The Lord Will Build His Kingdom

[0:00] Well, we read God's word trusting that it's his inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, sufficient, powerful word for you and me, his people.

[0:11] And seek me, not seek me anymore in any part of Israel.

[0:35] So I shall escape out of his hand. Then David arose and went over with the 600 men who were with him to Achish, the son of Maok, king of Gath.

[0:48] So David dwelt with Achish at Gath. He and his men, each man with his own household and David with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess and Abigail, the Carmelitess, Nabal's widow.

[1:03] And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath. So he sought him no more. Then David said to Achish, if I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there.

[1:19] For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

[1:31] Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months. And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Gerzites and the Amalekites.

[1:47] For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old. As you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, oxen, the donkeys, the camels, the apparel and return and came to Achish.

[2:07] Then Achish would say, where have you made a raid today? And David would say, against the southern area of Judah or against the southern area of the Geramilites or against the southern area of the Kenites.

[2:21] David would save neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, saying, lest they should inform on us, saying, thus David did.

[2:33] And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. So Achish believed David, saying, he has made his people Israel utterly abhor him.

[2:48] Therefore, he will be my servant forever. The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Amen. Let's pray.

[3:10] Lord, we trust your promise. What Jesus said. That all of the scriptures, all of the Old Testament, every part of it testifies of him.

[3:23] Lord, we confess that the gospel is often a mystery. It's a revelation that you need to unveil for us. And Lord, I ask that you'll be pleased to unveil the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even in this passage of 1 Samuel 27.

[3:40] Show us how this testifies of our Lord Jesus ultimately and what this means for our life in Christ. Lord, we pray that you will elevate in our minds the reality of the kingdom of heaven.

[3:53] That you are the Lord of hosts. And that you are a God who does not change the same God of the Old Testament. And now your kingdom is inaugurated in Jesus Christ.

[4:06] And we long for that day, Lord, when you come again. Please come quickly, Lord. And please use this message as you will please, Lord, in each of our lives to prepare us for your coming. We long for that day, Father.

[4:17] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Our failures do not determine our future.

[4:30] Our failures do not determine our future. Our standing in God's kingdom is not secured by our own behavior.

[4:41] Praise the Lord for that, right? This is a difficult chapter. And if we look at this chapter with natural eyes, we see a man, David, here and the way he's acting.

[4:55] And there's no possible way we would conceive of him having a future that God would bless. And the title of the sermon today has nothing to do with David.

[5:07] Has nothing to do with his failures or his standing in God's kingdom. Here's what I hope you will see with God's ministry in this passage.

[5:20] The Lord will build his kingdom. The Lord will build his kingdom. I'd like to walk through three shadows in this chapter and then point us to the substance, which is Jesus Christ.

[5:38] Remember the Hebrew word for anointed is Messiah. And David has been anointed by the kingmaker Samuel, who's now dead.

[5:51] David's been in the wilderness now a long time. So he's the Messiah in the wilderness. And even after a glorious last chapter where we saw, remember David walking in the middle of the night to the center of the 3000 chosen men of Saul.

[6:12] And God restraining David from running the spear through Saul right there and becoming the king over this army. Now the Messiah, this anointed king is driven out once again.

[6:27] The wilderness he had been running around is in southern Israel in the land of Judah. It's still in the kingdom. And yet we read in verse one that David said in his heart, Now I shall perish by the hand of Saul.

[6:44] Notice what he says next. He says, there is nothing better for me. We know what he says in the Psalms and other places. There's nothing better for me than being in the house of my Lord and dwelling in his courts.

[6:56] But look at the state of his heart now. There's nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. The best thing for me is to get out of God's kingdom.

[7:08] That's what he's saying in his heart. This is a low place for David. And it's motivated by just one thing. He says, then Saul will stop searching after me.

[7:20] He will seek me no more because I won't be in any part of Israel to be found. And then I can escape out of Saul's hand. He's just seen God deliver him out of Saul's hand.

[7:34] There was a moment for Saul to arrest David and take his head off. He just saw this happen. Yet David's faith is so weak.

[7:45] His heart falters to trust in God. I also thought it was interesting. Where do we get these insights from? Well, we believe that God breathed out every word of scripture.

[7:57] So even if this is later on written by Ezra or someone else like that, God can just tell them this is what David said in his heart. That's possible. Now, it's also possible that someone is interviewing David.

[8:11] And this is part of David's testimony. His weakness. Look what I said in my heart. This is how much I faltered and how weak my faith is.

[8:21] Even after that amazing experience of the Lord sustaining me and restraining me and Saul blessing me and letting me walk away. My heart falters and I leave the kingdom.

