CALL TO CONFESSION

Romans 7:19-23

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

O Lord, our helper, we acknowledge how quickly we run toward sin and pursue our own desires over your wisdom. We overestimate our own strength, falling prey to destructive habits and waging war against your perfect law in our thoughts and deeds. We know that we are free from the bondage of sin, yet we choose to live as slaves to sin, addicted to our destructive habits and the things that make us feel good. Father, forgive us.

Jesus, thank you for perfectly keeping the law in our place and breaking sin’s power through your sacrificial death. Because of your righteous life and ransom, our souls are counted free, and we can approach you with joy and confidence as children of God rather than slaves to sin.

Holy Spirit, free us from our self-made chains and melt our hearts with God’s overwhelming love. Cause us to rest in the perfect goodness of Christ, granting us a growing obedience rooted in deep gratitude. Amen.

“Take a few moments to personally confess your sins to the Lord.”

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

“Hear these words of comfort and assurance.” 

Romans 8:1-2

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

• The story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, encapsulates a very profound reality about the human nature; that there is a moral fracture inside of us. 
• For the Christian, that reality is even more pronounced. 
• Paul describes this exact tension in Romans chapter 7. He writes, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
• Paul isn’t describing an unregenerate man; he is describing the dynamic of the Christian life in a fallen world. Though we have been brought into union with Christ, indwelling sin remains.

• Today as we walk through 1 Samuel 26 and 27, we see this exact dynamic on full display in the life of David. These two chapters side by side paint a vivid picture of the contrast. 
• In chapter 26, David displays profound faith, patience, mercy, and a trust in God’s timing and God’s promise. 
• In chapter 27, suddenly David acts like a completely different man. He yields to crippling fear, he doesn't seek the Lord, and he flees to the land of the Philistines in order to escape from Saul. 
• How does a man go from the mountaintop of faith in one chapter to plummet into the valley of despair and self-reliance in the next?
• If you have walked with the Lord for any length of time, this dynamic feels quite familiar. 
• One week, you’re standing on the mountaintop of faith and the very next week, under the weight of relentless stress, your heart faints.

• This is the reality of the Christian life in a fallen world and our text today shows us this. 
• But beyond that, it reveals our need for a King who is greater than David. 
• David was faithful yet flawed. His faith faltered at times. 
• Our faith may falter, but God’s greater King never falters and his covenant love for us never fails. 

DAVID SPIES OUT SAUL’S CAMP

1 Samuel 26:1-5 

• This story is similar to the one in chapter 24 when David spares Saul’s life in the cave of Engedi.
• David faces a repeat of the same trial.
• Remember, outside the cave of Engedi, David and Saul had spoken, and Saul had wept and declared that David was more righteous than he was because the Lord had put him in David’s hand and David spared his life. Saul finally confessed that David would surely be king. 
• Why is he hunting David again? This proves his repentance was not genuine. 

• Imagine how exhausting this was for David. Any hope he had of Saul having a real heart change is quickly dispelled. 
• Sometimes the trials of life seem to come crashing down upon us in relentless waves. You come through a difficult season of spiritual conflict and you think it’s over but the temptation knocks on your door again. 

• David’s spies tell him Saul is encamped with his three thousand men on the hill by the road. 
• Under the cover of darkness, David is able to see the place where Saul is sleeping. Saul is in the middle of the camp, next to him is Abner, the commander of his army, and he is surrounded by all of his men. 

DAVID TAKES THE SPEAR

1 Samuel 26:6-12 

• David asks the two men that are with him to do something risky. “Who will go down with me into the camp of Saul?” 
• Ahimelech the Hittite, was a foreigner. Even in the wilderness years, the kingdom of God is drawing the unlikely; people who were never supposed to be on the inside.
• Abishai is David’s nephew, son of his sister Zeruiah (1 Chr. 2:16).
• Abishai steps up and says, “I’ll go down with you into the camp!” 
• So the two of them made their way towards the camp and slipped in undetected because everyone was sleeping.
• We are given a crucial detail in verse 12, “a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.”
• The phrase, “a deep sleep,” is a rare word in Hebrew. It is used in Gen. 2 with Adam and again in Gen. 15 with Abram.
• The hand of the Lord is behind David’s ability to enter the enemy’s camp undetected. 

• What is by Saul’s head as he is in a deep sleep? It’s his spear stuck in the ground. 
• That spear has a lot of history in 1 Samuel. 
• It was the weapon Saul hurled at David as he was playing music to soothe him. 
• He threw that same spear at his own son Jonathan who was speaking up for David. 
• And it was the spear he held while ordering the execution of the priests.
• His spear was his scepter and security. He has to sleep with it at his head. 

• Abishai looks at the situation and draws a quick conclusion, that God has given David's enemies into his hand. He offers to be the one to kill Saul.
• Abishai’s theology is the same as that of the men that were with David at the cave of Engedi. He reads providence as an open door. This has to be God. He assumes that an open door is an automatic approval from God to murder the king. 
• But as we looked at this in chapter 24, providence is not permission. Providence must always be interpreted by the revealed Word of God. 
• God never once commanded David to murder Saul to get to the throne. 

