Galen Call's Sermon Library
"The Tale of Two Kings" - December 2, 1984 (PM Service)
Well, thank you for your good singing tonight. Let's open our Bibles together to 1 Samuel, chapter 22. I'm going to talk tonight about a tale of two kings, 1 Samuel, chapter 22. So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adulam. And when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him, and everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, you see that sounds like our neighborhood, well, maybe so. Those who were in distress and debt and discontented gathered to him. And he became captain over them. Now there were about 400 men with him, and David went from there to a misspa of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me." Then he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. And the prophet Gadd said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Herath. The cave of Adulam is located about ten miles from Gath, not very far from the little town of Bethlehem, of which we have just sung. The hills in that region are honeycombed with caves. So this fugitive of the Lord, David, apparently made one of them his headquarters for a period of time. While he was there, his family joined him, undoubtedly because of their concern that their lives were not worth much with Saul in the mood that he was in. In addition to David's family, there joined him 400 or so, discontents, people who were in trouble, who were in debt, and who, for some reason or another, were under duress. This was David's band of fighting men as they were gathered together. We notice in verse three, David's loving care. Men, a lot of creaking and groaning tonight. I think the temperature change outside is doing that. The roof is up there to stay, don't worry about it. We notice in verse three, David's love and concern for his parents. He took them to Moab and asked the king of Moab to care for them until his future became a little more clear, until he knew what God's timing would be regarding his future. Now, some might ask the question as to why he chose Moab, and the answer to that is not too hard to find if you read the book of Ruth. For Ruth was David's great grandmother, and she was a Moabite. Therefore, essentially, he was taking his parents to the home of their ancestor, Ruth. I think that David's concern for his parents is a good example for all of us. There is a tendency among some people these days to discard elderly people, even one's own parents, when they have become aged and perhaps a bit infirmed. I have seen examples of that, and I'm sure that many of you have as well, and it is always a tragedy to me of unspeakable proportion, when a child treats a parent by isolating him or her somewhere where they are not a bother, and they're out of the way. Even though David was not going to be with his parents, that was not his concern. His actual concern was for their safety, and that's why he took them where he did. I don't know what's going to happen in our future with Jeanette's parents or my parents, but somehow, God giving us the enablement, we're going to care for them, should the Lord leave them with us to the point that they need that. I believe that most of you here tonight would share that commitment if your parents are still with you. David then left the cave because the prophet had a word from God that he should do so, and he seems to, at this point, begin roaming from place to place. He went to the forest of Herath, a wilderness area, and there he camped out something like an ancient Robin Hood, I suppose, not doing the deeds of Robin Hood but living there off of the land. As we observe David in this whole setting, not just as we read it in the text here, but as we back away from that and look at it even more broadly, it seems to me that there is an analogy between two kings. There is an analogy between David's situation and that of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like tonight to draw with you four parallels of truth regarding these two kings, King David and then his seed according to the flesh, King Jesus. The first parallel is this, a condemned king reigns on the throne. David had been anointed king by Samuel at the order of the Lord, and yet another king actually possessed the throne, and that of course was Saul. Saul was finished. He was simply waiting for his end. He knew that, and that led him to some of the frustration that he vented on David and on Jonathan his own son. Israel had desired a king and God in answer to their prayer gave them a king. Now you say it wasn't God's will that they have a king, well apparently it was, but not in the way that the people wanted it, nor at the time that they wanted it. Yet God relented and gave them a king how and when they desired and that king was Saul, and he seemed at first to be well qualified to be king. And yet it was not long before his inner man showed flaws that his outer man did not. He ran ahead of the Lord on a couple of occasions. He was a man given to only partial obedience, which is really the same thing as disobedience. For if we don't follow through into all that the Lord tells us, we might as well do none. In obedience is no better than complete in obedience. And because of these occasions when he was unfaithful to the Lord, Saul was rejected as being king. And God said, "I'm going to put a man after my own heart on the throne. The kingdom is taken away from you." And so his disobedience caused Saul to forfeit his rights as king. The sentence was pronounced on him, and he was simply waiting for the execution of the judgment of God, a condemned king reigned on the throne. May I say to you that there is a parallel in our world today. For over this world there is a prince of sorts who reigns one called Satan. And while he was once exalted, even guarding the very throne of God, he is now cast down because sin was found in him. His pride caused him to fall. And today he has the throne of the world system as his own. And he reigns on that throne. This is his hour. And yet he is a king who is condemned. His doom is sure, just as sure as was Saul's. This rejected the king, who reigns on the throne now, fought with God's anointed king, to try to keep him from his purpose in the world and his ultimate enthronement. Just as Saul cast a javelin at David in order to try to kill him and pin him to the wall, those Satan cast as it were javelins at the Lord Jesus Christ in order to attempt a short circuit of God's plan at the temptation in the wilderness, on the Sea of Galilee when he attempted to kill him, in the Garden of Gethsemane when the pressure