Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): Looking for a hiding place from the troubles of life? Pastor Jeff Johnson has a suggestion.

Jeff Johnson: To know the Lord is to be protected from harm by the good shepherd who leads and guides us in this life. In fact, David said in Psalm 32 verse 7, "Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."

I only know of one place where you can sing, and that is in the Lord. He's the only one that gives you a new song. He's the only one that can put your life that's in devastation on a solid rock and give you something to sing about. It's awesome what the Lord does. And David, again, says he's my hiding place.

Guest (Male): Welcome once again to Sound Doctrine presented by Calvary Chapel Downey. Pastor Jeff Johnson is currently leading us through the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel. And today we enter chapter 23.

I'm sure you've heard this statement many times: "Without faith, it's impossible to please God." You probably acknowledge the truth of that statement, but how often do we face adversity and forget to call on our faith in God to get us through? Living by faith is what it's all about. That's exactly the course God called David to. Here's Pastor Jeff with more.

Jeff Johnson: 1 Samuel chapter 23. We've been using Sunday mornings to go through an incredible book, 1 Samuel. And I'm so into this that we're going to go on into 2 Samuel. Got to finish it. You get the first, you got to get the sequel, and that's Samuel 2. And so we're going to continue on.

But this morning, we're going to talk about, as we take this chapter, chapter 23, and we're going to talk about how God answers prayer and that God does answer prayer. Last week, we saw the blessing of being one of David's men. Remember we looked at the blessing to be a part of one of David's few there?

It's the same way today. It's a blessing to be totally sold out and submitted to the son of David, which is Jesus Christ. Those who were in distress, those in debt, those that were discontent, these were the ones that were drawn to David. These are the ones that are drawn to the Lord these days: to be safe, to be trained, to be one of David's mighty men.

So God's building an army. Now, we are living in a wilderness. David's running through a wilderness, but we're living in a wilderness. This world all around us is a wilderness. And you know what? There's evil also everywhere you look. So it's not any different than when David was around here.

The world's still a wilderness, and there's still evil everywhere, and our enemies are many. Survival in these days is only found in the Lord, because the Bible says without the Lord, there is no hope. And so this morning, if you find yourself without the Lord, you are also in a very hopeless, helpless situation.

You don't have hope. You can't have hope in this world, for this world doesn't give hope. Only Jesus Christ does. Those without the Lord are those that have been deceived, blinded from the truth. And really, these are the ones that have no protection in this wilderness who are being led, so to speak, to the slaughter that is going on around us.

We see families ending up in tragedies and split up and separations and divorce. The wilderness continues to be a desolate place. And there's a lot of people that are thirsting and hungering for that which is real. To know the Lord is to be protected from harm by the good shepherd who leads and guides us in this life.

In fact, David said in Psalm 32 verse 7, "Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." I only know of one place where you can sing, and that is in the Lord. He's the only one that can give you a new song.

He's the only one that can put your life that's in devastation on a solid rock and give you something to sing about. It's awesome what the Lord does. And David, again, says he's my hiding place. He gives us what I call the coney wisdom. Over in Proverbs, there's an interesting proverb talking about a little Israeli rabbit called the coney.

It doesn't have long ears like ours does. It has these little bitty ears. It looks like a weird huge rat with hair on it because it doesn't have the long ears like our rabbit, and it's called a coney. But in Proverbs 30 verse 26, it says, "The conies are but a feeble folk." In other words, they're just an innocent little bunny rabbit.

It has many enemies, and it has no protection when you look at it. And yet it says of the coney, "Yet he makes their houses in the rocks." He might be a feeble folk, he might be an innocent animal, but it's got wisdom because it knows that if it just goes into the cleft of the rock, it can go like this to the enemy, and the enemy's not going to get to it.

He's going to have to dig through the rock. And oh, Lord, give us coney wisdom as David begins to have this coney wisdom as he goes off into the wilderness running from his enemy. Chapter 23, like I said, here we are going to learn the importance of prayer and the blessings of answered prayer as we do pray to the Lord.

Remember Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to faint. So prayer is a vital portion and a part of our lives as Christians if we are going to live in a wilderness and not faint, if we are going to have victory over the many enemies that we have around us. There are three Psalms that were written during this time.