[8:32] Psalm 73 verse 26 admits just that. My heart fails. And this is the cry of someone who knows the Lord, a person of faith.

[8:47] Have you had to confess that to the Lord? God, my heart toward you fails. Brothers and sisters, a brief application.

[8:59] I don't want you to be discouraged. I want you to see the example in all of scripture. We need to be brutally honest of how weak we are and how dependent we are on God.

[9:10] Our hearts fail. Our faith is weak. The second London Confession of Faith, chapter 14, paragraph 3 admits this.

[9:21] Capturing the truth of scripture, I believe. True faith varies in degree and may be weak or strong. It may often be attacked and weakened. But God still gains the victory.

[9:34] Our Confession of Faith, chapter 18, paragraph 3 also says, Even the assurance that we have of our salvation, like David's assurance that God would bring the kingdom and fulfill all of his promises.

[9:49] While assurance of salvation in Christ is infallible, God's part won't fail based on Christ's work and God's promises. Assurance, what I know about my own salvation, is not so joined to the essence of faith that a true believer may not wait a long time and struggle with many difficulties before obtaining it.

[10:14] Saying you can be saved for a long time and not have a final assurance that you're saved. That's how weak we are, brothers and sisters. We need to admit that.

[10:25] And we need to admit our dependence on Jesus Christ. And so in verse 2, David goes back to King Achish again.

[10:37] I need to remind you now, it was back in chapter 21, after David had been blessed by Jonathan, blessed by the priest, took Goliath's sword, do you remember that? And then he runs to Gath, the capital of one of the five great cities of the Philistines, the capital where Goliath's sword was likely forged.

[10:55] It's the city that Goliath is from. And he was afraid of this King Achish in chapter 21. And he let drool come down his mouth on his beard. And he's back there again now.

[11:08] In both chapters 21 and 27, we have so many parallels. Again, David runs away from King Saul in both cases, leaves the land of Israel.

[11:19] He hides in Gath. In both stories, David is now in exile among the very people that are his enemies, that Israel's at war with. Amazing parallels, aren't they?

[11:30] This makes us pay attention to the literary narrative here and what is being highlighted for us. We read in verse 4, it was told Saul, and then Saul sought David no more.

[11:45] In our Sunday school class, Professor John pointed out that nowhere is the name of God mentioned in this entire chapter. And we have to just say it's inconclusive.

[11:57] Was David acting out of his flesh and in disobedience? I can't say for certain. Was he led by the Lord, by the Spirit of the Lord? That's definitely not clear. It sounds like a humble admission in his heart.

[12:09] There's nothing better for me than to get out of here. To me, it sounds like weakness from David. And you notice how it worked. Saul stopped chasing David. Stopped hunting him down.

[12:21] And for his men, his 600 men that are following around, hiding, and just exhausted by being hunted down all the time, I'm sure it was a nice breather. We'd get to rest a little bit, finally.

[12:34] Think about this, too. The attacks for obeying God are real. The spiritual battle is real.

[12:47] We read Ephesians 6. There is a spiritual war over the souls of God's people. Satan does back off from those who are no threat to him.

[13:00] What this shows us in David's weakness, in his faltering heart, his weak faith, is that a king is needed, but a better king than David.

[13:15] It points forward. So we're left not with any answers in this first observation of the first shadow, but the question, how will the Lord do it?

[13:26] How will the Lord build his kingdom? Isaiah 11, verse 1, further sheds light on how God will do this.

[13:39] Here's the prophecy. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, David's dad. A branch shall grow out of its roots.

[13:52] The Lord will build his kingdom. It will be through David's line, but a better king than David is needed. I picture this wonderful song, this hymn that we sing, I think every time leading up to Christmas, Advent.

[14:07] And I picture the people of Israel, even at this moment in time, singing it, looking forward. A better king is needed. O come, O come, Emmanuel.

[14:19] God with us. In ransom captive Israel. They're slaves to Saul. That mourns in lonely exile here. David's exiled out of the land God promised.

[14:31] Until the son of God appear. Then we can rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

[14:44] Psalm 73, 26 goes on. My heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart.

[14:54] That's our first shadow. The Messiah driven out once again. Second shadow is that the Messiah is welcomed by Gentiles.

[15:06] The anointed one of Israel is welcomed by the Philistines. Look at verse three. So David dwelt with Achish at Gath. He and his men. There's 600 of them.

[15:18] Now this detail is important for upcoming chapters. Each man with his household. Wives, children. Possibly slaves and servants.

[15:31] Men and women now. Including David and his household. Verse five says, Then David said to Achish, the king of Gath. If I have now found favor in your eyes, give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there.

