Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): When we make important decisions in a rushed manner, you know who really gets a kick out of the mess we make? Satan. Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: Satan's trap is to always apply pressure to us to get us thinking that we need to make haste—a rash decision without first getting prayer and counsel. Satan will try to bring in the pressure and say, "You've got to make a decision! You've got to do it! And you've got to do it fast!" That is a big mistake if we listen to that.

Guest (Male): Your spirit leads me on. I am running after You. I will leave behind the worthless love, and I am trading them for priceless truth.

Are you discouraged today? Losing hope? Maybe your faith in the Lord is growing dim. If that describes you, know this: You're not alone. It happens to so many, including David. Right on the heels of success came a season where he gave up trusting in God and took matters into his own hands.

We will read about it in 1 Samuel 27 today on Sound Doctrine. Pastor Jeff Johnson will show us where David went wrong so we can avoid this sort of faith crisis ourselves. Here he is now to help us find encouragement in the Word from 1 Samuel chapter 27.

Jeff Johnson: David had the priest; he could have gone to the priest. Remember, Gad was there with him. He could have got the stones—remember the stones behind the ephod? Were these black stones where they would roll? Actually, there was a black and a white one, and the black one would say no. He didn't go that route. He didn't seek the Lord. Before, he sought the Lord. Why not now?

And remember before, when he sought the Lord, the Lord warned him that Saul's coming and he'd better escape—he'd better get out of here. It was a righteous intervention of God because he sought the Lord. And the Lord answered him and saved him from getting snuffed.

People, we've got to see the importance of prayer and counsel and seeking God. If we get hurried and rushed, we're going to make a major mistake. So, David goes out now on his own, and he actually says, "I realize that if I move quickly, that maybe Saul will forget about me." But I will tell you something, he is going to regret this move for the rest of his life.

I've learned that if you just wait upon the Lord, what you want, you will either get it or you won't get it. But you need to let time go by. How we feel rushed to buy something big? We need to let a little time go by and we need to pray a lot because I've found out if you wait long enough, the price goes down. So, God teaches to wait. Again, fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Yet David runs off to Gath. His reasoning, of course, is that Saul will lose interest in me if I go into the enemy's land. And David's plan of survival is set up here. Do you remember the first time that David went into Gath, chapter 21? Do you remember what happened? He all of a sudden finds himself by himself in this strange city. Someone recognizes him, he gets scared, and he begins to panic.

He feels that they're going to take his life, so he starts acting like a crazy man and foams come out of his mouth and everything. He's running around on the ground. And they finally just kick him out of there. And here we have David now with 600 men coming back to Gath. My question is: Why go back there? And I think that's a good question. Why do you go back? Haven't you learned? I think our problem is it's like we reject those crazy things and bad things that happened in that place.

In that situation, we start to remember just the good things, and so we go ahead and go back. It's like me. I don't like Magic Mountain, and I have to be reminded about that. And the way the Lord does it is that I forget about what I experienced before, and then I go back with friends and they want to see it, so I bring the friends and we get on the Ninja or whatever. And I'm reminded, I don't like this place! Why am I here?

God help us. Let's go on, verse 2. "And David arose, and he passed over with the 600 men that were with him into Achish, and the son of Maoch, king of Gath." And so he goes over into Gath and David went with Achish to Gath, and he and his men, every man with his own household, even David with his two wives, and he had his whole family going into Gath.

Notice how David now is introducing his family to this great experience of Gath. And it was told, verse 4, Saul, that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. And you say, "My gosh, David's plan worked. Saul's not after him anymore." But this philosophy of "the end justifies the means" is ridiculous.

You can't justify the means by the end. Just because Saul is not running after David anymore and stops pursuing him doesn't justify David's lapse of faith and him not trusting in the Lord and devising his own plan. David chose a shortcut. There is the straight and narrow gate, and there is the wide one that leads to destruction. David chose the wide one to make his own way, to turn from that straight and narrow.

But it's scary, and it goes deeper and deeper into a pit as you go that way. In fact, it will go so bad and so much, we will wonder and we'll question: Is that the David we knew? What has happened to this man? And we are going to see the devastation that it does when we make our own choice. David, as many think, "Hey, it's just sin for a season." Go back to the world.

So you go back to the world and you think, "I left the Lord and that whole scene. I went back into the world and the world invited me back and they gave me a hug, and I just seem to have peace and there weren't any more hassles anymore." But I'll tell you what kind of peace it is. It's like a peace you get when you take a drug. It's a drug-like peace that's going to pass. It is sin for a season.

It only subsides for a moment because you're no longer a threat to the kingdom of God and a threat to the enemy, so the enemy backs off immediately. And you do feel a sense of peace. But a whole new set of trials awaits you now. As now you have enough of Jesus to be miserable, but not enough to be joyful. And the enemy's going to have a field day with you. Look at verse 5.

"And David said to Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day." And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.

