Conscience is something that's inside of us, of course, that bothers us when we believe we have done something we should not have done. It says the light turns on that we are guilty.
However, conscience needs instruction. You can have someone that feels guilty over something they should not feel guilty over. And, you know, that's where. Certainly, Christian fellowship helps, having friends help, knowing the Word of God, being in tune with God. There are several things that we need.
To Advance. nobly as Christians, This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio.
specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 Samuel 24 as he begins his message: Extraordinary Strength. 1 Samuel chapter 24. Extraordinary. Restraint.
Uh that is the capital idea for this. Chapter Anyone weary of hearing about David running from Saul, being chased by Saul, imagine how David felt. When is this going to end? Anywhere from eight to ten years. Seems to be the case.
Saul Of course, uh Not only was he the single source of David's misery, but He was also Samuel's unanswered prayer. And Samuel would go to his grave, not seeing Saul come to his senses or David come to the throne. The lessons of restraint born from biblical conviction. which is important. It greatly improves the weapons of our warfare to be able to restrain ourselves according to the scriptures.
to know when to and when not to. But perhaps most of you know the story already. Perhaps you're familiar when David cuts the robe of Saul and he feels this heavy conviction. Maybe in your life God has told you to keep your mouth shut and don't lash out at somebody when they deserve it, and you have not, you feel terrible. And so the lessons there are very helpful to us if we can retrieve them when we need them.
Obedience it did not bring David an easy life. Not a magic wand. Ultimately, it brought him An extreme reward, and the scriptures. Very careful to point that out. Reading in the 11th chapter, getting a little ahead of myself, I'll repeat this.
In the 11th chapter of 1 Kings, where it's really the end of Solomon's ministry as king. And the historian is summarizing his ministry as a failure because of his idolatry that the women led him to permit, to tolerate, and to actually give honor to. And in that 11th chapter, 15 times is David's name mentioned in honor. He was not like David. Who obeyed me and kept my statutes?
It's repeated. He's a great man. And this This chapter brings again this to the front. Restraint. In this case, it was right, even though it was not popular.
Another lesson for all of us. From this 24th chapter, to be right at the cost of not being liked. Everybody wants to be liked. And we learn in life that that doesn't come easily, and then we develop. Defenses.
Fine if you don't like me. What do I care? I don't like you. Strike back. Or with others, their heart just breaks.
So let's see if we can glean and receive from this chapter some meaningful information as Christians. who are entrusted with loyalty and action. Verse 1: Now it happened when Saul had returned from following the Philistines that it was told him, saying, Take note. David is in the wilderness of Engeti. He's back at it again.
The Philistines, we've read that at the end of the last chapter, chapter 23, the last few verses, that the Philistines, Saul was getting, cornering David and his men, and word came to him that the Philistines have invaded. And to Saul's great disappointment and disgust, he had to abandon his pursuit of David and go deal with the Philistines. And he does that and he is successful at driving them out. One of the lessons about that victory of Saul is that human success does not demonstrate that one is in alignment with God. A human can have successes in this life and be totally out of step with God, and that's just a side note from that experience.
But the Philistines were measuring Saul. In the military, when you're at war, you throw out skirmishes, little battles, to try to just see what the enemy is going to do, feel them out a little bit before you really go at them. And I believe the Philistines were doing just that. They were invading the land, taking what they could take, but also monitoring Saul's response. And the conclusion will be that we can take this guy, and then they're going to launch an invasion force and do just that.
But that's not going to be for a while. Not too long, though. We're coming up on that.
So this ally of Saul Someone who is not interested in what God's will is comes to Saul and says, Hey, listen. Davidson and Getty, go corner him there. They're just eager to rat David out. He's done them no harm, and they're looking to benefit. From this, maybe it was some tribal.
Preferences. Maybe they were Benjamites and they did not want. The king to be from Judah. They wanted the Benjamite tribe to. Retain the throne.
Who cares? Whatever. Samuel had. Anointed David, word was finally out. No one really had an excuse to side against David.
Verse 2. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men. From all Israel, and went to seek David. and his men on the rocks of the wild goats. They had to get a permit from the wild goats to So he's back to his favorite pastime.
Hmm, what to do? What to hunt David. And off he goes. Um Just a reminder from chapter 23, verse 14: Saul sought him every day. But God did not deliver him into his hand.