And we're going to touch base with a few of them, in fact all of them we're going to mention to you. Psalm 27 was written during this time when David was running from Saul, Psalm 31, and Psalm 34. Now, remember we left David hiding in the cave of Adullam. Remember last week? He had his first cave experience.

And of course, this is where the Psalms were all written, in the caves. You see, God was doing a work in David in these caves so he could do a work through David. You wonder why you go through trials? Well, there's a reason for everything that we go through. God is doing a work in us so he can do a work through us.

So it's part of the humbling process. It's part of our learning to trust the Lord. It's part of our depending upon the Lord. It's part of our being used of God to be a channel of God to others, of really connecting, of really getting with it spiritually. I mean, we're so physical. We've been living in this world for so long.

God has to melt us and mold us as a potter, just showing us how he's going to make something beautiful out of our lives. Verse 1 now of chapter 23. "Then they told David, saying," and this is after David was in the cave there, "Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah and they rob the threshing floors."

Now, Keilah is about four miles from the cave where David was hiding out. The threshing floor is where they would take the wheat and they would stack it there on the threshing floor. In other words, they would cut the wheat down and they would take boards, they would take stones, they would take oxen, and they'd thresh the wheat.

In other words, they would break the wheat away from the stalk, and they would do this in various means. And they would beat them together, and then what they would do is take all that they had broken off of the stalk and they'd throw it up in the air. And they'd use the wind there in the various valleys.

They'd get a nice place where there's a good breeze coming through. They build the threshing floor. And they'd throw up all of the wheat, and what would happen is the chaff would blow away with the wind and the wheat would fall down. And then after done working on the threshing floor, they'd gather the wheat up and put it into a pile, and they'd have these piles all over the place.

And so the enemy knew that right after harvest time, there's going to be a bunch of piles all over the place. And they would come down, the Philistines come down and made a raid on this village, just terrorizing them and just hassling them. And you can see how Saul is losing it already because he can't even protect the outlying cities and villages of being attacked.

And so the Philistines come in here and they just say, "Thank you very much," and they just take all of their piles and they move out. After all their hard work, there goes the wheat. David's response to what he hears is the secret of his success, and I believe it is the secret of our success in the wilderness that we find ourselves in.

Verse 2. Look at his response. "Therefore," after hearing what had happened, David "enquired of the Lord, saying, 'Lord, shall I go and smite these Philistines?' And the Lord said to David, 'Go and smite the Philistines and save Keilah.'" I want you to note this: that David just didn't run out to meet needs.

He wasn't a guy that was like a chicken with his head cut off just running around meeting needs. David heard of the need, they reported it to him, and notice what David did: he prayed about it. Very, very important. He asked the Lord, "What should I do?" Look at the relationship that David had with his God.

"God, what am I going to do about this?" And then look at his God, he answers him, right? "David, go." I love it. There is a relationship that God wants to have with us that as we pray to him, that we would hear his answer and that we would be obedient and go and do it. It's a talking relationship, isn't it?

It's one of, "Lord, this situation's come up, what should I do?" And the Lord's there to say, "Okay, now this is what I want you to do." In Psalm 27, David writing this during this time, in verse 7, it says this: "Hear, O Lord," David's crying out, "when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me."

David was a man of prayer. He learned the power of prayer early on. He said, "When thou saidst, 'Seek my face,' my heart said unto thee, 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' I need you in my life. I need to converse with you about everything. I need to ask you about everything. And I need you to answer me."

Going on there in verse 14 of Psalm 27, he says, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." I love it. David's instructing us now, saying don't get all excited. Don't run off like a chicken with his head cut off. Wait on the Lord. You'll have courage, you'll have strength.

Wait for his answer. Yes, ask him, but then wait for his answer, and then go, then do what you've got to do, knowing that the Lord's behind it, that he's in it, and that you're not just trying this and trying that and always slamming against walls and having to turn around going, "Well, that wasn't the Lord's will."

And it can be a drag after a while. I mean, hurts the nose slamming a number of walls, and you get, "Man, I'm not going to." And for a while there you don't even go anywhere and do anything. You're afraid even to step out. And that's okay. Wait on the Lord.

