-Transcript-
00:37 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:39 Welcome to the cafe. Hopefully you are doing great today. I’m thanking you for joining me here.
00:44 My name is Pastor Clark Covington, Pastor of Heartland Ministries here. I’m just so glad to be here today and I’m hoping that you have your Bible. If you’re driving, don’t look at it, okay? But if you’re not driving, maybe you got your Bible in hand.
00:59 So we’re gonna study the Bible here today. Amen. And we are gonna get a blessing.
01:04 We’re in the second part of a three-part series on David’s deliverance. And as we look at how God delivered David, I mean think about this from afar. You ever read a psalm? I mean you’ve got psalms on calendars.
01:16 You have psalms on posters. I’ve got t-shirt with at least one t-shirt with a psalm on. I’m sure I’ve got more than that probably.
01:26 You know they’re so beautiful, right? You’re like, man, how did he think of this? How did David write this? Where’d he get this from? Many songs have been made out of psalms. As I understand it, psalms were songs of those days. Amen.
01:39 But and then of course contemporary music, again, they’ll have inspiration from these psalms. But how did he get this? Like where does it come from? And I’ve got news for you. Great, beautiful poetry and praise to God doesn’t come from high-living, fast-living, fun times.
02:00 Oftentimes it comes from the valley. It comes from being on the run. It comes from being in the worst place that you can imagine and seeing God lift you out by His almighty hand of power from that bad place to set you on that solid rock foundation.
02:19 That is what Christian living is like, is it not? We trust God. We go through turmoil. We believe on God.
02:26 He delivers us from that turmoil. We give him praise and that kind of happens over and over again almost like the waves of the sea. They come in, they crash, they go back.
02:36 They come in, they crash, they go back like a cycle. And as we live for the Lord, we’re gonna face opposition. We’re gonna face challenges.
02:43 I’ve heard a preacher say some one time, you know, a lot of times say, oh the devil’s attacking. You know, the devil may be attacking, but the flesh also is attacking, right? So we’ve got it from the culture. We’ve got a sinful flesh.
02:54 The body that we’re in is still corrupt even when we’re saved, amen? And you got that enmity, that warfare against God, the natural man. And you got the Holy Spirit. You got that warfare that Paul writes about.
03:06 And then you’ve got, of course, the devil attacking. It’s tough out here. And so what we need to do is get inspiration for how David was able to praise God so authentically and so lovingly and so sincerely by going through what he went through.
03:22 And at the same time, we can learn logically, you know, with our brains. We can learn intellectually that God will deliver those that are his. That God delivers those that believe on him.
03:33 There’s deliverance. There’s godly deliverance at hand, Amen. So let’s look at 1 Samuel 24. Last episode, we talked about how God delivered David from Goliath and gave him the victory.
03:46 And this day here, we’re talking about 1 Samuel 24, how God delivered David from Saul and his army, King Saul and his army, who was trying to kill David because essentially he was jealous of David.
03:59 1 Samuel 24, we’re just gonna read 13, 14 verses here. And it came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.
04:13 Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep coats, by the way, where was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his feet.
04:26 And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And so here we have in the first three verses, setting up of the scene here of Saul with 3,000 chosen men, kind of the elite soldiers, going after David in the rocks, in the mountainous area there where the wild goats were. And there’s a cave, and David’s in this cave with his men on the side.
04:50 And if you’ve ever been into a cave, it’s pretty dark in a cave, especially if you really kind of go in there. Of course, I try not to spend too much time in caves, but from my understanding, you know, for the few times I would end up in one, it’s pretty dark. So David and his men are in the cave, and Saul is relieving himself.
05:06 I think you know what that means. And David’s there. And verse 4, And the men of David said unto him, Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee.
05:18 Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. So verse 4 is showing that David had an opportunity to kill his enemy, Saul, who was looking to kill him, because he would have been able to take him by surprise. Verse 5, And it came to pass afterward that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
05:42 And so isn’t this interesting? The flesh, the sinful man, desires vengeance, don’t they? But we know that vengeance is the Lord’s, and vengeance is not ours. And David’s heart, he was convicted that he’d even cut off the robe of this individual that was looking to kill him. Verse 6, And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master.
06:04 The Lord’s anointed to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David gives his reasoning why he’s not gonna kill Saul, even though he has the opportunity. And it is because God himself anointed Saul as king.
06:24 And if you go in the scriptures there, earlier than 1st Samuel, the previous books, you read about how the Israelites wanted a literal king, an actual king, a person, a physical king. I don’t know how you describe it. They wanted a king like everybody else had.
06:37 And God’s like, I’m your king, let me be your king. And they’re saying, no, no, no, God, we don’t want a spiritual king. We want a literal king, like a person in here.
06:45 And God’s like, oh, I’d be a great king, because you know, he is God, he made everything. But they didn’t, they weren’t satisfied with that. So he said, fine, I’ll give you what you’re asking for.
06:54 And God gave him the prototypical king, Saul, and he was by through God’s prophets, Saul’s anointed, Saul’s put into as a king and control and so forth. Saul gets a big head, he’s very jealous of David.
07:06 There was an old saying in the Bible, it says that after David killed Goliath and had that success, that Saul killed his thousands, but David killed his ten thousands or something like that.
07:20 And it just drove him nuts. And you know, power is intoxicating. And anyone that gets into power, clearly they’re gonna get an ego, they’re gonna get a big head.
