1 Samuel

[0:00] For the Lord's help this evening, I'll direct your attention to the first book of Samuel, the 23rd chapter, and a few words in the 11th verse.

[0:15] The first book of Samuel, the 23rd chapter, and a few words in the 11th verse. O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant.

[0:33] O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. Reading through the life of David, if our eyes are open to see it, we shall perceive again and again his inquiring of the Lord in respect to matters which immediately concerned him.

[1:22] And he is described in the word of God as a man after God's own heart. We may therefore regard him as typical of a child of God.

[1:39] In the book of Psalms, we find closer details of his heart-breathings, his confessions, his pleadings, his giving of thanks, his blessing God, and his praising the Lord.

[2:14] And that which is written before time is written for our learning, that we, through comfort and patience of the Scriptures, might have hope.

[2:25] Our text is found in a part of the Scriptures, which may be said to describe a normal day in the life of David, at least since he was quickened by grace.

[2:49] And we may well ponder the matter in respect to ourselves as to whether this would constitute a normal day in our lives.

[3:11] Being surrounded with enemies, finding no certain dwelling place, David did not attempt to engage the assistance of men, did not form an intelligence service which, with all the help that they might give, would be dreadfully limited in the intelligence that they could give.

[3:51] He applied unto God, of whom it is written, he declares the end from the beginning. It is good for us to read this chapter because there is much instruction in it.

[4:14] Instruction for our everyday lives. Are we anxious about tomorrow? Are we wondering what will happen?

[4:26] Is there anybody that can tell us? Well, David knew that there was. And because he knew that there was, he comes in the words of our text and he says, O Lord God of Israel, O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell me.

[4:52] And it is the same God that is worshipped, that is prayed unto by the chosen of Jerusalem in the present day.

[5:03] David had faith in God. And have we this faith in God? People may seek advice from one quarter to another.

[5:23] But there is only one that can give you wonderful counsel. and it will be right counsel.

[5:37] And it will be advantageous counsel. And by the teaching of the Spirit of God, David was aware of this great and soul-supporting truth.

[5:52] Now there are several points that we would lay before you which lay behind the petition of David here.

[6:04] O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. Clearly, he had a confidence in God.

[6:17] He believed that God was omniscient. Now, I sometimes feel that when people talk about the omniscient God, they can have a restricted knowledge of what that means.

[6:40] It is right to say that when God is omniscient, he sees everything. That he can look through the length and breadth of the world and in a moment can see all things.

[6:55] it is beyond our understanding but faith believes it and faith rejoices in it.

[7:08] But, when we speak of the omniscient God, we also have to remember this, that his seeing is not merely on things that are happening now.

[7:24] He sees backward into eternity. He sees forward to the end of time and into eternity again. And when the saints of the Most High begin their pilgrimage, he can tell them what the end will be.

[7:46] He can assure them that they will safely reach heaven. And it doesn't have to be left to the last day where, taking everything into consideration, weighing up all the pros and cons, he may now say you should be safe now.

[8:09] At the very beginning of the pilgrimage of the saints of God, the Lord is able to tell them that they will gain the day that earth and hell obstruct their way.

[8:32] Now David was seeking a kingdom and the people of God are waiting to receive a kingdom.

[8:43] and so there is an analogy here. Now that kingdom was certain. With David there was no doubt that at the appointed time God would bring him to that kingdom.

[9:03] There is no doubt that in the appointed time every one of the children of God will receive a kingdom and they will be received into a kingdom.

[9:20] In other words they will be received into glory itself. But in the meanwhile there are many adversaries.

[9:32] The apostle knew it and hence he writes an effectual door is open unto me but there are many adversaries.

[9:46] We only have to read a few chapters in the first book of Samuel to discover that with this natural parallel David found there were many adversaries.

[10:05] the door was opened Saul could not shut it but nevertheless David had to prove that there were many adversaries. And so we come back to the point of our almighty God who is omniscient seeing the end and declaring the end from the beginning.

[10:32] his omniscience does not stop here. His omniscience not only sees the things that we can see but sees those things throughout the whole history of time but he also knows the thoughts and intents of the heart.

