The Redemptive Power of Godly Strength

Well, good morning again. It's a privilege to stand before you and open god's word. If you have your bibles with you, please turn to the book of first Samuel. First Samuel chapter 30. I am convinced that no matter the length of the text, it must be read in full before sermon.

We time, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and the Ziklag and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire. And they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone and carried them off and went people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

Now David's two wives had been taken captive as well, Ahinoam, the Jebel, widow of Nabal, the Carmelite. Moreover, David has greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him. For the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, please bring me the ephod. So Abiathah brought the ephod to David. David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them? And he said to him, pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all.

So David went, and he and the 600 men who were with him and came to the brook vessel where those left behind remained. But David pursued, he and 400 men, for 200 were too exhausted to cross the brook, the sore remained behind. Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread, and he ate.

And they provided him with water to drink. They gave him a piece of phe cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate. Then his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drank water for three days and three nights. David said to him, to whom do you belong, And where are you from?

And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on which belongs to Judah, and on the Negev Of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.

Then David said to him, will you bring me down to this band? And he said, swear to me by god that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band. When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread over all drinking and dancing because of all the great spore that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

David slaughtered them from twilight until evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled. So David recovered all the Amalekites had taken and rescuing his two wives. But nothing of theirs was missing, but small or great sons or daughters spoil anything they had taken for themselves.

David brought it all back. So David had captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of the other livestock. And they said, this is David's spoil. When David came to the 200 men who were too exhausted to follow David, who had all been also been left at the brook vessel, they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him.

Then David approached the people and greeted them. And all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man, his wife, and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.

David said, you must not do so, my brothers. One one who who stays stays by by the the baggage. Baggage. They They share alike. Now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, behold a gift for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord, to those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in Ramoth, to those who were in the Negev, and to those who were in Jathiel, and to those who were in Arioch, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who are in Eshtemoah, and to those who are in Raqal, and to those who are in the cities of the Jallamilites, and to those who are in Homer, and to those who are in Boashan, and to those who were in Athak, and to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were accustomed to go.

Let us pray. Lord, your word is inspired. I am not. Your words are life giving. I am not. Your words are precious, abound to the soul of the sorrowing, and steadfast strength to those who are laboring forward and enduring. May your word, Lord, go out and bear fruit among these people.

I pray, father, as a preacher, if there's anything you desire me to say that I have not planned, allow me to speak it. And if anything I have planned to speak that you do not desire me to speak, hold me from it. Lord, help me preach your word with clarity, with truth, and without error.

May you be blessed by the reading, the preaching, and the hearing of your word. In Christ Jesus, I pray. Amen. If you were to write a story of any sort, what character would you choose? I'll give you examples. If you wrote John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, which character would you choose?

Maybe we may rephrase the question. If you were to choose a character in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, who would you most likely align with? If you're like me, you most likely would relate with Christian or faithful or hopeful. Deep down, we desire to align with the most likely character to succeed.

We do this in watching television, in reading books, in art. We always want to align ourselves with the character who best represents the qualities that we desire. We feel often honest with ourselves. The character that most of us, including myself, might align to most in the book Pilgrim's Progress is mister feeble minded or maybe mister despondency or maybe his daughter much afraid.

If honest with ourselves, our desire for where we ought to be in life is not what we see in the mirror constant. If we're honest with ourselves, we are the weak ones in the group, not the strong. We are the weary, not the fortified. We're the tired. We're the lonely.

We're the struggling and not succeeding. A story this morning is a story of three types of people, the weary, the weak, and the wicked. I argue that you find all these three types of people here today in this church at this very moment. And each one of us can identify at some point in our Christian walk or even this morning with each of these three individuals.

At times, we are very aware we are very weary. If you're getting older in life, you understand weakness. If it's not a weakness where you are culpable of sin and it's a weakness of the body, physically you are understanding Paul's mention of the statement, our physical body wastes away, we're still the third group that we might identify with, the wicked.

Some might not be saved here. Some might have abandoned the faith or never even actually claimed the faith. They're the wicked who are disguised among us unaware of their own depravity. It's a story that we're reading this morning. It's a story that we're looking at, and this is my whole hope and my whole drive.

