Turn with me, please, to 1 Samuel
chapter 30. We're going to read verses 8
through 15. We're going to look at verses
11 through 15 tonight. The title of my message is Found. 1 Samuel chapter 30, beginning
with verse 8, And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I
pursue after this truth? shall I overcome them? And he
answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, without
fail recover all. So David went, he and the six
hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Bezor,
where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, and
he and four hundred men for two hundred abode behind, which were
so faint that they could not go over the brook Bezor. And
they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David,
and gave him bread, and he did eat. And they made him drink
water. And they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters
of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit
came again to him. For he had eaten no bread nor
drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said
unto him, To whom belongest thou, and whence art thou? And he said,
I am a young man of Egypt, servant to the Amalekites. And my master
left me, because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion
upon the south of the Cherthites, and upon the coast which belongeth
to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag
with fire. And David said to him, Canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swearing to me by
God, that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands
of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company." Let
us pray. We bless you and thank you for
grace through Jesus Christ the Lord that we can come to you
as our Father, that we can cry, Abba Father, that we can rejoice
in the fact that we are your children, that you have birthed
us into your kingdom by your Spirit and adopted us by the
work of Jesus Christ, and you have made us sons and daughters
and kings and priests unto you. We thank you, Father, for such
a great privilege and such great grace and mercy toward undeserving,
hell-deserving sinners. Father, we ask tonight as we
look at this passage of Scripture that you'd give us a clear view
of that which is before us. Help us, Lord, to see. Open our
eyes and our minds and our hearts. Help us, Lord, to believe and
trust you. Father, we ask for those who
are sick and going through trials, we will remember those who are
sick Wayne and Laverne and Henry and Mickey and Jenny and we're
thankful that Ralph is doing well. We'll continue to pray
for Ralph Everman and his wife Joyce and pray for the others
who've requested prayer for this young well-noted man as he's
had this burst appendix. We're thankful that the doctors
were able to help him. Pray for Ashford as he considers his half-brother
that you would be with him and strengthen him and help him.
And Father, we pray also for ourselves tonight as we've gathered
here that you might be pleased to help us to see the glory that
is set before us in this wonderful interlude here between David
beginning to pursue and pursuing the Amalekites and finding this
man in a field. Help us, Lord, to appreciate
what you've done for us. Give us continual rehearsal in
our minds of the fact that you have redeemed us by the blood
of Jesus Christ that you have set us in heavenly places in
Him, that you have accepted us fully in Him, that you have forgiven
our sins and wiped them away and blotted them out as a cloud
blots out the sun. And Father, we thank you and
we ask your help tonight in Christ's name. Amen. Now we saw in the first verses
that I read, verses 8 through 10, David is inquired of the
Lord as to whether he should pursue the Amalekites who destroyed
and burnt Ziklag and taken his wives. and the wives and children
of his followers captive. Now the Lord has granted him
leave to do so, granted him leave to do so and promised him a victory. Now we'll look at the results
of that engagement next week, but there's an interlude here,
an interruption if you will, a strange little interruption
that connects verse 10 with verse 16 But it's something that sets
something up that will be very prominent in the work that David
does in this campaign. But tonight I want us to look
at this providential interruption that aided David in gaining intelligence
concerning the enemy that he was pursuing. Now this episode
where David's men bring a sick man to him is a picture of a
sinner found by the Savior, a lost sheep found and saved by the
gracious King of glory. And this is our story. This is
the story of the child of God being saved by grace. This is
the story of our recovery and our deliverance. There are several
things here, about 10 or 11. I'm not going to take a long
time on each one, but just some things we need to see that are
set forth in this passage of Scripture. And the first thing
we see is this man was found, that's how it says in verse 11,
and they found an Egyptian. They found him. He was an outcast. We know that from his own testimony.
He was a slave of a master that had no more use for him and had
left him to die in the wilderness. He was lost in the truest sense
of the word. When we talk about lost, in Scripture
there are two kinds of lost. There are people who are lost
who don't know it and people who are lost who do know it.