[10:57] and in reading this narrative here we see how this is discovered.

[11:10] Now David believed this and do we believe it? Is there such a case in our life just at the moment where we would give anything to know what another person was thinking?

[11:27] because if what they were thinking as we understood it was right then we might indeed be in great fear.

[11:42] This was just what was happening. David wanted to know what Saul was thinking and he wanted to know what the men of Keilah were thinking and how could he find out this vital information.

[12:03] Oh Lord God of Israel I beseech thee tell me for by thine omniscience thou can see and thou dost know the thoughts and the intents of all men's hearts.

[12:20] and so we find him inquiring many times do we find David inquiring how many times he called for the ephod which was a means to an end so to speak and drawing near unto God God so he asked these pertinent questions will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard and in answer to these words of our text the Lord said he will come down in other words the Lord had looked into the heart of Saul he had seen him gathering his arm together as described to us in the earlier verse and it was Saul's purpose that he would come down and then said

[13:25] David will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul and the Lord said they will deliver thee up then David and his men which were about six hundred rose and departed and went with us so ever they could go now we are bound to observe here that the Lord God in his omniscience looked into the heart of these men and he saw their intent though they did not carry it out though they did not perform it yet they intended to perform it and they would have performed it if David had not made good his escape and is this not true sometimes see sometimes we may be chastised by others for our evil thinking and we certainly need to have a warning against evil thinking as to what is the intention in a person's mind do they intend to do this will they bring me into a difficult position now

[15:04] God knows whether you inquired and whether you said tell me in order that I may make good my escape tell me what is in the heart of man whose intention is to bring about that which will even affect my life we get a view then of what the psalmist felt in regard to the Lord God of Israel not only was he able to tell David what would happen but David believed that God was not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent and if we should find this prayer in our heart this evening

[16:11] O Lord God of Israel I beseech thee tell me may we discover this point that it is because we are persuaded that God will not lie that he will tell us the truth that he will be faithful to himself now if we transfer our thoughts to the more vital matters concerning our soul's destiny we may well ask God tell me Satan says that he will spill my soul and we may come to God and say tell me and what will God answer he will it is

[17:22] Satan's intention to destroy the souls of all including the election of grace if it were possible but you will notice that David made a way of good his good his escape but where did he escape and then David and his men which were about six hundred arose and departed out of Keilah and went whithersoever they could go and they were in the wilderness this reminds us of what Abraham was said concerning Abraham he went out not knowing whither he went but he was led of God and David was led of God and David was watched over by

[18:30] God and so it is true to say that the people of God are watched over you know we sometimes sing preserved in Jesus when my feet made haste to hell and there should I have gone but thou dost all things well it would be a sad thing if our preservation in Jesus ended when we were born again and we were left to fight our own battles and defend ourselves as best we could in the wilderness and so we rejoice to read in the epistle of Jude preserved in Jesus Christ and called not only when my feet made haste to hell but throughout the whole time of my existence upon this earth never a moment but what our preservation is in and through our

