Let us turn again in our Bibles
to 1 Samuel, and tonight we are looking at chapter 24, 1 Samuel
chapter 24. And it came to pass when Saul
was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told
him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Enjeda. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men
out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the
rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep coats
by the way where was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his
feet, and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And
the men of David said unto him, behold, the day of which the
Lord said unto thee, behold, I will deliver thine enemy into
thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good
unto thee. Then David arose and cut off
the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And it came to pass afterward
that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's
skirt. And he said unto his men, the
Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the
Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing
he is the anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants
with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul.
But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David also
arose afterward and went out of the cave and cried after Saul,
saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him,
David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself.
And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying,
Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? Behold, this day thine eyes have
seen how that the Lord had delivered thee today into mine hand in
the cave. And some bade me kill thee, but
mine eyes spared thee, and I said, I will not put forth mine hand
against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my
father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand, for in
that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and kill thee not, know
thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine
hand, and I have not sinned against thee. Yet thou harnessed my soul
to take it. The Lord judged between me and
thee, and the Lord avenged me of thee, but mine hand shall
not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients,
wickedness proceeded from the wicked, but mine hand shall not
be upon thee. After whom is the king of Israel
come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea? The Lord therefore be judge and
judge between me and thee and see and plead my cause and deliver
me out of thine hands. And it came to pass when David
had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said,
is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice
and wept. And he said to David, thou art
more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas
I have rewarded thee evil. And thou hast showed this day
how that thou hast dealt well with me, For as much as when
the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not. For if a man find his enemy,
will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee
good, for that thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold,
I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom
of Israel shall be established in thine hand. Swear now therefore
unto me by the Lord that thou wilt not cut off my seed after
me and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swear unto Saul. And
Saul went home, but David and his men got them up into the
hold. I've looked at this chapter and
read it several times over the last week. I prayed that the
Lord would give me an outline to divide the chapter for us
to learn from it. And I came to 2 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and it's profitable, profitable for doctrine. It's profitable
for correction. for reproof, for instruction
in righteousness. And so I'm going to use that
scripture tonight to bring out what I want to bring out from
this chapter. There's so much teaching here,
really is. But first, all scripture is profitable
for doctrine, for doctrine. Doctrine, of course, means teaching.
And the doctrine I want to mention to us, the teaching first of
all tonight is, you notice in verse one, we read the names
of two men. And through this chapter, you
only find the names of two men, that is Saul and David. And this may serve to remind
us that this is a fundamental truth. that all the world is
divided into two divisions. Now the world makes divisions,
many different divisions. People are divided by race, they're
divided by wealth, they're divided by education. There are just
so many different ways the world divides men and women. But the Bible, the word of God,
It divides all men into two divisions, the saved and the lost. And that's what we have here
in these two men. The saved, of course, is David,
a man after God's own heart. The lost is Saul, this reprobate
king. And you know, the scriptures
are very clear. The division between men is Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ. Those who know
Him as their Lord and Savior, they're saved. They've been delivered
out of a kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. The lost, they are still in their
iniquities, in their sins. They do not know Christ. To know
Him is to know God. There is no knowing God apart
from Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Him. But I wanted to notice some things
about this lost man. Some things that stand out to
me in this chapter about this man who didn't know God, Saul. The first thing that I point
out to us is he, like all men, experienced the common mercies
of God. The common mercies of God. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