I mean, he's just totally into killing David.
So he has this commando regiment, 3,000 men. That's a modern military and infantry regiment. That's a substantial force. give you an idea when McArthur was dealing with the Korean the North Koreans invading South Korea. Driving them out he had three regiments.
And so that's pretty sizable for us. Anyway, here the Their commando regiment because they're chosen. He chosen men from all Israel, handpicked men. This was a special assignment. He wanted the best.
And he invested it all. in just this foolish campaign. Many of the people were under the impression that David was. Disloyal to their king. Why were they of that impression?
Because Saul told them and they believed what they wanted to believe instead of looking at facts. It's not easy for some people to look at facts. They just believe what they're told, and that's the whole story. But there are others that They're not you know uh well let's let's examine this and see if it Can hold up to the examination and facts. Verse three.
So he let me pause there. Reminder. Abigail. She looked at the facts. And so she knew where David was going.
And we're going to skip chapters just to get to Abigail. Anyway, verse 3.
So he came to the sheepfolds by the road where there was a cave, and Saul went in to attend to his needs. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.
Well, they probably saw the force of three thousand men coming. And, well, look, if we make a run for it, they'll see us at a distance. We just duck into the cave, and that's where they do, or where they hide out. It's probably not all of David's men, but it's some of them. Their eyes are adjusting to the dark.
They're going to have that head start on Saul. Saul, when he goes into the cave, his eyes are still reacting to the sun. It says Saul went in to attend to his needs. This is a euphemism for, well, possibly. The Hebrew literally he covered his feet, which is a euphemism for going to the bathroom.
Um The number would not be one, it would be the number after one. And so it shows up in Judges chapter three, where Eglon goes into the bathroom, and of course he's killed, and nobody wants to knock on the door, and they're embarrassed. But anyway, you may know that story, Judges chapter 3.
So it's either Saul is using the cave for a restroom or he's using it for a nap. This grounds to believe both. More of the modern commentators like the idea that this is a euphemism for him to go into relieve himself. And he would take off his robe and go to his destination. Providing distance between David's men and him.
And while Saul was there, David's men could talk to each other, whisper to each other, you know, kill him, no, not yet, and the kind of a thing. Or if he went to take a nap, which is also a possibility, leave his men outside to take a break.
Well, I'm going to catch some Zs. Either way, take your pick, it's not that important. What is important is he's in the cave. He's vulnerable. David has the advantage.
What's going to happen? Verse 4. Then the men of David said to him, This is the day of which Yahweh said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you. And David arose and secretly cut off The corner of Saul's robe. To which one of them is said, That's not what we had in mind.
Not the robe, the neck. Cut the neck off from the shoulders, right?
Well, he wouldn't be head and shoulders above everybody after that. Kill Saul. That was their interpretation. Of this prophetic word to David.
Now, these were the men that were in distress, that were in debt, that were not content. They're not the ones for David to listen to when it comes to discerning the mind of God. If anything, they need to listen to David.
So they offered a convenient misapplication of this word of God. It was a logical solution. But was the timing and the will God's? Or was it theirs?
Well, they're not sensitive to God's will. They're sensitive to being free from being hounded across the Judean wilderness. It took A heart after God. to know the heart of God. And David on this day he gets it right.
Uh Obviously, looking at the moment, they would think. This is a gift from God. This is clearly God.
Now is the time. And again, they were wrong. It was actually a temptation. This prophecy, incidentally, it's not recorded in the Bible. Where did it come from?
Maybe Gad? Maybe Samuel? Uh I think that it came from David. And I think it came from David in one of his Psalms. Psalm fifty-four, which was written just before this this event.
And that's why they say this is the day of which the Lord said to you. Not to Gad, but to you. Psalm 54, verse 5: He will repay my enemies for their evil. Cut them off in your truth. And of course, what do they do around the campfires at night?
I mean, they had remote controls, but they had no television to work them. And no batteries. All right. Anyway, what did they do?
Well, David taught them so much through the scripture. He'd write psalms and he'd sing it to them. You know, a lost part of our culture is folk songs. There was a time in history where everybody knew songs. Not, you know, th we all knew the same songs.
not in our generation, but in time past. If you have a men's study or a women's study, if everybody you that we don't know the same songs. And so we can't sing together without Lyrics in print or on the screen. And it's too bad it's that way. I don't think there's a remedy.
