Trust God or Self?
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
Wisdom—God always chooses the best goals and the beast means to those goals.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
One of the greatest parts of being a Christian is having access to that which we could not do for ourselves. Our Christian life is beyond a blessing as we have access to that which we have no right to but by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself warned us to count the cost..
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Our God take a backseat to no one and that includes self. Honestly, we might not think much of ourselves at times but we still value our own opinion over others. And over the Lord from time to time as well as silly as that sounds to say out loud.
B. Reading of the text
C. Review of the text
D. Relevance of the text
What does it take in our lives to value the Lord’s wisdom over our own?
1. David's Decision
1. David's Decision
4 And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’ ” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
5 And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
Remember with me back to last week David had an extremely difficult decision to make in an uncomfortable situation. Would he listen to the fellows who had been with him from the beginning? What they told him made logical sense. Saul walked into the cave in which you and your men are hiding!! To see this as a sign from God would be extremely easy.
David goes toward Saul with a knife with what seems to be the idea to end his life but instead he cuts off the corner of the robe of Saul.
1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart A Test for Yahweh’s Servant (24:4–7)
Why did men consider the anointed to be inviolate, to be kept from attack, and to be preserved from degradation? The answer lies in the fact that once anointed, the individual was set apart or consecrated to God. A specific bond was established in relation to God, in separation from men and women in general, and from the common aspects of life in particular.
… Hence to touch, defile, and attack the anointed one was to approach the Lord himself and to seek to defile, harm, and remove the Lord from his rightful place.
David’s heart struck him—He was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit the moment that he sinned against God. These 7 verses set the scene for us of all the dialogue that comes next.
T.S. David’s decision leads to his Humble Appeal.
2. David's Humble Appeal
2. David's Humble Appeal
8 Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.
If we are honest this is not what we expected out of David. I know this is not what his soldiers thought he would do. I would think that he would come out yelling at Saul for all the wrong that has happened to him. Yet, David comes out of the cave he does so with great humility even bowing before Saul. Saul himself is not worthy of much of anything but the office that he holds because God has placed him in that position is worthy of all honor in the eyes of David. This is not a natural response from Men. This is obviously someone who desire to trust God over himself.
9 And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’?
10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’
11 See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it.
We know the words of Saul
8 that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day.”
13 And Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?”
David has bowed down before Saul and now shows him the corner of the robe he had cut off just a few minutes ago. If David is pursuing Saul to kill him would he had just cut the robe? That is David’s argument. Saul, you came into my cave and I had every human right in the world to take your life and no one would have blamed me!! But God! God had placed his had on Saul and David had no right to bring about judgement.
he is the Lord’s anointed.’
1, 2 Samuel (8) David Spares Saul at En Gedi (24:1–22)
David treated the king properly, not because of anything the king had done or might do, but because of what the Lord had done. David’s respect for human authority was based on his respect for divine authority.
12 May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you.
David looks beyond the King of Israel to the King of King and Lord of Lords. The one who is the ultimate judge of all things. May God who is just judge us both. David is giving the situation to God and allowing God to be God and not make his own way. David is showing us the way!
14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea!
15 May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.”
Who is David that he should be pursued by a King. What humility. You and I will not live according to God’s plan until we realize our worth comes not from what we have been or what we will be but instead comes from who we are in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
T.S. Once David is finished the floor is handed over to Saul for his Realization.
3. Saul’s Realization
3. Saul’s Realization
16 As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
17 He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.
18 And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.
This should sound familiar.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Saul admits that the way David is responding to this situation is supernatural. This is not the way Saul would have done it. If Saul was in the cave that David came stumbling in his life would have been over, no questions asked, and no one could have talked Saul out of it. Saul is a man set upon his own desires and he wants no part of God’s wisdom or care.
19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
20 And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.
Saul states out loud what he has already knows in his Heart.
28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
Reality is a difficult thing to deal with apart from the saving mercy’s of our Lord. I mean our reality. The reality that we have nothing good in us apart from our Lord. I don’t want others to see me as bad or not a good guy. I want people to be happy with me and to see me as pleasant but the fact is that I’m just not a pleasant person a part from Christ. Beloved don’t forget how desperate you are for him this morning. Any goodness that people see in us is of the Lord not ourselves.
Saul is move to ask two things from David as he realizes he in more trouble than he could ever bring upon David.
21 Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.”
22 And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
Not cut off the seed of Saul—When David took over ruling power in Israel it would be natural for him to wipe out any memory of Saul to make sure his line didn’t try to rise up at a later date and try to take power claiming the thrown.
Close to the first question. Not to wipe out the name of Saul completely as if he had never been King of Israel.
David makes this promise because he had already promised Jonathon these things. But more than that David was determined to trust God over himself.
Application:
Paul---shipwrecked
41 But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.
42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.
43 But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land,
44 and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
3 When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.
4 When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”
5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.
6 They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
What we see in our life is reality but the life we live before the living God of the universe is the greatest relationship we have.