in the gospel, according to Matthew, made this statement. He said,
God maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good. Two
groups, the saved and the lost, But God causes his son to come
up and shine on the lost as well as the saved. And not only the
son to rise on the evil and on the good, but he sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust. Now we refer to these as common
mercies, that is, mercies that are common to all mankind. And
we see here when We read, Saul returned from following the Philistines. Indicates to us, remember, maybe
you don't remember, maybe you weren't here last time, but we
saw that Saul with his armies had David in a trap. And word
came to Saul that the Philistines had invaded the land. So he takes
his army and goes to pursue them. And that's the way David was
delivered by God. But evidently, obviously, when
we read here that he returned from following the Philistines,
that God gave him success. that God's mercy enabled him
to defeat the Philistines and to run them out of his country,
the country of Israel, with God's help. But here's the question. Did God's mercy make any difference? Obviously, he experienced God's
mercy in helping him as he fought against the Philistines and defeated
them or won the victory, but did it make any difference in
Saul? And of course it didn't. He's
right back where he was with the same hatred and the same
thought of killing David. And I just mentioned this to
remind us that it takes more than God's common mercies to
turn a sinner to Christ. We all, all men in this world
experience God's common mercies, but it takes more than common
mercies to bring a person, to bring a sinner to Christ. To cause a man or woman to look
away from self and look to Christ and Christ alone. Remember the
Apostle Paul asked those believers in the church at Corinth, who
maketh thee to differ? Who maketh thee to differ? Obviously, only God. God. Takes more than common mercy,
it takes God's special grace, his saving grace to cause a man
or woman to look to Christ. Here's something else I see about
a lost man in this chapter. In verse 16, we see that he wept. And it came to pass when David
had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said,
is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice
and wept. You know, some people think just
because a person has shed some tears, whatever it might be over,
that they've repented, that they've turned to God, that they've turned
away from their evil way and they've turned to God just because
they shed some tears. Now, I'll be the first to admit
that many times when a person is repenting, there are tears
that are shed. But a person can shed a bucket
full of tears and die and go to hell. Repentance is much more. than just weeping. And I see
that here in Saul. Remember, repentance is a grace.
It's a gift. The scripture is very clear.
In the book of Acts, we read, then hath God granted, granted
unto the Gentiles repentance. Just like faith is a gift, so
is repentance. And they always go together.
And I would just remind us Well, repentance is a change of mind.
We know that. But I would remind us that repentance
is not a one-time act only. I think many people are deceived
about this. They say, well, you know, one
time when I was in vacation Bible school as a small child or later
on in life, I walked down an aisle and I repented. And yes,
but how have you walked since then? How have you lived since
then? Does your life show repentance? Repentance is a lifelong experience. You say, why? Because as long
as we're in this world, we're going to sin. We're not proud
of it, but it's a truth that's revealed in the word of God,
and it's our experience, isn't it? And so yes, repentance is
something that, it's not just one time, no more than one time
faith. I believed, yes, I believed and
I believe and by the grace of God, I'll continue to believe
if it's true faith. Same is true about repentance.
And then a third thing about this lost man, You see his confession
of sin, if you can call it that, in verse 17. He said, and he
said to David, now notice this, thou art more righteous than
I. More righteous. You know, people
will say, and you hear this all the time if you watch the news,
well, I'm no saint. Well, I'm not perfect. I know there's some people better
than I am. What he should have said is,
if it was true repentance and true confession of sin, I'm evil. From the inside out. It's not,
I know David, you're more righteous than me. No, Saul, you're not
righteous at all. You've never been saved, you've
never had the righteousness of Christ imputed to you. But that's
typical of lost men. And some people think that's,
well, that's all that's required, you know. No, when God convicts
a person of sin, we come, and I'm not saying that this is not
something we grow in. Whoever's in this room tonight,
has been saved the longest time is probably the person who sees
him or herself as the most wicked person in this room. That's just the way it is, isn't
it? That's just true. The more, the closer you get
to the sun, the warmer it feels, right? The brighter the light
is. And as you grow in grace and
knowledge of the Lord, the closer you come to Him, the more you
see the inconsistencies and the dark spots. God is light, and
in Him is no darkness at all. We can't say that about ourselves,
can we? In you, in me, there's no darkness
at all? Oh yeah, and I believe more of
that light. You know, you've heard this illustration,
but it's still a good one. I was, I had to experience this
here recently. I was sitting out on the back
porch and the light, the sun was shining in such a way that
I just saw the, the air was full of little particles. I hadn't
seen that before. It always been there, right?
