If you have your Bibles, please
turn with me to the 24th chapter of 1 Samuel. 24th chapter of
1 Samuel. And it came to pass when Saul
was returned from following the Philistines, and it was told,
saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul
took three thousand chosen men out of all of 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 there 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 in which the Lord said unto thee, Behold,
I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest
do to him as it seemeth 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 my hand against him, seeing he
is 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
rose 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 the Lord hath delivered me to-day into thine hand in
the cave, and some bade me kill thee. But mine eye spared thee,
and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for
he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my father, see ye 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 my hand, and I have not sinned
against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it. The Lord
judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but
mine hand shall not be upon thee. And as saith the proverb of the
ancients, wickedness proceedeth 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 thy hand. And it came to pass, when David
made an end of his 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 shewed this day how that thou hast dealt
well with me, forasmuch 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 the kingdom of Israel
shall be established in thine hand. swear now therefore unto
me by the Lord that thou will not cut off my seed after me
and thou will not destroy my name out of my father's house
and David swear unto Saul and Saul went home but David and
his men get them up into the hole let us pray our father we
bless you and thank you that we have in this blessed word
of yours such wonderful examples of not only your grace unto sinners,
but the effect of that grace upon the hearts of sinners. Father,
we ask this hour that you might be pleased to open up the word
to us. We are dull and dim. We are simpletons. Thou art all wise and all wisdom. We ask, Lord, that you would
teach us and cause us to walk in thy statutes. We pray, Lord,
for those who are sick, those who are going through trials,
mental, physical, emotional, those who are receiving chemotherapy
treatment. We ask, Lord, you'd be with them,
watch over them. Father, we pray that you'd heal
them. We know that thou art able, but we also know that you are
God. And you do your will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay your hand to
say unto you, I do this thou. You are in the heavens. You have
done whatsoever You have pleased. Father, we bow to Your wisdom
and say as much as we are able, Thy will be done. Help us, Lord,
tonight to worship You in spirit and in truth. Help us, Lord,
to bring honor and glory to the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.
We ask this in His name and for His glory. Amen. The title of my message tonight
is An Honorable Man. an honorable man. Now we've seen
in the last several studies, in this study of 1 Samuel, we've
seen that David has finally come to his senses. He is looking
to the Lord and trusting the Lord for help. And the Lord has
sent him continually, one trial after another, having Saul in
hot pursuit of him. And this chapter here is full
of instruction for the believer. It stands as a classic example
of graciousness in the face of the enemy. And to fully appreciate
the things taught here, they must be viewed in light of a
couple of things. First of all, the thing that
needs to be understood is that providence, providence, and what
providence is, is God working all things, and bringing all
things to their appointed end. It must be understood that providence
must be interpreted in light of Scripture. It's very important,
very important. Believers walk by faith and not
by sight. That's the Scripture. Scripture
says if we can see our hope, it is not a hope, for hope then
can be seen as not a hope. Believers look on things that
cannot be seen. They see what goes on in an invisible
realm, though they could not prove it by any means, but they
see it because of what God says in His Word. Faith is subjective
in that sense. It believes what has been spoken,
not what can be proven or not what can be seen. It believes
what God has said. Believers walk by faith. That
is, they walk believing. They walk looking to Christ and
not by sight. We must always be careful not
to make decisions based on visible circumstances. We all have circumstances
in our life and most of our decisions based on those or all of them
based on the circumstances themselves are bad decisions. Behind every
circumstance there is the cause. There is the cause. That's very
important to understand. If we act only on the basis of
what we see, we discount the invisible God who controls all
things and sorrow will quickly ensue. Trust me on that. Providence
may seem to provide a solution, but providence is mobile. It's
going on all the time and we can't see it. It happens to us. We don't happen to it. It's mobile,
and it's mobile by design and intent, and we are not privy
to it. Our Lord said in Ecclesiastes,
all things are beautiful in His time. They might not seem too
pretty in our time, but in His time, they're all beautiful because
the Lord has done it, and what He's done, He does forever. And