07:26 And they’re gonna desire people to look upon them as the Lord and Master and all of these things. And so he wants to take David out because he feels threatened by David
07:37 . But nonetheless, he was anointed by God after the Israelites as a group corporately rejected God’s offer to be their king.
07:44 And God then says, fine, here’s Saul through his prophets. So David knows this, David knows that he is God’s anointed this individual, he said, I can’t kill him because this is God’s anointed. Verse 7, so David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul.
08:00 But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David also arose afterward and went out of the cave and cried after Saul saying, my lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself.
08:15 And so we see here David showing humility. And David said to Saul, wherefore hearest thou men’s words saying behold David seeketh I hurt behold this day thine eyes have seen how the Lord had delivered thee to today into mine hand in the cave and some bade me to kill thee but mine eyes spared thee
08:32 and I said I will not put forth mine hand against my Lord for he is the Lord’s capital L the Lord’s anointed moreover my father see a see the skirt of thy robe in my hand for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe
08:44 and killed thee not know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand and I have not sinned against thee yet thou hurtest my soul to take it.
08:56 the Lord judged between me and thee and the Lord Lord avenged me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee as sayeth the proverb of the ancients wickedness proceedeth from the wicked but mine hand shall not be upon thee
09:09 after whom is the king of Israel come out after whom does thou pursue after a dead dog after a flea the Lord therefore be judge and judge between me and thee and see
09:19 and plead my cause and deliver me out of thine hand and it came to pass when David made an end of speaking these on words unto Saul that Saul said is thy this thy voice my son David
09:28 and Saul lifted up his voice and wept and wept and so we see here oh man it just I wish I could read more for time’s sake we all do read a little bit more verse 17 and he said to David thou art more righteous than I for thou has rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded the evil okay I’ll stop there
09:48 that kind of caps it off and sums it up but we see so much in the scripture of David’s humility calls himself a dog and a flea he bows down to Saul he shows all that he could have killed him that he didn’t and that he continues to mention that God could be the judge
10:07 or God will be the judge between Saul and him so David is not elevating the conversation just like he did with Goliath from a literal individual to individual level to a spiritual level
10:17 and there is so much to learn here about godly deliverance I mean David clearly was praying for deliverance some of the Psalms reference him being in a cave and him being on the run he’s praying for deliverance God grants him a unique kind of deliverance where God allows him to come in contact with Saul but not kill Saul to show Saul that he truly wasn’t gonna kill him
10:39 he wasn’t gonna do it he wasn’t gonna take over the kingdom because he knew that Saul was God’s anointed and so we see so much from this that we can learn
10:49 and number one that oppression leads to beautiful praise to God and so David wouldn’t have been able to give God the praise in this way if he hadn’t been delivered in the way that is outlined here in 1 Samuel 24
11:01 and so as we go through hardship what instead of just you know asking questions that would be very natural like why me or help me God and you know calling out to God for help which is always good but instead of just going through that why don’t we give God the praise Amen
11:17 why don’t we give him the glory while we’re going through the hardship I mean think about it the most beautiful poetry can come from hard times Amen and you know what this isn’t just a Bible thing ask any artist and they’ll tell you their best art comes from the struggle and so forth well God knows this and God’s way is better than man’s way
11:34 and God will put you in the fire Amen for a season but he’ll deliver you out of that fire as he delivered David if you have faith and you believe on him and then you can tell others through this testimony
11:45 how God delivered you but think about what great testimony David has here immortalized for an eternity in the Bible because we know God’s Word never perishes so this will be an eternal word that never perishes about how God delivered David I can’t think of anything better
11:59 and how about this godly deliverance comes by committing to live godly yeah that makes sense doesn’t it I mean think about this how can we expect godly deliverance if we are living ungodly lives
12:12 you want God to help you get out of that problem first step is to go to him and get right with him repent before him Amen understand that sin ask the Holy Spirit by the work of the Holy Spirit to identify what that sin is of course taking a step back if you haven’t been saved if the first step is to ask Jesus Christ to save you Amen to believe on the blood of Jesus for salvation believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins was buried and resurrected three days later for your sins
12:40 understanding your sin debt understanding that Christ as a perfect spotless lamb shed his blood on Mount Calvary to save you when you believe on Jesus you repent before the Lord you get right with him you turn from you know little
12:55 I’m sure you know what’s to if there’s something standing in the way of God I’m sure the Lord has about it maybe it’s pornography you know ask God to remove it from your life and get it out if it’s on the phone throw the phone out if it’s on the computer get the computer out
13:13 if it’s on the TV get the TV out stop playing games stop flirting with sin maybe it’s alcohol maybe it’s lying maybe it’s coveting we don’t I don’t know only you know I don’t need to know you know and God knows Amen
13:22 that’s all that matters you go to the Lord you ask him to help you he’ll deliver you from it you know brother I’ve struggled with a lot of things in life and I’ve asked God to deliver me from it and he’s been faithful and just to deliver me from it sometimes it wasn’t fun
13:34 but the Lord has delivered me from it Amen and so we can trust God and once we live godly we can expect godly deliverance so we saw David living godly by not putting his hand on God’s anointed by all His prayers and praise to God his faith in God he was justified by his faith he believed God would deliver him and God did Amen
13:56 and David was richly rewarded for it David’s not perfect but neither are we and so we have this example of godly deliverance from King Saul in the Bible that we can turn to and thank God for
14:06 and use for inspiration for us that we will be delivered by Him as well as we turn and seek Him and believe on Him
14:14 thank you for listening take care God bless Amen