became great upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And undoubtedly numerous other times, the rejected king attempted to keep the anointed king from his throne. But he did not do it, and the Lord Jesus Christ is today in heaven victorious. Satan cannot now attack the anointed king directly, so he does it through his body, the church. The way that he gets at Jesus is through you and me. There are times when he seeks to destroy our lives, but Satan desires something more than that. Satan's primary goal is not to kill us, but rather it is to disgrace us. It is to render us impotent spiritually by causing us to fall into carelessness and sin. To the extent that he is able to do that to me, or to you, he has struck out against the Lord Jesus Christ and is satisfied. But I want to repeat again that as surely as Saul ultimately fell by the plan of God on Mount Gilboa, so Satan will one day ultimately be cast into the lake of fire, and his judgment which has been pronounced will be fully executed. A condemned king reigns on the throne, even of this present world, but not for long. There's a second parallel truth that I see between these two kings. The anointed king reigns over a hidden kingdom. David was anointed as king and reigned over just a small group of people, a fraction of the nation. He reigned over a kingdom that was hidden, it was concealed in caves, in forests and valleys. He was cast out and rejected. He was persecuted and forsaken. But nonetheless, he reigned in secret over those who came to him and joined his band. And so our Lord Jesus Christ was rejected, forsaken, crucified and buried. And out of the world's sight, he was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, and reigns today likewise over a hidden kingdom, a heart kingdom. And we who have recognized our debt in sin, our distress to transgression, our discontent and wickedness have gathered to him in faith because we have found in him alone salvation. And he today is reigning over us. He is the one who unites us as brothers and sisters in the family of God, yes as fellow citizens of the kingdom of God. You and I today who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ follow the anointed king who reigns over a hidden kingdom. F.B. Meyer wrote, "The day is not far distant when the Lord who is hidden until the time of restitution of all things shall be manifested with his saints and take to himself his great power and reign. The pearl which he won from the ocean caves shall be worn on his brow. The treasure for which he bought the field of the world shall be spread forth for the admiration of the universe. The army which he has constituted from such unpromising materials shall follow him on white horses in radiant array. In the meanwhile, his kingdom is in mystery." So just as King David reigned over a hidden kingdom, so the Lord Jesus Christ today reigns over a real, yet hidden to the world, kingdom. Here's a third parallel of truth that I see in David's situation with that of our Lord Jesus Christ. The anointed king and his followers are considered undesirable and are persecuted. David was not a desired person. He was excluded from the affairs of the nation. His counsel was not sought in the decisions that were to be made. He had no part in Saul's society. The politics of the kingdom were not his to determine. He was an outcast, and those who followed him likewise were outcasts. They were sought. They were hunted like animals. They were persecuted. It was a desire of King Saul to put an end to all of them. Likewise, today Christ and his subjects are considered for the most part by the world undesired. There is really little room in society for those who wish to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in truth. There is always room for the compromising one. There is always the room who desires to follow the Lord Jesus Christ superficially and in word only. But let a man or woman stand up for God against the trends and the movements of society, and he will be considered undesirable and will in fact, at some point, suffer persecution. You see, God has called together as his own what the world considers foolish, weak, base despised, nothing's according to 1 Corinthians. Those are the ones that God has purposely chosen to be his own. Those that are considered by the world to be zeros, and yet God chooses to work through that kind of person. There are not many who are noble, wise, who are called. The world looks at the band of Jesus followers and mocks. It says of what difference does this crowd make? And yet that crowd is making all of the difference in the world. There are places in our world today where Jesus followers are considered so undesirable that they are severely persecuted. Just as last week I read some information that was sent to us from Pastor Georgie Vins, a Baptist pastor who was exiled from Russia a few years ago. Today in exile he heads a group of dissident independent Baptists in the land of Russia, and in the paper that he sent he told several stories of men and women, of young people, some in their late teens, who have been taken away from their homes and thrust into prisons and work camps, for no more reason than the desire to follow Jesus Christ. He told of one family of six or eight children, I've forgotten that detail, who with the mother went to the prison camp to pick up the father who had been in prison, as I recall, for three years at that point. They had not seen him for several months and had no communication and when they got there he wasn't at the prison. You can imagine the eagerness with which those small children, some of whom were six, seven, eight years old, you can imagine the eagerness with which they went to the prison to pick up their father, and what the disappointment must have been not to find him there, and when they inquired they discovered that the state had trumped up some more charges against this man, who was a pastor, and they were trying him again, desiring to throw him into prison for several more years, isolated from his family, growing up without him, in great need. You and I take for granted the privileges that we have, the freedoms that we enjoy, how we need to thank God for them and employ them to the full. I think Satan has been much more clever in this part of the world. For instead of outright persecution he lulls us to sleep. He puts us in a cradle and rocks us until we forget in our dreams why we are actually here as followers of Jesus Christ. There are some of us who are more concerned about being accepted by society, our school friends, the people at work, than we