[15:47] For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? So David's establishing the terms of his occupation in this land. You will be the Lord.

[15:59] I will be your vassal servant. I will be paying you taxes for everything good that I can do. That's what a servant relationship would be. For Achish, it has to be a benefit now.

[16:11] Achish has to profit and receive these taxes from David as basically rent for allowing him to stay in his land. We discussed in Sunday school why this land of the Philistines and why Gath, the big city where they've been enemies for so long.

[16:26] And these are mutual enemies of Saul. This is a place where Saul can't bring his army without having to go to war, all on war with the Philistines again. So it is a mutually beneficial arrangement.

[16:37] In verse 7, we read that David was among the Philistines for one year and four months.

[16:47] This is a long time. And we're told his behavior for over a year and four months was a similar pattern. I want to analyze now the similarities and contrast with chapter 21 once more.

[17:01] The first time David came to see King Achish, I tried to persuade you that he was alone. And that when he was saying he sent his men to the priest, you know, to go do an errand, he was bluffing. Because when he last left Jonathan, he was all alone.

[17:15] And if he was alone in chapter 21 meeting King Achish, now he's the opposite of alone. He has 600 men with all of their households. Remember the first time he met King Achish, the king said, you're no use to me.

[17:27] Get this guy out of here. Don't we have enough crazy people already in Gath? We don't need one more. There's no place for David here. But this time, King Achish is a very shrewd ruler. He says, we can have an arrangement.

[17:39] I can see you got an army now. And I don't know how you went from being crazy to now being a commander of an entire army. But please stay here. We can make this work. So how will the Lord build his kingdom in this land of the Philistines?

[17:55] And how will David, who seems to be on a downward spiral in his relationship with God and God's promises, how will he even be used by the Lord? Isaiah 11.10 gives this prophecy.

[18:10] In that day, there shall be a root of Jesse. There it is, that theme again. Jesse being David's dad. And so from this same family line, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him.

[18:27] This is interesting language of prophecy. Because a banner in war is we have two sides line up. Here's the meadow in the middle that they're going to rush into for foot, hand-to-hand combat.

[18:38] All these foot soldiers charging in. The banner on one side shows their nation's colors, what they stand for. The banner on the other shows what they stand for. And we have this interesting prophecy that says, from the root of Jesse will be a banner for the people.

[18:54] This is the people of Israel. And the Gentiles will seek after him. What an interesting shadow we have here, that the Messiah will be welcomed by the Gentiles.

[19:06] Yet he'll be the banner for the people of Israel. The third shadow is that the Messiah, the anointed one, deceives the enemy. The Messiah deceives or tricks the enemy.

[19:21] King Achish is still the enemy here. And David is deceiving him. That's what happens in the rest of the chapter. Look at verse 8. David would attack the Amalekites, another wicked people, for those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old.

[19:38] And to get our geography here, the Amalekites lived in the Negeb, which means the south country, all the way down toward Egypt, which was explicitly assigned to the tribes of Judah and Simeon in Joshua chapter 15, verses 1 and 12.

[19:56] Remember, David is the lion from the tribe of Judah, at least the shadow of Christ who will fulfill that fully. And this land that the Amalekites live in, all the way down to the river and the border with Egypt, God promised to Israel, more specifically to the tribe of Judah.

[20:14] But ever since Joshua's invasion, it was always porous. There's always holes. It was never completely taken over. And earlier in 1 Samuel 15, verses 2 and 3, God had given a direct command to King Saul.

[20:30] Do you remember this? To kill the Amalekites and to claim this territory because of how they had attacked Israel during the Exodus. And that's very important before we get to verse 9 of our chapter.

[20:46] It's a difficult verse. Would you look at verse 9? Whenever David attacked, literally struck the land, he left neither man, okay, most people are okay with that first word so far in a battle, combat setting, but he also left neither woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, the apparel, and returned and came to Achish.

[21:16] This is total annihilation. And David would tell his soldiers, go and leave no one alive because we can't afford to have even a little child come back and give a report to one of the soldiers and they bring him to Achish.

[21:32] And Achish says, David, that guy right there in his army, they attacked our village because David is busy deceiving King Achish, telling him, I'm going to attack Israel. He's making Achish think we have a common enemy, which is Saul.

[21:46] So you see, it's the Messiah, the anointed one, deceiving the wicked King Achish. Again, the purpose of this is not for us to learn a moral lesson from the do's and don'ts about David's life, but it's also raising some difficult ethical questions we can't totally skip over.

[22:08] When believers do something atrocious, it doesn't automatically mean they were never saved. Again, our confession of faith, capturing what we believe the scriptures teach.