David was given a city. How come? But also, I think that the king realized David's forces was growing. He's a renegade; he's rebelled against the king of Israel. David and his little company would be a great addition to his forces, especially when they came up against Israel. So he thought, "Hey, David, come on, join the group. You're an ally now." Now, why the country?

Why did David want to go out in the country? Well, first of all, he didn't want to be under the king's surveillance. He didn't want to be hanging around in Gath because in the big city, the king's always there, his troops are there, and they're going to watch every move that David makes. David says, "Give me the country." David didn't want to be around all that weird gods and the weird pressures of the Gath society.

It was corrupt. So David says, "Give me the country. I want to go out to the country." So he gave him Ziklag, which is 13 miles northwest of Beersheba. An area given to Judah, notice, but never possessed by them. It was given to Judah to go into the promised land and take this city—they never took it. I thought, "Oh my gosh, could there be areas in our lives that we have given our lives to the Lord but there are areas that aren't His?"

I think so. Lord, show us those areas that we need for You to come in and reign in and be King of, because there are still areas that need to be possessed by You. Sixteen months he spent there. I hear so many people come up to me and they're complaining. They're saying, "Gosh, I wish I would have come to the Lord a long time ago. I wasted so much time of my life. Now I come to the Lord and see what God is doing, and I wasted so many years."

When you're on your own and you're as David doing your own thing, guess what? It's all a waste of time. Just wasted, never to be gotten again. Yet we know that the Psalms are written in the caves, and from this time that David experienced in Gath, three Psalms are written: Psalm 8, Psalm 81, and Psalm 84. Because over each of these Psalms you see it says it's written "to Gittith," and that means Gath.

Each one of these Psalms during this time that was written by David, each one would have a Philistine flavor to it or to the beat of the Psalm. The style was the Philistine style. There's a lot of people that ask the question: "Can Christian music have the style of the world? Can there be Christian rap? Can there be Christian rock and roll? Is that possible?" I would just have to say yes, it is.

In fact, it's proven right here. Yes, you can use worldly music, but the message needs to be clear and it needs to be heard. And I think that's where we have to be careful. Verse 8. "And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites, for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt."

So David, being a warrior, he likes to fight. He got in with it with those southern areas of Gath and the area of Egypt. He started to fight with those around that area. People who were also enemies of Israel. I know some people believe that David's conscience at this time was bothering him because he knew that he was away from the Lord—because when you're away from the Lord, you know when you're doing your own thing—his conscience was bothering so he said, "I'll just go out and I'll attack those enemies of Israel on the outskirts of Gath and that area and I'll just really shake them up."

Parents, you know as well as I know, when you come home sometimes and the house is clean and the kids' bedrooms are clean, you have to look at them and say, "Okay, what'd you do? Something's wrong." Wanting to do something good because they've done something bad. And it's revealed, same with David here. Verse 9. "And David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive and took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and came to Achish."

Here David's backslidden heart is revealed, how really hard he has gotten because when you get away from the Lord, you begin to grow hard and callous towards what's going on. And we see it here with David, it's revealed because there's no excuse for killing women and children, going into villages and snuffing and wiping everybody out. I know some in the historical books would say, "Well, that's just what they did back then."

I'm sorry, I don't care what they do during a time of a society. And just like today, you can't use this society as an excuse for your sin. It's wrong, man. You are not to be doing it. Don't say, "Well, everybody's doing it." It doesn't get it with God. This is wrong to kill everyone. I don't care if he needed food for his troops or if he had a guilty conscience and he thought he'd say, "God, I'm doing good," and try to justify what he was doing. It's wrong.

When a man is left to himself, not going God's way, it's a downhill spiral and it's a road to destruction and devastation, and we are seeing it in David's life right now. Look at verse 10. "And Achish said, Whether have ye made a road today? Where have you been, David? What have you been doing?" And David said, "Against the south of Judah, against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites."

And all of a sudden, we realize here is another result in doing your own thing: you begin to lie without even thinking about it. In fact, it almost becomes second nature. "Oh, it's a white lie." But white lies are always color blind, aren't they? It's just I just wanted to let him know because if he would have known that I was going against his neighbors, his allies, so I just told him I was going up against my own brothers, the Jews.

He was lying. Sin, someone has said, "Sin has many tools, but a lie has a handle that fits them all." David's lies started way back in chapter 20, verse 6, where he began to lie to his friend about telling his father that he was off with his family when he was really hiding in the wilderness. Started out that way. And then he continued to lie as we go on in chapter 21.

We see that he lied to the high priest and he told the high priest that he was on a journey for the king, which he was lying. And going on even further, he lied in that when he became and feigned as a crazy man, he was lying to them—he really wasn't crazy. He was faking it. But all of a sudden, lies has become a part as David's life now. He finds it easy to lie quickly.

