He Advocates for the Weak

Well, as I sort myself up here for a moment, please open your Bibles to 1 Samuel and chapter 30.

1 Samuel chapter 30, we'll read verses 21 through 25.

That'll be the preaching text for this morning as we see David, this great type of Christ, as he advocates for the weak, even as Jesus Christ for us by his cross, by his life, by the spirit he's given us, advocating for we who, when we were still weak, when we were yet weak, he died for us, the godly for the ungodly.

That's the picture that I hope to bring to you this morning. And with that, please stand. And we'll read 1

Samuel 30, 21 to 25. Then David came with the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow

David and who had been left at the Brook Besor. And they went out to meet

David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart.

But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hands the band that came against us.

Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall be the share of he who stays with the baggage.

They shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.

God bless the reading. Now the proclamation of his word. Please be seated. So as many of you know, as I've been preaching here intermittently, we've been in sort of a short, annotated series of David's life.

And I've been taking just some brief parts of it, not going through the entire gamut that we have in scripture, just pulling out some different facets of it.

And those facets, I think, more clearly show King David as the prototype, as the type, as that precursor, if you will, of our great savior, his greatest son,

Jesus Christ. And here this morning, at the end of 1 Samuel chapter 30, we join company with David, from whom

Jesus took one of his favorite titles, which is son of David. How often in the Gospels was he called that?

Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, that I might receive sight, and so forth.

And so we're rejoined with King David here. The kings of Judah counted David as their father.

And so they were all, in that sense, David's sons. But it is Jesus who is David's greater or greatest son.

And what do we find here in these few verses from the end of 1 Samuel 30?

We find that David trusted in God's promises before he saw them fulfilled. You and I, likewise, have great and precious promises.

David received the anointing and the promise that he would be King Saul's successor as the king of Israel way back in 1

Samuel chapter 16, which we covered some weeks ago. And what we find from that point forward, how did

David then act upon this promise? He acted as king. He acted as king from the moment he knew that Samuel, in the name of the

Lord, had anointed him as such. He trusted God's promises before he saw them completed.

And you and I, likewise, have great promises that are yet to be fulfilled, and yet promises around which our lives must be ordered.

It's a matter of faith. It's a matter of confidence in the word of God. It's a matter of knowing that what

God says, he has done in you, he has done. And what God says he's going to continue to do, he will continue to do.

And ultimately, as it says in Romans chapter 8, we are predestined to be molded in the image of Jesus Christ himself.

These promises from the same God who promised King David the kingship of Israel, these promises upon which

David ordered his life from that moment forward, from the same God who promises us salvation, who promises us that we'll follow in the resurrection like Jesus's.

You and I have the same kind of precious promises that David did. And like David, we must live now in the strength and confidence that we have in God's word.

So what's the context here in 1 Samuel chapter 30 here? At this point, David had been the divinely chosen successor to Saul for about 25 years.

He'd been anointed, like I said, back in 1 Samuel 16. And as a king, he had subjects, did he not?

So far, his subjects were a pretty motley crew. As this group gathered around him, this army that he had, if we can put army in quotes, was everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented.

This motley bunch, this ragtag bunch of cast off. And here,

David is their king. But where was his throne? He didn't really have a place for a throne.

What was his throne? It was a stone, maybe, that he sat down on. Where is his palace? His palace was a cave, all of which makes verse 24 a little bit perplexing, a little bit amazing.

Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall be his share who stays with the baggage.

What's perplexing or amazing about that? Well, David is taking royal prerogative there.

David is telling this bunch of outlaws, this distressed people, these discontented people, he's saying, here is the rule, here is the law by which we will conduct ourselves.

I said, wait a second, David. You're not a king yet. Yes, I am.

And here's the law of this kingdom. David, you're in exile.

You've been in exile for 25 years. You had two chances to kill Saul. You wouldn't do it. How can you give us a rule, a law, that is a statute and rule for Israel from that day forward to this very day?

