So let's turn in our Bibles tonight
to 1 Samuel 27. 1 Samuel chapter 27. The title of my message tonight
is going to be, And David, And David. I counted seven verses
in these 12 in this chapter, which begin with those two words,
And David. And I'm going to use three of
them to begin three divisions as we look at the chapter. First,
And David, said in his heart, verse one. And David said in
his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.
There's nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape
into the land of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me
to seek me anymore in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape
out of his hands. You know, the scripture here
says, David said in his heart, he communed or spoke in his heart. How much better would it have
been and how different things may have turned out if instead
of speaking to himself, he had spoken unto the Lord. Instead
of speaking to himself in his heart, if he had cried out unto
the Lord and unburdened his soul unto the Lord. Now things might
have been different. Now we have no doubt that David
knew the Lord, but he did not avail himself at this time of
a privilege which is yours if you are a child of God, a privilege
which is mine, a privilege that every child of God has, and that
is to pray. To see God's face when in a difficulty,
in distress, as he certainly was, we have this wonderful privilege. And not only this privilege,
but promise to find mercy and grace to help in the time of
need. How things might have been different
if he had, rather than commune with himself, say in his heart
if he had spoken unto the Lord. Charles Spurgeon made a comment
on this and he said, you know, he said the heart is desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things. For man to commune or
say in his heart Now, a heart, a new heart, of course, is not
desperately wicked and deceitful like that, but that natural heart,
which all of us still have, that flesh, as it is called in the
New Testament, opposite of the spirit, that new man that is
created in righteousness and true holiness. In times of trouble,
and as I said, David certainly was in trouble at this point,
But in times of trouble, and all of us have those times, as
we go through this world, we live in a world that is not friendly
to the gospel. And our Lord has told us that
in this world we will have tribulation. No one escapes it, none of God's
children at least. But it's time to take our burdens
to the Lord. and leave them there. Cast your
cares upon the Lord, the Apostle Peter said. David himself wrote
in Psalm 9 and verse 9, the Lord also will be a refuge for the
oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Now, we may see here
in this verse what resulted from David reasoning or communing
or saying in his heart, speaking to himself, and leaving God out
of the equation. And that's what he does here.
It's very obvious. Notice his words. And scripture
said, and David said in his heart, now here is his words, I shall
now one day by the hand of Saul, I shall now perish one day by
the hand of Saul. There's nothing better for me
than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. These are the words of unbelief. There's no doubt about it. These
are the words of unbelief. Samuel had anointed David to
be king. There's no way David is going
to perish by the hand of Saul until he comes to the throne.
He's been anointed of God and been promised that he would reign
over God's people. These are words of unbelief.
And not only that, but these are words for getting God's providences. How many times have we seen,
as we've been looking through 1 Samuel, how many times have
we seen God's providence in delivering David? When Saul, and Saul was
an expert in using that javelin, don't think he wasn't, and he
was a strong man, he was a powerful man, And he cast that javelin
at David, I believe it's been two times, with the intention
of fastening him to the wall, the javelin going through David.
And yet God delivered David. He escaped from the hand of Saul. God's providence had delivered
him. But these words here that he
speaks now, I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. There's
nothing better for me to do than that I should speedily escape
into the land of the Philistines. And not only are they words of
unbelief, and they're words forgetting God's providence, but they're
words forgetting God's word. I want you to look back to 1 Samuel
chapter 22, just a moment. Forgetting God's word. In 1 Samuel
chapter 22 and verse 5, and we saw this several weeks ago, and
the prophet Gad said unto David, abide not in the hold, depart
and get thee into the land of Judah. God, through his prophet,
had told him where to go and he hadn't told him to leave.