He's put in our mind an inability to grab hold of what He's doing
right now. It's just that simple. We can't
look at any circumstance and say, this is what God is doing. And this is a prime example of
that very thing. Providence has brought David
to a place which seems very opportunistic, if you will. Only God knows what's
going on here. Only God. David has been brought
to a place in a time where it seems that everything concerning
his enthronement is at hand. Here it is. Saul's asleep in
the cave that David is in. Saul is a sworn enemy. God has
sworn that David will put Saul out of business. God has said,
you're going to put Saul out of business. You're going to
do that. And here it seems is that opportunity. But David is
a man who at this moment at least is trusting the Lord to bring
about that enthronement. because God does things on his
schedule and not ours. The opportunity has arisen for
David to accomplish in the flesh what God has promised in his
purpose. It seems a reasonable time to
act and end his pain, end his running, to take a seat on the
throne of his enemy, because here his enemy lays asleep With
one quick and fatal slice, God's purpose shall be done. David, however, knows and has
learned by experience and revelation that God needs, wants, nor accepts
any help in accomplishing His purpose. I know people like to
say, put feet to your prayers. I'd say keep your feet in your
shoes. Just keep on praying. Keep on
praying. To kill Saul would only prove
another way of taking matters into his own hand. David understands
that. That's clear from his actions. David knew that he would occupy
the throne because God had already anointed him as king. God had
anointed through Samuel, he had anointed Saul as king because
Saul was the choice of his people. But he anointed Saul as king
to teach the people that they made a wrong choice. If you read
the scriptures, Samuel tells them, this guy is going to ruin
you. And God says this is a bad choice. They said, we want us
a king. God said, let him have a king. And he proved exactly
what Samuel said and what God had said concerning him and was
rejected as king and rejected of God. David knew that one day
he would occupy the throne, but the Spirit of the Lord here showed
him that now was not the appointed time. That David understood this
is seen in the words that he penned in a psalm concerning
this very thing. Look over at Psalm 57. Psalm 57. If you read the title, it's to the
chief musician, Altuchith Mictum, Mictum of David. when he fled
from Saul in the cave. And David says, Be merciful unto
me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. In the shadow of thy wings will
I make my refuge, look at this next line, until these calamities
be overpassed. I'm going to trust in you. He
wrote this psalm concerning him cutting off the skirt of Saul,
but not killing Saul, though providence, it would seem, had
presented itself with the opportunity for him to accomplish God's will. But listen, you ain't going to
accomplish God's will. You may be a means in the accomplishment
of it, but God's going to accomplish His will, whether you're involved
or not. Thy will be done, but he says
I will trust in under the shadow of thy wings until I Will make
my refuge until these Calamities are over past David understood
if you want to read the rest of the psalm It all speaks of
David glorifying God fixing his heart and mind upon God and not
upon the circumstances that surround him That psalm is called a mictum
m-i-c-h-t-a-m and that word is important It means a golden psalm
or a poem whose words are as fine gold, a psalm of great value. This tells us something here.
The employment of the word gold intimates that this psalm was
born of trial and tribulation wherein the dross has been consumed
and the gold has been refined. These words are the proper response
to the providence of God when that blessed providence comes
in the form of a trial. Because most of what providentially
comes your way is going to be a trial and a tribulation in
this world. It's because God's going to keep
you speaking to Him. And you won't if He don't. You
know it's true and I know it's true. We do business with God
when we have to do business with God. So he gonna fix it for we
have to do business with him. This is a psalm of gold. It's a poem of gold. It's a poem
about a trial. David's opportunity to kill Saul
and yet sparing Saul was a trial of David's faith. It's a trial
of David's faith. A friend once told me that the
definition, one of the definitions of grace is that when opportunities
to sin presents itself, Desire is absent and when desire to
sin is present Opportunity is absent and that's as good a definition
of grace as I've ever heard Opportunity had clearly presented itself
to David and no doubt about that, but the desire to kill Saul was
not there this grace This is grace sufficient for the time
of need until these calamities are overpassed. David knew that
these things would come to an end and he would be on the throne
one day. But he knew also that it wasn't in his hand to put
himself on the throne. The second thing is this, that it is God who makes one
to differ from another. Who maketh thee to differ from
another, saith the Scripture? And what hast thou that thou
hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou
boast as if thou hast not received it? If you differ from anyone
or anything, if you differ from anyone, it's of God and not of
you. Because all men and all women
are exactly the same by nature. By nature, there's no difference.