No, David took royal prerogative and makes this enduring statute even while that nation that was promised to him was yet to be handed over to him.

See, he acted as king even while he awaited the consummation of the promises.

When David said that everyone would share in the plunder, he's looking beyond what he just recovered from the Amalekites.

He made an ordinance, held sway in Israel to this day, whenever 1

Samuel was written, up to that point, and perhaps after that. And with all the kings of Judah that followed him, that was the law that he had made then and held sway all that time.

So again, isn't it odd to us that an outcast in exile should act like a king and make an ordinance?

It almost seems silly. With living in exile, with no home to go to, much less a palace, no throne to sit on, if he doesn't even really have furniture.

And kingship needs a crown. To be a king, you need a throne. There should be a coronation.

There's got to be cheers of the people. Long live the king, and so forth. But David acted on faith.

David acted upon the promises of God that he had. He knew from the moment

Samuel anointed him that he was indeed the king, even without any of the outward trappings available to him at that point.

It's a matter of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. We walk on the promises of God and not what we actually see with our physical eyes.

Hebrews 11, verses 1 and 2 says that faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. How can

David, with this ragtag, motley crew of followers, these discontented, these distressed people, how can he act as king in this way?

Well, Hebrews 11, 1 and 2 tells us it's by faith. David going forth on the surety that he had in God's word.

And you and I are in no different position. Here we are in these bodies, sojourning on this terrestrial ball, as the hymn calls it, and living our lives and ordering our lives around what?

Around promises yet to be fulfilled. Around an image that we're all striving for, reaching for the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus, striving always after that.

Why? Because of our sureness in God's word, because of our faith in he who gives that word.

No different than David, really. David ordered his life around what happened in 1 Samuel 16, his anointing.

You are going to replace King Saul, according to the word of God. And from that point forward, and I would argue from that point forward and distinctly proven here by this ordinance he made, he acted upon it.

Now we're in the same position, really. We live now by faith in the promises that we have, even when,

I should say, especially when what our senses communicate is in conflict with what

God's word communicates, and which will hold sway for you. When your eyes tell you one thing, and the scripture says something different, when you look around and the morality of our country is sinking to new depths, and they seem to find new ways to take away that ground floor, that basement level, and dig another depth, how do

I order around that? What I see, what I can hear, what I can smell, based on God's word, based upon the promises we have, that God's going to recreate, make all things new again.

He's gonna take away every tear, every sorrow. That's what it is to live on faith, to live from what we know from scripture, even if it conflicts with what we see with our eyes.

So it was by faith that David laid down this ordinance for a nation that he didn't even have yet. He didn't have the kingship yet.

He had the promise that he would be king. Faith gave him patience.

Faith gave him confidence, and such confidence that he set policy for a kingdom that wasn't yet his, but he acted as though it was.

And why? On the sureness, on the confidence, on the faith he had in the giver of the word, which is

God. His band were outcasts, rejects of society.

Yet he acted as if he were already a king when he makes this law by faith trusting that it would one day hold sway throughout the land.

Now, who does this remind us of? Where does your mind go forward when I describe David making laws for this ragtag bunch of motley followers?

Well, it should make us think somewhat of, or more distinctly, of Jesus' followers.

His followers, like David's, was a motley bunch. They're fishermen, they're tax collectors, they're political kooks.

They were everything that society would say, who'd want to be around these guys? Who'd want to even be their leader?

Now, Jesus' crew was really of no more note than David's.

So David gave an ordinance. And I've been arguing that David is that great type of Jesus Christ, that one who not only pictures him so distinctly in the

Old Testament, but as you read about David and his failings, it makes you yearn all the more for that perfect Savior, for that shepherd who had no failings, for Jesus Christ.

And what did Jesus Christ do? After his, if I could call it anointing, his baptism, he went forth and gave the

Sermon on the Mount. Now, on what basis does he give the Sermon on the Mount? God sent him to be king over his people.

