Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: What we need to do and what God is encouraging us to do is to learn to fight in the spiritual arena we find ourselves in as Christians, to use the weapons of our warfare that are spiritual, and that we would not be consumed in the land or be defeated. There's a lot of defeated Christians today because they're not fighting the good fight, the spiritual warfare that they're in, and they don't understand what's happening around them. Jesus said he would help us to understand. He said that in the world, you're going to have troubles. The key is getting our eyes upon him and learning these lessons.

Guest (Male): A sure-fire way to avoid defeat in your daily battle with Satan. Next on Sound Doctrine.

We all encounter pain and suffering, but how are we going to handle those inevitable trials? That's the big question. The Christian has a choice to make in the face of them. We can rejoice because of our hope in Christ or become miserable and angry, which only makes matters worse.

Today on Sound Doctrine, Pastor Jeff Johnson continues his study of 1 Samuel, where we find a king in training. David was no stranger to suffering, and how he handled this suffering serves as an example for us on how to handle our own. Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson in 1 Samuel 26.

Jeff Johnson: 1 Samuel chapter 25 was a real uplift. In the midst of David's struggles and all that he's been going through with his warfare with Saul, it was such a breath of fresh air as we saw Abigail come in and stop David from backsliding. She got David's eyes trusting his God again and stopped him from taking things into his own hands. It was refreshing. We saw how God did take care of Nabal, and God does take care of things his way.

David couldn't pass up a good thing. We know the end of the story was that he who finds a wife finds a good thing. So David said, "That's a good thing. She's going to be my wife." David married Abigail. Remember, Abigail was not only gorgeous, she had brains. Those are two very beautiful things to find in one woman: brains and glamour. He said, "This is a girl that I don't want to pass up." So they went riding off into the sunset with their love and their marriage, and it was happy forever after. No.

We're reminded in chapter 25, verse 44: "But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim." We're reminded here that David is still a fugitive. David is still running from his enemy Saul, who is hot after his tail to kill him. Their marriage wasn't just going off into the sunset. They rode off quickly because Saul was fast behind. He was still a threat to their lives.

Many times after a spiritual battle, we might think that now the war is over. After we fight this warfare and we get a victory, we walk off thinking that it will never happen again. But we know better that the enemy comes in another way and the battle continues. The warfare is not over. I've been with the Lord now for 25 years. I know that as I entered into the Promised Land, it is definitely a Promised Land. There are promises to behold and blessings in the land, but there's also an enemy in the land.

The enemy doesn't quit. When you think everything's fine, he comes in another way. What we need to do and what God is encouraging us to do is to learn to fight in the spiritual arena we find ourselves in as Christians. We must use the weapons of our warfare that are spiritual so that we would not be consumed in the land or be defeated. There are a lot of defeated Christians today because they're not fighting the good fight or the spiritual warfare that they're in. They don't understand what's happening around them.

Jesus said he would help us to understand. He said that in the world, you're going to have troubles. The war is going to rage, but you can be of good cheer because he has overcome the world. The key is getting our eyes upon him and learning these lessons. It's not until Christ comes that the war is going to cease. Until then, there's going to be a fight every day of my life. When he comes, the enemy will be totally destroyed, and I can go off and be forever with the Lord. But until then, we've got to steady on.

We've got to learn to stand in his power and realize that the weapons he's given to us are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds that seem to surround us. Our enemy is very intelligent. He is insistent and will not quit. He keeps coming. He is very subtle, too. He loves to set little traps and snares for us. This morning is no different. We're going to see one of the traps that he tries to set. He is also very powerful.

We must learn by these Old Testament examples. We've been given a lot here with the warfare between Saul and David. This war between them is something we can learn as we listen to how David responded and look at how he did certain things. As we follow suit, we're going to have victory as he had victory. He was in the physical realm, but now we put it into a spiritual realm. Even when he was around, the enemy was behind everything that was going on in the spiritual realm.

He was fighting a literal king of his times. We are fighting the prince of the power of the air, who is always after us and doesn't give up. He wants to sift you as wheat. We need to get serious about the warfare that we're in as Christians and start taking these examples. As we do that, we're going to experience an awesome victory. Chapter 26 is not the same as chapter 24. They're very similar stories but two different accounts with different lessons. We're going to see how chapter 26 is different.