The people who are lost and don't know it, they're not looking
for help, they're not seeking for help, they have no interest
in help, they don't even know they're lost, so they have no need, they have
no sense of need. However, a person who's lost and knows it, that
person is seeking for help and trying to find his way home.
This man was truly a lost man, truly a lost man. He was a stranger
in a strange land. He was sick, he was wounded,
and if he had not been found, he would have surely perished
because he had been three days and three nights without food
or water. Now Providence has placed this man in the path of
the king as he was about the business of recovering his bride. That's what Providence does for
every sinner that comes in contact with the gospel. The Holy Spirit
of God is about the business of recovering Christ's bride.
That's what he's doing right now. We preach the gospel. That's
what he's doing. And if you're one of God's elect, I can guarantee
this about you, in that pathway you will be found. You might
not know you're in the pathway. I'm sure this man had no idea
that he was in the pathway. But he was. He was in the way
of salvation, but he knew it not. And Scripture declares he
was found. He was found. And if you're one
of the elect, you will be too. You will be found. The second thing we see is that
this sees this man's pedigree. He was an Egyptian. He was an
Egyptian. And the Word of God, Egypt, is
a picture of the world. Egypt is a picture of the darkness
of the world's religion. and symbolically the home of
the worldly where they find the dainties of the world satisfied
to the flesh. The Jews having been delivered
from Egypt began to desire the garlics and leeks and the stews
of Egypt because all they had to eat was manna which represented
the Lord Jesus Christ and water from the rock that represented
the Lord Jesus Christ. and they were not satisfied.
They were people of the world. They wanted and even decided
to raise up a captain to take them back to Egypt. You see,
the religion of the world is the great Babylon spoken of in
the Revelation. And in the Revelation, that great
whore is called Egypt and Sodom. Egypt and Sodom. Now being an
Egyptian, this man was an enemy of Israel and her God. There's
no doubt about that. And that's a picture of us. We
used to sing a song, Egypt was once my home, I was a slave.
Egypt was once my home. I was a slave. Indeed we were.
We were our Egyptians. And we lived in that dark Egyptian
night, covered with the fine Egyptian linen, which has no
value but appears to be righteousness, but indeed is not. This man was
an enemy of God. What are we called in Romans
chapter 5? When we were enemies, Christ died for us. When we were
enemies, Romans chapter 8 says the natural man or the carnal
mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. We were enemies. So this man
pictures us as we are born into this world, born in dark Egyptian
night, born an enemy of God. Thirdly, it says he was found
in a field. He was found in a field. Now,
as I looked up this word field, I didn't know exactly what I
was going to find, but there are two basic meanings of this
word field, and both definitions apply to where this man was found
as it pictures a sinner being found by God. First, this is
a place, the field means it's a place of wild beasts. However,
that's not the first definition. That's the second definition
given for it. But it's a place of wild beasts. And could there
be any more fitting picture of the world of sin than a place
of wild beasts? Solomon called himself in Proverbs
30 when he was trying to figure out who God was and trying to
wrap his mind about the concept of who God is. He said, I am
a beast. Now, he was the smartest man
alive. Other than Jesus Christ, he was the smartest man that
ever lived. And he said, I am like a beast. I can't figure
this out. And that's what we are by nature.
We're worse than beasts. And that's why names like that
are given to us in nature. Vipers and snakes and wolves
in sheep clothing. We are beasts by nature. This man was found where the
beasts reside. And where the beasts reside is
in the world without God. It's a beastly place. But there's
another meaning of this word, field, and it's primary. It's
the primary meaning of the dictionary. It means a cultivated field.
a cultivated field, plowed ground if you, that's the primary meaning
of it. It's not fallow ground, it's
not hard impenetrable soil, it's not rocky ground or ground covered
with thorns and thistles. It is plowed ground, it is good
soil. And that's a picture of the sower
sowing the seed. Some of it falls on hard ground
and is plucked away by the birds. Other falls on stony ground and
it will spring up but not bear fruit. It will die away when
the first problem comes, when the sun rises. Others fall on
thorny ground and that represents being choked out by the riches
and the deceitfulness of this world. But some fall on good
ground. This fellow was found on good
ground. He was found on good ground. This man's heart was
prepared ground. It was broken up. It was stripped
and ready for the gospel. He was a man who had nothing.