We tried to address it, but it's too difficult. Anyway, in those days they would learn the songs. They all would know the songs. And I think that this is part of their education. And they say, this is what you were singing about.
God told you this was going to happen. Here is the day. But David was. It was not enough to have the letter. He needed the spirit.
It was not enough to have the situation in front of him. What did God want to do with it?
Sometimes it's obvious, and if you're in a building burning, you don't need to wait for a prophetic word to exit the building. But this wasn't a burning building. It says in David arose here in verse 4. and secretly cut off the corner of Saul's robe.
Now Saul Saul's not wearing the robe at at the moment. unless he's really sound asleep, if you go with that option. But He is intending to Prove to Saul to reason with him from proof that he's not out to kill him. I mean, once he shows him, hey, here's a piece of your robe, I could have killed you. You would think that a reasonable person would say, Good point, you're not my enemy, you're my friend.
That won't happen, of course. uh Saul had no ability to reason long term. You could reason with him. And spurts, and that was it. Which just demonstrated his instability.
That his head was all messed up because his spirit was all messed up. A stark contrast between the two men. Saul's Unreal Evil passion. Was to kill David, and he couldn't do it. He could not pull it off.
He never got the shot. And even when he threw his spear, he couldn't get him. And I'd like to remind myself that, you know, David could have hurled that stone and taken Saul right out, just like he did the giant, and he did not.
So David had experience at not killing Saul. David, on the other hand, in contrast to Saul's passions, he had a God-centered Refusal to take a false opportunity to kill Saul. Saul's behavior was shameful. David's was honorable. This story exists for us to say, I want to be David in the story of my life when it comes to my behavior.
Did uh The Lord Jesus had this episode in mind when he said these words: But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. I am working on this one. I have been working, it doesn't come easily.
Sometimes it's like, well look at that, I did it. I don't like but I don't think I could do it again. Don't make me do it again. I don't want to do that again. I don't feel so fulfilled.
I feel like I just barely crawl across the finish line. I think, yes. I think that the Lord had much of the Old Testament precedence when He said so many things, because He's the author and finisher of the faith. And he is certainly as witness to all these things. But David is living this out.
David loves Saul. And that will of course, he'll write about that after Saul's death. He will lament the death of Saul. It's not how he wanted it to turn out. Verse 5.
Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe. There he is, a man of conscience before God. Conscience is something that's inside of us, of course, that bothers us when we believe we have done something we should not have done. It says the light turns on that we are guilty.
However, conscience needs instruction. You can have someone that feels guilty over something they should not feel guilty over. And you know, that's where Certainly, Christian fellowship helps, having friends help, knowing the Word of God, being in tune with God. There are several things that we need. To Advance nobly as Christians.
But back to this David. His conscience before God said, You know. Saul is still God's anointed, and I have no right to violate him or his possessions. He did not get this in return. Saul's going to give away David's wife.
I had sell l much of a low life. Uh Saul was every king again of the Jews. lived and ruled in the shadow of David's greatness, according to God. It was not just, you know, someone just He became one of our better kings. No, God, He stamped this on.
David became God's standard, as I mentioned, 15 times in just. Chapter 11, which is just 43 verses. Third of the verses. Mention David. As this obedient servant, 1 Kings chapter 11, verse 38, God speaking, Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as my servant David did.
Then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house. As I built for David. And We'll give Israel to you. He said this to Jeroboam. through the prophet of Ahijah.
When God said, listen, Solomon. This is his judgment. The k the kingdom is going to split, and he sends this prophetic word. Jeroboam will be the first king of the northern tribes, but yet he's under the standard of David. This is quite profound.
And David, here, this decision that he makes prolongs the hardship of the men he's with. They want relief too. As long as David is chased, they're in jeopardy also. And so these men are saying, you can end this hardship by putting Saul's wasted life to an end right here. This has got to be God.
David didn't have that conviction. And he was in the position to make that call. They were not. He was the leader. God put him there, they came to follow him.
And so, David's going to trouble their logic and challenge their sense of loyalty. How profound is that? How many troops in the Christian world? Have their sense of logic challenged and their sense of loyalty challenged over something they didn't care for. and end up playing right into Satan's hands.