I was reminded about what Peter said about how we are so quick to forget. Peter said, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir up your minds by putting you in remembrance of these things." Peter is saying that we have short memories spiritually. It's too bad we didn't have some of these truths set in our long-term memory.

We have a short term that seems to forget. We hear, and then we go out and we blow it. The Lord knows that, so he gives us four gospels. He reminds us of things over and over again. Some of the things that you're going to hear this morning, you've heard them before. But as long as I'm in this body, I'm going to stir up your remembrance toward these things because these are things we need to learn to live by in this world. We need to be ready, spiritually speaking.

Verse one says: "And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?" You've heard of the saying, "loose lips sink ships." It's true. These guys were finks, and they already had told on David in chapter 23, verse 19. They told Saul where David was. Again, they're doing it as informers. The lesson here is that the enemy will always be able to find you.

He will always find you, but he won't be able to get you if your habitation is in God, as David's was. Remember how close the enemy would always get to him? They'd always know where he was and they went for him, but they couldn't ever get him. He just slipped through their fingers all the time. David was like the Israeli rabbit; he's very smart. He's feeble and everyone is his enemy, but he's very smart. He finds his hiding place is in the cleft of the rock.

Lord, teach us that our hiding place of safety is hidden within you, that we would make you our habitation this year as never before. Verse two says: "Then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph." Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah by the way, but David abode in the wilderness and saw that Saul came after him. David sent out spies and understood that Saul was come in very deed with 3,000 armed forces against 600.

Saul always liked to take his 3,000 with him. He figured he was pretty safe. But this time David does not flee or run. He stood his ground. David is taking advantage of Saul's military blunder because Saul was about to do something no military general would do to his forces: go into unfamiliar territory. Saul is entering in with these 3,000 into an area they've never been. But David knows everything about it. It's like when we entered into Vietnam. We didn't know what hit us or where it hit us from.

We didn't know about the way of fighting or the terrain. We were just taken by it. Yet with Iraq, we trained for months in the deserts. We sought to understand the terrain and we were familiar. We went in there to win and we did it fast and easy. Yet now they're talking about Korea. The generals are saying that we're not ready for Korea because we're not familiar with that type of warfare. We've been fighting desert stuff. Some people are very scared right now of unfamiliar territory.

Verse five says David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched. David beheld the place where Saul lay and Abner, the captain of the host. Saul lay in the trench in the lower area, and the people pitched roundabout him. He figured he was protected and surrounded with his troops. Notice David is the aggressor here. He is going to confront and surprise his enemy this time. We're not ignorant of the enemy's devices. We should also be on the aggression. We should be aggressive Christians.

We should already be in prayer and using the word of God. You don't just do it when trouble comes. We need to be constantly attacking the enemy, using the weapons of our warfare, and surprising him through what we are doing as Christians. David said to Ahimelech the Hittite. The reason a Hittite is with these other Jews hanging around with David is because he was a mercenary. There were a lot of mercenaries that came and hooked on with David during this time. Ahimelech was one of them.

He also asked Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, "Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?" What an awesome thing for David to say. David just stands up in front of all his troops and says, "I'm on the attack. Which one of you guys are going to go down with me to Saul's camp?" This was a very brave thing for David to say. The reason he was very brave and willing to go down to Saul's camp is because he trusted in his God. He was confident that the Lord would go with him.

He is fearless with his eyes on the Lord. You're never to volunteer for any mission. You learn that in the service. Abishai immediately said he would go. So we have these two guys going into the enemy's camp. Where two or three are gathered, the Lord says he is there in the midst. Jesus said to send them out two by two. We would go out by twos for support. We need to go out by twos for accountability and counsel. We're going to see the blessings of having two go on a mission for God.

If you're going to go anywhere for the Lord, always have somebody with you. Never go alone. If you go alone, you're setting yourself up. Verse seven says: "So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster." Then Abishai said to David, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time."