Remember Abiathar, who was the only priest that escaped the slaughter we talked about last week? He now was with David. This is very interesting because because the high priest was with David, he has the ephod now. He was able to take that with him. He has the Urim and the Thummim. And remember we talked about that in Exodus?

When the priest has the ephod, which is the breastplate of the priest, behind the ephod in a little pocket, there's these two stones, the Urim and Thummim. Very important because during this time, this was the way that God would speak to them. This is the way that they would enquire of the Lord, through these two stones.

Later on, they had the prophets. The prophets would speak to them and say, "Thus saith the Lord." And today we know that Hebrews says to us that God has now spoken to us through his Son. And so we've got an immediate connection. It's great. Anytime in Jesus' name coming to the Lord God, we can come before his throne at any time.

In fact, over in Hebrews 4, this is beautiful. Just as David had his priest, so we have ours. And in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14, listen to this: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, our weaknesses, but he was with all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Let's learn this: that we do have a high priest that cares about us, that is there to enquire for us and to give us a way to get into a holy God, into his very presence. That Jesus paid the price so we could walk in with him, so to speak, right there in the presence of God and say, "Oh God." And there he is, and he's listening to you because of Jesus Christ.

So let's go boldly and let's go often. Let's use our high priest, and let's enquire of the Lord. So David wanted to know God's will. He sought the Lord as we need to today more than ever. Now, the Urim and Thummim is actually the way they communicated or actually how God spoke to them. We, of course, know Jesus is our Urim and Thummim.

That's a weird word. But you know what? I started to think about how does God answer us? I mean, okay, so we can go before the creator of the universe, we can ask him for things. Now, how does he speak to us today? And I started to look through Acts because Acts is the working of the Holy Spirit in the church and it's the beginning how God was speaking to them.

I found one place where he spoke to them through his word. And this is over in Acts 23 verse 11 where it says, the night following, when Paul was thrown into a dungeon, the Lord came to him and spoke to him. And the Lord said to him, "Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome."

So God came in Jesus Christ and spoke to him. God has given us his word. God will speak to you through his word. In times when you're down and out, Paul was down and out, he needed a word from the Lord. Open the word of God and get a word from the Lord. Let the Lord speak to you through his word and answer you about your many questions that you have.

Should I do this or should I do that? And as you read the scriptures, you will get a direction. That's one way. And then there's the inner witness of the Holy Spirit in our lives inside, the still small voice. Over in Acts chapter 11 in verse 12, Peter says, "The Spirit bade me go."

In other words, I didn't know what to do and I just felt the pushing of the Spirit. I just felt a peace on my heart. I felt this was good. I felt this is the leading of the Lord. And you just stepped out because he had a peace about it in his heart. And he said the Spirit was leading me to do it. So God speaks to us that way.

And then also, God speaks to us through open and shut doors, especially shut doors. And this is in Acts chapter 16 verse 6 where it says that Paul, wanting to go to Galatia, they were forbidden to preach the word of God in Asia. They were forbidden by the Holy Ghost. God stopped them somehow.

And then it goes on to say they tried to go to Bithynia, but it says, "The Spirit suffered them not." What does that mean? Well, I don't know. Somebody got deathly sick, something happened, God just shut the door. They couldn't go in there and they said, "It's the Lord," and we knew it was the Lord.

You know, sometimes you can really thank God for shut doors. I know we love open doors, right? "Lord, open the door so I can run in." Well, sometimes he just shuts it. And we have to go up to the door and try to slam it a couple times and then we go, "Oh, praise the Lord, it's shut," and God doesn't want me going in there. And then turn and seek him another way.

And we have to be thankful for everything. God's good. And yes, he does answer prayer, and he says yes, no, and then sometimes he says the big wait, which we really hate, right? "Wait." You know, how long? We hate to wait. But he's going to answer your prayer. And so those that are the children of the Lord, the Bible says in Romans 8:14, are led by the Spirit of the Lord.

And what a blessing, after making such a mess out of my life and after messing things up so much before I came to the Lord, I can finally now enquire of the Lord. I can finally come to the Lord and get direction for my life, in my life. What an awesome thing. And prayer is a two-way street, isn't it?