You might understand God's redemptive power the story the study, we will look at the story by interacting with those three people. Let's begin with the weary. In verse one, the narrator tells us now we have moved away from the Philistines, which David has just been saved by providential circumstance.

And he's not called to fight his own people anymore, but he can go home. David, we know, is on the run. David is trying to figure out a life as a king who has no throne, no home, no friends or companions. So this lonely king aligns with him with a group of men.

Once he surveys the land moving further south in the land of Israel, he finds himself in the Philistines' world, fighting against his own brothers. And so in chapter 31 verse one, he gets a little bit of rest, moves away from the land of Philistines to go back to their settlement in Ziklag.

And so David and his men all have left the Philistines. Notice the text with me. On verse two, the Philistines overtook Saul. First party, I'm in 31. In verse one, then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Nagave on Ziklag and had overthrown the city and burned it with fire.

Was it probably maybe a miscalculation miscalculation on David's end not to leave some men's destined in Ziklag? Was it an oversight? As the story will go on to show you, there is nothing like inconsequential providence, but does not waste providence. So, providentially, they're going back home, but instead of hearing the sound of young children rushing towards their fathers, they see from a distance fire burning a city.

The smoke, the smell of burning rubble, silence of having no people. The text is very specific and even explicit. Look at the language that the author uses in verse two. They took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. Usage of the word small and great is a merism, which means the author is encompassing anything in between small or great.

In other words, they have taken if you wanna be imaginative with me, they have taken even the last grape on the vine. There's nothing left for the men to find solace or peace in or joy. They have no hearth, no home, and they find themself in a land that's burnt with fire.

But notice too, verse two, the author doesn't tell you that David and his men know who has taken their families. At this point in the text, you and I have more information than David and his men. We've been told what happens, and so in verse three, the author now shows you from the vantage point of David.

When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Notice that in verse two, he says women and all. And in verse three, he moves from a general description of human beings to verse three to showcase relationship.

The women and all are not just individuals. They are mothers, daughters, and sons. And the author, narrator, is bringing us into understanding the human state of weariness. Notice how he speaks in verse four, then David and the people who were with him. I want you to pay close attention to that usage.

Throughout the grammar of all chapter 30, the author actually uses what we call microgrammar. Use a small changes in the text to show you the variations in the characters. In verse number one, you hear of the In verse number two, you hear of the Amalekites. But notice in verse one, it says, then it happened when David and his men throughout the book of first Samuel and second Samuel, the language of David and his men is often related to warriors, warriors, often related to men of capability to fight.

David is even described as having mighty men. But look at the change that you see in verse four. Then David and the people. Author is being very intentional to show you that the circumstance of weariness, that seeing their family left and dislocated, their city burned, and everything they held precious destroyed, they shift from warriors to men, just people.

People. The The author continues even more in verse four. The people who are with him lifted their voice and wept until there was no strength in them to weep anymore. If you've ever behold weary men in the bible, this is it. I did a quick study and search.

This is the first time in the whole book of first Samuel that David cries. Oh, he's away from home. Yes. He cries with Jonathan, but those are tears of joy, of the love and friendship. This is the first time in the whole book he's actually experiencing and enduring loss.

So he cries. They weep until their tear ducts can no longer produce water anymore. They're at the point of exhausting their emotional resources. They are unable to shed another tear because the pain and the brokenness is too far severe for them to imagine. One wonders why. See, when there is a raid, the women and the children become slaves.

And in often circumstances, if you know who's the one who'd done the raid, you can chase step. We're to where David, where will the promised messiah come from? Is what the author does in the next verse. Notice, now David's two wives had also been taken captive. And he mentions Ahinoam and Nabal's wife, Abigail.

But I think the author is intending to do something more than just give you a list of wives. He wants to show you how god's men God the man after God's own heart himself is also experiencing the loss. He's not outside of the circumstance. He's part of the circumstance.

This is not just something that's affecting his people. David is in it as well. To which the author adds more in verse six, moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him. For all the people were embittered, each one because of his own sons and daughters.

It's fascinating because stoning was only a punishment that was made on a person who had broken the law. In their minds, David has abandoned his kingship. He's missed the whole point of his very existence. He's not providing the safety net that I actually needed, but I think it also gives us a lesson into weariness.