are about confronting them and giving to them the gospel of Jesus Christ and setting before them a standard of righteousness. There are some of us more concerned about receiving the applause of the world than we are of accomplishing our purpose here as the subjects of the anointed king. I would call all of us tonight to not shun his purpose for us, nor to fear persecution. And let us awaken out of our drowsiness, awaken because the time is short for us in this world. Our opportunities are coming to an end and soon we will be with our Lord. And whatever we do now, whatever we sacrifice, whatever we give now will be well worth it shortly when we see Him face to face. In the meantime let's recognize that all of those who will live godly in Christ Jesus, and that means they choose to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And yet we follow Him gladly, I trust, as the book of Hebrews says we go to Him outside the camp. An interesting thought there in that thirteenth chapter of the book for it says that the Lord Jesus Christ died outside the gate. That is true historically, that His cross was outside the walls of Jerusalem. But there was a spiritual significance in that, which is found in the book of Leviticus, where we are reminded that the remains of the sin offering, after the blood had been shed the remains of the sin offering had to be taken away from the camp and disposed of by burning. And when it says that Jesus died outside the gate, the symbolic, the spiritual symbolism involved is that He was the sin offering for you and for me and died outside the camp. And the writer goes on to say, "And let us go to Him there outside the camp. For we do not have a city here, but we seek one which is to come." And his thought in writing to those Hebrew professing believers was, "Let's leave behind the camp of Judaism and join Him who has been rejected. Let's bear His reproach with Him." And I call upon us today to leave our camp, as it were, our world and go to Him and bear His reproach, whatever the cost may be involved, because we know that if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. And then there is a fourth parallel truth that I see in David's situation and that of the Lord Jesus. It is that the anointed King is submissive to God's perfect timing. You see, David could have ended Saul's reign at several points. He could have killed Saul, as we shall see, on a number of occasions. But David refused to touch the Lord's anointed. You see, even though he knew that Saul had been rejected and he knew that he David had been anointed to be the next king, David said, "I will not touch him. He is God's anointed." You see, he was waiting for God to make the transition. He waited upon the Lord as he writes a number of times in the Psalms, "My soul, wait thou only upon God." Wait upon the Lord. My expectation is from Him. Likewise the anointed King that you and I follow, Jesus Christ, waits in perfect patience for the timing of the Father, for His glory to be manifested. And we should wait with perfect patience also. He is today at the right hand of God the Father. They're waiting until His enemies be made His footstool, a picture that we explained I think last week. It is taken from the book of Joshua when Joshua put his feet upon the necks of the deposed kings of Canaan, symbolizing his victory over them that they had been conquered. And so our Lord Jesus Christ is waiting until that day when as it were, He will place His foot upon the necks of those His enemies. And His waiting in patience because the Father has His time and His way in bringing that to pass. Don't fear, God has His time and way in your life as well. Do you ever become impatient with God? You say, "Lord, why this time? Why this way?" We just received word this afternoon that some dear friends of ours, some of you would know, the Wearsby's. Mrs. Wearsby's parents were both killed in a head-on crash this last week in Kansas. Why this time? Why that way? Can we trust God's perfect timing in these things? Can we be patient? I trust we can. For the Lord Jesus Christ, our King is exercising perfect patience as He waits for God's time and way. Today all of creation waits the manifestation of the sons of God and of Jesus. All of creation groans from within, it seems to emit as it were a sound, desiring earnestly for its deliverance from the bondage to sin. And as all of creation waits for that and longs for it, so we who are the subjects of the anointed King long and we wait for the manifestation of His glory. It is good to remember that our enemy who now fights us so fiercely will one day come to an end. His judgment will be poured out at God's perfect timing. I like what Paul writes to the Romans when he said, "And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." You may feel as though your battle is to the point that you cannot go on. May I say to you that you can in the patience of Jesus Christ, you can draw upon the patience that He will provide you to go on in your struggle, to face your enemy, to persevere in your search for the will of God. You can draw upon His patience, knowing that God and His perfect timing will bring about the answer to your situation. And so we see some wonderful truths and parallels to what David was going through and where our Lord Jesus is today and His reign as the anointed King, and we see some practical application to our lives. God help us to be His loyal, faithful, and patient subjects until He comes and glorifies Himself and us with Him. Let's bow together in prayer. I don't know what struggle you're facing. I can't get inside your heart just at this moment and see what the battle that struggle may be, but God knows. Will you write where you are, say to the King, "Give me your patience. Show me to wait for the Father's perfect timing." For His way, Father, I pray that as we understand your Word and see how it applies to the Lord and Jesus and to us, that we may be encouraged and strengthened to go on in our walk with you. And may we be loyal and faithful subjects of your kingdom. I pray that we will stand in contrast to the kingdom of this world. I pray that we will make a difference where we live, where we work, where we study. And Father especially help us when we are tempted to be like some other Christians who profess but who compromise and who seek the world's acclaim and approval. Lord, I pray that we will be faithful to you and will seek only one approval, and that is your approval. Deliver us from seeking the approval of men. May we seek to please you and you alone. And we pray this in Jesus' name. [BLANK_AUDIO]