Well, from this we can clearly see that God has made David to
differ from Saul, can't we? He's one king and one kind of
king. David's another king and another
kind of king. And it's God who has made the
difference. We know this because David, during
these trials, has acted sometimes just like Saul would, didn't
he? So naturally, there's no difference between the two men.
The difference between the two men is God's sovereign, free
grace. That's the difference between
these two women. However, and we praise God for
this, God often makes us to differ from ourselves. Thank God. He often makes us to differ from
ourselves. David here displays, as we've
read, I suppose some of the best Christian values and attributes
that could be imagined in this episode of his life. But not
far hence this same man who graciously spared Saul's life will maliciously
order the assassination of Uriah to cover his own adultery. The
same man. What's the difference? What's
the difference? God. That's the difference. That's the difference in these
two things. Be careful. Not to think that in those moments when
you seem to triumph in Jesus Christ, that the cause is anything
other than God graciously preventing you from being yourself. That's
what it is. When you triumph in Christ, it
ain't your doing. It's God has prevented you from
being yourself. Because if God lets you be yourself,
you're in trouble. And everybody around you is in
trouble also. In this light of these two things, we look at
this chapter. The message is plain and there
are several lessons here, but I'm not going to take long. I
promise. First thing is this. David, in
this chapter, exhibits and sets an example of what it is to be
gracious and merciful. He could have killed Saul, but
he didn't. The opportunity presented itself,
but he didn't. Had he done it, nobody would
have said, let's put David on trial. Everybody would have said,
good, David's finally finished this thing off. But David exhibits
wonderful, gracious, merciful attributes of a believer. He
exhibits every good notion or concept of how faith works by
love and how faith is obedient to God. The Word of God says
honor the king and he did. He called Saul his lord. He bowed
down and called him his master. He called him the one God had
anointed. He honored the king. That's what we're to do. We're
to honor the king. First of all, we're to honor
our king, the king of kings. but we're to also to honor those
whom God has placed above us in political and governmental
positions. We're to honor them and to obey them. That's what
the scripture says. David showed forth himself to
be a child of God. He honored the king. The word
says, love your enemy. And he did, didn't he? He loved
his enemy. The Bible says, return evil with
good. And he did. The Word says, Thou
shalt not kill, and he didn't. The Word says, Do unto others
as you would have them do unto you, and he did. David here represents
what it is to be a child of God. He was an obedient man who honored
God in all that he did in this particular incident. And here
David humbles himself before this king. Look in verse 13 and
14 back in our text. Or verse 14, here's what David
says, he said to the king Saul, After whom is the king of Israel
come out? Who are you chasing? Who are
you in pursuit of? After whom do you pursue? After
a dead dog and a flea. That's what he calls himself,
a dead dog and a flea. Now I know to some degree these
words were meant to show Saul that a man of his high estate
to pursue someone who's not a threat is stupid. It's ludicrous. It
makes no sense whatsoever. There's some of that in this
here. But also, this is a man's assessment of himself if he knows
Christ. a dog and a flea and that's really
pretty high up on the ladder. As far as animal and insect species
go, those are pretty high up on the ladder because the scripture
declares man is a lot lower being than that. It calls him a maggot
on a dunghill. You know why God would call man
a maggot? Because a maggot can't live on
anything alive. They can't live on it. You can
take a maggot off of a cork and put it on your arm and if it
stays there for a few minutes, it'll die. It has nothing to
eat. He calls us maggots because we
live off corruption by nature. We drink iniquity like water. But David knows this about himself. You see, a man who's been graced
is probably or rather constantly reminded of what he is in himself. And he that abases himself shall
be exalted. A good picture of that is Isaiah.