God sent him to be Savior, but he didn't have the kingship yet, he didn't have the land, he didn't have a palace, he didn't have any of that.

And yet, where did he go first? After his temptations, after his victory over Satan?

To a mount. From which he did what? He gave his law to the church.

He acted as king. He gave his law to the church. That was the

Sermon on the Mount. But he wasn't a king yet. The kingdom hadn't been handed over to him yet, but he gave the law to the church, and that law remains the law of the church, the rule of the church from that day forward to this day.

Devour from 2 Samuel 30 again. Jesus believed he was king, he knew he was king, even before it was handed over to him, even before his final victory on the cross.

Did he not tell Pilate, you rightly call me a king? And what was his crown at that time? His crown was a thornbush, his scepter was a cudgel, his robe was meant as a mockery.

You know, some of David's men went into the battle. You can read the previous part of 1

Samuel 29 and 30, and see that it was of his army of 600, 200 stayed behind.

They couldn't go with him to the battle, and the rest went and recovered what the Amalekites had raided from their city.

Jesus had none of the trappings as David didn't, and yet he called himself a king.

You rightly call me a king. And what we have here then is this picture of what it means to behave now based on what

God says he has done, is doing, and will do in you. Behaving is what

God calls us, saint, redeemed, the bride of Christ, the very body of Christ.

David faithfully behaved as king when his army was 600 and 200 were so weak they couldn't finish the course.

Jesus took the mantle of king even when the world must have thought him mad. 200 of David's men stayed behind.

Jesus didn't have 600, but when he went to the final battle to gain the final victory for us at the cross, how many stayed behind?

100%. Not one went with him to the battle. Oh, they all boasted that they would.

Peter was the first. I will go to death for you. I'll even go to the cross for you, Jesus. And yet when it came to it, with all the others, they ran.

Not one stayed behind. Do we not have promises?

Upon which we must act. David acting as king before he had a palace or a throne or a crown.

Jesus giving his law to the church from the mount. And you who believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ, you who by faith have salvation and know you have eternal life in him.

What promises do you have that you must apprehend and live according to now, this very day?

Let me read to you from Ephesians chapter two. Let me start at verse four,

Ephesians chapter two. But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. Now listen carefully to this. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

It says there that you've been raised with Christ. This is speaking of resurrection. Resurrection is a literal thing that is going to happen.

We are going to be raised with Christ. We're gonna follow in a resurrection like his. But in this part, just here in the here and now, being raised with Christ is that taste of resurrection, a spiritual resurrection, if you will.

And I condition it the way I did so that you understand that the resurrection is literal. You'll really, truly come out of the grave, really, truly be resurrected as Jesus was.

And yet the foretaste of it is the resurrection we have now. And the scripture says you have been raised.

You have been seated. Done deal. Yet here we are in these bodies right now.

Like David, you have promises upon which you must order your life. Promises given to you by a great and good and promise -keeping

God. Promises that mean everything to us in the now as we wait for the then.

Believing that what God said, he will do. Ephesians 2 .6

says we've been raised with Christ. We've been seated with Christ. Yet what do we see?

How do we behave? Do we behave like those who are raised and seated with Christ or are our sights a bit lower?

Are our sights on what we can actually see and hear and touch? To what can be apprehended?

What can be logically explained? To what logic communicates, which is so much easier to understand than faith?

Do you know the basis for our Christian ethics? Why do we live according to what the scripture says in the here and now?

The thing that drives us to follow the mind of Christ, the scripture, what is it? It's our faith in the promises to come.

Our reward in heaven that we'll follow in a resurrection like Jesus's. Just as David gave a law to Israel before he had

Israel in hand. Believing that because God said he'd be king, he was king.

You, me, all believers in Jesus Christ, the promise of God says he has done something in you now and because of what that's going to be in the age to come, it's worth ordering our lives around now.

David showed mercy. He showed restraint to those who had offended him. He had much to be offended at this point in life.