He was a man who absolutely was in position in life, as far as
heritage and prayer degree went, he had nothing. He was absolutely
bankrupt, and that's a picture of you and I when God's grace
finds us. Fourthly, this man was not whole.
In verse 13, this is, he says, when David says, to whom belongest
thou? He says, I'm a young man of Egypt, servant of Amalekite,
and my master left me because I'm sick. I'm sick. I'm sick. I'm diseased. Such
is the case of every elect son of Adam. Every son of Adam is
a sinner. Some sons of Adam are elect,
and God almost always calls them sick. almost always. That's how they're represented.
They are all plagued with the sickness of sin. The Word declares
that the heart is deceitful and desperately sick. Who can know
it? And here also we see the grace of God in this view of
a found sinner, of one of His elect. Sickness I remember the
first time I saw this many years ago as I was reading Psalm 103,
and then I began to read the times where our Lord healed people
of their sickness, and they were all just, a lot of them were
just wretched folk. And our Lord healed them anyway.
Nine lepers were healed, or ten lepers were healed, and only
one came back to thinking, so they were ungrateful folk. But
our Lord looked at his elect as though they were sick. They
were sinners. The demoniac of Gadar was a crazy
man. He was full of devils. He was
full of devils, and yet the Lord viewed him as a sick person.
The reason is sickness does not engender wrath. Just the mention
of sickness does not engender wrath. We think of sick people,
we don't want to kill them. We don't want to whip them. We
don't want to punish them. The natural tendency is to want
to help them. To want to help them. And that's
how our Lord views His people. We are sinners. Everything we
do, think, and are is worthy of death. Worthy of being cast
out into outer darkness where the worm dieth not and the fire
is not quenched for all eternity. That's what we deserve. That's
what we're born deserving. And yet God, the infinitely holy
God, if we are one of His chosen, though those words apply to us
as being destitute and without hope and without God in this
world, He doesn't view us as sinners. He views us in Christ
and views us as infirm. What a grace is that! What a
grace is that! They are sinners, they deserve
wrath, but because Christ has taken the wrath due them, they
are viewed in pity and mercy. Every example of Christ saving
a sinner is presented as the physician healing the sick. The physician healing the sick.
And what does Scripture say? The whole need not a physician,
but them that are sick. Just turn over to Psalm 103 just
for a moment. And just look at the way David
here describes the goodness and the mercy of God. In Psalm 103,
in verses 2 and 3, it says this, Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget
not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases. All thy diseases. Now look at
verse 8, The Lord is merciful, and gracious, slow to anger,
and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins. Aren't you glad for that? nor
rewarded us according to our iniquities. Aren't you glad for
that? For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is
His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from
the west, so far hath He removed our transgression from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. He knoweth our frame, He remembers
that we are thus." Now that's the one of the elect, one of the
old saints glorifying God for all He's done for him. And he
pictures God as healing him of this great sickness of sin. He's
not pouring out his wrath. Now God knows all men in the
sense of creation, and God doesn't say that about those who aren't
His. When He looks at Thursday and He says, Behold, vengeance
is in my heart. My day of wrath is coming upon
you. But not for you and me, who are
His children. He says, y'all are sick. I'm
going to make you better. I'm going to make you better.
That's the language used here. This fellow, this Egyptian fellow
said, I'm sick. I'm sick. And that's his condition. That's his condition. He's a
sick sinner before God. Fifthly, this man is destitute.
Look at verse 13 back in our text. He said, my master left
me because three days ago I fell sick. He didn't have anything. Now he wasn't a man of wealth
anyway. He wasn't a man of means anyway.
He was a slave. He was a captured slave who had
to do exactly what his master told him to do. But now he's
destitute. His master is gone. The one person
that actually fed him and kept him alive is gone. My master
left me because I was sick. And that's why he says he left
me, because I was sick. How perfect a picture of this
is Satan and his religion. The adherents to false religion
are valued only as they are useful. only as they are useful. That's
why they plead to men to do things for God and give money to God
because God can't quite get it done unless you're out there
doing it and keep hyping them up like a rock concert, keeping
them going and moving, keeping them motivated. That's what it's
got to do because if you're not useful, you're just discarded.