Sometimes in a room, When the sun's shining through a window
and you're sitting and you just see that sunlight and it's just
full of dust particles. Now they've been there all the
time. You didn't see them. Why? Because of the light. When
the light, God is the light, and the closer we come to Christ
and grow in grace and knowledge of him, the more we see ourselves
and know ourselves. to be sinners, evil. All right? The scripture, all
scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine. And there's a lot of doctrine
in this, a lot of teaching in this chapter. But secondly, we
read all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable
for reproof, for reproof. You say, do you see that here?
Yes, I do, I do. I ask you this question tonight,
if you're a child of God, do you expect to go through this
world without any trouble? Do you? Do you expect to go through
this world without any difficulties? Without any testing of your faith,
do you? If you do, you're going to be
sadly, you're sadly mistaken. David and his men, get the picture
here. Now these caves were large in
that part of Palestine. We're told that these caves were,
some of these caves were large enough for several thousands
of men to be in. And obviously, now we're not
told, all of David, he had 600 men. We're not told that all
of his men were in the cave, but we know some of them were
in the cave with David. And of course the caves dark.
The light is at the entrance, and David and his men, however
many there were with him, were probably in the sides of the
cave or the back of the cave, and they see Saul come in because
the light is there at the entrance to the cave, but Saul can't see
them. And he goes to sleep. He no doubt
was tired from going after the Philistines and leading his army. And maybe the Lord just gave
him a spirit of sleep. I don't know. But I know he went
to sleep. This is a time of testing for
David. Some of his men, they said, this
is God's providence. They told David, God has delivered
your enemy into your hand. Kill him. Put him out, slain. To them, it seemed ever so clear
that God's providence had brought him into this place where David
could easily dispatch him out of this world. And they thought, take advantage
of him while he's asleep. One writer pointed out that this
was a critical moment in David's history. One stroke, one stroke
of his sword. Remember he had that sword of
Goliath. One stroke of his sword and he
steps into a throne. Farewell poverty. Farewell the
life of a hunted goat. Reproaches, sneers, defeat would
cease. Adulations, triumphs, riches
would be his. but all at the sacrifice of his
faith. That's what one writer said.
Most critical moment, maybe, in David's history. Well, David,
as he was called, a man after God's own heart, he didn't escape
testing, and neither should you and I expect to escape it. I see three things that were
tested here in David. First of all, his faith. His
faith was tested in being submissive to God's word. God's word says,
thou shalt not kill. And he had no specific word to
the contrary. Our faith is often tested. It's
tested many times by things that we see and things that we hear.
You believe in God tonight, your faith is tested. There's so much
injustice in this world. You see it on every hand, don't
you? You see it everywhere and it breaks your heart. Is God
really in control? Is he? Is he really working all
things after the counsel of his own will? As the scriptures declare,
your faith is tested. Do you believe the word of God?
Do you believe God or not? Yes, our faith is tested. And it's a good thing that it
is. It's tested while we're in this world. I've often said,
you know, if I built a sailing ship and planned to sail around
the world, the first thing I'd want to do is take it down to
Galveston Bay and test it before I took off around the world.
Wouldn't you? Your faith, before you are plunged
out into eternity and there's no return, your faith is tested. Not only his faith was tested,
but his patience, his patience was tested, and continuing to
wait. God had Samuel anoint him to
be king. Yes, he's destined to the throne,
but be still, be still and know. Don't try to hurry up, and that's
something all of us are guilty of from time to time, isn't it?
We try to speed up God's purpose and God's plan. Patience. Patience. And you know, every
grace and patience is a grace. Every grace grows by diet and
by exercise. Our patience grows by exercise. Tribulation. Work it. Patience. Not only his faith and his patience
was tested, but we see his submission to God also was tested in allowing
himself, or not allowing himself rather, to do what is natural
to all of us. You say something bad about me,
I say something bad about you. Revenge. You hit me, I hit you
back. That's just natural, isn't it?
