[0:00] Bible is going to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 26, 1 Samuel chapter 26, 1 Samuel chapter 26. We will be looking at the chapter in its entirety, just 25 verses in 1 Samuel chapter 26.
[0:16] This is the completion of kind of a three-way testing of David, or proving, I almost say not testing, kind of a proving and kind of a repetition of what God is showing him.
[0:34] We see the principle applied 24 and 26 are very synonymous. Chapter 24 and chapter 26 have a lot of similarities, so much so that some Bible scholars have, or some Bible students have attempted in the past to say this is a retelling of the same event.
[0:52] That's not the case. There are too many differences in the accounts to justify that interpretation. One happened in an open field, one happened in a cave, one happened in the night, one happened in the middle of the day.
[1:04] There's just too many differences there, different locations, things of that nature. So if you ever read in your study, in your study of Scripture, and someone proposes that this is a retelling of a same event, it's not.
[1:17] But 24 and 26 kind of sandwiched chapter 25. You say, well, that's a no-brainer, Pastor. Well, yeah, because 24 and 26 are very similar. If you remember, the 25th chapter had to do with Nabal, and kind of David's testing there of, it's one thing to spare the enemy he's pursuing you.
[1:35] What about the man who does you wrong? So this is a theme that we see in three consecutive chapters that is kind of preparing David for his position as king, because if you remember, God doesn't waste our wilderness years.
[1:50] God doesn't waste our wilderness years. He utilizes them, and he uses them, and he speaks greater in them. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon who once said that God whispers to us in our joys.
[2:05] He speaks to us in our discomforts, but he shouts to us in our pain. Right? That he speaks loudest in the darkest moments. And we see that. The 26th chapter, as we read it, you'll see this is the end of Saul's pursuit of David.
[2:21] Right? This will be the end of that pursuit. Two reasons. We kind of get ahead of ourselves looking at it. In the 27th chapter, David does an unwise thing and leaves the land of Israel, or kind of the promised land.
[2:35] He shouldn't have done, which we'll get to that when we get there. And then in the 28th chapter, Saul takes that fateful turn of events where Saul eventually loses his life in battle. So this is kind of the end of that period.
[2:48] Nearly 10-year wilderness time of David's life. But we see it here in the 26th chapter. And I want you to see as we look at it, maintaining a consistent witness.
[3:02] Maintaining a consistent witness. Okay? David maintains. I'm sure he had moments. He was a man just like us. He dealt with weaknesses and temptations and trials and struggles.
[3:12] And we see those in Scripture. But yet he maintains a consistent witness as to his character, his righteousness, and his standing before men.
[3:23] It says, Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gebeah, saying, Is not David hiding on the hills of Hekila, which is before Jeshimon? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having with him 3,000 chosen men of Israel to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph.
[3:40] And Saul camped in the hill of Hekila, which is before Jeshimon, beside the road. And David was staying in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, then David sent out spies, and he knew that Saul was definitely coming.
[3:55] David then arose and came to the place where Saul had camped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. And Saul was lying in the circle of the camp, and the people were camped around him.
[4:09] Then David said to Himalek the Hittite and Abishai, the son of Zariah, Joab's brother, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with you.
[4:22] So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the people were lying around him.
[4:35] Then Abishai said to David, Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.
[4:46] But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt? David also said, As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish.
[5:02] The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. So now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water and let us go. So David took the spear and the jug of water from beside Saul's head, and they went away, but no one saw or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a sound sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
[5:24] Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the mountain at a distance, with a large area between them. And David called to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer Abner?
[5:36] Then Abner replied, Who are you who calls to the king? So David said to Abner, Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your Lord the king? For one of the people came to destroy the king, your Lord.
[5:49] This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, all of you must surely die. Because you did not guard your Lord, the Lord's anointed, and now see where the king's spear is and the jug of water that was at his head.
[6:04] Then Saul recognized David's voice and said, Is that your voice, my son David? And David said to the king, It is my voice, my Lord the king. He also said, Why then is my Lord pursuing his servant?
[6:15] For what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand? Now therefore, please let my Lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering.
[6:27] But if it is men, curse are they before the Lord. For they have driven me out today so that I would have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods.
[6:38] Now then, do not let my blood fall to the ground away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to search for a single flea, just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains. Then Saul said, I have sinned.
[6:51] Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again, because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error. David replied, Behold the spear of the king.
[7:05] Now let one of the young men come down or come over and take it. The Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I refuse to stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.
[7:20] Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me from all distress. Then Saul said to David, by the way, this is the very last thing Saul ever says to David that we have recorded for us.