He hadn't told him any different. He had told him to abide or to
be in the land of Judah, and now David reasons, well, there's
nothing better for me to do than speedily to leave Judah and to
go into the land of the Philistines. I don't know about you, but I
love reading about the prophet Elijah, I believe in 1 Kings.
the times that God directs him and tells him to go here and
to go there. And he stays in those places
until God tells him, leave this place and go here. You know,
he was by that brook at one time and the brook eventually dried
up. But a brook doesn't normally,
I don't think, dry up overnight. He didn't go to sleep one night
and the brook was running and the next morning he gets up and
there's no brook. It's dry. No, a brook dries up
slowly. And no doubt Elijah, he saw that
brook was drying up. I better leave. I better find
another place. But he doesn't do that, does
he? He waits. He waits upon God. And David
here had been told by the prophet, the prophet of God, to be in
the land of Judah. And he wasn't told any different
now. Now it's time to leave. He wasn't
told that. And you know, when he said here
in this text that there was nothing better for him for him to do than to go into
the land of the Philistines, he had forgotten the curse that
he had pronounced upon any who would send him out of the land
of Israel. Look back in the previous chapter,
in chapter 26, we saw this last time, in verse 19, when He was
speaking to Saul. Remember, he had gone down into
the camp, and Saul was asleep, and his bodyguards were all asleep,
and all the armies were asleep, and he and one man, they went
among the armies, and they took the spear, I believe it was,
of Saul, and cut off part of his body. No, they took his spear
and his water container. And he goes a little distance
and then he begins to reprimand Abner, because Abner was his
commander-in-chief and he had failed. He had failed in the
greatest way to protect Saul. And then notice he told And part
of his speech when he was speaking to Saul, he said, now therefore
I pray thee, this is chapter 26 and verse 19. Now therefore
I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the lord, if what you're doing,
seeking to kill me, if this is something that the lord has brought
about, if the lord have stirred thee up against me, well, let
him accept an offering. But now notice, but if this,
you trying to kill me, you searching for me, is the result of men
lying on me and men telling you that I'm trying to do you harm
and trying to steal the throne, Well, notice he said, but if
they be the children of men cursed, he pronounces a curse upon any
that would do that before the Lord. Now notice, for they have
driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord
saying, go serve other gods. In other words, if him leaving
the land of Israel was the result of these men, then be a curse
upon them, because if I leave this land, then I'm going to
go into a land of idolaters. I'm going to go into an area
or place where they worship false gods. You know, God is very particular,
isn't he, about the nation of Israel and about God's children
today, about being separate. separate because the bad just
seems to have an influence over the good, more than the good
over the bad most of the time. David doesn't want to be in a
land where they do not worship God. He had pronounced a curse
on those people, and now he's doing the very same thing. He's
saying, there's nothing better for me to do than speedily escape
into the land of the Philistines where they worshiped other gods. Our second point, verse two,
and David arose. He arose and passed over with
the 600 men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Mahoch,
king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at
Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David
with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelites, and Abigail,
the Carmelites, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that David
was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. And David
said unto Achish, if I have now found grace in thine eyes, let
them give me a place in some town in the country that I may
dwell there. For why should thy servant dwell
in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziglag that
day. Wherefore, Ziglag pertaineth
unto the kings of Judah unto this day. And the time that David
dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months."
David, we remember, had fled once before to Gath. He had fled
once before to this king, Achab. But that time, he was alone. He went there by himself. And
he was well known in that city, remember. When he came to Gath,
people knew who he was. They knew he was the man who
had killed their hero, Goliath. And he was from Gath. And they knew that the Israelites
praised David for having slain his thousands. And they began
to accuse David to the king, Aches. And remember what he had
to do? He had to feign himself as an
insane person, as a person who had lost his mind. That's the
way he was delivered that time from those. But this time we
say he goes there again, but not alone. He takes his 600 men,
his soldiers, with him. Plus, we are told, their families
went with them as well. And then we see he very wisely
asked the king if he could live in another part of the country,
in another city. And we're told he lived there
for 16 months. And we must see this. David achieved his goal. If you
look in verse 4, if his goal was to escape from Saul, he achieved
his goal. The scripture here says Saul
sought no more again for him. But we must ask, at what price? At what price? He was now out
of the land of Israel. He was now away from God's worship. He was now in a place where the
tabernacle certainly was not, a place where the priest of God
were not. And I thought about this and
I thought maybe, just maybe this was a time when he wrote in Psalm
84, how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord. Here I am in a foreign
land, no place to worship God, No place ordained of God to worship. Here I am. And thinking about
the tabernacle, how amiable. What a blessing he thinks within
himself. How amiable. If once again I
could see that tabernacle and see the smoke ascending from
the altar, the brazen altar there and the sacrifices and the priest
serving the Lord. How amiable. are thy tabernacles,
O Lord. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh crieth out
for the living God. But you see now, he was aligned,
he had aligned himself with the enemies of God, the enemies of
God's people. Third, Aunt David, beginning
with verse eight. And David and his men went up
and invaded the Geshurites and the Gezerites and the Amalekites,
and for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land,
as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. And David
smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive. and took
away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels,
and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achis. And Achis
said, Whither have you made a road today? And David said, Against
the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jeremelites,
and against the south of the Kenites. And David saved neither
man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, lest
they should tell on us, saying, so did David, and so will be
his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.
And Achis believed David, saying, he hath made his people Israel
utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant
forever. Now these people that we're told
that David and his armies invaded their cities and destroyed them. They were descendants of those
who God commanded when Israel entered into the land of Canaan
to destroy all the inhabitants. All of those six nations were
to be destroyed. Remember God told Abraham that
he gave him that land, but the iniquity of the Amorites was
not yet full. I think it was 450 years God
gave those nations time to repent, space to repent. But they didn't
repent, they went on in their idolatry and their evil worship. And when God brought Israel into
the land, Then Joshua was commanded to destroy them. But they didn't
do it. They didn't do it. And that just
reminds us that the law, they were under the law of Sinai,
weren't they? That covenant at Sinai. And you
know, it commands men to do what man cannot do of himself. Man thinks, well, I'm just going
to keep the commandments of God. Well, hear this. Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all
thy mind. You up to that? You ever done
that? Let's be honest. Of course we
haven't. Neither has any other fallen
individual, fallen descendant of Adam. And the law commands,
but Those who were under that covenant at Sinai, they didn't
keep it, not from the very beginning. And so now, when David is alive,
these inhabitants are still there, and David does go and destroy
many of them. And you notice the Amlekites
are mentioned here. They were the ones that Moses
had to fight. When they first came out of Egypt
across the Red Sea and they came to that place of Mara where the
water was bitter and they had no food and God gave them manna
and then these Amalekites came along. Look with me in Exodus
chapter 17. They came and they made war against
Israel. Now Israel was not prepared for
war. They'd been slaves in Egypt for
400 years. They'd just come out. When they,
they defeated, God defeated the armies of Pharaoh, but they didn't,
they didn't have anything to do with that. God destroyed them
in the Red Sea, didn't he? Now here they are just out of
Egypt, really not, not far out of Egypt. verse 8 here in chapter
7, it says, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out, men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
And Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses Aaron and her went
up to the top of the hill, and it came to pass when Moses held
up his hand. That rod, when he held up his
hand, he held up that rod. That was the same rod with which
he had opened up the Red Sea. And it was God who did it, of
course, but God used that rod. Israel prevailed, and when he
let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat there
on, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the
one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were
steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua disconfited
Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. But the Lord
said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse
it in the ears of Joshua. Now notice, for I will utterly
put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built
an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. This is
the third one of those compound names in the Old Testament with
Jehovah. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my
banner. make us a memorial to the Lord,
giving them the victory. But God there told Moses that
he would utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven. But now I want you to go back
to 1 Samuel. This is the thing that God had
told Saul to do. Remember, if you look in 1 Samuel
chapter 15, The Amalekites were still in
the land. 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 2. Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel. How he
laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now
go and smite Amalek. and utterly destroy all that
they have and spare them not, but slay both man, woman, infant,
and sucking, ox and sheep and camel and ass." And if you look
down in that same chapter, remember this is when Samuel told Saul
God had rejected him. He wasn't going to be the king.