The weary are prone to forget that other people have problems too. The weary are prone to point fingers. The weary are convinced that they are the only ones in this world who are actually suffering, and they deserve all the justice in the world and no one else. Weariness has a way of shaping our worldview in more ways than we know.

Weariness can convince a soul that they are the most important singular human in the universe, and no moral requirement is should be laid upon them. Text is showing us weariness as moral implications. Weariness as moral arguments it presents. Weariness fights for its own cause, and David is a victim of this weariness.

But I wanna show you the redemptive power of God's strengthening. In verse six, towards the end of the verse, there's a but that comes out, a conjunction. But David. How many women were there who would learn that there are 600 men? 601 plus David. So only person in the text who actually understands the circumstance, who actually knows the antidote to his own weariness, the moral implications of his weariness, he does not bow to.

What does he do? But David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. Come from California, and so pronouns matter, but not in that way. Notice the text. Whose god is this? Is it David and the god of his men? Is it David and the god of Israel? Is it David and the god of Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

And you could go through the trajectory of all the redemptive history, but David and David alone, he strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. The the narrator uses both words for God, One signifying his almighty power and the other one signifying his covenantal love and obligation. He uses the word from Exodus chapter three, the covenant making God, but he personalizes it.

See, in as much as your weariness is a personal experience, his faithfulness is a personal experience. The antidote is personal. The antidote is not corporate. It's not the whole group that strengthens itself. It's not every weary person in this text who strengthens himself. There's only one person who makes the decision convinced of the nature and person of God.

You can hear it in Psalm 73, whom have I in heaven but you? The earth has nothing I desire besides you. This flesh and my body might fail, but God is my portion and my steadfast hope forever. The antidote to our weariness comes from the strength of God.

The author narrator continues, however, in verse seven, in your Bibles, it's the same in my Bible, it says then. And when he uses the then there, the the conjunction that's used there can mean multiple things. It could be and, but, or then. The the translators of the NASB as well as the ESB choose to put a then which showcases a sequence of actions following one another.

However, I translate the then as and to indicate that the means towards David's change of heart and strengthening is actually him calling on the Lord. It's not like David can cultivate a strength in himself. It's not that the verb is saying there's an energy inside him that captivates him enough to strengthen himself in the Lord, but the logic of the text is saying he is strengthened in a general sense, but what are the means?

Now notice the means. And David said to Abiath of the priest and the son of Hamilah, please bring me an ephod, and ephod would be what the high priest wore. It was a garment. It was worn over the chest with stones in it, and it was used as a means of divination to to speak to the lord, to to seek the will of the lord.

But notice David's strengthening and its function in this text. In verse eight, David inquires of the lord. Now if you're like me, you would have asked several questions. Where are the people who took my wife? Well, my wives, David's case. Hermes is one. Where are they? So the logical questions in this text would have been where, when, and how fast should I run.

That's the logical, understanding of my own physical strength. I wanna get at them. I want to find them, and I want to bring them back. David is convinced of something much more profound. Read the questioning in verse eight with me. Shall I pursue them? If David's wife wives were reading this and that this is the question they asked, I feel like they would have been a little offended.

Like, your wife has been taken and you say, shall I pursue? No. It's it's not a failure to understand understand the the intensity intensity and the difficulty of the situation. It's to understand God's purpose. In David's mind, if the Lord in his sovereign work allowed this to happen, if the Lord allowed this to be the circumstance I'm in, then even I desiring to reconcile it without him is sin.

Even I desiring to reconcile my bad state, my poor circumstance without his will and his consent, it is sin. Shall I pursue is the language of man who understands there is no strength in a universe that can change the situation apart from God. Shall I pursue them? And he continues, shall I overtake them?

And he said, which is Lord's answer, pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and you shall surely rescue all. For many of us who have read the book of Genesis, remember the promise that the lord tells Adam about eating the fruit. Do you remember that? Next, because you shall surely die.

This is the same construction of verb. It's an absolute statement that there is nothing in the known or unknown universe that would change this statement. You shall pursue, which is an imperative, so he's commanded to go, and you shall overtake, which is a promise. You understand the the features of how God functions within our own lives that he makes an imperative to us, but he also provides a promise.