He'd been running like a criminal from Saul's insane jealousy. Do you remember when he ran into the fool

Nabal and that man had enjoyed his protection for so long and he asked for a little bit of bread to feed his men and the man said, no,

I'm not gonna give you anything. You can read about that yourself for homework. And David put on his sword and he called his men, this motley crew, this small army that he had, they were just gonna wipe them out.

He was so angry. And then you read about how Abigail slowed him down and gave him some wisdom.

But David did show the restraint. He erred on the side of mercy. He wouldn't kill Saul when he had the chances.

He let a city fall to the uncircumcised Philistines even knowing that it would bring discredit to his enemy

Saul. Excuse me, he wouldn't let the city fall. And back to Nabal's men, spared even though their master had given them up to the sword with his boorish manners.

And how can a man act mercifully in a position like that? Why would he?

Because he was king, because of who he represented, because he believed in the promises that he had.

You know, David's most famous psalm, Psalm 23, ends with, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the

Lord forever. God's mercy to sinners. His unmerited grace in our salvation shall rush after us, pushing us along, firing up our spirit to do what

David did, to be merciful, to be kind, to be patient.

Remember the wounded man on the side of the road, the one that the Samaritan helped be on duty? Jesus' famous parable of the good

Samaritan? Well, that man, wounded on the side of the road, we don't know anything about him other than he fell amongst robbers and got hurt very badly.

What happened to him? He was pursued by goodness and mercy. And how does

Jesus apply that to you and me at the end of that parable? And the

Pharisees said, well, who is my neighbor? And he tells this great parable. And then he says, who was the neighbor?

Says, I suppose the one who helped him. They could barely say the word, the Samaritan. And Jesus says, you go and do likewise.

You go and do likewise because God has promised you so much. And God has said you are something different than you were before his spirit came upon you and regenerated your heart and soul.

Go and do likewise. And don't go and do likewise not just because we're gonna follow a set of rules and we're gonna gain something in God's sight because only

Jesus can gain anything in God's sight. Go and do likewise because it's imitative of our savior.

Go and do likewise because what God has promised and made you in the here and now.

David showed mercy and restraint that pings forward so strongly to Jesus Christ.

He came not to judge, but to save. That's John 3, 17. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

All men are his subjects, but many of them turned from him and consigned him to the cross.

Yet he never called down consuming fire from heaven even when his disciples tried to get him to. Legions of angels were held in abeyance at his arrest.

Insults were tolerated and all manner of spite ignored by the king of all the earth. Restraint, mercy.

David here teaches us to trust God and to do good. He shows us that we can love our enemies, that we can bless those who curse us, that we can do good to those who hate us.

We can pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us. David's mercy shows us that we mortals all can be like Christ.

Oh, never perfectly, nowhere near. There's no perfection in this life, but always striving after that image of him who we have in the scripture,

Jesus Christ, and all the example he gives us is by faith.

By faith that what he declares us to be, which is saints and disciples and believers, he will make us that.

Faith that the effort is worth the reward which will come. Faith that this life is not the be all and end all of existence.

Faith in what God says of you now. As he told David, you are king, and David acted as king, even as he faithfully awaited the crown.

He says, you've been raised, you've been seated with Christ. By faith, hold those promises and order everything around those.

Be now what God says he's made you now and ultimately will make you.

And part of this mercy from David is how he shared in his victory. His victory was shared equally.

Everybody got a part. You know, some of you might remember,

I actually preached from this text about 10 years ago. And at that time, a few years before that, there was one of those big national lotteries that was won by a group of fellow employees.

And they had this habit of getting together, I don't know how many, I don't remember how many there were, but there was a bunch of them, and they'd all give their quarter, and they'd buy this bunch of tickets for whatever that big national lottery was.

I can't even think of the name of it right now. It doesn't matter. But they had done this habitually. And one time, this man who had always tossed in his quarter, who had always participated, he was friends with all these people, he forgot that they were going to do it and put the ticket together at a particular time.