[22:24] chapter 17, verse 3, teaches this, that believers may fall into serious sins and continue in them for a time because of a number of things, because of the temptations of Satan in the world, the strength of the corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of preservation.

[22:49] not going to meet with God's people, not praying, not sitting under the preaching of the word, the gospel, the ministry that God has given us, not going out of your way to be part of a baptism celebration like we have coming up, or not taking steps to enjoy the Lord's Supper with the church.

[23:10] These are the means of preservation, and we are so weak. The strength of the corruption remaining in Christians is so strong. We need this. We need all the help we can get.

[23:23] So to the extent that we can relate to David and to the extent that this was him and his flesh, you know, lying, deceiving, and annihilating these villages, there's an application.

[23:35] But I think, I don't think, I know, the bigger message here is not to take do's and don'ts away from David as an example, but rather to see how does this point us to Jesus Christ and the unfolding of his grand plan of redemption.

[23:51] See, David is raiding these Amalekites in the kingdom that God had already claimed for himself. If there is someone wise paying attention, maybe in the schools of the prophets that sat under the teaching of Samuel that's caring about the scriptures, this is a signal that a new Joshua figure is on the move.

[24:17] He's not really in enemy territory. It's a servant of God doing what Saul had neglected. It's one that God has anointed cleaning out which is meant to be holy in the land that God had already given to Israel.

[24:37] to the extent that David is fulfilling or cleaning up or following after the work that God started through Joshua, we have a picture then of what Joshua ultimately points to.

[24:55] In the Bible, we see these patterns of two, ones and twos, ones and twos, and a great pattern we see is with Moses, Joshua. Later, we see this with David, Solomon, and it's a one-two punch.

[25:09] With Moses, the Lord's servant comes as a lawgiver. With Joshua, he comes to consummate the kingdom, to take it all. With David, we see a man who goes to war as the Lord's servant and he's bloodied.

[25:23] And with Solomon, we see a prince of peace taking everything. And these patterns of two point us to the first and second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord in his first coming came like a Moses figure, preaching the law and giving people a means to approach him through blood sacrifice.

[25:45] And with Joshua, we see the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have this apocalyptic vision in Revelation. There will be rivers of blood like grapes that have been pressed flowing like wine on the streets.

[26:01] This is the second coming of Jesus. And now is the time where his grace is extended to sinners. But here we have these violent pictures of a coming judgment.

[26:14] God has been so patient so long. Think how many generations have now passed since Joshua. And the opportunity even for these Gentiles to be like a Ruth and receive the true Lord.

[26:25] Turn away from your idols. It's a picture of the kingdom of heaven coming to earth ultimately. The Lord of hosts himself intruding into the domain that is rightfully God's.

[26:43] Where nothing unholy has a place in bringing final justice to all. The Lord will build his kingdom.

[26:54] It's bigger than David's story. It's bigger than Joshua. It's the kingdom of the Lord of hosts himself Jesus Christ. In both of these times that David has been in this land of Gath working with King Achish he used deception and he stayed safe there.

[27:15] the first time he acted crazy and now by lying to King Achish about which groups he was attacking and bringing money and cattle and those things back to King Achish.

[27:27] So we read in verse 12 how it worked. King Achish believed David saying he has made his people Israel utterly abhor him. Therefore he will be my servant forever.

[27:42] There's no way David can go back across the border to Judah. I'm going to keep milking this prophet from him all of my days. The Messiah the anointed one deceived his enemy.

[27:59] Well there's one more movement but it's not even in our passage and it confirms the theme of the sermon and it's this that God gives the Messiah the anointed one an army.

[28:14] We've seen in this chapter many ways how David is certainly weak but notice how God is accomplishing his purposes despite David's weakness. He's even showing mercy and grace to those who least deserve it like David like you and me.

[28:33] Would you please turn with me to 1st Corinthians I'm sorry 1st Chronicles chapter 12 1st Chronicles chapter 12 a few books forward just keep going forward until you get to 1st Chronicles while you're turning there let's see if how many of our kids can remember the name of the city that King Achish gave David can you remember what it was?

[28:58] It starts with the letter Z can someone say it out loud? Parents you can help them what was it? Ziklag yeah so Ziklag is an unusual name it's a town in the land of the Philistines where David and his his 600 men and all their households are living and if we search the Bible for that unusual name of a town Ziklag we learn some interesting things let's look at 1st Chronicles chapter 12 starting at verse 1 now these were the men who came to David where?