And so for David, his strength is actually not found in his human ability. His strength will be found in trusting God's promise. Not only meeting the imperative, but trusting the promise. Need I say to you, he doesn't know where they went. You weary and heavy laden this morning.

My antidote for you and the Bible's antidote for you is not me changing your circumstance. It's me reminding you, you need to focus and trust in the right person. Follow imperatives that have the right promises because God functions in his strength through promise and imperative. God could have given David, pursue and you shall overtake.

By the way, they're heading due north, but it's not provided. Strength in the world does not look like this. Strength in the world means certainty. Strength in the world means you know what happened what's happening to the stock market. You know when your food is coming from. You you know what resources you have.

You know specific things, but in this text, you only know God's promise. A weariness can only be solved by God's promise because his promise is sure. Verse nine, so David went. Hold on there. Where is he going? You're reading the story with me. Right? Like, where is he going?

Is he going north, south, east? Which direction? Who is he chasing? That's not the point of the story. The point of the story is in his weariness, he trusts that the Lord would strengthen him with his promise. And notice I noticed I showed you this earlier. Notice, David went and he and the 600 people?

The text has shifted them from people to his men. The only change in them being treated as warriors is not their own faith, it's actually David's. In fact, their own success hinges on David's faithfulness. Their growth and their ability to survive this cold and brutal war they exist in hinges on the faithfulness of David.

They function as followers, and they follow David. They now turn to men and warriors. The strengthening the have about fact can be strong without affecting the that others as if we you have can have a man with uneven biceps. The author continues to show us this weariness we exist in.

We exist in a weary world. We know this. The world is irretrievably broken. But the weary find strength in God. Does Jesus say to the weary like myself, come on to me all those who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Author continues, but they're pursuing now.

In verse 10, you find a a pickle. David pursued. He and the 400 men, and 200 men were too exhausted to cross Bruk Bessur. You meet the second group, the weak. Alpha uses the word too exhausted, to to not mean those who are just tired. Let me give you a recap from the camp of the Philistines to Ziklag.

It's 60 miles. So these men have walked 60 miles in three days and have gotten home. They've cried so much. They have no strength. They're weary. They're tired. By the way, because the city was burnt, there's no food to meet them, no drinks to meet them, and no rest to had.

So they walk another 15 miles down to the brook vessel. And you can understand the weak. They're too exhausted. They they can't move another inch. But the author is is presenting this actually as a problem. How would David continue to pursue an enemy he doesn't know whose number he's not aware of by losing 200 men?

Poor tactics. Terrible math. You want more people, not less. Does David slow down? Notice the text. Verse 10. But he pursued in fact, the word that's used there to pursue as an interesting feature is a word that's only used of animals. It's a word that's used for wolves when when they're pursuing a beast that there's a tenacity in it, an unstoppableness in it that they will only stop hunting until you're dead.

It's actually used also in Psalm 23 when the Lord says, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. He uses the very same verb. The goodness of God shall pursue you like a hound pursues his prey, and it's also used here in a positive sense.

David is unrelenting. This is not physical strength. This is not human strength. It's not logical strength because which direction are you going? Where are you going, David? Why are you running so hard? It's the promise that drives the action, not the action driving the promise. It's our trust in the nature and person of god that moves us forward, not us and ourselves.

Text continues. So you meet the first weak people, 200 men, and they stay behind. And the author continues, and in verse 11, it seems rather strange that you find an unlikely person in the wilderness. Again, it would be in the direction of going south for those who've been to Israel.

He would have been at the Brook Bessur, and they would have been still going south and going outside of the land. And so they find an Egyptian man. Whenever you see something in the text, the word is mala to to find. Whenever you see the Hebrew word mala in in in the Hebrew bible, it's not telling you they happened by happenstance.

They just randomly found somebody. It's actually the word that's directly related to the providence of God. They just found an Egyptian. In this text, the weakest person you see is this person. Welcome. Meet the weakest person in the story. Meet him. I found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread and he ate.