In Isaiah chapter 6, when he saw Uzziah smitten with leprosy,
that shook him up and made him see that God was holy. But when
he saw the Lord in his holy temple, before that in the first five
chapters, Isaiah had been wiping everybody off the map. He said,
Woe is unto you, and woe is unto you for this, and woe is unto
you for that, woe, woe, woe, woe, all five chapters. But in
chapter 6, he sees Christ high and lifted up in His temple,
glorified. The six-winged beast cried, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. He didn't say, Woe is Uzziah. He didn't say, Woe is all this
new people. He said, Woe is me. I am undone. I am unclean. I am a man of unclean
lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips. That's what
happens when a man sees Christ. That's why we're to look to Christ
always. If we look to Christ, we'll see ourselves as we are.
We look at ourselves, we'll never see ourselves as we are because
we lie to ourselves. We deceive ourselves. The heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? None but God.
David understands what he is. He says, you know what you're
chasing after? A dog and a flea. a dog and a flea. The second
thing is this, it�s found in verse 13, �And David said to
him, As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth
from the wicked.� That�s a quote of an ancient proverb. It�s not
a quote from the inspired canon, it was something recorded in
the inspired canon as an ancient How ancient was it? I don�t know.
It might have come from Adam as far as I know, but it was
a proverb. And David quotes a common thing
to prove a spiritual truth. A common thing to prove a spiritual
truth. This tells us that not all uninspired
sayings are valueless. They�re not. They�re The Proverbs
spoken by some ancients served to enlighten Saul of David's
kindness, what David had done. It reminded him what David had
done, that what David had done was not a wicked act, but a kind
act. And he used a proverb to do it. You see, a proverb is
a time-proven principle. We say things like, all that
glitters is not gold. That's a proverbial statement,
and it's true. We say, look before you leap. Why? That's a good, smart thing
to do. That's a proverbial statement. Now, it's not inspired. It's
not an inspired canon, but it's nonetheless true. They are proverbial
truths. Our Lord used common things to
teach spiritual truths. He did, over and over again.
He pointed to the flowers. He pointed to the birds. He pointed
to the vines. He pointed to the trees. He pointed
to different things to use common things. to teach spiritual truth. Third thing is this, no matter
the kind words of the infidel, they are always about self-preservation
or preservation of name and reputation. It seems Saul repents in verse
16, doesn't it? And it came to pass when David
made an end of speaking these words, Saul said, Is this thy
voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice
and wept. Now if that had been modern religion,
we'd have got him down an aisle and got him fessed up, I guarantee. He's vexed and he's weeping.
Somebody grab him and get him down here so we can lay our hands
on him and bless him or do something. It looks like he's repenting.
But we've been shown throughout Saul's life his repentings are
temporal and they are short-lived. His tears are those like those
of Esau. Look over at Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse 16. Lest there
be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place for repentance, or no change in his mind, though
he sought it carefully with tears." Now if we had been there when
Esau started crying, we'd have said, boy, the Holy Ghost was
there last night. Oh, the Holy Ghost wasn't there.
