FBC Daily Devotional – October 5, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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00:06

Well, good morning, once again, coming to you from the 13th floor of a place in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where we got away for a few days of vacation.

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This is our last day of vacation, and yet, you know, here I am, right, on vacation, doing these devotionals, and one might ask, what in the world are you doing these for on your vacation?

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You're supposed to be on vacation. Yeah, I know, but I wanted to keep up this daily thing, and it's the only way to do it, right?

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So, anyhow, I enjoy doing it, and I hope it's of some benefit to you as well.

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Well, here we are on a Tuesday, and I hope your day's gotten off, and week has gotten off to a good start, this first week of October.

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Well, today in our reading, we read this passage in 1 Samuel, chapter 24. It's really kind of an interesting, as it begins, an interesting passage, because David has had a wonderful opportunity to eliminate his enemy.

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Saul has been the aggressor. David has been the non -aggressor. He's been on the defensive for quite some time.

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Saul has made it a determined point to kill David. Saul has made

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David his enemy. David hasn't made Saul his enemy. But nevertheless, here's a man who's out to kill him, and David has this prime opportunity to take

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Saul's life. It's in this cave of En Gedi, and David and his men are there, and Saul comes in to relieve himself, and David has a perfect opportunity to eliminate him, but he doesn't do that.

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Instead, what he does is he sneaks up to where Saul has taken off his cloak, and just cuts off a piece of the cloak, and he goes back into hiding.

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And David makes a very clear point to the soldiers who were with him, who were encouraging him, go ahead,

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God's given you your enemy into your hands, go ahead, take his life.

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And David says, no, I can't raise my hand against the

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Lord's anointed, I'm not going to do that. But he does cut off the hem of the corner of Saul's cloak.

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So here's a man who is not perfect, David is not perfect by any means.

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He's a good man, but I want to point out that a good man isn't one who never does wrong.

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He's not one who never does wrong. A good man is one whose conscience is smitten when he knows he's done wrong, and he wants to make it right, and this is certainly the case here for David.

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He shows he's a good man by refusing to take Saul's life when he has the opportunity.

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He also shows he's a good man when his conscience smites him for what he has done in cutting off the cloak, the corner of his cloak.

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And he thinks in his heart, I should not have done this, I should not have done this.

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And he tries to deal with it in a way that is appropriate.

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Now, you might argue that his conscience was a little too sensitive here. Well, better that one's conscience is sensitive, that then leads him to make corrections, than one whose conscience is hardened, and he doesn't listen to it, one whose conscience is seared.

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I would encourage us to be sure that our conscience is well -trained, trained according to Biblical knowledge,

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Biblical understanding, Biblical principles, and then to listen, to heed that conscience, and to make sure any violation of that conscience, we don't allow we don't allow things to fester, and we don't sear it, we don't push our conscience down.

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But when the Holy Spirit convicts us, bringing to our mind some violation of what we are convinced is wrong, we just act on it quickly, as David did in this case.

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This is a good encouragement to us today, to be sure that our conscience is sensitive.

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Don't be quick to silence that voice of the conscience.

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This conscience that God has given to us is a gift.

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It's a God -designed gift to help us do right, encourage us to do right.

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The Holy Spirit uses the training of the Word to train the conscience to make good choices and to get right when we make bad ones.

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So, let's be encouraged in that way today, okay? Our Father and our God, I pray that we would have tender consciences, and Father, we realize it's far better to have a tender conscience than a seared, hardened conscience.

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Help us to be tender, help us to be sensitive, and may we listen to your

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Spirit as He uses even the well -informed conscience of the heart, we pray.

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We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, may God richly bless you for the remainder of this day.