They provided him water to drink. They gave him a piece of fig cakes and two clusters of raisins, and he ate. Then his spirit revived in him. The Hebrew here is pretty fascinating. The the only two instances in the book of the Old Testament where the statement the spirit revived in the whole book of the Old Testament, there are only two other scenarios.

Interesting that the other one is the judge Samson. The author here is is hinting at a at an aspect that is somewhat hard to to fully map out, but I want you to see the the depth of this man's weakness. How weak was this man? Notice. I'll read the section and and explain it a little more in detail.

Then his spirit revived for he had not eaten bread or drank water for three days and three nights. And David say to him, whom do you belong to? A first set of weakness in this text that you see of this man, there is a weakness of a physical nature.

Well, how many of you have gone three days and three nights without water? No hands. This text is actually hinting at a quasi resurrection. You see that? He he's at the door of death itself. This man's date meet. He's he's wasted. And the text does that by showing you how much food he needed.

Very interesting menu, not very southern. But he ate bread, and then he drank water, and you think that would be enough. And the author in verse 12 says, and they gave him a piece of thick cake now, and they added two clusters of raisins to that, and he ate, then his spirit revived.

This man is so weak that he is at death's door itself. He is knocking. He is crawling slowly into Sheol itself, and he is brought back by the brink of death by one whose god has strengthened. I just noticed 200 men got exhausted and tired. The city had no food, and they came out.

But what does David do? Oh, he spares food for an Egyptian? The redemptive power of God's strength is that the one who holds the strength resembles the one who provides it. The one who has the strength of Yahweh starts to look and behave like Yahweh. And see, he is the author of life.

Therefore, David cannot do anything that's inconsistent with the provision of the strength. Oh, he spares bread. Sounds nice. No. He he just just spared bread. He spares bread to an Egyptian. If you know your Old Testament, they are not friends. They are enemies. He spares bread to to an enemy, not just some bread.

He spares water. He spares raisins, and he even spares some cakes. Strength in our world is never attributed with giving. It's always attributed to acquisition. Alexander the Great is not the record the great because of philanthropy. It's because he ruined and amassed more. How many other great people can you name?

They're not known for their ability to be generous that only comes after they have amassed. But this king this king gives even when he is in distress. This is Hannah's prayer in first Samuel chapter two verse nine and ten. I want you to read this prayer that it aligns you to start thinking of this David, but also start thinking of a greater David.

First Samuel chapter two verse nine and ten. I wanna read it for us and and just marvel at this prayer that is being answered here. Verse nine, he keeps the feet of his godly ones, but the wicked ones shall are silenced in darkness for they might not prevail.

Those who are contented with the lord who are content with the lord will be shattered, and against them, he will thunder in the heavens. The lord will judge the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his king. He will exalt the horn of his anointed.

See, when Saul was distressed, he turned to the witch of Endor. When David was distressed, he turned to the god of him. When Saul was distressed, he's turned to the witch of Endo who conjured Samuel from the dead. See the irony in this text? When David is distressed, he turns to god who performs a semi resurrection and brings Egyptian from the brink of death for one singular reason.

What's the information we're missing in this direction. That's the one thing we're missing in the text, their direction. But before we even look at that, not only is this young man dead physically, he's on the brink of death, but how weak is he? Notice verse 13. David asked him the question, to whom do you belong?

I've puzzled and even quizzed myself. Is this a question of fidelity to a god or belonging master. I think both can work. And he said and notice the the layers of his own weakness. I am a young man. And that's in this world, a young man would be around the ages of a teenager.

Past the age of 13 is maybe an unaccompanied minor in the middle of a wilderness, a man of Egypt. And so how does a man of Egypt find himself in the South Of Israel? The text continues. A servant of an Amalekite. I love the NASB, but the word is actually a slave of an Amalekite.

This man is so weak. He not only is physically depleted, he is lonely. He has no family. He is a slave. He's on the outskirts of humanity itself, and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. He has no one to love him, care for him, and even call him his own.

You'll be remiss of me to skip this. How do you understand the gospel after listening and reading about this man? Dead in your trespasses as skin of of sin, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, hating God, unable to save yourself. Does this sound familiar? Text is showing us a redemptive power to redeem this man from the dead, but also to redeem this man even more.

