The Flesh vs.
The Spirit
1 Samuel
22:6-23:29
Review
David on the Run – Momentary lapse
Ch.21
Lies to the Priest
Runs to the world – ends up pretending to
be mad
Trying to find refuge in the
world – David alters his behavior – { Always
the case
Ch.22 – God blesses David – brings his family to him
A) David takes care of them
by taking them to Moab
B) Grandma was from there –
Ruth – seeks a safe place for his mom & Dad
C) And God
brings David – Companions
1) Rough at first – In debt
/ Distress / Discontent
D) They will turn
into mighty men
Pick
up in v. 6 Focus is once again on Saul –
A) Saul is a picture of the
CARNAL MAN – the fleshly man –
B) Problems of leaning to
your own understanding
1) Saul’s Men are becoming
disenchanted with him
C) In this Chapter we will
also see the Consequences to David sin – People always get hurt
1) As we Move into Ch. 23 – Contrast David – w/ Saul – David walking in Spirit
– his men respect
6When
Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been
discovered—now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear
in his hand, and all his servants standing about him
[
Note Saul is
becoming a Spear holding Maniac – threw at David / his son Jonathan – who would
be next ]
7then
Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will
the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make
you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?
8All of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who reveals to me that my son
has made a covenant with the son of Jesse; and there is not one of you who is sorry for
me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against
me, to lie in wait, as it is this day.”
[ Here we see further proof of Saul’s delusion - 8All of you have
conspired against me-
This is a common
trait of the Carnal man – everyone is against me – DILUTED PERCEPTION
A) Saul doesn’t know who he
can trust – but his problem wasn’t that the people were against him
B) Saul’s biggest Problem
was that God was against him
1) Saul is completely Self
focused – No one is sorry for me – [ Flesh – poor me
syndrome ]
9Then
answered Doeg
the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, [ We met Doeg in
Ch.21 he was at Nob – heard David meeting with the priest & we learned that
he was the chief of the kings herd ]–
he
said, “I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahi/tub. 10And he inquired
of the Lord for him, gave him
provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
11So the king sent to call
Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahi/tub,
and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob. And they all
came to the king. 12And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahi/tub!”
He answered, “Here I am, my lord.”
13Then
Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, [ Here he goes again] you and the son of
Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God
for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is this day?”
14So Ahimelech
answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as
faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, who goes at your bidding, and
is honorable in your house?
[ Now
you have to love Ahimelech – he is speaking the voice of the Lord here to Saul
– Saul David is the most faithful & honorable of all your servants ]
Saul should have heeded that
word – but the problem with the flesh is it only sees what it wants to see –
from it’s twisted perspective
Ahimelech continues v. 15Did
I then begin to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king
impute anything to his servant, or to any in the house of my father. For
your servant knew nothing of all this, little or much.” [ INNOCENT IN THIS MATTER]
16And
the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s
house!” [ Saul
is not listening – not hearing – sick with jealousy]
Prov 12:15 The
way of a fool is right in his own eyes,But he who heeds counsel is wise.
17Then
the king said to the guards who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of
the Lord, because their hand also
is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to
me.” But the
servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the Lord. [ At
least someone has some sense here – no way they are going to strike God’s
anointed men.]
18And
the king said to Doeg, “You turn and kill the priests!” So Doeg the
Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day eighty-five men
who wore a linen ephod. 19Also Nob, the city of the priests, he
struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants,
oxen and donkeys and sheep—with the edge of the sword.
BRUTAL SAVAGERY
There
is always a godless Doeg around to do evil
Here we see the consequences
to David’s lie – David got someone else involved –
result INNOCENT people got hurt
Problem with Sin
– Gossip – lying – deceit being in words or lifestyle – Innocent people get
hurt
A) Men / women & Children
are affected –
B) That is what happens here
– family of the priest is massacred -
1) But God always leaves a
remnant – that is what happens here -
20Now one of the sons of
Ahimelech the son of Ahi/tub, named
Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21And Abiathar told David
that Saul had killed the Lord’S
priests. 22So
David said to Abiathar, “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was
there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have caused the death of all
the persons of your father’s house. 23Stay with me; do
not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be
safe.”
[ What a heart breaking revelation this must have been to
David – consequences of his sin]
It
seems this event had a profound impact on his life – because as we enter into
ch.23 – David changes his way of doing things – dramatically
In this chapter David
becomes a wonderful example of a man walking in the Spirit
1Then
they told David, saying, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah,
and they are robbing the threshing floors.”
[ Keil/lah
was a city in the lowland areas of Judah – they were being ransacked by the
philistines ]
MARKS
OF WALKING IN THE SPIRIT
#1 He has a Genuine concern
for others !