You say, "Man, I'd never do that. I'd never get into lying like that." How about when you say to a brother, "Hey, I will call you later"? "Hey, I will drop you a line." What are you saying? Did you do it? We get caught up. David was taking from the Philistine allies. He was pillaging their camps. He was marauding with his troops into there, riding through taking everything. And then he lies.

The more you do your own thing, the more you need to cover up what you're doing. And in order for David to cover up what he was doing, he had everybody eliminated in the villages so nobody could tell anybody. It wouldn't get out, the news wouldn't get out. He killed everybody. Your sin not only affects you, but it affects others around you, doesn't it?

We say, "Nobody will get hurt, I am just sinning on my own." Oh yes, they will. It is going to affect them. You can count on it. David's sin affected whole villages. Look at verse 11. "And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines."

And so he had everybody snuffed. No excuse for what he had done. David is a fool who rushed in. He rushed into Gath, going through with his plan. And David is now in sin going down the tubes. Look at verse 12 now. "And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever."

So now the king, believing David, believing David's lies, thinks, "Hey, I've got an ally forever. David has turned against his people. His people will never have him back. He is mine and his troops." So David has exchanged trust in God's promises for the walls of Ziklag. And yet these very walls we are going to find are going to burn around him.

It is incredible the damage and the harm that one man can do who gives in to the enemy. When he gives into his own heart, when he gives into fear and worry, when he turns and runs scared, instead of running to the Lord and starts doing his own thing, the devastation that can be done. David is going to repent later on. He is going to weep and cry for what he has done, for his lack of faith. But still, it's done.

I think to prevent us from following David's example, we've got to do what David did earlier in his life. We have to follow his good example, and that's that twice in chapter 23, verse 2 and 4, it says that David inquired of the Lord. He sought the Lord. He said, "Lord, what would You have me to do in the situation?" And I think we need to follow that example.

And after he repented in chapter 30, verse 8, it says that David again inquires of the Lord. He got back on track again. And how we need to stay on track. David's mistake and our mistake many times is our failure to ask God, to inquire of the Lord, to seek the Lord. We must learn this. If you feel you've got to do something, force yourself to go into the presence of the Lord.

Force yourself just to get alone with the Lord. Force yourself to learn to wait on the Lord. I know it kills your flesh and you are freaking out, but we've got to do it or we're going to end up in real trouble. If depression begins to sneak into your life, check out, maybe it's you just had a great victory and you go, "Aha, I understand."

Or maybe it is because of the longevity of the trial that you find yourself in and you're just getting weary. And so depression begins to sneak in. We need to begin to seek the Lord. We need to begin to call upon Him. As Psalm 27 said, "And answer me, Lord," David cried out. He called and he said, "My prayers to You and answer me."

And the Lord promises to answer us in His time, but we must continue to seek Him and not to panic, to stand still and wait for the Lord, and He's going to bring those answers that we desperately need.

Guest (Male): All of the answers we need in life come from God. Oh, there are plenty of people out there who think they know what's best for your life, but they aren't God. Only God is God.

Pastor Jeff Johnson will be back in a moment to wrap up our look at 1 Samuel chapter 27 here on Sound Doctrine. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today. 1 Samuel is filled with practical insights for Christian living. And if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com and wherever you enjoy podcasts. That includes Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

If you'd like to get behind what we're doing and donate to this radio outreach, you can do so at sounddoctrineradio.org by clicking the give tab. And thank you very much for your support. It's greatly appreciated and will be put to good use helping others build their lives on the sound doctrine found in God's Word. Now with three takeaways we need to remember from today's message, here is Pastor Jeff once again.

Jeff Johnson: Three things I want to leave with you this morning. And that is number one: His word is truth. When He says something, you can count on it. You say, "But I don't see it." It's coming. "How do I know that?" Because He said it. God said it, I believe it, that settles it. And we need to be settled with that. God's word is truth. David got away.

Number two: God's word is conditional. To you this morning, God's word is conditional. If you will repent of your sins, God will forgive you. If you will turn from the way that you're living and cry out to God, God will hear your prayer and He will come into your life and He will be your strength and He will be your hiding place. God's word is conditional. We must first draw near to Him and He will draw near to us.

And number three: God's word is corrective. It corrects us when we're going wrong. In fact, over in Psalm 34, verse 17, it says, "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and he delivers them out of all of their troubles. The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit." If you will humble yourself in the midst of the truths that you've heard this morning, if you found yourself as David getting off, or if maybe you've never been on—

You have never even known the Lord. You have never walked with the Lord. You are way out of it. And the Lord is saying if you will just humble yourself before Me, I will lift you up. I will save you. I will deliver you from your situation. So God's word here this morning is to correct us if we are going astray. I thank God for His word. It's awesome and we have it. Let's not forsake it. Let's not just be hearers, but let's be doers also. Let's let it sink into our hearts. "Lord, Thy word have I hid within my heart that I might not sin against Thee."

Guest (Male): We hope you'll join us for our next study in 1 Samuel. It is going to be a good one. That is right here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey. Have a blessed day in the Lord.