You're of no use whatsoever. If a person cannot contribute
to false religion, then he's cast out to the loathing of his
person. And that's what this fellow,
his master said, he's my slave, so far he's done a pretty good
job, but now he's not useful anymore, let's get rid of him,
which will leave him right there in the dirt, ready to die. Leave
him right there in the dirt where he belongs. Thank God that he
did not look to our usefulness on any level before or after
grace. to show us mercy. Aren't you
glad about that? Satan and his religion require
usefulness to keep it going. It has to be kept up. It has
to be bolstered up with usefulness. It needs its adherence. It needs. Remember that sign
that used to be out? People say, the church can't
survive without you. You can't spell the church without
you. Those cute little signs. Well,
you can't spell useless without U either. You can't spell ugly
or things like that without the letter U either. But that's cute.
It says, seeing the church needs you. I remember many years ago,
a man came, heard me preach on Sunday morning. He says, I think
I might want to join this church. Y'all look like y'all could need
a little help. He probably told me. I said,
well, you just stay away. He said, right there at the back
door. I said, you can just stay away. We don't need help. You do. I come
to church because I need help. I don't come to church to help
the church. I come to hear the gospel because I need help. I
don't come to help nobody out. People have such a poor and weak
and puny view of God that they believe God actually somehow
is embedded, made greater by their presence. by their presence. That's false religion. This man
had nothing to offer to his master, so his master threw him away. God does not save sinners because
He needs them. God doesn't need anything. He's
the all-sufficient, all-power, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent,
the only potent one of all. He needs nothing. He said, I
don't put trust in my angels, He said. And if I was hungry,
I wouldn't ask you for bread. He's God. He don't need us. I
remember several years ago, they had that Ridgecrest Southern
Baptist meeting and they had it on TV, on channel 13, I was
watching. And this fella actually got up
and said, God needs you. And then he says, the one thing
God needs in this world is the Southern Baptist Convention.
And I thought, poor God. Poor, helpless God that needs
some mess like that to take care of. God needs you. God didn't save you because He
needs you, and He don't need you now. And He ain't never gonna
need you. He did that for you, not for
Himself. He saved you for your good and for His glory. For your
good and for His glory. God is perfect and whole without
me. He saves men because of His graciousness
and His mercy. Remember this truth, this fact,
that God doesn't need men. And remember also that Religious
men don't want a man if he's useless, because it plays in
to what goes on in our next study in this very chapter, when the
soldiers who went to fight with David come back and don't want
to give the share of what they've earned to those men that stayed
behind because they were tired. This very thing plays into that.
And we'll see how that works out next time. The next thing
for us is the deliverance of this man. Listen to what it says. It says, He was brought to David. He was brought to David. Look
at verse 11. They found an Egyptian in a field
and brought him to David. Why did they bring him? Because
he couldn't come on his own. He was sick. He was so weak he
couldn't even help himself out. When the soldiers came marching,
don't you reckon if he had any spit and vinegar about him at
all, he would have run and hid somewhere when Israel's coming
through and he's an Egyptian laying almost dead in the field.
He would have run for his life. He didn't even have power to
run, much less help himself. He was dying of starvation. They brought Him. He could not
bring Himself. He was too sick and too weak.
He couldn't take the first step. As religion says, you take the
first step and God will do the rest. He couldn't take the first
step. He could not assist those who brought Him. He was wiped
out. He hadn't had anything to drink
or eat in three days. This picture is the work of God
the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. bringing us to Christ. Dead men can do nothing. That's
what they can do. One man said, well, they can
stink more. They can do that. They can rot
more. But they can't do anything. Dead men can't do anything. If
you get to Christ, if I get to Christ, It's going to be because
someone, and that someone is the Holy Spirit of God, brought
us to Christ. Brings us to Christ. Because
we are in such a condition that we can't do it any other way.
Every one of God's elect are brought to Christ by His Spirit. Every one of them. Let's look
at a few passages of Scripture. Turn with Isaiah chapter 62.