Why? Because he disobeyed God. Look
at that in verse 22. And Samuel said, hath the Lord
his great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices and as in obeying
the voice of the Lord? Saul said, well, I obeyed. I just kept the best to sacrifice
unto God. But that's not what God said.
That's not what God told you to do. He had an excuse, didn't
he? He had an alibi. But it didn't
hold water. Behold, Samuel said, to obey
is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion, and that's what
Disobedience is, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast
rejected the word of the Lord, he also rejected thee from being
king. Now back in our text in chapter
27, when this king would ask David, where'd you go today?
Where'd you, where'd you go? And, and these sheep and oxen
that you're bringing back, the spoils, where, where did you
do that? And David, some say, well, he
didn't actually lie. He just said something in a way
that could be easily misunderstood. He said he had gone to the south
of, well, he had, he had, but it wasn't, the tribe of Judah,
the inhabitants of Judah that he was attacking. It was these
foreign nations, those who were aligned with the Philistines,
those who were enemies, or friends, rather, with the Philistines
and enemies of Israel. If it wasn't a lie, it was equivocation
in order to deceive. Now let me conclude the message tonight
with this. What are some lessons? What are
some lessons for us from this chapter? And there's many I'm
sure but I have these four. First of all the truthfulness
of the Bible. What a testimony to the truthfulness
of the Bible. If the Bible were merely the
work of men, there are things about various characters. And David certainly is an outstanding
character in the word of God. But there are things about other
men like Abraham telling his wife to lie twice, and he lied
himself. And Isaac did the same thing.
And Jacob. What about him and some of his
shenanigans? Moses killed a man. David here, we see he fell into
unbelief and deceived this man. What about Solomon? Oh my, think
about Solomon, how that his heart was turned away from the Lord.
What about Peter? What I'm saying is that these
things would not have been recorded if men had written this book.
Why? Because we would have wanted
to picture these men. And the same would be true about
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joshua, any of these Old Testament men and
writers, if it had been God's purpose, were no doubt things
in all of their lives. Flaws, sins, whatever you want
to call it. They were all like us. Man at
his best is still a man. They were all like us. Sinners
who need a savior. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Don't you love that verse where
the Apostle Paul said, this is the faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. What kind of sinners? What kind
of sinners? No qualifying word there, is
it? Sensible sinners? That's the
way I've heard and read messages years ago. People used to try
to quote, no sinners. He came into this world to save
sinners. Well, I can answer to that. I can fit in there. I can find
hope there. Can you? He came to save sinners. A second lesson, there's only
been one perfect man who's ever walked on the face of God's earth,
and that is the God man. Jesus, our blessed Lord. And we must keep looking to him,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. If
you follow a man, and we all do to a certain extent, but I
know, and I've been around here for a while now, if you follow
a man, sooner or later you're going to be disappointed. because
he's just a man, but not the God man. You know, even the Apostle
Paul, and I think all of us would agree that maybe of all the men
that we are aware of, he was a man who served God so faithfully
and God used him so much in the New Testament in spreading the
gospel among the Gentiles. But even he said, be ye followers
of me, comma, he didn't say period, be ye followers of me, period,
no, no, comma, even as I follow Christ, even as I also am of
Christ. And third, the third lesson is
we must watch and pray against temptation because every day
we're living in a world and we still have that old man We know
there's temptations that come to sin, to take the easy way. We've all faced that day by day. And the last lesson, we must
glory in imputed righteousness. Amen? Imputed righteousness. Let's close. Look with me in
Romans 4 when the Apostle Paul brings up the testimony of David.
Romans chapter 4 and verse 6, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. Amen. He has made unto us wisdom, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. So that we glory in him, don't
we? We're complete in him. I pray the Lord will bless these
words and thoughts to us here this evening.