What is verse 14? He confesses his sin. We made a raid on the Negev and the Charathites in which the Judah belongs and the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklak. Who was in Ziklak? David's family. If you've never seen a man who acknowledges his sin more than this man, he's he's very aware of his depravity.

He's very aware of his weakness, and he just outs himself at the mercy of the people whom he hurt. David said to him, will you bring me down to this band? And the man says, swear to me, by who? By god. Your weakness can only be reconciled by somebody outside of us.

While you were still sinners, Christ came and died for Now your weakness is is in net. Your weakness is inbuilt. It's genetic. You get it from Adam, your father. Your weakness and your inability to redeem yourself is so fundamentally yours. You cannot redeem yourself. You cannot save yourself.

Therefore, somebody outside of you must save you. Here I say, why would you not trust that he can work out that weakness even now? The gospel expands beyond the moment you say, oh, you raised your hands or answered on an autocall or you were in your room crying on your own, that you believe the gospel in that moment that it was able to save you because you were weak then and unable, but for some reason you've convinced yourself that in this moment as you struggle with sin, you just need to pick yourself up with the bootstraps.

As if the means for your salvation came from inside of you, it was always been another. There has to be somebody else who brings you out from the darkness into the kingdom of light. There has to be somebody else who makes you worthy of the kingdom itself. There must be somebody else who does a work inside of you continuously changing you.

And to the person of Christ himself, there must be somebody else outside. The strength is not your own. Oh, are you weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a lord of care? Take it to who? The lord in prayer. The means of our salvation were never on on our own.

We can't assume the means of our sanctification will be ours. We can't assume dependent slave of Jesus, rejoice because your master will not abandon you when you are sick. And he will not leave you on the outskirts and forget of your existence, that he will not go at any length to bring you back to your to himself.

Even when you stray in sin, there is mercy at the cross. There is mercy at the point of your salvation, and there is mercy at the end of your salvation in glory. O you weak, heavy laden, come to him, and you will find rest. A young man asked a wonderful question.

Do not take me back to my master. He's just found a better master, a master who he gives the direction to. And you notice the text will move really quickly. Notice in the text, a young man takes David down to the band. Again, the weak are still fighting this battle.

Notice the the intensity of the fight. David, in chapter verse 17, slaughtered them from twilight until evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except 30 except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled. David recovered how much? Oh. The point of this text is not actually to illustrate the wonder and length of the battle, but the miracle of god's strengthening.

These are weak men fighting this battle. You know who else is fighting the battle? I assume the Egyptian. He's aligned with the right people now, and the weak have made an a marvelous, wonderful have won the battle. If we've dealt with the weak, if we've dealt with the weary, where do the third group come from?

Verse 20 shows you the the picture of it. So David captured all the sheep and all the cattle which the people drove. Again, remember the micro changes in character. Why does he call them the people? Why are they the people? They just won a battle. They just were faithful.

They called the people, and this is the reason because of what they said. This is David's spoil. Is it David's spoil? Is it really? The text continues. When David came, the 200 men who were exhausted to follow David had been left beside by the brook. They went and meet David, and the people were with him.

And David approached the people and greeted them. Then, verse 22, that's the third group. Right? And all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, because they did not go with us, they cannot have the spoil. I find it fascinating because in my sinful mind, this is good logic.

Hey. You didn't fight the battle. We're not gonna keep your wife or your sons or daughters. We'll give them back to you, but you're not gonna enjoy the rest of the spoil. And we forget all of them were weary. All of them were weak. Why would they not enjoy the same joy?

David's response to the wicked is not to point them to himself. David's response in verse 23, you must not do so. Now I want you to slow down here. I have a little bit of time, but I want you to slow down here. It's so critical. What does David call them?

My brothers. If that's not akin to Hebrews chapter number two when Jesus, the son of God, is depicted in the Old Testament as saying to the father, I would declare your name among my brothers. Godly strength understands that without it, you and the next sinner have no difference.

Godly strength understands the most vilest offender on death row and you. The only difference is grace. Godly strength understands even the wicked person in this church who steps on your toes constantly and has a kick out of it without the grace of God, without the strength of God, without his redemption.