I ask for things and God answers. And God gives sometimes and sometimes he doesn't because he's a good father and he only gives good gifts to his children. Sometimes you're asking for things he don't want you to have. You know, your kids come up and say, "Hey Dad, I want that Jim Bowie knife."

Well son, how about one of those little Swiss knives? You're not going to give him the big one because he'd cut his hand off. I mean, you're a good parent, you're watching over your child. So God does the same thing with us. I love this scripture in 1 Peter, let me read it to you.

1 Peter 3:12 says, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers." Those that are in Christ Jesus are the righteous. Those of you that have been born again, who have received Christ into your life, what he did for you on the cross, his ears are open to your prayers.

We need to pray. It's an awesome, awesome experience. And as we acknowledge him, the Bible says he promises us, he promises us that he will direct our paths. That's a promise of God. So he helps me make decisions, wise decisions, and then he leads me along his way. That's very important, isn't it?

"Lord, I want to do this. Lord, I want to do that." And he goes, "Well, okay, you can do this, you can't do that, and I'm going to lead you over here. You're going to go my way." And that's really when we come, we need to say, "Lord, your will be done." We need to submit ourselves and humble ourselves before the Lord to just say, "Lord, I want what you want for my life. Help what I ask for to be your will. Change my will to be your will."

And he'll do that. And all of a sudden, you'll be asking prayers that he's going, "Yes, yes, yes, yes." You know, there's certain prayers that God goes, "Yeah," that you give to him. And you go, "Wow, I want to know those prayers." Well again, as you get into the word of God, you're going to see these prayers that God just answers, answers, answers, that are just right up, immediately you know you're going to get a yes on it.

So in the midst of David's trial here now, you see David reaching out and helping others in the midst of his chaos. And I love this because we can do the same thing. When you're in the midst of a trial, a tribulation in your life, that you can actually help others in the midst of it.

Christians are just like that. They're in the midst of all kinds of things going wrong in their own lives, and yet here they are reaching out to help somebody else. I mean, there's something about it that's just awesome. It's the Lord. And we in fact can help even more so when we're going through things because we're going to be more soft and open and understanding and merciful because we're going through some stuff too.

And so when we're going through it, we can really reach out and help others. David is doing this right here. Now, God's answer to David was what? "Do it. Go." The tough thing about answered prayer is that God's spoken to you about whatever you prayed about. But others in your family, in your job, or whatever you're dealing with really don't understand because they didn't hear God, you did.

And sometimes they get a little scared. Especially when you say, "The Lord spoke to me." And they go, "Uh oh." And, "This is what we're going to do." And they go, "Uh oh. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute." And they get a little scared, they get a little uptight. It's happened to me many times in the ministry here at the church, at my own home, when God will speak and then you make a decision and people freak out.

It happens, it's going to happen. Notice verse 3. "And David's men said unto him, 'Behold, we're afraid, David, here in Judah. And how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?'" I mean, we're scared here, let alone go after them and go into this city on the outskirts and go into their territory. And I mean, we can't handle it.

Verse 4. "Then David," notice what he did, he enquired of the Lord yet again. "And the Lord answered him and said, 'Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.'" David kind of wanted to be sure. Do you sense that? As his men were afraid, thinking, "Well, maybe God, you need to speak to them and then you speak to them. Well, wait a minute. Lord, did I hear right? Do you want me to go down there?"

He said, "Yeah, go." Some people would say you don't ask God more than once. If you do, it's a lack of faith, right? These people are weird. Jesus asked three times. If Jesus asked three, I think maybe we might want to ask a few more times. Paul asked three times. Remember?

It's not a lack of faith to be persistent in your prayer life, to seek God, to knock on that door and keep knocking. God gives us illustrations to be persistent in your prayer life before the Lord. God wants to see that you mean what you're saying and you really want it.

And so we continue to knock, to knock, to knock. "Lord, it's me again." And you give it to him again. "Are you sure, Lord?" And the Lord says, "Yeah, go! I am with you and I'm going to give you the victory."

Guest (Male): That's an encouraging thought, wouldn't you agree? Today's message from Pastor Jeff Johnson was based in 1 Samuel chapter 23. And this is 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.

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