So he forgot to toss in his quarter and went and got himself a sandwich. Of course, then they got all their quarters together and they went and bought the ticket, and he didn't have a share in the ticket, and what happened?

Yeah, this really happened. The ticket won. He got none of the prize.

He got none of the prize. The people had millions of dollars. They said, you didn't give your 25 cents, your two bits as we called it, so you get none of it.

I just can't imagine what it'd feel like to have missed out on such a fortune. But this is what the wicked and worthless fellows who tried to incite

David against the 200 who were so weak were like. You see, they'd finally struck pay dirt and their first thought was to keep it all for themselves.

Plenty for all, but if we cut them out, if we cut that one out, more for me. Well, David would have none of it.

Each man was equal in his eyes. Every man followed orders, those who went to the battle and those who stayed behind.

Now, it may be more glorious to go to the battle, or if you think in terms of 1 Corinthians 12 with the parts of the body, it may seem better to be the mouthpiece or the eyes of the church and not the foot or the right toe or something like that, something that gets hidden a little bit, though the scripture says it's just as necessary as all the other parts.

Now, to denigrate, to try to rank them that way, that's worldly thinking.

That's fleshly thinking. That's not faith thinking. That's not acting now on the promises of God.

A good king takes equal joy in every subject who willingly obeys, whether their part brings notice from men or if it's a quieter and less prominent role.

And make no mistake here, the victory was whose? It was David's. It was his as king.

It was David who led the men. It was David who first inquired of the Lord and said, shall I go up? It was

David who caused the people to sing. He has slain his 10 ,000s. The victory was David's.

And all the plunder really was his. It was his to distribute as he saw fit or even to keep entirely for himself.

Well, Jesus won a great victory, not over Amalekites. Jesus won a great victory over sin and death.

Of course, we think of the cross. And you were not there to help him, nor was I there to help him.

We neither went down to the battle nor stayed with the luggage even. Had we been there at his arrest?

I know we would have fled with the rest of the disciples. Do you remember in Mark's gospel? One of them ran so fast he forgot to get dressed.

He was scared. And all of them ran with him. Now, we would have run too.

I like to think I'm a pretty tough guy. Uh -uh, no. I would have gone with the rest of them, as would you.

Jesus went to the battle alone. He didn't even have the part of his army go with him. He went alone to the battle, and there he prevailed.

But does he keep his winnings for himself? Does he distribute them to a cherished few?

No, well, of course not. We think of sharing

Jesus. And at this point, you might think, okay, so you want me to go out and join in January at the door -to -door and share

Jesus with the people in this neighborhood? Well, yes, we do. We very much want you to do that. Knock on doors and tell them that there's a church here that believes in Jesus Christ and proclaims his name as faithfully and as consistently as we can.

Yes, we do want you to do that. But here, in this context,

I want you to think in terms of what needs to be shared, what plunder has Jesus given you.

It's you. Read 1 Corinthians 12, read Romans chapter 12. You're all parts of this body.

You're part of the plunder, if you will, that Jesus won when he went to the cross and there took upon himself the wrath of God against your sin.

Share Jesus? Well, yes, let's share Jesus. But in this context, the thing that needs to be shared is you, it's yourself, it's your talents, it's what

God has given you to complete this church, this body. Read 1 Corinthians 12 for your homework this afternoon.

Every part of equal importance. And without every part doing their share, doing your share, we're sort of a parody of what a body should look like.

We're missing things that we need. The victory by the king's everlasting ordinance is ours.

I don't mean King David, I mean here King Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15, 57 says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. And not just the victory, but the blessings besides.

Ephesians 1, 18, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

Colossians 1, 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Colossians 3, 24 and 25, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the

Lord Christ. Two of my favorite connections between the

Old and the New Testaments, Psalm 68, 18, I've referred to this many times, and then

Ephesians 4, 8. Psalm 68, 18 speaks of David's ascension on high back when he finally got his crown and his throne.