To all the flesh, I say it's natural to us as sinful fallen
beings. Vengeance. Saul had done things to David
that were certainly wrong. And here he is. I can take revenge
on him. But no, the scripture says, vengeance
belongeth unto me. David submits to God's will. Third, all scripture is profitable
for correction. Notice in verse five, his heart
smote him. David's heart smote him. David,
his men were set. They were set on David killing
Saul. That's what they wanted, killing.
Kill him, God's delivered him into your hands. Take advantage
of him, kill him. David wouldn't do that, but he
did, and maybe, maybe, I don't know this for sure, but maybe
to pacify his men, he did cut off part of Saul's skirt, but
it wasn't long, it wasn't long before he was convicted in his
heart for having done that. For Saul was, after all, his
king. God had made him king. God had
put him on the throne. And that office of being king
of Israel was to be respected. And David's heart smote him immediately
from cutting off Saul's skirt. Now I went to the New Testament
for these verses. that tell us to honor the king.
In 1 Peter 2, verses 13 and 14, submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme
or unto governors. And then the next verse, honor
the king. Now to me, the correction here
is that you and I, we should be attentive We should be attentive
to our heart smiting us. What do I mean by that? I mean
letting us know when we say something, do something, and it isn't long
before we're convicted in our heart. I shouldn't have said
that. I shouldn't have done that. Being
attentive to our heart smiting us if we have a new heart and
making things right. Making things right by confessing
our sin and asking the Lord to forgive us. And if possible,
making it right with the person that we've offended. Husbands and wives, you know,
you have maybe a sharp word And it isn't long before you're convicted.
I shouldn't have said that. I should have been more kind.
I should have been more patient. Make it right. Make it right. Be attentive. God's given us
the Holy Spirit to live within us. And when we make these, do
these things, we're reminded of them, just like David. His
heart smote him. I shouldn't have cut off his
skirt. He's my king. God put him on
that throne. But notice David showed his repentance,
I believe, in these two ways. In verse 8, after his heart smote
him, we find him, first of all, when he addressed Saul, he says,
Saul, saying, my lord, the king. acknowledged Saul as his king,
my lord, the king. And then you notice he bowed.
He did reverence to the king, and that was common. He wasn't
worshiping him as God. We know that that's idolatry,
but he did show reverence and respect to the king. And that,
as I said, that was common in that day. to bow before the king
and still in countries where they have kings and queens that
reign you bow before them, don't you? Now the last thing, all
scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
instruction in righteousness. I see in David's words to Saul,
beginning in verse nine, wisdom, wisdom. Notice he doesn't begin,
and David said to Saul, he doesn't begin by accusing Saul, by accusing
him of what he experienced. The scripture says in Proverbs,
a soft answer turneth away wrath. He didn't begin accusing Saul.
He mentions those who told Saul that David was seeking his herd. David said to Saul, wherefore
hearest thou men's words? See, he's not accusing Saul,
but why do you listen to men like that man named Doag, remember,
who slaughtered those priests? who lied on the priest and was
in Saul's presence there? Why do you listen? Why are you
listening to these men? Wherefore hearest thou men's
word, saying, Behold, David seeketh a hurt? John Gill said, He began
with him in this way, the rather to reconcile him to him. and caused him to listen to what
he had to say. And if you read on through there,
we see his wisdom as he spoke to Saul. What honor, think of it like
this, what honor, Saul, could you have by destroying me? In
comparison to you, I'm like a dead dog. A dead dog can't even bark. I'm like a flea, just a little
old flea that hops from one. What honor could possibly come
to you, Saul, by destroying me? He reasons with him, doesn't
he? You know, in James, The New Testament
letter of James, the scripture says, if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, which giveth all men liberally and upbraideth
not. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways. And then in the next chapter,
he tells us something about that wisdom that God will give us.
And this is what he says, the wisdom that is from above is
first pure. peaceable, gentle, easy to be
entreated, full of mercy and good fruits. And I see that in
David's words here to Saul, wisdom from above. I pray the Lord would
bless these words to all of us here tonight, bless this message.
We're going to sing a hymn and then we'll be dismissed in prayer.