[19:47] Lord Jesus Christ now you may ask God some straight questions and from the word of our text you may have some assurance that God will give you a straight answer there is one thing that often cheers my spirit in reading the scriptures and that is that simple questions are asked and straight answers are given many illustrations we may draw from the scriptures and one of them is in the words of our text tell me and God says they will or he will the direct answer to the question didn't require any unraveling to get to the kernel no mystery here and so we may go to the new testament and find this dropping from the lepers lips if they'll canst if they'll wilt they'll canst make me clean and the lord said i will be they'll clean so he had a straight answer and a performing god to answer the question which was evidently inspired of god himself now says david oh lord god of israel what has been discovered about the lord god of israel in the 34th chapter of exodus we read the lord himself going before motives and proclaiming his great name and he says the lord the lord god merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth it is always significant to me that the lord himself could proclaim this men will endeavor to proclaim what god is but their knowledge is so limited that they can certainly not proclaim it with the same force as god himself and here we see such a man as moses who was highly favored of god he had to stand back whilst the lord passed by before him and proclaimed the lord the lord god of israel the lord merciful and gracious long suffering and full of goodness and truth now these blessed points concerning our lord god are impressed upon us by god in a gracious experience when we speak of experience what do we mean i sometimes think that it is a rather loose word but real experience godly experience is an experience of some doctrine of the scripture we may say in respect to the present situation in the chapter here that the experience of david set before him and brought forth into his heart this knowledge that god knew everything and that he observed everything and have we had such an experience in our lives we talk about it we say perhaps we describe a situation we may speak about god appearing to us the pointed issue that we should be ready to answer is this what did you learn about the lord god were you able by reason of that experience to speak more deeply to his honor and to his glory were you aware of the greatness of his person to a greater degree were you humbled in the dust of self abasement did you call upon god with an inspired faith as david did here o lord god of israel i beseech thee tell me it was a matter that he wanted to know in this particular instance he required to know it already and god will not delay to tell you anything if it's vital that you should know it now i know we sometimes refer to the words he tarries off to men of faint and comes at evening late and this was so in david's case at this time in other circumstances it may have been that he had gone on for days and perhaps weeks or even longer but now david wanted to know a truth which he spoke of in one of the psalms god is a present help god is our refuge and strength a present help in time of trouble and god was revealed to david on this occasion as just that well now is it that we can attach such a scripture to an experience that we have had where we may say as david could well say here god is our refuge and strength a very present help in time of trouble the lord delivereth the needy when he crieth the poor also and him that hath no helper whilst we verily believe that the whole of the scripture is written by the inspiration of the spirit of god yet when we come to the book of psalms may we not feel in some of them that david had been led by the spirit of god into certain experiences in order that he might express what he felt and what he felt about god you know prayer is not merely confessing our sins as a part of it it's also a confession of our faith and so if we should come before god and say and confess our sins may we not also confess our faith for it is written if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and so we shall find in the book of psalms what we might call david's inward experience in some of them and he wrote certainly by the spirit of god but he wrote of what he felt and what he had tasted and what he had handled of the word of god of the word of life of god himself and so when we think of god's proclamation of his own name the lord and the lord god merciful and gracious if this prayer was to be answered it was dependent upon the lord's mercy do we feel the importance of that there is a case in the scripture that of the blind man that was begging by the roadside who when he knew that jesus was passing that way he cried out so much the more jesus thou son of david have mercy on me and the lord stood still and he called the man unto him and he said what wilt thou that i should do unto thee and he said that i might receive my sight but initially the great requirement was mercy mercy through blood i make my plea oh god be merciful to me now the man if he received his sight it would be the result entirely of god's mercy and this was agreeable to his great name god the lord the lord god merciful and gracious it's wonderful and in evidence that you're born again of the spirit to know a god of mercy and to know a gracious god what's the alternative well the alternative is to know a god of judgment we may all we may indeed be confronted with all the terrors of a god of judgment until the lord's mercy set forth in the precious person of our lord jesus christ is revealed we receive mercy through our lord jesus christ the lord is gracious through our lord jesus christ does he see us at times demoralized demoralized by our sins turn to the book of hosea and there you will read about ephraim or as it may be termed israel a spiritual character and yet beset by all those that would draw him aside and blind his eyes and so much so much success was granted to these lovers that they carried him away and he knew not that grey hairs had come up upon his head and as we come to the last chapter in the book of hosea we see some remarkable words o israel return unto me and then it says for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity iniquity and so it may seem that god has brought us a judgment and given us the hint of it by saying thou hast fallen by thine iniquity but what do we read in the next verse take with you words and say unto him now for a person whose mouth is stopped and who has to come before the lord god of israel to discover that he is both merciful and gracious and by reason of the situation he says i beseech thee tell me concerning my present situation and case shall i perish or shall i be saved god says to this character take with you words and turn to the lord and say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips and can we trace in the exercise of faith here something very similar though perhaps of a more temporal character in the words of our text tell me and god says now take with you words backslider as you have been yet take with you words and these are the words that you should take and sometimes backsliding sinners are brought to the place where their mouth is stepped stopped and they don't know how to pray now that will be wonderful when god speaks to you and says i will tell you what to pray and the words are astounding astonishing that you should pray take away all iniquity and you know you cannot do that because you have tried perhaps but we come to god and say take away all iniquity and receive us graciously can you hear those sounds of ancient times coming over the air as it were and the lord proclaiming his name the lord the lord god merciful and gracious we read earlier in the second chapter of hosea of the lord beginning the work of recovery and he says i will allure her that is the wandering and erring church the bride of christ i will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and then what so that she can have a dressing down as most people would say she deserved but the word of god says something quite different from that i will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and will speak comfortably unto her and i will give her vineyards and beds and a door of hope in the valley of acre and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the days when she came up out of the land of egypt god is a true prophet but the lord himself is the one that will perform his prophecies i will save israel i will deliver israel the church of god do not fall in the wilderness merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth long suffering well david had been chased about doubtless there were many things that arose in his heart not all of them are recorded not just here but if you turn to the book of psalms you'll see some of the things that went on in his heart and he needed god's long suffering to suffer with his manners in the wilderness as we may desire that god will suffer with our manners in the wilderness the lord god of israel oh lord god of israel i beseech thee tell me tell me because there are long suffering behold his patience lengthened out to them that from him roved you may say well david surely he was a good man therefore he wouldn't have roved away you may have the opportunity of meeting people in the present day who you look upon as being godly men and women and they are but the more godly they are the more you will hear them confess of the manner in which they have strayed away they have not done that they ought to have done and they have many times been foolish many times been caught in a snare and yet their desire is to walk with god it is good for us to walk with god because if we are not walking with god who are we walking with these are very pointed questions for us to consider if we are not walking with god when we die then what will be the issue what issue can you conceive the issue must be surely dreadful but david he called upon the god of israel who was long suffering and who was full of goodness and truth now the lord said to moses i will make all my goodness pass before thee goodness the goodness of god may be considered as the goodness of his nature his nature is goodness the opposite badness now then what is the goodness of god how is it revealed to poor people in the wilderness well surely the goodness of god is set before us in its greatest glory by his love one as well said his love in time past forbids me to think he'll leave me at last in trouble to sink each sweet abanesa i have in review confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through his love can we trace his love in our lives surely david could trace his love the love of god to him in his life and how do we deduce that because he had a confidence in god he knew that he could come to god and god out of the love of his heart would tell him and then he would tell him the truth and what is our burden i know we may sometimes take up the words with my burden i begin lord relieve this load of sin has it ever been real sometimes it may have been unreal but i believe with the people of god that there certainly is sometimes when it's been real and so as you come to god what is it but that you believe that god is able to deliver you to relieve your load of sin and how can that take place shall we say in these words i beseech thee tell me tell me how my load of sin can be removed well of course there are some that may suggest that scripture roll by burden upon the lord if it is required that he should lay on him the iniquity of us all it comes to this that it is he the almighty god who took the load off you and if you know the experience what an experience well surely we shall know if a load is taken off we should naturally and surely we shall spiritually but in the meantime we may be saying oh lord god of israel i beseech thee tell me will this load ever be taken off and god may well answer it will and if you have faith to come and inquire of god you may feel assured that he will do that because it is for his purpose that the loads of sin or the load of sin on each individual member of christ body will be taken off them and then that will also mean the communication of god's pardoning mercy notice the expression pardoning mercy we get back to that what we have already mentioned jesus thou son of david have mercy on me pardoning mercy pardon is very important it's essential if we don't receive pardon this side of the grave we shan't get it the other so it becomes important it's poured into the category of our text though not in the category of the context oh lord god of israel i beseech thee tell me tell me are my sins washed away tell me are my sins forgiven because because the lord will save have you come into the place where david says i beseech thee tell me for if sin be pardoned i am secure david in the present situation was in a state of insecurity he knew he knew not what would occur in his life the next moment well now the matter becomes urgent when we are suddenly brought face to face with death itself tell me i beseech thee this will surely be thrust out of a person where the life of god is in the soul to think that we might die any moment we don't know that our sins are pardoned if the life of god is in the soul it will become important i have seen some draw near unto the end of their journey and conclude it and it's been somewhat sad to see a lack of urgent appeal to god i beseech thee tell me solemn it is to have a false hope good it is to have a good hope and you will never be able to rest in a good hope until you're satisfied on this point i beseech thee tell me tell me that i am born of god and that my treasure is above now god is able and he is the only one that is able to tell you that it's true we go on in life and as in nature so in grace we do not gather everything up at the start perhaps we've been foolish enough in grace as we perhaps have been foolish enough in nature to think that when we were young we knew it all as the time goes on we begin to see how little we knew then and we begin to feel how much less we know now but at the same time we are thankful if we know a little that will last a little which experience has burnt into us and if these things are spiritual then how good it is what has been burnt into us that God will tell us and that he will tell us the truth the Lord

[50:32] Jesus did not sidestep the issue when Judas said to him is it I he said thou hast said and this is the person we have before us here under the name of the Lord God of Israel if you should say well that's what I'm afraid to ask because he might tell me that I am lost how shall we overcome that one there's only one way of answering such questions and that is from the word of God and the word of God says this whoso cometh to me I will in no wise cast out from which we may deduce that if there should be such a one who will come and say I beseech thee tell me that

[51:37] God will not cast you out and if he doesn't cast you out if he doesn't cast you away what will you do Jesus ready stands to save you Jesus ready stands to save you and to receive you come ye sinners poor and wretched lost and ruined in the fall and farther on in the hymn Joseph Hart says if you tarry till your better you will never come at all but what will make you come sometimes the situation which descended in Esther's case when there was a matter by reason of the decree that Haman had wrought and caused the king to sign which could not be altered that the

[52:42] Jews should be exterminated and she said I will go in unto the king which is not according to the law and if I perish I perish now I feel it must be made clear that Esther did not intend to be lawless and she did not intend to be presumptuous but the matter was so pressing that it was a question of I beseech thee tell me I beseech thee appear for me now God is a God of order and if we may see this in the scene in the courtroom of Ahasuerus Esther went by faith and she believed that

[53:45] Ahasuerus would put out the golden scepter because God was in the matter now if we turn to the Old Testament I think it is in the 49th of Genesis amongst Jacob's blessings we read this prophecy that a scepter shall rise out of Judah and that scepter is Jesus Christ and the way into the holiest is through Jesus Christ and if a sinner has been in a place where he says I will go in which is not according to the law that is the moral law but if I perish I perish let it be according to the law of the gospel which speaks to us about mercy which speaks to us about a scepter being held up which speaks to us about

[54:52] Jesus Christ who is able to take our case in hand who is able to pacify the wrath of God for God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself now then Esther had her case people today have their cases spiritual cases real cases matters matters which concern their eternal state and matters which concern their deliverance from Satan's designs because he worries whom he can't devour with a malicious joy and so we may come into this place O Lord God of Israel I beseech thee tell me tell me shall

[55:52] I be an overcomer and the Lord will answer through the blood of the lamb shall I be a conqueror and the Lord will answer nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us who shall separate us from the love of God I am persuaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus tell me now you see we read we sense in these words urgency how good it is to have urgent matters in our religion not just once in a while but matters that we need God to deal with now

[56:53] I know we may be aware and warned that there is a spirit in man as is referred to in the word of God let the word of God come now and that wasn't in the right spirit but we may well pray create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me and on this subject one of our hymns that we have sung has been composed tell me but let me have a right spirit a spirit of urgency but at the same time a gracious spirit a spirit of urgency but at the same time a humble spirit a spirit of urgency but at the same time an unworthy spirit

[57:55] I'm not worthy thou shalt come under my roof but speak the word only in other words that man was in the same case as David tell me it was a question of God speaking the word only and that would have been sufficient as it was concerning that centurion as you doubtless remember the Lord said I've not seen so great faith no not in Israel that a man that could order soldiers and men about and they would immediately obey him should feel such a sense of unworthiness before the almighty God O Lord God of Israel I beseech thee tell me we have a word in the song of Solomon tell me

[58:55] O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon and God gave the answer go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents and commit our remorse into the Lord's hand may he command his blessing and life forever more tha on dem them to and h to the Thank you.