It says, you have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive, you have received gifts from men, even from the rebellious, that the

Lord God might dwell there. So the king gets all the credit for the victory, and the spoils belong to him.

And even with all this, it is his right to receive gifts. But hear how the

Psalm speaks, not of the kings who followed after David, but of David's ultimate son, Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4, 8. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

In Psalm 68, he receives, in Ephesians 4, 8, that Jesus Christ, after his death, burial, and here, his resurrection, he gave gifts to men.

As Pastor Brian pointed out this morning, that refers also to the teaching and the preaching and the ministry of the pastors and deacons of the church.

But I believe it also refers to all of us. All of us acting upon the promises of God and behaving as though we are what

God's word declares us now to be and declares we will be. All things have been given to Jesus by God the

Father, and see what he does? He gives. When he has the right to receive everything from us, what does he do?

He gives. Most important, he gives the gift of salvation. That's Romans 6, 23.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. I do believe with Pastors Brian and Conley that there are different rewards in heaven.

But there's only one salvation. And in terms of just the salvation and the resurrection that we will have and being with Jesus Christ, the shares are all the same.

Whether we were saved when Christ walked the earth as 2 ,000 years ago so many were, or whether we were saved a moment before his return, here is the great equalizer.

If you're an apostle like Peter or Paul or a small church pastor, if you're a luminary as was

R .C. Sproul, or if you're more pedestrian bent, it doesn't matter. Whether you rode into battle, which none of us did, or stayed behind, which all of us would have,

Jesus says you did your part, you share is equal by believing in him, his victory, and what he accomplished.

And when David makes such a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ for us, when he refused to follow those wicked and worthless men who said no, they don't get a share, they just get what's theirs, we get the profits.

David would have none of it. And he advocated for the weak. Again, shooting us forward to our great savior, to Jesus Christ.

600 men went with David, 200 too weary to go all the way. They're told by the leader to stay behind to guard the supplies while the remaining 400 went to the fight.

Those 200 had fought well for him. They had been no less fierce in battle or in loyalty than the 400 who went on had been.

Were they to lose out because of one failure? If they had gone, when the band of 400, the band of 400 would have had no rear guard.

The battle went on from twilight to the next evening, just over a day in length. Could they have stayed so long if they had worries about being attacked by some flanking action?

No, the men failed to go across the brook and into the fight as we all do, but they did an important part. And so often, we don't even go to the king and say, forgive me for not being able to cross the brook.

Forgive me for not doing my part this time. Now, Jesus forgave

Peter who feared no Amalekite warrior, but a young servant girl. Jesus forgave the

Pharisee Saul whose rage against him was vented against the defenseless people of God. And the

Lord subdued him on the way to Damascus. The Lord looked with mercy, or excuse me,

David looked with mercy on the exhausted 200, just as Jesus did the 11 terrified disciples.

This is forgiveness. It's the refusal to join company with those wicked and worthless grudge holders, with the servant forgiven much who refused to forgive a little at the end of Matthew chapter 18.

What did we learn here? We learned there can't be grudges with the people of God. As one of the things that is hardest to do is to give up our grudges, to truly forgive, to mercifully abandon grudges and resentments.

We've been given, we've been forgiven so many weaknesses and failings of our own. Our one great success gives us no warrant to lord it over those who falter, as though the victory came down from ourselves and not from the arm of the

Lord. David defended the weak, Jesus defends the weak.

He defended us weak sinners when he went to the cross, and he defends us even now with his spirit and with the ministry of his word.

Doing otherwise would be joining those wicked and worthless fellows who refused to share, who refused to spread the goodness of Christ amongst all the people of God, who despite their worthless wickedness received their share.

David would have had been within his rights to have taken their one talent and given it to those who he thought more worthy.

Romans 5, 6, for when we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Would you have climbed onto a cross even to save your own soul? If you saw the cross looming before you, you'd say, no, okay, that won't work.