Isaiah chapter 62. Here's the description of God's
brought people, and they shall call them the holy people, the
redeemed of the Lord, and thou shalt be called sought out. Sought out. A city not forsaken. You remember back in Deuteronomy
chapter 6, when it talked about Israel being brought into the
holy land. He said, I brought you out of
Egypt to bring you into the holy land. And we get out of sin by
God bringing us out of sin. And we get into Christ by God
bringing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in Romans chapter
5 and verses 6 through 8, this is how we are described.
Verse 6, For when we were yet without strength, That means
no strength. That don't mean yet without some
strength or just enough strength to a flicker of hope or divine
something in us that would respond to something. When we're without
strength, what does that mean? Well, who's really without strength?
Dead people. That's who's without strength.
Dead people. In due time, or according to
the time, or at the appointed time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. You know people like that, righteous
folks, they always want it done right. They're aggravating. They
are. Religious righteous people are
especially aggravating. And I don't even have a whole
lot to do with them, but they've always got an answer on how you
ought to act and how you ought to be. They have a view of the
world that says, this is the way it has to be done. And they
think that if you don't line up with that, that you're wrong.
That's a righteous man. Well, I don't know anybody that
would die for somebody like that. Do you? Much less put up with
them. "...and scarcely peradventure for a good man." That is a man
who is a good man. A man who doesn't set forth his
self-righteousness, but he's a good man. He does what he does
from the heart. He tries his best and so forth. Maybe somebody
might peradventure die for somebody like that. But neither one of
those were our case when Christ died for us, you see. But God
commended His love toward us while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. While we were yet enemies with
Him, Christ died for us. We were delivered. We were delivered. The Holy Spirit came and snatched
us and brought us to Christ. Also in this text we see this
man's deliverer. Who delivers him? God's King. God's King delivers him, David. David, that's who he was brought
to, he was brought to David. David is the anointed King, the
man after God's own heart. Now though this poor bankrupt
ruined sinner is a repulsive sight, David has compassion on
him. Without him asking for anything,
without him asking for help, He was picked up and brought
by David's men and set at David's feet. And David didn't say, well,
if you'll just repent and give up your Egyptian status and forsake
that master of the Amalekites, If you'll just do all of that,
I'll feed you." He doesn't say that. They brought him and sent
him before David, and David had compassion on him, and he fed
him, and gave him water, and gave him a cluster of raisins,
and also a fig cake to eat to revive him again. He did all
that for it. That's the man's delivery. And
this is the case with every sinner. We have nothing to offer, and
we didn't come asking, did we? When Christ found us, when He
found me, I wasn't looking for Him. I swear I wasn't looking
for Him. I had no interest in Him. I didn't really want to
be bothered by Him when He found me. I was destitute of all things
spiritual, dead in my trespasses and sin. I had nothing to offer. I have nothing to bring to God
but me. And what am I? I'm ruined. I'm ruined. God accept me because I stink.
God accept me because I'm a sinner and I hate your guts. God accept
me because I don't want anything to do with you and I'll just
forget you ever existed and be the best thing for me. You think
that's any recommendation to God? That's how I came. That's how I came. That's how
I was found. That's where I was when God found me. I have nothing
but utter ruination. And every sinner brought thus
unto Christ finds sovereign compassion in every example in Scripture.
And this old sinner, he was an Egyptian being brought to King
David of the Jews, his enemy. And I bet if he had a mind whatsoever
left, he was thinking, when I get there, they're going to bring
out the sword and cut my head off. And that's just how it is. But that ain't the case. You
remember the demoniac of Gadara? Had all those demons, that legions
of demons in him? When Christ showed up, he ran
out to meet Christ. And when he got to Christ, he
said, I don't want anything to do with you. Don't have anything
to do with you. Don't even look at me. I'm nothing. That's us all over
the place. He wanted help, but he knew he
was unworthy to be helped by God. He was unworthy to be helped
by God. But at the end of that story,
after Christ cast out his demons and did what religion could not
do, that man in Mark chapter 5 verse 19 said he wanted to
follow Christ. He was sitting at Christ's feet,
clothed and in his right mind, and he said, I want to follow
you to the day I die. You know what Christ said? You go home,
and you tell people what I've done for you, and you tell them
I had compassion on you. Compassion. What is compassion? The best definition I've ever
heard was given by, I think, a little ten-year-old girl one
time when some preacher asked her what compassion was. She
says, your pain in my heart. Your pain in my heart. He was
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. David saw this enemy,
ruined and undone and hopeless and dying, near death. They didn't
ask anything of him. He just gave him some stuff.