[29:37] at Ziklag while he was still a fugitive from Saul the son of Kish and they were among the mighty men helpers in the war pay attention to verse 12 now these men were armed with bows using both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows with the bow they were of Benjamin Saul's brethren isn't that interesting while David is in hiding in Ziklag some of the best warriors from Benjamin are now day by day traveling down and joining David's force instead isn't that amazing where would those mighty men of the tribe of Benjamin last have seen David it'd be the chapter right before this wasn't it Saul brought 3000 chosen men mostly from his tribe of Benjamin that are loyal to him and they've seen not once but twice now the Lord's anointed

[30:41] David spare King Saul and wait upon the Lord so while there are some Ziphites from the southern part of Judah going up to Tattle on David to King Saul there's also Benjamites that have a love for the true Lord and they want the kingdom that God will bless they're done with the ways of the world they're done with King Saul verse 8 of 1st Chronicles 12 tells us from the Gadites there were over there went over to David at the stronghold in the wilderness mighty and experienced warriors experts with the shield and spear whose faces were like the faces of lions and who were swift as gazelles upon the mountains now the Gadites were on the other side of the Jordan got from way up north as well northeast God is sending soldiers an army the best soldiers from all of Israel to this little outpost outside of the borders in Ziklag in the land of the Philistines now drop down to verse 22 1st

[31:42] Chronicles 12 22 for from from day to day men came to David to help him until there was a great army like an army of God isn't that awesome David is weak but the Lord is building his army in a way that you can't get communication out to all these parts God will put it in the hearts of the soldiers they will go to the Messiah in the wilderness exiled and the Messiah will receive an army from God in a way that only God gets all the glory despite David being so weak despite his heart failing so often despite his faith faltering so frequently God still accomplishes his will he sends these mighty men of valor there to where David is and God causes them to choose what the world sees as foolish which is to follow

[32:54] God's anointed one in exile it's all part of God's plan the Lord will build his army amen well those are the shadows and now is the joy to celebrate with you the substance the fulfillment through our Lord Jesus Christ how do all of the scriptures testify of him our Lord Jesus Christ he deceived Satan the enemy turn back to 1st Samuel one more time 1st Samuel 27 our sermon passage and take a look at the last verse of this chapter verse 12 just as Achish believed David had made his people Israel utterly abhor him and thought he will be my servant forever think about how when all of Israel utterly abhor our

[33:54] Lord Jesus Christ and Satan saw both Jews and Gentiles the Israelite rulers and the Roman soldiers Satan was delighted to watch that happen to see them torture Jesus mock him spit at him curse him reject God's own son the Messiah the anointed king and Satan the great deceiver thought that Jesus Christ would be his servant now Satan thought he won as our Lord hung on the cross Jesus would be the object of mockery and torture in hell forever that's what Satan thought our Lord Jesus used that weakness of the cross that foolish tool to despise Satan to deceive him to turn it over on his head in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 7 and 8 we read that the cross was the wisdom of God in a mystery it was the hidden wisdom which

[34:57] God ordained before all ages for our glory with Christ which none of the rulers of this age knew for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory and now we can sing that great hymn O come thou rod of Jesse free thine own from Satan's tyranny from depths of hell thy people save and give them victory over the grave and so we rejoice rejoice Emmanuel has come and the Lord is building his kingdom brothers and sisters we may fall into serious sins because we are so weak but our failures do not determine our future our standing in God's kingdom is not secured by our behavior our Lord Jesus Christ is the better king he's the one who was now welcomed by us

[36:02] Gentiles we go to him Psalm 73 26 we can say this now in Jesus Christ my heart fails outside of him but God through Jesus Christ the ministry of the spirit God is the strength of my heart we are raised up as his army and he's our only comfort in life and in death we're going to begin through our next set of catechisms!

[36:33] next week I believe and this is the answer to that great question what is our only comfort in life and in death listen to how this pulls together these wonderful themes of this passage in Jesus Christ we can rejoice that I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ he has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil he also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head even when I'm failing without the will of my father in heaven in fact all things must work together for my salvation even my weakness even my faltering because I belong to him Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to follow him as a joyful foot soldier his troops are willing on the day of war the

[37:50] Lord builds his kingdom and you and I get to be part of it through the finished work of Jesus Christ let's praise him and thank him for his mighty power oh Lord we praise you for how you are the king of kings you are the the Lord the host the host of heaven's armies bow before you and march after you you're the king of armies we thank you Lord that your church can hear you can know your commands can obey we thank you Lord that you take weak ones like us despite our failings and our falterings Lord you cause us to joyfully obey you we know we can't do this on our own but you make us to readily want to live for you from now on I pray Lord that your Holy Spirit will do this in a mighty way in your church for your glory we ask amen