1 Samuel 26 - Loyalty & Betrayal

well i'm going to talk today about a topic called loyalty and betrayal how many of you have ever been betrayed before let me ask you this way how many have never been betrayed i see no hands it's part of the human condition that we find betrayal sometimes it happens by a brother sometimes it happens by a spouse sometimes it happens by a child you know it's the people that we know the people that we love the people that we are friends with sometimes betray us and david also experienced betrayal and i want to share with you from his life how he handled it because when betrayal comes it can cause us to become very angry and very bitter and confused about life i thought you were my friend how did you betray me and they can bring confusion i've known people who have experienced betrayal in their life and sometimes they they stop walking with the lord they feel like well if you're if that's how god's people would treat me wonder what god's like and that betrayal really has a deep effect but i think that david's going to show us here what i believe is a good way to deal with it i don't think we can escape it it'll come it'll come to every one of our lives but it's how we deal with it that makes the difference so let's read first samuel 26 verse 1. it says the ziphites went to saul at gibbia and said is not david hiding on the hill of hikaila which faces jesus what is this here what do you guys call this tattletails tattletails there are tattletails sometimes in the body of christ so david is running away trying to spare his life he's trying to get away from saul and he happens to be in the wilderness of zip and the zip fights that were there instead of saying hey let's protect david let's let's help shelter him from saul they go to saul and say hey david's hiding here among us why don't you come and see if you can get him and that's called betrayal so saul went down to the desert of zif with his three thousand chosen men to search for david remember how many how many of you remember in the last chapter how many soldiers david had you remember there were 600 and now saul's coming with three thousand they were outnumbered five to one but those terrible ziphites it's the zip fights how many have ever had a zip fight in your life i mean you want to do something with them you know you don't want to have betrayal and so all of a sudden david now who had maybe a decent hiding place has been exposed it's like there's someone shining a searchlight on him saying there he is he's over there so i'll go get him so what do you do with that what do you do with it well david tells us exactly how he dealt with that if you'll leave your finger here and flip over to psalm 54 how did david handle betrayal how can we handle it and it's found in psalm 54 if you read the very beginning it says this for the director of music with stringed instruments a maskal of david that's a type of song a masculine david when the ziphites had gone to saul and said is not david hiding among us so david's telling you this is what this is how he came to grips with this thing and how he responded to the ziphites bringing betrayal he tells us exactly what was on his heart and how he called upon the lord so i want to share with you about five things here that david did when he was betrayed and i think it's five things that each one of us can also do instead of becoming bitter instead of becoming you know confused or instead of becoming uh angry and hateful we can do the same thing that david did the bible says that these things have been written for us for our learning so we can learn from the life of david so psalm 54 verse 1 it says save me o god by your name first thing he did is he reminded himself of the power of god's name now we heard a lot on that video today about jesus is our righteousness jesus is our standard jesus is our man when you you spoke about jehovah jiren jehovah nisi these are all the names of god and the bible says a person who knows and understands the name of a god is like a strong tower to you because his name is his person the name of god is who he is it identifies him it's not just a title like we get my name is kirk but when it says jesus is our banner he is our banner and he lifts up a standard against the enemy his name is a strong tower it means he is a strong tower and so we can come into it so david said the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to remember your name oh god no matter what you're going through you're going to find something in the names of god that speak to your situation and again it's not just a name it is his character it is his essence when he says jehovah jireh that's not just a name it means i am your provider it's who he is it's his character it's his nature so when betrayal comes call upon the name of the lord find the power that's in his name he also said in verse 6 i will praise your name and so in that psalm 54 you see a starting and ending with the idea of god's name it's a strong tower in psalm 9 verse 10 it says those who know your name will trust you why is that why is it that if i know his name i'll trust him it's this reason because when i know his name i know his character when i know his name i know his person when i know his name i know who he is so if i know his name i can put my trust there and david is calling upon the name of the lord in this time of betrayal instead of becoming angry and hateful he says