There's gotta be another way around this. Would you have gone to cross knowing that beyond the nails would be suffering beyond imagining, that their

God would multiply and magnify and maximize the pain of the cross by shedding his wrath at your sin while you hung there?

No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't do it, nor would I. You would, with me, run with the disciples.

You stayed on the other side of the brook in safety. So we have amongst us in the church those who can't finish the journey every time.

And was the apostle command us? I think David would appreciate it. Bear one another's burdens, Galatians chapter six, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

And none left behind. The final point here is the security that we have in Christ, acting upon these promises, the security that we have in Christ.

In David's case, in 1 Samuel 30, all the wives, all the children, all that was taken from their city by the

Amalekites, all of it was rescued and brought back unharmed. Every piece of the spoil, whether it be something physical or a person, it was all recovered.

1 Samuel 30, verse 19, so David recovered all the

Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them.

David recovered all. And soon after that, we read in 2

Samuel chapter two, it happened after this that David inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah?

And the Lord said to him, go up, David said, where shall I go up? And he said, to Hebron.

So David went up there, and he brought up the men who were with him, every man with his household.

So they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. Nothing was lost, not a single soul.

Everything that had been taken by the Amalekites, recovered by David, distributed fairly in accordance with his merciful will.

How like Jesus was David. John chapter six, verse 37, all that the

Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.

Hebrews chapter seven, verse 25, therefore he, that's Jesus, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him.

As David successfully regained every person and piece of property, so Jesus has recovered every soul he came to save.

Not a drop of his blood was shed in vain. This is what we mean when we talk about the limited atonement.

Particular redemption is a better way to think of it. What does that mean? Ultimately, it means that God knew what he was doing when he sent his son to the cross.

It means that Jesus Christ knew for whom he was suffering. It means that none of his blood was wasted on someone who's not going to accept

Jesus. It means that all that the

Father has given me to Jesus Christ will come to him, and Jesus will never cast out those who by faith will repent of their sin.

Is that you? Have you repented of your sin? Have you acknowledged yourself a sinner who's insulted a holy

God, your maker, your creator? You will not be lost if you will repent and believe this gospel, that Jesus Christ died for your sin, and that God raised him on the third day, and that he's now at the right hand of God the

Father in glory, which is where you, if you will believe, will also be.

A promise that you will have, a promise that by the Spirit of God having remade your soul and heart, you will believe and be able to act upon now.

You will not be lost. The promise is as secure as David recovered every person and all the plunder, so Jesus Christ, Matthew 12, verse 29, went into the strong man's house, this is

Satan's domain, and plundered him of his goods, and that's you, believer in Christ Jesus, snatched from the power of darkness and brought into God's marvelous light.

Not one lost, not one left behind. The 400 strong ones, the 200 whose strength had failed, all their families, all their households, not one who

God predestined to salvation. God willing, it's you, if you have not come to Jesus Christ, if you've not recognized yourself a sinner, and come to him in faith, and ask for forgiveness for your sin and your sins.

None who follow David's greatest son, Jesus Christ, shall be lost, or left behind, or receive less than the king has ordained, because Jesus Christ has ordained it so, because Jesus Christ has said, as did

David, that the share will be the same. Do you believe these promises?

Do you believe that you've been raised with Christ and seated with him even now by faith?

Do you believe it now, for the ordering of everything in your life, knowing that one day, what you have the down payment for, and the residence of the spirit testifying the truth of this matter to you, will one day come to complete fruition as you follow in the resurrection like Jesus is.

May it be that we're that people who grasp these promises of God, and apprehend them, and order everything around them by faith, knowing that God has done, is doing, and will do all that he promises.

Amen. Heavenly Father, I do thank you for this day, for this time that we have together, for your word, and for David as king, and all that he teaches is about Jesus Christ, the ultimate king, who never failed.

And so for the redemption that we have in him, for the great promises that we have, for knowing that in Christ, all your promises, all your good word is yes, and amen.

We give you the thanksgiving, and pray, Father, you continue to mold us into his image, for we ask it in his name, amen.