He had no repentance, though he sought it with tears. And
here, Saul's conscience may have stung him a little bit, and Saul's
easy to weep when he gets caught and gets in trouble. And then
Saul said in verse 17, here's what I want you to see, that
his repentance wasn't true. He said to David, Thou art more
righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have
rewarded thee evil. His words and his tears of repentance
were tempered by an erroneous view of himself. He says to David,
Thou art more righteous than I. What's he saying? Well, he did not say, David,
you are righteous and I am not, did he? He said, you are more
righteous than I. than I. He says to David, I'm still retaining some of my
righteousness. He says, I'm righteous but you're
more righteous, more righteous. He retains some of the delusion
of righteousness for himself and let me tell you, let me be
very clear on this, if you have any righteousness, any righteousness
other than Jesus Christ, our righteousness, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That righteousness will get you
in trouble, because it's self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. No act that
Saul had done toward David could be construed as righteous on
any level, could it? And yet he says, I'm righteous,
but you're more righteous. That's what he's saying. I'm
righteous, but you're more. In his mind, the heinous things
that he had done somehow show how deluded he is, equated to
some form of righteousness on some level. Maybe he was one
of those folks like we have around today who commit every heinous
possible sin you could think of and then say, well, at least
I'm honest. As if that somehow means it's okay, at least you're
honest about it. Yeah, I'm a murderer, but at
least I'm an honest murderer. We're going to put you to death,
bud, because that's what you deserve. But I was honest. You're
righteous, David, more righteous than me, but I'm still righteous.
You see, the last thing anyone lets go of is their righteousness. And it's the first thing in everyone's
life, as they're born into this world, that needs to be repented
of. It's the primary thing. I think
it was John Owen, or it may have been J.C. Ryle, who said, when
a man repents, he repents of three things. He repents of sin,
S-I-N, that is original sin, the sin that he's born with,
the sin that makes him what he is, the sin that Adam committed
and he was counted guilty for. He repents of sins, S-I-N-S,
his acts of rebellion against God, and he repents of his righteousness. Now most people Most people think
that repentance is all about sins, but it's not. It's all
about righteousness. You see, repentance in the Old
Testament means to turn, and that's all it means. That's all
it means. It means you're going this direction,
and you turn and go this direction. That's what it means. If you're
doing evil, you turn and stop doing evil and start trying to
do good. That's what repentance means, but not in the New Testament.
New Testament does have an element of turning. Like it says in 1
Thessalonians chapter 1, when it says you turn from idols to
serve the living God. There's an element there. But
the actual meaning of the New Testament for repentance is a
radical change of mind. Metanoia, a radical change of
mind. What do you change your mind
about? There's only one thing to change your mind about. What
recommends you to God? Think about it. You would never think that your
sins recommend you to God, would you? Why, no. You'd never think
that Adam's sin that puts you in the dilemma and condemned
the whole human race would recommend you to God. What do you think
recommends you to God? What do people, well, ask people.
You hear this all the time. Well, I'm a good person. I'm
a good person. No, you're not. There's none
good, no, not one. There's none that doeth righteousness.
Not one on the earth. There's none that seek after
God. What do you believe recommends you to God? I've given this example
many times. When I was back in the days of
my youth, I used to like to drink a great deal. I often found myself
in a horrible situation, sometimes in jail and other places like
that. If you were to ask me, do you
think any of those times that you were laying in the gutter,
the night's dew falling on you and you didn't even know where
you were, did you ever think any of those times that you were
recommending yourself to God? I said, of course not. I was
in a gutter. How could I recommend myself
to God? But when I got out of the service, I decided I wasn't
going to drink no more. And for ten years, I didn't have a drink
of wine or anything else. Ten years. During those ten years,
I wasn't a believer. But I felt that somehow my stopping
drinking recommended me to God. I felt like I was in a better
standing with God because I wasn't laying in a gutter somewhere.
