You
see that picture? I'm your king. I'm your king. God's anointed me king. And Satan
would destroy... Let me tell you something, my
friend. I hear people talk about, Satan made war on me. You are
not the object of his wrath. Christ is the object of his wrath. Don't exalt yourself. Don't be
too high and mighty there. Satan could care less for me
and you. Do you know who he's after? The Son of God. Saul could
care less for this young man. He's not after that young man.
He's after David. He'd sacrifice ten million of
these young men to get to David. He'd do what he would to all
these young men to get to David. So David said, just get behind
me, young fellow. Because he that is after you
is after me. And with me you'll be saved.
I love that, I tell you. That's one of the sweetest pictures,
I think, in this Bible. Anywhere, David is a type of
our Lord. When that young man came to him,
scared, trembling. Oh, don't you know, the only
one to escape out of 85 priests, he's the son of one of the priests.
He came to David. Bless your heart, David, said,
son, with me you're safe, because he that's after you is after
me. And that's where you're safe, in Christ, as your King. That thou shalt confess with
thy mouth, Jesus, to be King. You'll be saved, because he that's
after you, he's after Christ, he's not after you. You're not
his primary target, you're not his primary objective, Christ
is. And that's what I want to tell
every one of these compromising preachers around. It's the gospel
that Satan's out to destroy. It's the gospel that he doesn't
want you to pray. So whether he prospers you numerically
or any other way, if you don't preach the gospel, he's got what
he's after. He's after Christ. He's after
the testimony of our Lord. He could care less for you, but
he's after Christ. You're safe with me, David said,
and we are in the safety of his wings. Under his wings we're
safe. We thank Thee for this example.
We thank Thee for David. We thank Thee for the son of
David. But we thank thee for these men
whom you used their lives to bless us, to show us Christ. This scripture, it gives us great
joy and comfort and strength to know that we're safe with
Christ. Just like this young man sat
down and rested under the protective arm of David. We can cease from
our labors. We don't have to defend ourselves.
We can cease from our labors. We don't have to speak for ourselves.
He speaks for us. He defends us. He provides for
us. He protects us. We enter into
his rest and turn our battles over to Christ, our Lord and
King. Thank you, Lord, for speaking
to our hearts. In his name we pray. Amen.