Here we have Saul with his famous spear. The spear would reveal where he was, like many kings in the times where you'd have a shield. He had a spear stuck by his area. In the military today, where the general is, he has the general flag so you know right where the general is. Saul had his spear stuck right where he was at so they could find him easily. This is a spear that Saul loved to hurt with. Twice he threw it at David. Saul was very cunning and quick with spear-chucking.

He threw it twice at David and once at his own son, trying to kill him. Here's Saul, sound asleep with his spear right by his head. Abishai says, "David, this is God. God has set this up. Look at this setup." In reality, though, I see it not as God. I know that God allowed them to come into the camp and be next to Saul, but I don't believe that what Abishai was saying was of the Lord. I don't believe that it was of God to run him through.

I think this is a trap of the enemy. Abishai lost it for a moment and got into the flesh. Sometimes it can look like God's in it, and he's not in it. Blessed is the man surrounded with many counselors who has somebody to say, "You might think it's the Lord, but I don't know." Thank God for wives and husbands who will speak up. We need to minister to one another as friends that are true friends. When you come up to somebody and say, "Well, God told me," what else can you say?

If you really care about the person, you'll try to intervene, as David will also do here. Abishai was remembering how David snuck into that cave in chapter 24. As he went next to Saul, he got his knife out, and everybody in the background was saying, "Stick him, David. Cut his throat, David." David sneaks up, brings the knife down, and cuts off a piece of his skirt and comes running back. He tells them he got a piece of his skirt. They thought David had lost it. He could have killed Saul and he didn't do it.

Right there, they figured the guy had lost his nerve. He used to be a warrior, but he just doesn't like to kill anymore. So Abishai said, "David, I understand where you're at, man. I'll do it. Let me take that spear, and it'll just take one time. It's over. The enemy's dead, once and for all. I'll take that cruel instrument that he tried to kill you with, and I'll run him through with it." David definitely was justified in all that Saul had done to him. David could have justified it in his heart and said, "Abishai, go for it."

It would have been done once and for all. But it's just not that easy. The enemy would help you to think it is. He's setting you up in a trap. Once you do it, it's going to affect the rest of your life. This warfare is constant here. It's never going to be just over one time and everything's done. We need God's wisdom, and that's what he wants to reveal to us today. We need a strategy to fight this warfare we find ourselves in.

Sometimes people would even say, "This is God," when it's not the Lord. Instead of listening to man, we need to listen to God. We need to listen to what the word says and stand on it. Don't listen to what everybody says, even though they say, "God said." Look at verse nine: "And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?" David was wise and talked him out of it. He said it's not our job.

In Hebrews 10:30 it says, "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." It's not for you to do. We're not to retaliate against our enemy. We're not to seek vengeance. We're not to go out to the abortion doctor and kill him with a gun. What's that going to do? This is a spiritual warfare, and God keeps good books. Vengeance is the Lord's. We're not to take the law into our own hands. David learned from Nabal's demise after Abigail ministered to him to trust the Lord.

He's God's anointed; we can't touch him. If you touch him, you're not going to be guiltless. It's going to be on you forever. God help us as Christians to be careful. I too have to be careful because I find myself at times lunging out after those who are in a position of God's anointed. Maybe they're not doing real great and their doctrine's not real great. But to slam them in such a way as to try to destroy them when they are brothers. We fight too much amongst ourselves.

We're touching God's anointed a lot of times without even thinking or trusting God with the situation. The Lord will deal with them. But if they're in a position of authority or being God's anointed, then we need to pray that God will change things and not touch them as far as blasting them so much. Lord, help us.

Guest (Male): This is Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. What you heard today is part of Pastor Jeff's verse-by-verse series through 1 and 2 Samuel. Today we heard the first half of Jeff's study in 1 Samuel 26.

If you enjoyed today's message, I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you can hear today's study as well as make a donation to this radio outreach. That's at sounddoctrineradio.org. You can also listen at oneplace.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio app.

I should also mention Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Be sure to join us again next time we meet for another encouraging and challenging study with Pastor Jeff in the book of 1 Samuel. That's here on Sound Doctrine, presented by Calvary Chapel Downey.