And that's the mercy and the grace that comes down to poor
sinners like you and me. Here also we see the poor man's
need fully met. Look at verse 11 and 12. They
found an Egyptian in the land, brought him to David, and gave
him bread. And he did eat. And they made him drink water.
And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters
of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again, for he
had eaten no bread or drunk any water for three days and three
nights. The man was thirsty and hungry.
These terms are not used in these stories in the Old Testament.
You just cast them aside as natural things. You know, everybody gets
thirsty. Everybody does get thirsty and hungry. You know why? God
uses thirst and hunger to represent spiritual need. Because we do
experience thirst and hunger in a natural realm. That's why
he talks about this wonderful thing of being transformed by
God, made anew by God, a new birth. A new birth. We don't go back into our mother's
womb and are born again. Something wonderful happens.
Why does he use the word birth? Because we know that we had nothing
to do with our birth. It was passive. Our mom and dad
had something to do with that. Our dad only one time and our
mama for nine months. And then she had to deliver us
and we didn't have anything to do with it. We were totally passive.
We showed up! Because the mother's body sent forth this chemical
that said, I have a foreign thing in my belly. Get rid of it! And so it was shot out into the
world. We were rejected by our mother before we were ever accepted
by our mother. But we had nothing to do with
it whatsoever. Totally passive in the whole thing. Thirst. We're passive in thirst. Aren't
we? We're active in drinking, but
thirst, we don't make ourselves thirsty. Our body tells us water. We don't make ourselves hungry.
Our body tells us we're hungry. These are natural things. So
God uses these things to teach us something. This man was thirsty,
and he was hungry, and he had no food, and he had no water
whatsoever. He was dying of starvation, and
he had no money to buy anything. But when he arrived at the door
of mercy, he found all things that he needed were freely supplied. That's the sovereign grace of
God. The sovereign grace of God. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. They shall be filled. He received
bread and water. Those are staples of life. Christ
is the bread of heaven. Christ is the water of life.
Then he received a cake and a cluster of raisins. Christ not only gives
life and is our life, but gives us an abundant life. An abundant
life. Wine on the lees and well refined. The ninth thing we see about
this man is his confession. Look at verse 13. And David said
to him, To whom belongest thou? And whence art thou? And he said,
I'm a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. I'm a young
man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. When David asked him who he belonged
to, he just told him the truth. And what is he saying when he
says that? He's saying, I'm your enemy and I'm the servant of
your enemy. That's what he's saying. I'm
your enemy and I'm the servant of your enemy." And one of the
definitions of the word Egyptian or Egypte is double straits,
double trouble. That's one of the definitions.
In fact, that's the primary definition of the word Egypte or Egyptian,
double trouble, double trouble. This man's confession declares
him to be in double trouble. I'm an Egyptian. and a servant
or a slave to an Amalekite. But the gospel is suitable for
such a person. It's suitable for such a person
in a doubly sad estate. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 40. Our Lord says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. That's the one thing. That's the sure word to every
preacher of the gospel. That's what he's supposed to
do. Comfort the people of God. He's not supposed to skin them,
whip them, beat them. He's supposed to lead them, feed
them, and comfort them. Comfort ye my people. That means
speak comfortably to them or speak to their hearts. Speaking
comfortably to Jerusalem and crying to her that her warfare
is accomplished. She don't have to fight. the
battles already won. And her iniquity is pardoned. And she hath received with the
Lord's hand double for all her trouble, double for all her sins. This man confessions, declares
him to be in double straits, but the gospel meets that need,
meets that need. And notice when this man is confronted
with who he is. Back in our text, he didn't say,
I was. I was a servant of an Amalekite. He didn't say, I was. He doesn't
say, I was an Egyptian. He wasn't changing his pedigree
here. He said, I am an Egyptian and
I am the servant of the Amalekite. That's my master. Paul said this,
he said, I was and I am. Now what most people would like
for Paul to have said as far as religion goes is, I was a
sinner, I was really bad, I was a drunk, I was a whore, I was
this and that, but now I'm okay, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm
redeemed. Paul didn't say that. He said,
I used to be a persecutor of the church. He said, I persecuted
church, I put people in jail, had them killed for believing
in Jesus Christ. He said, and this is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Right now. Right now. Sin's not past tense in our life.