Jesus said it this way swallowing camels and gagging on gnats. Things that are little and small and permitted and really aren't that big, you choke on them. But the big things you can find with that.
Well may it not be written about us.
Well, if in their eyes he made a great mistake The question is, what are they going to do? What would I do? What would I do if I was with David in the cave? My life's miserable because of this Saul. David can kill the guy, but David's not going to do it.
Says something about this man again. That they restrained themselves for him. They probably could have said You hold David back and I'll kill Saul. There's no such conversation. Power of conviction.
Verse unpopularity in leadership. Maybe we see parents, parents tend to give in to children because they want they want the kid to like them. They can't say no. And you they know the parent knows I shouldn't do this. And so we look at these lessons from the scripture and we try to let it work on us.
And we can't be perfect, but we certainly can be better off. We are tempted to make wrong decisions because we would rather be liked than be right. It's a choice. What do you want more? It depends on sometimes, you know, that's usually, usually the best.
The way to go is to be right and not popular, but there are exceptions, but it's just not wise to. In force. Enforce a certain correct attitude, you sort of have to choose your battles from time to time. Always we are dependent on the Holy Spirit. But I do believe strongly, as a rule, it is better to be right than liked.
And David to this day finds loyalty. What I mean by that. Any student of Uh scripture. coming across the life of David. You you can't help but to love the man.
If you let your biases interfere with that, then you're not siding with Christ's opinion about David. And the Lord would say, What are you talking about? I died for his sins, too. You think you're above the man? No, we're not.
Verse 6. And he said to his men, Let me pause there. I'm going back to this. View of David. Nathan the prophet will say to David after David's big sin with Bathsheba.
David will say, You gave the enemies of the Lord a chance to blaspheme. He did not say, You gave the people of the Lord a chance. Because the people of God were supposed to be merciful. And most of them were, not all of them. And that's just an interesting thought I find as a Christian when I.
when I consider the failures of others and when I consider my own failures in life. which the one or two are easy to remember.
Well, you guys really have a lot to go with. Verse 6, and he said to his men, Yahweh forbid that I should do this thing to my master. The anointed of Yahweh. to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of Yahweh.
So there's David. His reason is for restraint, this extraordinary restraint is God. It's not David. He puts God ahead of himself and his men. And they're learning this.
These guys in the cave are learning these lessons. They're going to, again, it's going to intensify later. They'll recover. And they will be loyal to him. He is so sensitive.
to God. He is so in rhythm with God, more than he knows. That's why he's belting out these psalms. He doesn't know they're going to be scripture. He's writing songs to the Lord.
And that's, God is saying, I'll keep that. I have the copyright on that. A lot of royalties go to God on this, David. You get nothing. Until you get to heaven, you get a whole lot then.
But. Life It was was often dull. But it needs to be developed. And that's beneficial to us to see that David had a dull life many times just sitting around waiting for Saul to attack him next. And yet, he was being shaped into the man of God that he would be, the king that he would be, that again would be the standard for all the kings of Israel.
He dies a godly man. You know, when he gets old, I love the story. He gets old, he throws everything into the building of the temple, though he'll never see it built. He just throws everything, writes psalms about it. He tells Solomon what to do, gives him all the resources, plans it out.
Very exciting, he goes out. God does not, as Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 46 and 45, that God will not depart from you, even in your old age. And there we see David. At the end of his life, Still very excited and serving God. Here in verse 6, it says, To stretch out my hand against Him, seeing He is the anointed of God.
He says, I'm not doing this. Saul wasted his anointing. David wasn't going to waste his. He wasn't going to start out the wrong way. What a stark contrast to Diotrephes in John 3.
Who went against the Apostle John? What a stark contrast to those few Corinthians who troubled Paul, who had the audacity to get up in Paul's face. Yeah, yeah, you know, he doesn't speak the Greek the way it should be speaking. mispronounces Greek words. Paul said, you wait till I get there.
Uh Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com. Here, you can also listen to interviews with Pastor Rick to learn more about his life and ministry.
We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss another edition. All you have to do is find us on your favorite podcast app. You can also access full-length video messages on YouTube.
So, many options are available to you. Again, if you're not sure where to go, just go to crossreferenceradio.com for resources. Tune in again next time for more Crossreference Radio. Uh