[7:37] Blessed are you, my son David, you will both accomplish much and surely prevail. So David went on his way and Saul returned to his place.
[7:48] 1 Samuel chapter 26, we see David maintaining a consistent witness. Evidently, that which the Lord taught him in the 25th chapter as it concerned Nabal, David learned his lesson and continued with this consistent witness because we see his righteous character shining forth in this own chapter.
[8:12] Surely in the 27th chapter, he will make an unwise choice. He will flee. He will go to the land of the Philistines, which is not wise. It's never wise, by the way, to leave the promised land to go outside of the presence of God's people.
[8:24] But yet we understand also why he's doing it, but we see the consistent witness in this chapter. I want you to see three things that it takes to maintain a consistent witness. Not only for David, but three things that it takes for us to maintain a consistent witness in our own land.
[8:38] How we ought to live consistently in our professions and in our righteousness. And our righteousness means to be in a right standing with the Lord, right? To be in a right standing. The previous time when Saul had pursued David and he went into a cave to relieve himself, unaware that David and his men were in the depths of the cave and David went forth and cut the edge off of Saul's robe and then felt bad for it was remorseful because he had really kind of done something harmful, at least in perspective, to the garments of the king.
[9:13] Later regretted it, it says. He persuaded his men that it would do him no harm. And as soon as Saul leaves, he walks out of the cave. Saul makes the declaration that David's righteousness is revealed through his actions.
[9:24] David spoke great truth there that from the wicked comes forth wicked, but from the righteous comes forth righteousness. And we have seen how this righteousness or how to be in a right standing with a holy God is displayed through our actions.
[9:39] This is consistent all throughout scripture. The book of Acts has this common refrain and we talk about it. It was our prayer even last week as we ministered in our community, as we minister in the community again with Vacation Bible School coming up and as we minister in our workplaces and in our communities throughout our daily activities that people will come to Christ based upon what they see and hear.
[10:06] Based upon what they see and hear. It's something that we see being put on display for the early church. That it is the revelation of righteous acts combined with the righteous words which bring people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
[10:24] David had displayed righteous acts in his dealings with Saul because as Saul had said previously, will a man have his enemy handed to him and yet spare him? So the righteousness that was within him was displayed based upon his mercy shown.
[10:40] Here we see how David maintains that witness consistently and what it takes for us to do that. The first thing we notice is a consistent witness is affected by the company we keep.
[10:54] Consistency is dictated by the company we keep. The New Testament principle is what fellowship have light with darkness. We understand that we are called to be the lights in the world.
[11:09] We should not be surprised when sinners act like sinners because it doesn't really surprise us very often when saints act like sinners. though it should, it should break our hearts.
[11:19] We all know that we fall and all men have fallen short of the glory of God that none are righteous, no, not one saved the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. But we also know that our relationship with Jesus Christ changes who we are.
[11:32] It changes the company we keep or it should. It doesn't necessarily remove us but as Paul declared that when writing to the believers he said that people are surprised that you no longer act the way you do.
[11:46] that you no longer act the way you used to act. That you no longer run with them doing the same things. That the company you keep really has an impact on your consistency of witness.
[12:00] We miss it if we don't read it carefully. The 26th chapter in the very first verse says, Then the Ziphites came to Saul. That should catch your attention.
[12:11] It should catch your attention for a number of reasons because Ziphites is one of those strange words that you cannot forget very quickly that you've read it once you kind of catch it again. The Ziphites came to Saul. It should catch your attention because if you go back to the 23rd chapter you will see that there was a time when the Ziphites came to Saul formally.
[12:29] And when the Ziphites came to Saul for the first time they said, Is not David hiding in the hills among us? And it was the people of Ziph that Saul said, Well then go search out and make sure you know where he's at and then I will come.
[12:41] And so the Ziphites searched out, they found and they gathered Saul and they said, We know where he's at and so this was the first pursuit really of Saul going to David. This is when David is going around one side of the mountain and Saul and his men are coming around the other side of the mountain and then Saul gets word that the Philistines are attacking so he leaves.
[12:59] And David pens that psalm of deliverance when the Ziphites handed him over that God delivered him. But the 23rd chapter we know is followed by the 24th chapter and in the 24th chapter it tells us and when Saul had finished pursuing the Philistines he went back and heeded the word of the Ziphites and went after David and it was in that 24th chapter that when he was going after David where the Ziphites had told him that he went into a cave and had that encounter that he wasn't even aware of when the edge of his garment was cut off and in the 24th chapter Saul makes this declaration that David is more righteous than he I will no longer pursue you.
[13:35] The problem is is the Ziphites came back and the Ziphites said we know where he's at Now we are affected by the people that we keep around us and the people we allow to be around us.
[13:51] I'm not saying that you completely isolate yourself and no longer have fellowship but by the company we keep I mean the company we allow or the company we pursue and while Saul was not pursuing the Ziphites he was allowing the Ziphites to speak into his situation.
[14:08] Let's just be honest there are some people that don't need to speak into your situation. The Ziphites had given Saul advice before he heeded that advice and he went to pursue David and his life was spared and oh how soon he forgot it because as soon as the Ziphites come back it says that he gets 3,000 men by the way go read that 23rd chapter and even into the 24th chapter he took 3,000 men with him then.
[14:31] The 3,000 did him no good when he was in a cave alone. The 3,000 will do him no good even though they're encamped around him. The Ziphites said we know where he's at so Saul took action again he should not have because the consistency of our actions is displayed in the company we keep.
[14:52] And if the advice of the Ziphites did him no good formally I don't know why he thought that it would do him good this time but he took it. But just as we have said the enemy he always has his men but God always has his.
[15:08] Now I've kind of caught this because it says that David heard that Saul was coming after him and he sent out his spies and he knew assuredly that Saul was coming after him so David went to where Saul was camping.
[15:22] I've always found it humorous that people throughout scripture are pursuing the people of God and they can never find them but the people of God have no problems finding their enemies. So David knew exactly where he was at even though Saul was looking for him David walked up and looked up in his camp and David had two men with him too Ahimelech and Abishai.
[15:42] Now this is something I've noticed and maybe I'm just wrong. Saul had people speaking to him David was speaking to them. Saul was allowing the counsel of others to affect his actions David in his righteousness was affecting the actions of others by speaking to them.
[16:04] because the enemy always speaks loud when we're silenced. So David has men with him too and he asked a question get the picture in the valley beside the road there's Saul and his 3,000 men Abner the grand leader of the armies right beside Saul stuck at the side of Saul's head is the spear which he has thrown at David a number of times and a jug of water and here's David with two other men and David asked a question who's going to go with me and that seems like what some would call a suicidal mission who wants to go with me into the camp of the 3,000 and that's what now we know this must be a divine leading because the Bible tells us no one woke up for the Lord and caused a deep sleep to fall upon them but what I find even more amazing is that one of those men never hesitated said I'll go you know why because it is possible to have company that will distract us and it's also possible to have company that will encourage us friend be careful of the company you keep if you find that the people around you are distracting or discouraging you from following the Lord change company
[17:28] Abishai said I'll go why because he was encouraging David's faithfulness we need people who say I'll go with you if the Lord's leading I'll go we need people who say I'll march with you I know it doesn't look right I know the odds seem to be stacked against us I know it seems a little suicidal but if the Lord's leading you David I'll go Abishai becomes one of his mighty men we get him mentioned for us in the book of first chronicles he is there as a mighty man we know why he's so mighty because he's willing the company we keep determines the consistency we maintain because what fellowship hath light with darkness be not deceived bad company corrupts good morals David had the right company Saul did not the second thing we see is consistency is possible by the convictions we have by the convictions we have we've looked at them in details we've made our way through it we'll continue to look at them we looked at it on Father's
[18:40] Day and I told you it was one of the messages that just kind of resonates with me and even if it kind of determines how I see things a little bit but if nothing else if we learn nothing else David's mighty men were not weaklings right they were ready to fight the Lord's battles so Bishai as they come into the camp he says there's a spear and there's the enemy let me strike him only take one blow he says one blow and I'll pin him to the ground and I won't stick him again how easy it would have been he says today God has given your enemy into your hands David's heard that before by the way just because we resist the temptation once doesn't mean it's not going to be whispered again in the depths of the cave surrounded by his men with Saul and all of his vulnerability it's whispered in David's ear hey you have him go get him he avoids it then he ignores it he discourages his men he vehemently told his men we're not going to do it guess what the enemy has a way of whispering again he's asleep there he is do it again if David had taken action he would have been guilty of self preservation and he would have been guilty of not necessarily killing his enemy but killing the Lord's anointed see David was convicted that the anointing was more important than the man that the sovereignty of God superseded the actions of man and since this is the Lord's anointed who am I even though his actions do not look as they should even though his life does not match his position still God and his sovereignty has chosen to anoint him as a matter of fact
[20:26] David in 2nd Samuel the man who thought he was doing David a favor by coming into David and saying I killed him David took his life because he said it was the vengeance of the Lord for slaying the Lord's anointed don't look lightheartedly upon the anointing of the Lord you say well what application does that have to us the Bible says that every one of us that are believers in Jesus Christ have been anointed by the Spirit friends sometimes we don't live out the actions of our anointing but that does not remove the reality of it this is why it says that we ought not to be back biters and gossipers and slanderers of one another and brothers and sisters in Christ we ought to love one another respect one another do not despise the Lord's anointing do not despise it and we see this consistency because David was a man of conviction he says
[21:26] I'm not going to do that he said for who can slay the Lord's anointing and not bear the guilt of it he said we're not going to do that and he not only had a conviction of what he shouldn't do that's one thing we can call that a negative conviction we have convictions of things we should not do but we have this positive convictions of things that will be done right because he says I shouldn't slay the Lord's anointed but there was also this conviction but as surely as the Lord lives the Lord will handle the situation for he will either die in due time the Lord will slay him or he'll go to battle and die he learned his lesson with Nabal right God has a way of handling our enemies he says as surely as the Lord lives the Lord is going to take care of Saul I don't have to do it now he based his conviction upon the reality of the
[22:27] Lord God's existence you gather that as surely as the Lord lives that is the convictions he held were based in the reality of God's existence so if God does exist then I can have confidence and well actually a conviction that these things will happen convictions ought to be rooted in the reality of the Lord's existence as surely as he lives and it is this reality that if he is alive and he is then he will do what he has declared he will do and he will conviction states that what God has declared will come about and that settles it and he had this conviction and living in a life of conviction he can live with consistency as
[23:29] I told you a conviction is something that has you it is something not that you have but it's something that has you it's not something you're persuaded of it's something that has you to the very depth of your being and you cannot change your conviction without changing who you are and when we live with conviction we live with consistency because though times and seasons may change though circumstances may change though opportunities may be presented when that's who we are by conviction it stays the same that's not what we're convinced of because something you're convinced of is something that you possess something you're convicted of is something that possesses you big difference and we see this the convictions we have number three we maintain consistency by the confidence we possess it is the company we keep the convictions we have the confidence we possess
[24:43] David takes the spear and the jug of water one Bible commentator I can't remember who it was pointed out the reality that David gives the spear back never gives the jug of water back makes a lot of sense for somebody hanging out in the wilderness right keep the water I don't need the spear I got mighty men but I need the water he gives the spear back but he doesn't give the jug of water back David takes the spear and the jug of water both of which were laying at the head of Saul as he is sleeping beside Abner and inside the circle some of your translations say inside the circle of the wagons or inside the circle of the camp the king would have been right in the center and David had made his way to the center with Abishai and he took the spear and the jug and he went says unto a hill a great distance between them and he called out and notice what he did he called out to Abner he didn't call out to Saul he called out to Abner and he ridicules Abner rightfully so because while
[25:44] Saul was trusting in his men David was trusting in his Lord and Saul's men had failed him but David's Lord will not and Abner was a valiant warrior later on he'll join forces with David he'll come beside him and he will eventually die and we see all this ugliness that happens but we see that he kind of ridicules Abner because someone got close to Saul and that should have never happened Saul recognizes the voice of David and if you remember in the first encounter in the 24th chapter David refers to him as my father because he is his father in law he says my father this is your son David in this instance David never refers to him as my father he refers to him as his political position the lord the king my lord and king or sir and king but he does not refer to him as father though Saul refers to him as his son or is this the voice of my son
[26:48] David David never goes back there he doesn't say yes my father it's me but we see the confidence that David has because he has confidence to stand up not just the confidence to stand and say oh hey here I am if you want to come get me that's not the kind of confidence we're having it is the self confidence of his own innocence and he stands up and he makes this declaration and he says why are you pursuing me what evil have I done sounds like the rain finally got here right he says why are you pursuing me what evil have I done and he stands and says you know there's no evil within me and here's the confidence I want you to see it is the confidence that he knows that he is not living in sin that as far as it goes between he and Saul he has no evil pursuit he has no evil designs he has no evil ambitions he's not seeking him out he's not trying to kill him he's living in the full confidence that he is innocent of that guilt and this innocence before the
[27:51] Lord gives him confidence before men and he can make this declaration and say what have I done so much so that he says if the Lord has served you to pursue me let me know so I can offer the offering and the sacrifice required so this is not just this false prideful self glory this is knowing if God is calling me to repentance then let me offer the sacrifice but as far as I know I am free from the blood of this this is the same confidence that Paul would say I am free from the blood of all men Paul could write such great truths because Paul knew in confidence that he could stand before his savior innocent!