Now it's put away. But as far as our sinnerhood
goes, that's what we are. That's why we should never leave
the dust. Because that's where we belong. That's where we belong. He says, I am what I am. I am
what I am. Those who are brought to Christ
take the place of a sinner. Scott Richard says, whatever
God calls you in Scripture, go ahead and take the place. If
He calls you a wild ass, it's cold, that's what you are. If
He calls you a snake, hit the dirt, because that's what you
are. If He calls you a dog, that's what you are. You remember that
Syrophoenician woman? She came and said, Lord, will
you help me? My daughter sorely vexed with the devil. Will you
help me? Scripture says He didn't even
look at her. And so she went to His disciples. She said, Would
you please ask Him to help me? And He looked and said to His
disciples. If you read it, He didn't say it to her. He said
it to His disciples because He's about to teach them a great lesson
about who He came to save. He said to His disciples. I came to save the children of
Israel." He said, that's who I came for, the children of Israel. And that should have run her
off. I mean, she was a Syrophoenician woman. He said, it's not fit
to give children's bread to dogs. You know, if religion ran that
way today, if we treated people that way today, they would never
have anything to do with us, would they? Our Lord treated her, humanly
speaking, on every level, He treated her badly. He said, I
didn't come to save my people Israel, and I ain't about to
give what I have to dogs. You know what she said? She said,
truth, Lord. But the dogs get the crumbs from
the master's table. She said, you call me a dog? I'm a dog, but I'm your dog."
And give me a... just brush some crumbs off the
table for me. Nobody is ever saved by lying about what they
are. Nobody ever comes to Christ who
does not take the position that God has put them in. The wretched,
ruined, enemy, sinner that you are. But everyone that does gets
delivered. The tenth thing we see is that
when a sinner is brought to the Savior, he is no longer his own. He is bought with a price. Look
at verse 15. And David said to him, Canst
thou bring me down to this company? Canst thou bring me down to this
company, to the Amalekites, to find where they are? You see,
the Lord the King has claim on his subjects. Has claim on his
subjects. Every word of the king is law.
It may not even sound like command, but it is. Every word of the
Lord is a command. David said, Canst thou bring
me down to this company, the camp of the Amalekites? And notice
the manner of David's words. He is the King, and he is Lord
over this man, and he is the Savior of this man. Though the
same sinner is obligated to obey. If Christ asks you to do something,
it is like telling you to do something. It is that simple. If he is the Lord and the King,
you go to the King, If we had a king and we're invited to be
in his presence, he'd come down and he'd say, would you please,
if you will, go down and pull some taxes off of these servants
down there, I need some taxes. We wouldn't say, well, since
you're asking nicely, I don't think I really want to do it. Because
the king has asked, it's a command. And the king says, Canst thou
show me where these enemies are? That was not a nice little question
that this man could reply in the negative. This man is under
the realm of a king now. One who saved him. This man is
obligated to obey this request of the king. The word of king may come as
a request. Much like the words of Romans
12 when the Lord said, present your bodies a living sacrifice,
wholly acceptable unto the Lord. This is the least you can do. It's your reasonable service.
That sounds like a request. Well, I don't know whether I'll
do that or not. I'll think about it. No, that didn't come from
me. It came from the King, you see.