A) The people in the city of
Keilah were not David’s Problem – they were Saul’s
B)
It would have been easy for David to criticize Saul at this point – why isn’t
he taking care of God’s people ?
C)
But because David was a man after God’s own heart
When he hears that God’s people are suffering
1)
It grieves him he wants to help – he is concerned
D) SO what would David do? 2Therefore David
inquired of the Lord, saying,
“Shall I go and attack these Philistines?”
[Here
we see the 2nd mark of a man who is walking in the spirit – being
led by the spirit – he will be #2 a man who inquires of the Lord.]
A) What do you do when you
see a problem – Complain – criticize –
1) In the church there are
lots of opinionated people who are eager to voice their opinions
B) I can do that with the
best of them. – complain Criticize – why are they doing that –
1) Why aren’t they doing
this –
C) How often is our first
reaction when we see a problem to pray !
1) God
has been nailing me on this of late
D) I can be so prone to
complain or so prone to REACT – Monday I was in the
flesh –
1) I will fix that thing –
E) You get a couple people
together who are all reacting that way – Major Damage
F) David shows great
restraint as well as wisdom here : Being a man who was
willing to be led by the Lord – so David inquired of the Lord ……..
And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the
Philistines, and save Keilah.”
[ God gives David
the ok]
3But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in
Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”
4Then David inquired of the Lord once again.
Third mark of a
man walking in the Spirit – He is sensitive to those who are around him.{ eyes/ heart
A)
David’s men object here – they are concerned they are afraid – how is David
going to respond – You?
B)
I think many of us would have been tempted to ramrod our way into this thing –
1)
You are being silly – come on bunch of sissy’s
C)
Others might have been tempted to get ultra spiritual here – I heard from the
Lord – I have the anointing
1)
You guys shouldn’t question my authority
D)
All of those would have been huge mistakes for David – lost respect of his men
1)
They might have gone into a battle – no confidence in the Lord – and vulnerable
for defeat
E)
So what did David do ?
4Then David inquired of the Lord once again.
A)
David says ok – you guys don’t feel right about this – let me go talk to the
Lord again – to make sure
B)
My wife
– If she doesn’t have a peace – I pray some more – God speak to her as well.
1)
INSIGHT or follow Rob
C)
LEADERSHIP
TEAM – not in full agreement we don’t go forward – no matter how
strongly one of us feels about something.
D)
David is establishing himself as a man of Prayer
1)
Not leaning to his own understanding – not pushing for his way – David inquires
of the Lord again
And
the Lord answered him and said,
“Arise, go down to Keilah. For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.” 5And
David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines, struck them
with a mighty blow, and took away their livestock. So David saved the
inhabitants of Keilah.
[ Knowing that God was in this
enabled them to fight with great confidence & God gave the Victory]
6Now
it happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that
he went down with an ephod in his hand.
7And Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah. So Saul
said, “God has delivered him
into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and
bars.” 8Then
Saul called all the people together for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege
David and his men.
9When
David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest,
“Bring the ephod here.” 10Then David said, “O Lord God of Israel, Your servant has
certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my
sake. 11Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand?
Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.” [ David is further
establishing himself as a man of Prayer!]
And
the Lord said, “He will come
down.”
12Then
David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of
Saul?”
And
the Lord said, “They will deliver
you.”
Now this is
amazing – they will turn on you- he just rescued these people –
A) Ministry minded listen:
This is common – people you help will often turn on you – find fault with you
B) It comes with
the territory – there is the great temptation when it happens that you ISOLATE
1) I am never going to do
that again- not going to make myself VULNERABLE
anymore
C) Because Last time I got
burned -
1) POLAR OPPOSITE OF OUR
LORD JESUS EXAMPLE
4TH
Mark of a man walking in the Spirit – He doesn’t hold grudges.
A) Later on when David
becomes King – he doesn’t go back and take vengeance on Keilah.
B) People will disappoint –
let down – surprise you in the worst of ways – comes with the territory
1) Get used to it – but
don’t be overcome by this
C) I know some people who
would being talking about this for yrs – can you believe what those bozo’s in
Keilah did to us – NOT DAVID
13So
David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah and went
wherever they could go. Then it was told Saul that David had escaped from
Keilah; so he halted the expedition.
14And
David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in
the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not
deliver him into his hand.
15So
David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the
Wilderness of Ziph in a forest. 16Then Jonathan,
Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in
God.