lord i want to remember your name i want to call upon your name those who know your name will trust in you for you lord have never forsaken those who seek you though the ziphites might forsake him the lord never will he promises i will never leave you and i will never forsake you proverbs 18 verse 10 says the name of the lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and they are safe so why wouldn't david call the name of the lord why wouldn't david remember the day of the lord in the day of his betrayal how about us when that betrayal comes what are you going to run to what are you going to remember i hope that we'll call upon the name of the lord and that's a great bible study if you want to learn something about god study the names of god write it down on a poster stick it up on your your refrigerator or stick it in your bible somewhere and when betrayal comes pull out the name of god lord this is who you are you are my strong tower i put my trust in you i don't have to lash out against my enemy the second thing he did is he reminded himself it is the lord who vindicates us you know when we are betrayed or when someone comes against us we we tend to want to take matters in their own hands don't we you say you you took my eye out i'm going to take both of your eyes out you know that's that's why the lord put a restriction there he said eye for eye because we would only take two someone knocks your tooth out you want to knock both of his teeth out or or two of them not both of them not both you got me on that one there but we got to remember it is it is the lord who vindicates us i don't have to defend myself if we're walking in integrity before the lord and our our conscience is good before him we don't have to defend ourselves people may raise up a word against you they may betray you they may they may speak evil against you but it is the lord who vindicates us and we can rest in that and so david said this in psalm 54 1 vindicate me by your might he said in verse 4 surely god is my help he is the one who sustains me see he wasn't looking to his army he wasn't thinking hey i wonder if we can really defeat these guys we got 600 they got 3 000. he said no the lord is the one he's my help he's the one who will sustain me and in verse 5 he says in your faithfulness destroy them he counted on the lord to deal with his enemies i'm not going to take matters into my own hands lord i'm trusting you i'm calling upon your name you are the one who vindicates me the third thing that david did is he reminded himself that the lord hears prayers and he says this in verse 2 hear my prayer oh god listen to the words of my mouth listen to me some sometimes you ever felt like this you get down and pray and you feel like you're kneeling down at a chair and your prayers roll off your mouth onto the seat and onto the floor and somehow they just bore through the concrete but they never reach the ears of the lord i wonder if the lord ever hears me we have to be confident that god hears our prayer his ear is open to the righteous and no matter what we're going through we can call upon him and know god you hear me you hear me you hear the anguish in my heart you hear the cry of my soul and david was able to say with confidence lord you hear me or he's asking hear my prayer oh god listen to the words of my mouth i'll tell you if you're in a place of being betrayed and and turned in by other people you need to be able to call upon the lord and pray and have confidence that he is hearing me the bible says we pray according to his will he hears us and if he hears us we know we will receive what we ask of him next thing david did is he reminded himself the lord is worthy of praise how many of you know it's great to praise the lord when everything's exciting you know we get together we're having a great time but you know you're going to leave here and maybe this afternoon or maybe tomorrow morning or sometime this week something's going to happen someone's going to betray you or you know some something will come into your life and you're going to say hey what happened god he's still on the throne isn't he he he hasn't changed he might remember hey it was so great to be able to worship with the saints of god last sunday morning well he's the same jesus on tuesday when somebody betrays you and if he was worthy for your praise today he's worthy on tuesday and if he's worthy of your praise then even if someone betrays you he's worthy of your praise it's so it's so easy for us to praise him in the good times but then complain in the bad he never changes he's always always on the throne and so i want to encourage you that if you're ever experiencing betrayal the lord is worthy of your praise regardless of your circumstances remember job job had probably the worst news of anybody i don't know there's probably people who experience greater things but i mean when i read his story it's like man i can't imagine anybody who'd experience the depth of the the pain that he experienced on that day all of his children are killed all of his possessions are wiped out and the bible says this job fell down and he worshipped he fell down in worship why because god hadn't changed nothing changed eternally nothing of eternal value changed he lost his family he lost his possessions but the lord is still worthy of my praise and job fell down and he praised the lord and his wife thought he was crazy job what's the matter with you why don't you just curse god and die get over with it you know we have so much misery if you die you'll at least be out of it and job said how can i sin against the lord with my mouth though he slayed me yet will i trust him is how joe put it and so we find that praise is so important when you've experienced betrayal that you should be able to pull aside into your place and say lord jesus i praise you i praise your name you are worthy you're worthy of my praise though men may turn against me you are worthy of my praise and you worship him for who he is this is what david did this is how he responded to betrayal and then the fifth thing he did which i think is also important for us is he reminded himself of past deliverances how many of you have ever had the lord do something in your life great or miraculous or something memorable i mean those become like tent stakes for us they're like they're like things we can nail that god moved in my life then god moved for me here god did this in my life then and you can remember those times so when you're in this day when everything looks bad and troublesome you can say lord i know that you delivered me here and you delivered me there and you did a great thing here you can do it again here and so i trust you lord even in this time of betrayal because you have been a faithful god to me when david went to fight goliath remember what he said hey at one time this bear came out and took one of my sheep now let me tell you something i if i was a shepherd i love the sheep but if a bear came i don't know you might be on your own but not david david ran out there david ran out there and he killed the bear and so he was telling telling saul listen the lord delivered me out of the mouth of the bear out of the mouth of the lion this this giant will be like one of them so he looked at a past deliverance a past victory a past time when god was strong on his behalf and now he's able to face a new danger with confidence because of how the lord has dealt with him and david was doing the same thing here he says in verse 7 he has delivered me he has past tense he has delivered me from all my troubles and my eyes have past tense looked in triumph on my foes isn't that interesting how david dealt with betrayal so what about you you have a choice you have a choice every time betrayal comes your way what you do with it i hope that you won't become bitter i hope you'll learn the lessons that david walked in and you can draw closer to christ in those difficult times and you can remind yourself of his name you can remind yourself that he's the one who vindicates you can remind yourself he hears our prayers you can remind yourself that he's worthy of our praise and you can remind yourself of his great deliverance well that's betrayal i want to talk about loyalty for a few minutes first samuel 26 3 saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of hakkala facing jesus but david stayed in the desert and when he saw that saul had followed him there he sent out scouts and learned that saul had definitely arrived see he's hearing about it but he wants to make sure so i'm sending out some scouts to figure out what's going on and then david set out and went to the place where saul had camped he saw where saul and abner the son of nur who was the commander of the army had laid down saul was lying inside the camp and the army was encamped around him so get the picture here how many soldiers are there 3 000 and david's coming to the camp he wants to see with his own eyes what's going on over here and as he looks out over here he sees in the middle there's saul and there's his bodyguard abner now that's a good place to sleep isn't it if you want to sleep and be safe you sleep in the middle because all these 3 000 men are circled around you and anybody that wants to get to you has to get through the 3 000 right so david not 600 men david alone he says who will go into the camp with me to saul it's three thousand three thousand to one who wants to go with me he didn't say okay 600 let's rise up and go get him he said who who will go with me he asked ahemalek the hittite and he asked abbashev the son of zariah joab's brother who will go into the camp so even this makes it a little bit more burdensome because he didn't just throw this out to the 600. he looked at two guys which one of you which one of you two will go with me right now what happened here says i'll go with you i don't want to tell you that those words are so meaningful to our life i will go with you everybody needs somebody to go with them i mean that's the way of the lord the lord talks about going out two by two why because we need somebody to go with us we need somebody who will stand by us in thick or thin to somebody if it's if it's abishai or if it's the hittite either one which one of you will go and i'm sure that david was just so encouraged when abhishek says i'll go with you think about the courage of this man to say we're going to go in there walk down in the middle of these three thousand guys camping because we want to go see saul and abbashai says i'm on board i'm going to go with you i love men and women like this jesus loves them every church needs people like this news zion you need to have people who say to you brother max i will go with you wherever you go and i need people to say i will go with you i know when we came out to plant this church uh we i was praying in the prayer room because the way we used to do it is we would announce in the church that we're going to go start a church in a year or whatever and then people in the congregation would come and say hey i want to be part of your team and you never know if you come out and say hey i'm going to go plant a church is anybody going to go with you or are you on your own i remember being down praying in the prayer room i felt a hand on my back and i turned around and real sorry said the lord wants me to go with you raio i praise god for that i that you would not believe how that encouraged me and blessed me and you've been we've walked together for 40 some years because the lord said go go with me and he's he's the man of god in his own right he he's a man who he's a pastor he's a he's a teacher he's a great man of god but he somehow the lord said i want you to go go with him and we've been through a lot together good times and bad but it's somebody that goes with you i don't know how to say it i appreciate your friendship all those years rail i love you my brother and there are others who've come and said we're with you and again it's not like you're looking for a paddle to back we just need somebody to go with us and even in the different ministries i mean if you're a sunday school teacher you need someone to go stand with you or you want to go out street witnessing you want someone to go with you or you want to be studying the word of god maybe you want someone to help you and go with you and disciple it's just there's just this idea of doing things together in the kingdom of god we're not called to be in isolation from one another so i want to encourage all of us let's be people of loyalty find out where the lord wants to knit you and say i'm going to go with you because i tell you the worst thing that can happen is if abbashai and david were walking down into them and this didn't happen i'm just telling you this is the worst case scenario that could happen and it does happen in our world today that you say yeah let's go down in there and as you're walking down to get into the center somebody wakes up and abhishey says i don't know this man i just don't know this man so you got when you say i'm going to go with you you're in it you're in it to win it you're in it for the long haul whatever comes you are there committed to the task and i believe it's it's this kind of commitment god wants us to have in the body of christ we're committed to one another we're not here to destroy each other to back bite to tear down to gossip we're for each other and we need to feel like somebody has my back there for me and so that's what abhishe was remember the story of jonathan and his armor bearer when they were going to go up against the garrison of the philistines and the armor bearer said do all that you have in mind go ahead i am with you heart and soul and here's two guys that went against a garrison of the philistines but they did it with courage because two are better than one one will change the thousand two put ten thousand to flight so verse 7 david and abishai went to the armor by night they went to the army by night and there was saul lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head abner and the soldiers were lying around him and abishai said to david today god has delivered your enemy into your hands this happened a couple chapters ago when they came into the cave remember that and again the lord delivered his enemy into his hands now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of a spear i won't strike him twice that's the kind of guy you want to have with you amen all i need is just one one thrust of a spear it'll be over but david said to abbaside do don't destroy him who can lay a hand on the lord's anointed and be guiltless so what happened here is david was loyal to god sometimes our friends who go with us like abhishai who are willing to go and be in the fray give us bad counsel that's okay sometimes i'm sure i've given bad counsel anybody ever received bad counsel for me before i'm kidding we can give back counsel you know because sometimes we just don't know we're we're limited and this guy saw this as an opportunity for the lord to put an end to saul's life but david said no we can't touch the lord's anointed he was loyal to the lord and so david because of his loyalty to christ did not allow the influence of his friend to move him off center and so i pray that we even with our friends will be loyal to the lord above all that his word his principles would always guide our life and hopefully our friends learn to guide us that same way but in this case abhishai did not and as surely in verse 10 as surely as the lord lives the lord himself will strike him you see david remember in psalm 54 the lord will vindicate me he's going to fight my battles the lord will strike him i don't have to lift up my hand against him either his time will come and he will die or he will go into battle and perish but the lord forbid that i should lay a hand on saul's anointed now let me tell you you know when you've been betrayed by somebody or someone's chasing you down like that you sometimes we take the opportunity to strike back but david was loyal to the principles of god now he says get the spear and the water jug that are near his head and let's go and in verse 12 david took the spear and the water jug near saul's head and they left no one saw or knew about it nor did anyone wake up how'd that happen they were all sleeping because the lord put them in a deep sleep the lord did that i love this think about it now i i can tell you that if i was abbashi and they hit tight and david said which one of you guys want to go i would be a little bit nervous two against 3 000. and there are times when the lord calls us to step out and do things in his kingdom and we could get nervous about it but when we step out when we step out the lord will always be there remember the story of peter lord if that's you let me come out of the boat let me walk on the water jesus said come on as soon as he stepped out he was there i mean we're afraid sometimes to take a risk to step out to go into the enemy two against three thousand because we're so outnumbered in the natural mind that looks like how can we ever ever come out of this thing safely and yet when we step out to do whatever it is god calls us to do he's there to support the armor-bearer and jonathan the same thing as soon as they came the lord caused that enemy to be chased the lord was there with them and so i i want to encourage all of us the lord will oftentimes call you to do things that seem scary he wants to stretch us he wants to take us out of our comfort zone he wants us to go and share christ with somebody he wants us to go pray for that sick person over there he wants us to show a kindness to our neighbor and sometimes we feel like oh i can't do that i'm embarrassed i don't have the words to say i just want you to know if you'll step out the lord's going to be there and these men stepped out they took a courageous step a great risk to go down to saul and the lord said you know what i'm going to honor these men and i'm putting a deep sleep on everybody i bet you this if if abbashad would have gone there and tripped up and fell down on top of somebody and rolled around trying to get himself straight they wouldn't have woke up because the lord was with them the lord was washing out for those people amen so david was loyal to the purpose of god and the lord honored him the lord honored him first samuel 26 13 david crossed over the other side and stood on top of the hill some distance away there was a wide space between them and he called out to the army and to abner son of nur aren't you going to answer me abner so david now that he has the spear in the jug of water he's hollering out across the valley to the army on the other side abner replied who who are you who calls to the king and david said you're a man aren't you who is like you and israel why didn't you guard your lord the king see david was more loyal to saul than his bodyguard loyalty he was loyal to saul because he was loyal to the lord but his bodyguard let him down his bodyguard didn't necessarily betray him but he fell asleep on the job he wasn't there to protect the king and dave is saying who are you aren't you a man you should have been there protecting him someone came to destroy your lord the king what you have done is not good as surely as the lord lives you and your men deserve to die because you did not guard your master the lord's anointed you see david's loyalty was to the lord and these men somehow let saul down look around you where are the king's fear and the water jug that were near his head and saul recognized david's voice and said is that your voice david my son and david replied yes it is my lord the king and he said why is my lord pursuing his servant what have i done and what wrong am i guilty of let the lord the king listen to his servant's words if the lord has incited you against me then may he accept an offering if however men have done it may they be cursed before the lord david's saying here listen saul why are you chasing me i have done nothing to harm you you remember in the cave how you were delivered into my hands i let you go here again the lord delivered you into my hands and i've spared you now he says listen if the lord is the one who's inciting you to come against me i'll accept that and i want to give a sacrifice for that but if it's men if it's men who are stirring you up if it's men who are inciting you against me let's stand against us all don't listen to them may they be cursed before the lord they have driven me from my share in the lord's inheritance and said go serve other gods what does he mean by that well in those days the land of israel was so important to them the land the jerusalem the place where god's presence was at and david had been chased out of there he was he was in a foreign land so to speak and he was saying do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the lord he didn't want to die in a place far from god the king of israel has come out to look for a flea as one hunts a partridge in the mountains and though finally this last portion verse 21 saul said i have sinned come back david my son because you considered my life precious today i will try i will not try to harm you again surely i have acted like a fool and have aired greatly i mean praise god that saul's coming to this understanding although he did that once before at the cave and he changed his mind he was a double-minded man and david said well here's the king's spear let one of your young men come over and get it and listen to the david's final words here the lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness the lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness the lord delivered you into my hands today but i would not lay a hand on the lord's anointed as surely as i valued your life today may the lord value my life and deliver me from all trouble and then saul said to david may you be blessed my son david you will do great things in surely triumph and so david went on his way and saul returned home you know this right here is the last time david ever spoke with saul and look at how he treated him in every one of our lives every one of our lives will be a last day when you speak to a person someone's going to die and you would have had a last day with them i wonder what that last day's going to look like what's the last day going to look like what's the last words going to sound like whether it's your parents your children your spouse your neighbor fellow worker fellow student we know i mean we've been around long enough to know that eventually everybody's going to die you know what the death the the death rate is in america 100 percent until jesus returns 100 we're all going to die and so we're all spending a last day with somebody may our last day be the one where we show loyalty to christ may our last day be one where we speak words like david spoke where he understood god's blessing upon his life he rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness god rewards us god david is saying god's going to reward me for the way i treated you today saul the lord deliver you to my hands but i would not lay a hand upon you i valued your life today may we value the lives of the people around us even if they're an enemy like saul may we learn to value the life of people may we treat people with regard to god not in how we were affected because we all have the potential being hurt so many times well david in psalm 54 he described his pursuers in verse 3 as ruthless men seek my life and he said this they are men without regard for god and i think that to me sums up this whole this whole message today that we need to be people who treat others with regard to god what does the lord think about this david said who can lay a hand on the lord's anointed god forbid that i should lay a hand on the lord's anointed i would not lay a hand on the lords anointed i valued your life see david's relationship to saul was not based on how saul treated him it was with regard to the lord when i look at you i look at you the way jesus looks at you whether you're my enemy or whether you betrayed me i want to treat you with regard to god and david said these ruthless men who are coming after me they are men without regard for god what would happen in the church of jesus christ if every one of us said you know what i'm going to treat my brothers and my sisters with regard to god what would happen we would be loyal we would be loyal men and women of god we would see broken relationships healed we would see people who walk in bitterness and anger healed and set free because we're treating others with regard to god so i'd like you to stand with me as we close in prayer so you have two things we talked about today one is if you're betrayed and if you are betrayed or have been betrayed may it drive us deeper into our relationship with jesus christ may we become those who are thrust deeply into trusting him and secondly i pray that every one of us could be a loyal friend loyal to be able to say to our brothers and sisters i will go with you that we're not afraid to face the enemy because when we stand forth together god will fight our battles that we have each other's back and that we treat even our enemies and even those who betray us we treat them with regard for god so lord i ask you to give us all a heart to love as you loved us you even said in the scripture that the way we treat others is the way we treat you i was sick and you visited me i was in prison you came to see me and they said well when did we see you that way he said when you did it to the least you did it to me so lord i pray that we would have a regard for you regarding the people you placed in our life we are thankful lord god when there's a loyal brother or sister who stands by us but we also want to be faithful to you and loyal to you when we find an enemy comes our way or a betrayer comes our way we want to find that secret place in your presence where we can treat those people with love that you have for us help us with this i ask you in the name of jesus christ amen i'd like to encourage you thank you brother i'd like to encourage the all the people here to uh i want to say it for you pastor max i encourage the new zion baptist church to be loyal to my brother and you know there's there's no way that a church can do what god wants us to do without the people of god saying i'm with you i'm with you and i we need it here at alliance christian center and to the extent that we step up and say yep i'm with you i'm going to do what god wants us to do we'll march right into the circle of the enemy we'll march right down to the center of where saul lies that's right so i pray for all of us men and women that we would be arm in arm hand in hand with our brothers that got us called to to lead these churches so the the the church of jesus christ in our city can rise up and be everything he wants us to be amen

Channel: Alliance Christian Center

Views: 1,601

Rating: 4.7333331 out of 5

Keywords: Kirk Martin, 1 Samuel 26, Loyalty, Betrayal

Id: qk1Kxd5WgQY

Length: 40min 24sec (2424 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 23 2016