There is no difference. David calls them brothers in a means to bring them to himself. And notice what he says. This is like preaching the gospel in the Old Testament. With what the Lord has given to us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand is banned again against us?

And who will listen to you this matter? For as is his the share of the one who goes to battle, so shall his share be, who stays there by the baggage, they shall all share alike. In the Christian faith, there are no elite soldiers. They're just soldiers. In the Christian faith, there is no elite group.

Somehow the navy seals of the lord's army, as you might assume. And the principle is very easy to understand. What do you have that you have not been given? What gift could you boast that was not given to you? Excellent preacher? Oh, it's a gift, Ephesians four. Excellent teacher, Ephesians four.

Doing and giving, first Corinthians 12. First Corinthians 11. What do you have in your conceivable mind as a person that you can hold to yourself? Christians are not known for hoarding. It is not within our nature because our God is not a hoarder, but the wicked hoard. The wicked hold their gifts as totems over others.

The wicked are stingy with God's blessings and gifts. The wicked assume authority over things that have been given to them. The wicked assume the gifts are earned. The wicked are stingy about community and fellowship. Aren't those the three pillars of the church? Truth, mission, commitment, community. Right? Oh, the wicked are stingy about the truth.

They they want to be the ones who discovered it first. The wicked are stingy about the mission. They don't wanna ever go out to the next door house, lest they look weird. The wicked hate community that rather not share. You know the word community is a combination of two words to commune in unity?

These are the wicked that David calls his brothers. You are the wicked that Jesus has called brothers and sisters, and he's given you everything, every gift in the heavenly places, adopted you into fellowship with him that you could be as seated at the right hand of the father with god, and he can behold you and say you are mine.

Would you not rather go share the gospel? Are you not motivated to go out and tell the wicked, oh, the gifts have been given to us? In fact, I think verse 26 through verse 31 illustrates the point. David, notice. Now David, when he came to Siklek, he sent some of the spoil.

Why? Why is he sending the spoil? Why why not keep it to himself? He sent the spoils to all his friends, 13 regions I mentioned, but notice the language. Behold a gift for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord, not his enemies. Not the enemies of Ziklag, not the enemies of Israel, the enemies of the lord, a gift as the evidence of the lord's faithfulness and kindness.

Is this not Ephesians chapter four? And when he ascended, he gave gifts to men and to some as apostles and to some as teachers and to some as evangelists. Is it not the gospel that Jesus having won the victory on the cross, he did not hold his treasures.

He gave them to his church to function in the world as a means and emissaries to go out into the whole world and preach to the whole creation that the king has won the battle. Do you dare think your treasure is small, that you can only move a couple of chairs at Emmanuel.

Oh, no. Dare not diminish his gifts because they are given out of the wisdom of God. Dare not despise his blessing because it looks too small to you. He gives generously even unto the wicked. Wicked. It rained yesterday even in jail. Think of this. The divine providence of God has placed you in this chair with these saints, with this community, and some are weary.

Or some are weak, and some are wicked. But remember, it is the God who gives us strength for the purpose of his redemption to the glory of his person and to the joy of his body. He encourage you. Oh, if you're here today and you are miss much afraid, if you're here today and you're mister feeble minded or mister despondency, let me remind you today that even John Bunyan still calls those pilgrims.

Let me remind you, fabric of your person, the fabric of your identity is not wrapped up in how much weariness you have, how much wickedness you have, how much weakness you have. It is wrapped up in the person of Christ who is a weary, one who went before you, who endured the weakness of the cross, and he died for the wicked of whom everyone is.

You might go out today. You might smile at the next person out there knowing what is god's strength that redeems and god's strength that sustains god's strength that will glorify. Let us pray. A holy infinite god, how wonderful your truths. How holy is your word, and you have been gracious to us, those who have redeemed according to the grace and the wisdom of god through Christ who died on the cross.

Help us this day to remember that only you can redeem. Lord Jesus, that our strength is made manifest your strength is made manifest in our weakness that you glorify yourself. Help us today, Lord, to appropriate the truth of scripture that we might live to glory in your power and your strength, oh, Lord.

In Christ, I pray. Amen.