Strengthening hands = to fasten upon / to seize
/ to make strong / to repair / to fortify / to make Valiant
A)That is what Jonathan did for
David –
B) He Helped his friend in this
low time – become stronger / more Valiant / Help fortify Him in the Lord
C) Consider what David’s hands
were used for? They were used to fight for Israel
1) Play an instrument for worship
/ write beautiful Psalms of Praise
D)Jon wanted to be sure David
could still do those things
ARE YOU ONE WHO STRENGTHENS PEOPLE’S HANDS IN THE LORD ?
A) When you leave them
they are encouraged and inspired to use their gifts for JESUS
B) What can we learn
from Jonathan about
Strengthening others hands in the Lord?
17And
he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find
you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you.
Even my father Saul knows that.” 18So the two of them made a
covenant before the Lord. And
David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house.
1st He reminded
David of the Lord’s Presence w/ Him –
Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father
shall not find you.
B) David could reject fear because God would ultimately
protect him (Saul my father shall not find you).
1) Jonathan
was reminding David that One w/ God is a majority
Heb 13:5 For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not
fear. What can man do to me?”
C) One of the greatest things we
can do to strengthen a bro/sis/ in a difficult time is to remind them of the
Lord’s Presence w/ them.
1) Peace is not the absence of
trouble, but the presence of God.
J. Oswald Sanders.
2nd
thing that Jonathan did was to remind David of God’s promise to him You shall be king over Israel).
A)We are called to be Promise
believers – sometimes in the mist of our situations the Devil gets us to forget
the promise of God!!!
B) In those times especially we
need to remember that our Lord is a God who keeps His promises
C) Sometimes a political
candidate who wishes to be returned to office will say, "I stand on my record."
1) Well Our
faith stands on the record of what God has done, on the record of promises
kept. Jn 20:31 says "These are written that
you may believe."
D) Faith is not inherited, nor
does it come by accident. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and discovering that God keeps his promises.
1) Faith
is "standing on the promises."
The Chronicles of
Narnia, are wonderful children's stories written by
A)In the second book, Prince Caspian, Lucy enters Narnia again,
and she hasn't seen Aslan, this lion figure who represents Christ.
B) She has not seen him in a long
time,& they have a wonderful reunion. Lucy says to Aslan, who represents
Christ, "Aslan, you're bigger now."
1)Aslan says, "Lucy, that's because
you are older. You see, Lucy, every year that you
grow, you will find me bigger."
C) Same holds true for us the
more we grow in the Lord / the longer we walk w/ the Lord we find him bigger in
his grace and in his goodness
1) and in his faithfulness and in those promises that he has given us
upon which we can depend all the days of our lives
D) Sometimes we just need a
friend like Jonathan to come along & remind us of the bigness & the
faithfulness of God
1) Jonathan gave David an affirmation of what God was doing in His life
3rd
thing that Jonathan did to Strengthen David’s hands in the Lord was to remind
him of the Lord’s Power in his life
A)My father even knows this to be true
B) Reminder of God’s Power in our lives –
1) Because we are in his
hands we can not be in the hands of the enemy
God
wants us to be those who strengthen each others hands in the Lord
A) Stir up each other to love & good works –
B) The word stir up = to Stimulate –
Paddles used to stimulate the heart to get it going again / Electrical currents
– limbs going
C) We need Friendships
that stimulate your walk with the Lord!
1.) Build up rather than tear down!
Think about your
closest relationships - what are the key ingredients?
A)What effects
does time together have on you?
A)Idea of stirring up reminds us of what happens when coals are
in a fire! Get hotter! - On fire for Jesus!
B) I pray we’d be a stirred up
church –Stimulating one another – to Love
Christ more / to Serve Him more / Seek Him more diligently –
C) That we would be those who are
constantly stirring each other up in the Lord
Now this would be the last time that Jon/ David would see each other –
A) Despite Jonathan’s
encouragement the battle raged on –
B) Saul would step up
his efforts to bring David down – although the battle became more fierce
1) I think I can say
with confidence that
Jonathan’s encouragement
helped David make it
C) In fact later – we read David in another time of
Crisis David strengthened his own hands in the Lord
19Then
the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in
strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south
of Jeshimon? 20Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the
desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him
into the king’s hand.”
21And
Saul said, “Blessed are you of the Lord,
for you have compassion on me. 22Please go and find out for sure,
and see the place where his hideout is, and who has seen him there.
For I am told he is very crafty. 23See therefore, and take
knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides; and come back to me with
certainty, and I will go with you. And it shall be, if he is in the land, that
I will search for him throughout all the clans of Judah.”
24So
they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. But David and his men were in
the Wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon. 25When
Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore he went
down to the rock, and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that,
he pursued David in the Wilderness of Maon. 26Then Saul went on one
side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain.
So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were encircling
David and his men to take them.
27But a messenger came to
Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land!” 28Therefore
Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called
that place the Rock of Escape. 29Then David went up from
there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi.