1 Samuel 24 - The Testing of Our Heart

in first samuel 24 let's begin there now if you remember the last chapter it's been a few weeks since i preached here so the last chapter we were on in 23 saul was chasing david and if you remember the lord had sent a messenger and told saul that there were some philistines coming so saul left the pursuit he ran off so it seemed like at least for a time david was a piece hey jeff could you could you crank this down a little bit just a hair thank you but at least for a moment you know saul was out of his hair but then right back again in first samuel 24 it says after saul returned from pursuing the philistines he was told david is in the desert of engetti and so saul took three thousand able young men does anybody remember how many men that david had from the last chapter 100 600. there were 600 there was 400 that came to the cave and later on 200 more joined them so he had a good sized number 600 men but saul took 3 thousand so david is outnumbered 5 to 1 here and these were able young men from all israel and they set out to look for david and his men near the crags of the wild goats isn't that a neat name the crags of the wild goats it was just an area where there was a lot of caves and craggy rocky areas a good place to hide and it had to be pretty awesome if 600 guys could hide there and so here we are now the same problem comes back again you ever had those what i call nagging problems you think they go away and they're back again and you pray and it goes away and here it is again and you pray some more and it goes away and there it never leaves saul is like this he's like a bad fungus that just never goes away he's chasing david always on his back and can you imagine what life is like when you're a fugitive well you're always running always hiding always trying to get away always concerned about your life and the life of your men i mean when you're the leader of the army it's not just yourself you're concerned about you're concerned about your men and they're feeding them and caring for them and the protection of them and saul was just continually coming after him trying to destroy his life and so in verse 3 saul came to the sheep pens along the way and it says a cave was there and saul went in to relieve himself aren't you glad the lord put that kind of stuff in the bible does anybody doesn't know what that mean all right saul went in there to relieve himself and amazing it's amazing to me and i can see the hand of god in this you see you can see the hand of god and saul relieving his absolutely where is it where is the hand of god in this well it's because he chose this particular cave of all the caves of all the caves that were there all the nooks and crannies and places he could have gone to relieve himself he chooses to go into this particular cave and it says david and his men were far back in the cave so that's why i say it was a big cave if 600 men could hide in there and i don't know how in the world you keep 600 men quiet enough for for a guy to come in there and relieve himself and and not hear something so it must have been just deadly quiet oh no so it's all and i i would imagine that some of these guys were tempted to start laughing as soon as saul goes about his situation here but nonetheless here he is he's relieving himself right in this cave and david's men came and they said this is the day the lord spoke of he said to you listen to these words now i will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish what a great day this this problem that never goes away this man who's continually pursuing me never ever gives up now is my opportunity to put an end to it and david's men are there encouraging him go do this deed he look how vulnerable he's there he's there relieving himself go take care of him this is the day the lord spoke of now we don't have that story in the bible anywhere but somewhere along the line the lord spoke to david and said i will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish i mean to me if you look at it from a natural standpoint this looks like a divine appointment doesn't it i mean you have this problem that is relentless in the pursuit of you and now on this day of all days saul comes into the cave and i'm sure he's by himself it's not like i mean guys don't create lines you know what i mean hey come with me let's go to the restroom i mean it's like saul goes in to relieve himself so he's vulnerable he's alone he's there by himself so it's this cave a divine appointment god brought this about and now even his men are saying look look what god has done here david this is the moment we've been waiting for the moment we can take this problem away for good and so his men were there encouraging the same thing and the bible says david crept up unnoticed and he cut off a corner of saul's robe in that bazaar why would you cut off the corner of a robe you had every opportunity to kill this man and put an end to his life and take a breather once for once in so long of a time to say hey our enemy is gone the wicked witch is dead so to speak but david reaches up and somehow he sneaks up there and he cuts off just a corner of the robe and he goes back and the bible says david's heart struck him that's what the esv version says david's heart struck him it says david was conscience stricken what's going on here it looked like the lord was delivering something and i believe the lord delivered did deliver him there but i believe he delivered him there for a different reason and that is he was testing the heart of david i want to talk to you today about the testing of the heart you know david for all practical purposes is the king of israel the lord anointed him a long time before this but yet he spent 15 years as a fugitive before he actually became the king another seven before he became king of all he was king of judah then king of israel so 22 years think about 22 years of your life waiting to become what god said you are all of us have a calling we have a purpose we have a reason that god's created us everybody in this in this building today there's a reason god's chosen you but you know the thing that will hold us back from the purpose of god is the condition of our heart and so god is not only committed to calling us and giving us a purpose and even giving us a vision but he's more committed to dealing with our hearts and so i believe there are times just like with david the lord brings brings us into circumstances where our heart can be tested what are we really made of what is the condition of my heart i think many men many men would have taken saul out on that day and felt justified he's an enemy he's coming to kill us he's coming to destroy us the lord seems like he brought him right into our hands my men are reminding me about hey the lord has told us about this day the lord has told us about this day when the lord is going to deliver your enemy into your hand but look what the lord said he didn't say that you might destroy him did he what was the lord's words to him can you see it in your bible there i will give your enemy to your hands for you to what to deal with as you wish in other words the lord's saying david it's up to you what you do here you choose you do with this enemy whatever you wish how many of you would love the lord to tell you something like that you know it's not a writer a left or yes or no would say choose you do what you want i brought your enemy here he's right in the cave do with him as you wish you know why that is a great question or a great comment because that is the testing of my heart do with this as you wish david and the lord sat and watched what's my king going to do here what kind of a man is he where's his heart and david i love this that he went and he cut off the corner i don't know if there's any symbolism in that i mean all i know is that little deed that should have been almost an incidental struck this man's heart and it tells me that david had such a soft heart to the lord yes and it it it's it's causing the true character of this man to be exposed and so yeah i believe god brought saul to that cave and even though david was there with the pressure of his men to put an end to saul he let his heart which was right before god rule the day he passed this test so in verse 5 david was conscience stricken or hearts his heart struck him is what it says for having cut off the robe continue to read there in verse 6. he said to his men the lord forbid that i should do a thing such a thing to my master so i want to share with you three things that this episode reveals about david's heart one is that he looked at saul from god's perspective not his own what a lesson for every one of us to learn we have to start looking at people the way god looks at him when i look at saul as my enemy that might move me to take one kind of action when i look at saul as the anointed of the lord which is what he was a different action i think a lot of times when the lord brings us into these tests where he's trying our heart he's trying to help us understand how to see things from his point of view lord how do you look at this what is your wisdom on this situation what do you think about this person here not what do i think so many times my own heart can be involved and i can have a wrong attitude or take a wrong reaction or a wrong response to the way people may treat me or how they deal with me but i want to say lord what is what is your perspective on this person david looked at saul not as his enemy although that's what he was he said to his man the lord forbid that i should do such a thing he called him my master this is my master he's the king of israel and i am an israelite now in all honesty david was the king and the holy spirit had been taken from saul but david was letting the lord decide when that moment should be he wasn't going to take that into his hands this was the lord's call the lord will lift up and the lord will bring down so david stepped away from that he said lord you left this man into my hands to do with as i see fit but i'm saying it's your call to take him out it is not my place and so david looked at saul from god's perspective he said you are my master he called him the lord's anointed and i will not lay my hand upon him for he is the anointed of the lord i wonder what would happen within the church within the body of christ if every one of us would start looking at each other as the child of god not the person who's trying to get me not the person who offended me not the person who back bited me is that her word not the person who slandered me not the person who snubbed me not the person you know what i mean this is a child of god this is a brother and a sister of jesus christ what would happen if we could really look at each other the way god does instead of how we have received treatment i mean saul treated david badly and yet he still saw him from god's perspective he is the king he is my master he is the lord's anointed and because of that because david went and really offended this man who was god's man at that time and so his heart was to see things from god's perspective the second thing he did in verse seven with these words david sharply listen to this sharply rebuked his men now some of us would have said well i'm not going to kill him but hey you guys you're part of the army he's chasing you too go for it and it would have been over i mean you had 600 guys they were chomping at the bit to kill this man and that's why this word sharply rebuked it's a strong word in the in the uh hebrew language it means to crush down it's like david is there and with his words he is crushing down the revolt of 600 men we are not going to touch this man the lord has brought him into my hands to do with as i wish and i'm saying he lives this is not our call and so he put down these men a strong men powerful men with a sharp rebuke and so he took responsibility that's the second thing he did he took responsibility for the actions of his men that shows me his heart's in a good place he wasn't looking for a loophole to get back at saul yeah i won't do it but somebody else will he was saying this is not right that we should take him out we're not going to do it i'm not going to do it and my men are not going to do it and so he rebuked them and did not allow them to attack saul and saul left the cave and went his way can you imagine that saul went in there to relieve himself he was finished he walks out he thought what a beautiful day what a beautiful day and he came that close to having it all in except for the heart of david the heart of this man was tested under this kind of condition he just came out stellar i just i just see the lord looking down upon him and like it says in acts this is a man after my own heart david is a man after my heart so i gave him this opportunity and look what he did a man after my heart the next thing david did seems very odd if you're a warrior but it's in verse 8 david went out of the cave and he called out to saul my lord the king i'm when saul looked behind him david bowed down and he prostrated himself like a person would toward a king in honor and respect and david calls out to him now how many of you know if you have 600 men and he has 3 000 men and you're well hidden it's probably not a good idea to come out and expose your hiding place but i think you're going to see in a few moments here that david has such trust in the lord here and david came out of that cave and he called out and he prostrated himself with his face to the ground he was still outnumbered saul was still his enemy yet david gave him honor let me ask you this question what if we were willing to be vulnerable to our enemies what if we were willing to say hey you know we need to work something out a lot of times we just build our camp over here and there and there camp over there and we're happy we're happy with the problem between us but that's not what the lord's happy with is he and sometimes we have to become vulnerable we have to show our hand we have to show our vulnerability to come out into the face of our enemy and say hey we've got to work things out here and so david came to saul and made himself vulnerable now i want you to keep your finger here but turn over to psalm 105. the lord always tests men and women all through life god tests your heart i'm sure that if we sat here and started talking and sharing our stories we would find that many of us could say yeah the lord tested my heart in this situation and two years ago and five weeks ago and even today the lord tested my heart and look what happened and the lord is constantly testing our heart what for what for he wants to see what we're made of he wants us to become the men and women of god that he's called us to be he wants david to be the king of israel but he's proving his heart so that when david finally comes to this place where he's leading the nation of israel he's a man whose heart is right before god and as god raises you up and continues to put you into the place he wants you to be and the ministry he wants you to be involved with and the people's lives he wants you to be touching he's after your heart he wants your heart to be in a good spot and so we will go through trials and testings and opportunities like this where the lord puts something before us and says you choose how you want to deal with this and it's going to show the condition of our heart and i'll tell you there are times we will fail that test but the lord will continue to deal with us because he wants us to be what he wants us to be and so he will continue to deal even though you might look back and say lord i've been such a failure i know you tested me here i let you down and you tested me there i let you down he's going to keep coming back because he tests the heart of a man and a woman i don't even know when i say he tests the heart of a man i'm talking about everybody okay psalm 105. you guys remember how many years moses spent in the wilderness 40 years what was god doing over there moses was 40 years in egypt he felt like god called him to deliver the children of israel out of egypt and so he stepped into that role when he was about 40 years old and he killed a man he was so passionate about the children of israel being set free whatever the age was i don't know how about 40 all right thanks rail and uh he killed a man and he ran for his life and he goes off and he hides in the wilderness well what is he there is he a failure well it looks like it you know i had this great opportunity to set these people free i blew it i killed this man now i'm out here 40 years we know what god was doing for 40 years dealing with this man's heart it doesn't the bible doesn't tell us all the struggles that went on during that time it doesn't even give us all the details of that 40 years but you know what happened at the end of the 40 years the lord came to him and said hey it's time to go your heart's ready you're ready to be and do what i've called you to do and what he said i can't do it i'm not ready lord there's no way it's not me i can't speak and he argues with the lord about this well see the lord knew he could do it now because his heart was in the right place he knew that now he'd have to rely upon god not his own strength his own power his own greatness as a man god broke him and god humbled him but he dealt with his heart to the place where he could be the great leader of the children of israel and set them free out of egypt this man who split the red sea and i mean all the wonderful things that moses was it's because god dealt with his heart he could never be the guy that god called him to be when he was 40 years old but as god dealt with him he moved into that place and here we see another man in psalm 105 it talks about joseph you know joseph we know his story he was sold as a slave and falsely accused spent time in prison but you know what was going on there god was proving his heart you say look at all these bad things i started serving god and my life fell apart praise god you know what's happening he is proving your heart don't worry about it he's got a plan he's got a place for you he's got a a place he wants to move you into but he got to get your heart in a certain place you know our hearts are so messed up by the world when we get saved we come into the lord with our hearts really torn and torn apart by satan and now he's in a reconstruction business he has to change things and root out things and tear down things and plant and build but the lord is in that is in that work of testing and proving the heart of men and women and so joseph it says when he when the lord summoned a famine on the land and he broke all supply of bread he had sent a man ahead of them you see the lord planned ahead he knew this famine was coming and so he had his hand upon joseph as a young boy and the lord said i wonder how i'm going to get this boy into egypt over here because i know he's going to be the man prepared for that job one day and so he used the jealousy and all the anger of his brothers and they took him and they sold him and all the things you know the story and all the other trials that came into his life but all through that story you read this phrase god was with him god was with him god was with him what was he doing he was changing this man's heart he was proving his heart and so the bible says in verse 18 his feet were hurt with fetters his neck was put in a collar of iron until what he had said came to pass the word of the lord tested him all the struggles and all the trials of joseph was the lord the word of the lord testing him and it was a beautiful test and he came out flying colors and on one day in his life one day one opportunity he stood before the pharaoh and interpreted a dream and he was made second in command of all egypt but that happened because of the testing of god's word upon his heart all this suffering was the proving of his heart in deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2 it says remember how the lord your god led you all the way in the desert these 40 years and then he tells them the reason to humble you to humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart so the 40 years in the wilderness the children of israel the eating of the manna all the things they went through the lord said my reason for this is to humble you and to prove you to test you i want to see what's in your heart whether you will walk in my ways or not and ladies and gentlemen the lord does the same thing with us he wants us to become the people of god he wants us to find ourselves in those positions like a moses like a joseph like a mother at home taking care of your children like a good dad whatever it is he's called you to be and to do it takes a heart and i thank god when his testing comes it's a chance for us to really humble ourselves and say lord i really want to do this your way i want to do this with your perspective and when you've laid in front of me my enemy and said do with him as you see fit i want to deal with that the way you would i really want to do it your way lord and so when these tests come let's rejoice in them that's in a certain way why it can say in the bible rejoice when you go through trials of many kind there can be a certain joy about it because you know god is doing a work inside of us that good and then finally let's read verse 9 in first samuel david remember came out and made himself vulnerable and now he's beginning to express what was in his heart he said to saul why do you listen when men say david is bent on harming you see he didn't even accuse saul necessarily of coming with vengeance he he was deflecting that you know you've listened to other people other people have told you i'm bent on harming you this day you've seen with your own eyes how the lord delivered you into my hands in the cave some urged me to kill you but i spared you see that's he's expressing his heart i had the opportunity and the lord gave me permission to do as i wanted to do but i want you to know i spared you i said i will not lay my hand on my lord because he is the lord's anointed and if the lord raised him up the lord will bring him down that's the lord's see my father look at this piece of your robe in my hand i cut off the corner of your robe but i did not kill you see that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that i'm guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion i have not wronged you but you're hunting me down to take my life and so david is coming he's appealing to him based on truth but he's made himself vulnerable and he's trying to convince this man and you see how he expressed this that he really was in line with the heart of god concerning saul being delivered before him the next verse 12 may the lord judge between you and me now what is that what does that say to you that he's putting this fight into the lord's hands i'm not here to justify myself i'm putting this before the lord may the lord judge between you and me may the lord avenge the wrongs you've done to me i'm not going to take vengeance i'm going to leave it to the lord whatever the lord wants to do let him do it i'm not taking revenge my hand will not touch you as the old saying goes from evil doers come evil deeds in other words he's saying you know my character is not evil i'm not doing evil deeds evil deeds come from evil doers i haven't done an evil deed i have spared you i will not lift my hand against you my character is not that way and so as the old saying goes from evil doers come evil deeds still my hand will not touch you i want you to leave your finger there and turn to romans chapter 12. to me this is a great scripture in the new testament that explains to us how we should treat our enemy and i think when you read this and you see the things that david just spoke you'll see that david really had this heart it says do not repay anyone evil for evil be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone and then he says if it's possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone now why do you think sometimes it's not possible to live at peace with everyone because sometimes it takes two people it takes two people to live at peace so as much as lies within me i'm gonna be in peace you may not be at peace with me but i'm at peace with you and in a way that's what david was saying saul i'm not out to kill you you've listened to other men as much as lies within me i'm at peace here i'm at peace i'm committing this to the lord let him take care of it do not take revenge my dear friends leave room for god's wrath as it is written it is mine to avenge whose responsibility is it to avenge it's the lord's that is the lord's prerogative it's not mine to avenge and so he says don't take revenge my dear friends i will repay says the lord i want you to know something that when the lord repays he does a lot better job than you would do because it's redemptive if i take vengeance it's destructive and it's full of hatred and anger and violence so he calls us to step away from that this is the lord's to take vengeance so on the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him what's that is that what your bible says if your enemy is hungry feed him all right just want to make sure that's a different mode of operation isn't it we think if i have an enemy i have to take vengeance i have to lash out i have to get back at him the lord says no that's my prerogative you just focus on serving your enemy i'm telling you from personal experience i don't have time to tell you the whole story but i know from personal experience that i had an enemy he didn't know he was my enemy but he was my enemy and when i chose to serve him and i went and served him the lord changed my heart instantaneously am i counted as a miracle that the lord did such a massive overhaul in my heart i would encourage you if you are here today and you have an enemy start asking god how do i serve my enemy how can i meet a need in the life of my enemy do it if your enemy's hungry feed him if he's thirsty give him something to drink in doing this you will keep burning coals on his head and that's a that's a positive statement that's not a negative you're thinking oh i'd like to do that i mean i think back in those days they used to talk about i don't know you read these in some of these bible commentaries they used to carry pots on their head to carry coals i mean obviously you wouldn't do that on your turbine right so you had a pot here but sometimes if you're the neighbor and your fire goes out you go down the street and you get i need fire bill i need some fire can you give me some coals and so you keep burning coals on my head i used to always read this when i was a young christian thinking man if i do good to my enemy it's like i'm heaping coals on their head all right and that's not what the lord had in mind there that kind of goes that kind of goes counter counterproductive to the whole message there doesn't it you will he burning coals on his head do not be overcome by evil do not be overcome by evil has anybody ever been overcome by evil it's easy it's easy to be overcome by evil david could have easily become overcome by evil saul will not stop he is relentless he keeps coming he keeps coming he keeps coming i'm overcome by this and i lash out and i'm going to kill him but no the bible says overcome evil with good if you're a person there who feels overcome by evil the only way you can combat it is by doing good overcome evil with good is what he said and so we go back to first samuel verse 14. against whom has the king of israel come out who are you pursuing a dead dog a flea i mean dave is looking at himself like i'm not i'm really nothing here i'm i'm like a dead dog i'm a flea why are you putting so much energy so many resources to me may the lord be our judge see that sounds like romans 12 doesn't it may the lord be our judge and decide between us may he consider my cause and uphold it may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand so david was saying i'm leaving all this into the hand of the lord i'm not taking anything upon myself the lord will vindicate i trust him and so at the end in verse 16 i think saul realized and began to acknowledge that this man and the things that this man is speaking he sees this is a man set to become the king of israel when david finished saying this saul asked is that your voice david my son and he wept aloud sometimes if we're willing to be vulnerable to our enemy and come out and have these conversations something can break in the heart of another person something happened in saul here i mean he's going to come back again don't get me wrong because he's a man who still hasn't really yielded to the lord but in this moment something happened here is that your voice david and he wept and he said you are more righteous than i see what saul saw was the way david responded in this thing was a righteous act you are more righteous than i he said you have treated me well look at that you have treated me well wouldn't it be great if your enemy could say that about us you are more righteous than i you've treated me well but i've treated you badly you've just now told me about the good you did to me he saw it as a good thing the lord delivered me into your hands but you did not kill me when a man finds his enemy does he let him get away unharmed see he's realizing i'm not your enemy david if i was your enemy you would have killed me may the lord reward you may the lord reward you well for the way you treated me today and then he says in verse 20 i know that you will surely be king that's the thing that saul was fighting against this whole time he didn't want david to become king he didn't want to take it from his own son i know you will surely be king why did he know what happened here i believe he saw into the heart of this man he saw that this man is one who's allowed the lord to deal with him who is yielded to god who trusts god who didn't take out vengeance who doesn't have a heart to destroy saul he saw this and he said this is a man who will be the king of israel and now swear to me by the lord that you will not kill off my descendants you know when a man became king it was customary for them to kill off potential uh opponents who might take over the throne and saul was saying listen when you become king please don't wipe off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family and so david gave his oath i won't kill him and we'll see stories later on where he actually fulfilled this saul returned home but david and his men went up to the stronghold i think he went up to the stronghold he didn't go back with saul to the kingdom because i'm sure he thought saul would be coming back again on another day but this chapter is about the testing of david's heart i love how he responded i love how god has given us a glimpse into the heart of this man and i believe that the same kinds of things happen for every one of us god is very interested with what goes on inside of our heart more than we more than we are and so in his grace he allows us trials temptations conflict even bringing enemies he allows things to come into our life so that our hearts can be put on trial how will we respond what am i going to do lord in this situation and i think the answer for us is lord help my heart to be like yours so i'm going to close i'm going to play a little video lasted a couple minutes it's a song that i found and it's it's about this and maybe this could be your prayer

Channel: Alliance Christian Center

Views: 2,536

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Kirk Martin, 1 Samuel 24, Book of 1 Samuel, Testing our hearts, God's Perspective, Loving our enemies, Humility

Id: gYh0lv8orEI

Length: 42min 4sec (2524 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 03 2016