But the truth is, I was in a better shape in that gutter, and there
was a better hope for me as a ruined sinner who knew nothing about
Him, recommended Him to God, than in that time I was walking
in some semblance of self-righteousness that thought what I wasn't doing
recommended me to God. What recommends you to God? True
repentance is repentance of your righteousness because that's
what we all think recommends us to God. That's what we all
think. I know this because holding dying
people's hands as pastors often do, holding the hands of dying
people, I hear them confess their hearts And they say things like,
I wish I had been a better husband, or a better wife, or a better
father. Why do they say that? They say that because it's somewhere
down in believing. They believe if they had been,
they'd give them a better chance at the judgment. Judgment ain't by chance. What
recommends us to God? What? There is something that
recommends us to God. What is it? look to glory and see him who
sits at God's right hand, there he is our recommendation to God,
the only one God accepts, our righteousness. That's it. God has made him to be unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The name by which
he shall be called is the Lord our righteousness. Then later
on in the same book, the name by which she shall be called
is the Lord our righteousness. That's the church. Christ is
my righteousness, I have no other. True repentance is repentance
of my righteousness. Changing my mind about what recommends
me to God, a radical change of mind that takes my eyes off of
me altogether and puts my eyes upon Jesus Christ as my only
righteousness and my only hope before God. Saul wasn't there, was he? Saul
said, David, you're righteous. Well, I'm a little righteous.
You're more righteous than I. Let me tell you this, your sins
will not keep you from God, because Christ came into this world to
save sinners. But your righteousness will keep
you from God, because Christ said, I came not to call the
righteous, but bring sinners to repentance. The last thing
anyone lets go of is their righteousness. It's the first thing that needs
to be repented of. Saul's repentance was proven
false because he lamely asserted that he had a righteousness.
And Isaiah said, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We do all
fade as a leaf. Fourthly, one of the marks of
grace in the heart is leaving judgment to him who alone is
capable of righteous judgment. Look at verse 12 of our text.
In verse 15, the Lord, David said, the Lord judge between
me and thee, the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall
not be upon thee. Then verse 15, the Lord judge
therefore, the Lord therefore be judge, and judge between me
and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out
of thy hand. There's what a man wants, the
Lord judge for me, plead for me, and deliver me out of my
troubles. When Abraham was, I guess the
best way you could explain it was, dickering with God about
how many people in Sodom would it take for him not to destroy
Sodom. He said, if there's fifty righteous
men down there, will you destroy them? The old Lord said, no,
I won't destroy them. He said, well, if there's 40 if there's
30 and the Lord said I won't destroy He said well if there's
10 and the boy said that he said Lord forgive me I Know the judge
of all the earth shall do right Are you willing? Am I willing
as a child of God to lead the judgment of these things? our
enemies against us To God and not take up arms against them.
I say it Christ said in John chapter 5,
the Lord has committed all judgment into my hands. In Acts chapter
17 verse 31 it says, The Lord has appointed a day by which
He will judge all men in righteousness by this man, Jesus Christ, whom
He has proved by raising Him from the dead. This is a trial. A trial. A trial sometime may
not be particularly painful. It may present itself as an opportunity to accomplish God's will. Remember,
you can't accomplish God's will. David understood that. It may
not be painful. It may not be painful for you. It may not cause you to be sick
or have some horrible condition or break you down or cause you
to be fearful. It may be an opportunity. that seems that will make everything
right. Are you willing to wait on the
Lord? That's tough, isn't it? Every
believer will tell you this, the hardest thing in this life
is waiting on God. It is. It's just hard. We're
just impatient creatures. When someone comes against you,
when someone raises up against you, Are you willing to leave
the judgment of that situation to God? Lord, you judge between
me and Him. You avenge me if I need avenging.
I'm not going to touch it. I'm not going to touch it. You
plead my cause. You do justice for me. These
are the lessons we learn. Patience must have its perfect
worth. Look over at James chapter 1 and we'll read a couple of
verses and then I'll quit. James chapter 1, verse 2, My brethren, count it
all joy when you fall into divers of different kinds of temptations
or trials, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
patience, but let patience have her perfect don't interfere,
that ye may be mature, perfect, and entire, wanting nothing. In this instant, David showed
us what that meant, to let patience have her perfect one. Father,
bless us to understand her in Christ's name. Amen.