[28:35] we live consistently when we live holy for the Lord we're not hiding a secret sin we're not hiding a secret thing over here but when we have confidence that as far as it goes between me and the Lord I am innocence you say well what do you mean by innocent you can't be innocent no man is righteous no not one right but when Paul says that he is free from the blood of all men and that no one examines him and it's of little value if anybody does examine him he knows that his examination comes from the Lord and he lives daily it was David who wrote search me oh Lord try me know my anxious thoughts and he knew that his relationship with the Lord again read the the songs of praise in the book of Psalms that he wrote during this time living in communion with the Lord there was one obstacle that could have broke that communion and that was what would have been the sin with Nabal but Abigail showed up and was used of
[29:38] God to stop him from doing that right so now that he knows as far as it goes between he and the Lord his God he is living in confidence because he knows that he is living in a right standing with God and understanding his standing before God gives him confidence among men we would say it this way there is no guilty conscience and without a guilty conscience he is free to live consistently to us on this side of the cross we know that when Christ has redeemed us it does not give us a license to sin but rather it gives us an avenue of forgiveness and when we live in communion we would not quench the spirit right we would live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit not quenching it by our own sinful desires and when the spirit is allowed to have all of us we don't get more of the spirit than today we are sealed right the moment we accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior we are sealed with the
[30:39] Holy Spirit from that moment on until the day of redemption this is my complete understanding of it in a nutshell and we don't need more of the Holy Spirit than we were ever given Jesus makes this great promise that when he ascended to the Father that he would send the spirit to us and we have the fullness of the Holy Spirit the problem a lot of times is that the spirit doesn't have the fullness of us right we need him to have more of us and we quench it by kind of pushing him aside and living with our own desires and we lose confidence because we're not completely full of the Holy Spirit because we have filled a lot of ourselves with ourselves we have filled ourselves up with our own desires our own ambitions but when we allow the spirit to have all of us or more and more and more of us and we press on not that we are perfect but we're pressed on towards the day when we will be perfect there's something to be said about having a clean conscience because when we know there's no unconfessed sin between us and a holy God when we realize there's no unatoned unforgiven sin between us and a holy
[31:40] God because of who Jesus Christ is and when we live right before God in righteousness it gives us confidence before men in holiness the reason we see so many silent believers very very very few people ever share their faith I think is this one thing lack of confidence and a lack of confidence really is a lack of transparency before the Lord our God we're trying to hide our own things and trying to keep part of that to ourselves but when we can be fair and transparent and open before God and we know that we are right before a holy God then we have all the confidence in the world to stand before men and say I've done no wrong David makes this declaration
[32:42] Saul again gives lip service and says oh well I've acted a fool I love what Warren Wiersbe says here that's saying it lightly right I've acted a fool well just a little bit his foolishness doesn't stop here he goes and consults a witch and all this other good stuff ends up taking his own life but his foolishness doesn't stop and he makes this empty promise says come back David you know and David I think very wisely goes I don't think so says David went his own way and Saul went back to his place that's good right just go back to his place but we see David was able to maintain a consistent witness had opportunity to stumble had opportunity to fall back nobody in the world would have blamed him right who would have blamed him he was popular he had his men people in society loved him they sang songs about him Saul his thousands
[33:43] David his tens of thousands he could have won over the crowds but he lived consistently trusting the Lord to do what needed to be done in our day and time God has called us to live consistently as witnesses to the righteousness he's called us to for his glory let's pray and then we'll be dismissed before I pray anybody have anything we need to pray about any word we need to share anything at all alright let's pray God I thank you so much for this night I thank you oh God for the testimony of David we thank you not because when we open up the pages of scripture we see a perfect man but we see a man who stands perfectly before you transparency and any of his weaknesses and his stumblings and yet God you use him so Lord it gives us confidence that you can call us to yourself and use us for your glory so Lord we pray that we would take those truths we would take those realities and we'd apply them to our life
[34:44] Lord that we would live lives of consistent witness that we would live lives of consistent righteousness before others and before you Lord as we get ready to leave here we pray God that you'd help us to be lights in our community Lord we thank you for the position you've given us to shine the light of the gospel Lord may it be for your glory and yours alone we continue to pray for those around us who are hurting we continue to pray for those families that are in need we pray for those who are serving in various mission fields Lord we even pray for the mission field of our workplaces Lord help them to be for your glory help it to be that we would shine as the lights that you've called us to be Lord we love you and we cannot thank you enough for the price you paid for our redemption and we ask it all in Jesus name amen thank you guys I greatly appreciate so so so!
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