Because King has claim on his subject. And though the believer
is drafted into the army of God, and here's the beautiful thing
about it, this does sound like a request, doesn't it? Though
the believer is drafted into the army of God, and he's never
going to get out of it, he's also a willing volunteer in the
army of God. So the request, even the commands
of the Lord, are not grievous to be born to the child of God,
because he's a volunteer in this army. This man volunteered. He said, Yo, no problem. No problem. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And if you ever meet the king,
and he asks something of you, you'll say, Yes, sir. Be glad
to do it. Why? Because he's the king. You don't
turn down the king. Ever. Ever. The 11th thing is
found in verse 15. It says, "...and he said, Swear
unto me," this is what this man said to David, "...swear unto
me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the
hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company."
Was he doing a trade-off with him? No. The saved sinner desires
assurance. That don't change. I mean, I prayed many times going
to preach somewhere where I felt like I wouldn't be accepted or
where I might never be invited back again. Lord, don't let me
go by myself, please. And if you don't go with me,
stop me on the road, give me a flat tire or something. Please
don't let me go. Assure me that I'm supposed to
be there. You show me up with me. You show up with me. That's
all I want. This fellow seeks two things.
First, he wants assurance that he will not be killed. What does
that tell you about this man? This is a confession of what
he knows he deserves. He deserves to be killed. He
knows that still. He's the presence of the King. He's been helped
by the King. But he still knows he deserves to be killed. Job
said, though he slay me, I will serve him. You know this. Every child of God knows this.
Our acceptance before God and our state in Christ is holy by
grace. We deserve eternal punishment. That's what we've earned. That's
what we deserve. So this fellow says, don't kill
me. Promise me you won't kill me.
You won't kill me. I know I deserve that. I know
I deserve that. In further confession, he stands
before Him who has the power of life and death. Secondly,
he desires a guarantee that he will not be returned to his former
master. This too is a confession. What
is he confessing to? I'll always be a servant of somebody. Always be. Bob Dylan says you're
going to serve somebody, didn't he? You're going to serve the
devil, you're going to serve the Lord, but everybody's going
to serve somebody. I like that song. It's a good song. What does the sinner have? He
has a plea. Lord, don't kill me. Lord, don't make me go back to
where I was. Have you ever prayed that prayer?
I have. Lord, don't let me go back to
where I was before I knew you. That's seeking assurance. Seeking
assurance. This is a confession that he's
not in control of anything. Whatever his new master does,
he still remains a servant. He still remains a servant. When
the sinner has a plea, or what the sinner has is a plea, and
no sinner will ever be disappointed in the defeat of Christ. Ever
be disappointed. Christ has delivered us from
death. Don't kill me. And from the dominion of my sin.
Don't let me go back under my master, my old master. That's
what it says. He delivered us from death, from
the wrath to come, and He's delivered us from that which ruled over
us, sin and death from our birth. He delivered us from those things.
So those are two things we ask for too, isn't it? It's not sinful to want assurance.
No. But it's very important where
you look for it. Very important where you look
for assurance. Let me show you something over in Exodus 33.
Moses. Moses believes God. He knows
God has done all these things for him. He knows God talked
to him out of a burning bush. He knows that God has delivered
Israel by Him. Moses says this in Exodus 33 in verse 12. He said, And Moses said unto
the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and
thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou
hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also that I have
found grace in thy sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if
I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may
know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that
this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence, God
said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said unto him, If thy
presence go not with me, carry me up not hence. If you won't
go with me, don't make me go. Don't make me go. The final thing
is found in verse 16, back in our text in the first verse.
And when he brought him down, this man brought David down to
the Amalekites. And here's what I found interesting.
There's no record of David promising what the man had requested. The next verse is simply this,
"...and he brought him down." It is evident that he did because
he brought David down to the place of the Amalekites. For
the believer, the point is really moot. If the Lord has saved you
and met your every need, He will never leave you and oversake
you. You may ask of the Lord a thing. He'll answer you, and He'll be
with you in that answer. You see, all the promises of
God are in Christ, yea and amen. All of them. Every promise. With
salvation comes all the attendant mercies. Everything you need
is supplied by God. The man, this man, this poor,
wretched, ruined enemy of God had received grace, and grace
will see him through. You can count on that. That's
a picture of our salvation in this poor Egyptian found in a
field, saved by grace. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.