• David’s response to Abishai demonstrates remarkable faith considering the circumstances.
• He refers to Saul again as the Lord’s anointed. It was the Lord who put him in office and the Lord will be responsible for taking him out. But David’s not going to touch him. 
• Saul is God’s to deal with in his way and in his timing.  David knows that God can take Saul out whenever he pleases. God may strike him down directly, he might die from natural causes, or he might die in battle. 
• Those are three possibilities and David doesn’t need to know which one will play out. He only needs to know that the outcome, the timing, and the method belong to God. 
• In chapter 31, we read how the Lord does it. Saul dies on the battlefield against the Philistines. And David never had to lift a hand against Saul. 

• Instead of taking Saul’s life, David takes the spear and the jar of water. The spear represented Saul’s power and authority. The jar of water represented his physical life. David takes both as evidence. 

DAVID REBUKES ABNER

1 Samuel 26:13-16 

• David climbs to the far hill and calls out to Abner from a concealed position. 
• He says to him essentially, “Aren’t you the greatest man in Israel? Then why didn’t you guard your lord? You deserve to die. Look where the king’s spear is now. Look where his water jar is.”
• David did a better job of protecting Saul than Saul’s own bodyguard. 
• And the proof is in the trophies that David has displayed on the hillside.
• David exposes Abner’s failures and proves his own integrity.

DAVID ADDRESSES SAUL

1 Samuel 26:17-20 

• Saul recognizes David’s voice. He calls him, “my son David.” 
• David asks why the king pursues his servant, as he’s done nothing wrong to Saul. 
• He offers two options: If the Lord has stirred up Saul against him for some wrongdoing then let him have the opportunity to make it right with God by offering an acceptable sacrifice.
• But if it is men who are whispering lies into Saul’s ears, like the Ziphites, then let them be cursed for what they have done to David. 
• These men have caused him grief by pushing him out of the land where God has put his name and his tabernacle and his people. To be driven out of Israel is to be driven away from the presence of the Lord. 
• David is saying, “They are exiling me from God’s presence and pushing me towards serving idols.” 

• We have a version of this. God has given us the ordinary means of grace to avail ourselves of as his people: the preached Word of God, the gathering of the saints, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the prayers. 
• And the danger for us is not so much that we are driven from them but that we drift from them. 
• David was driven away from the tabernacle by Saul’s armed soldiers, and he wept over it. 
• How easily do we give up the gathering of the saints for a busy weekend, a youth tournament, or just feeling a little tired on a Sunday morning? 
• David mourned what many of us treat as optional.

SAUL’S CONFESSION

1 Samuel 26:21-25 

• Saul responds again with temporary remorse. “I have sinned.”
• He says something here he didn’t in chapter 24. “Come back with me.” 
• But essentially he says the same thing he did then and nothing has changed. 
• “Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” G. Campbell Morgan, called this the shortest and most accurate autobiography ever stated. 
• Saul had been foolish. Samuel used that same word to Saul in chapter 13. Saul has been told what’s wrong with him for his entire reign.
• The only problem is there is no genuine repentance that leads to a change of heart. 

• David’s response is that he has acted in righteousness and faithfulness and the Lord will reward him. “As I have valued your life today, may the Lord value mine, and deliver me out of all tribulation.” He is appealing to God’s justice. 
• Saul blesses David and they part ways. 
• This is the last time they will see each other and speak to each other. 

• David shows patience, self-restraint, respect for the Lord’s anointed, showing him mercy, and he displays here a deep trust in divine providence. 
• God is in control of the situation and God will do right by David. 

• If 1 Samuel ended here, we might think that David was invincible. But this is the same David who lost his temper with Nabal and was ready to kill many over an insult. Here, grace prevails and he stands fast. 
• But the following chapter shows that his faith falters. That is the Christian life. 

DAVID ESCAPES TO THE PHILISTINES

1 Samuel 27:1-4 

• After the high peak of spiritual victory we just read about, we read the shocking words of v1. David speaks to his own heart, “I’m going to die by Saul’s hand one day. The best thing I can do is escape to the land of the Philistines and Saul will stop seeking me.” 
• What happened? David stood on the truth of God’s promise. He trusted the Lord would vindicate him and deal with Saul. 
• But now he talks to his own heart and he doesn’t talk to God. He’s just a man giving himself advice at the worst possible time. 
• He listens to his own anxious, fearful heart instead of speaking God’s truth to his heart. 
• And his conclusion is, “I will die by Saul’s hand.” 

• Now that’s not true. The Lord anointed him through Samuel. Jonathan affirmed David would be king and even Saul conceded he would be prince over Israel.
• Yet in the fog of weariness, every single promise evaporated. All that’s left is, “I’m going to die out here.” 

• Weariness can cause even the strongest saint to falter. The continual, grinding pressure wears down our natural strength. And if we focus only on the persistence of our trials rather than the persistence of God’s grace, fear can grip our heart and our faith falters. 
• Notice that David’s crash comes on the heels of the mountaintop experience. (Elijah, 1 Kings 19)
• The enemy knows exactly when to pay you a visit. It’s not during the battle. It’s usually the morning after. 

• David experienced what many of us experience. We fight the same temptation for a long time, a physical affliction persists, a relationship that doesn’t change and it weighs heavy on our soul. And we say things like David did.  
• The problem with saying those things to your heart is that we don’t examine what we say.  
• We just believe them to be true because we trust our own voice. 
• You have to monitor what you say to yourself because what you say to yourself may not be true. 
• But Scripture has the appropriate diagnosis of the human heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9)
• You have to interrupt your self-talk with the truth of God’s word. 
• You have to bring your questions to the Lord. Our feelings and emotions are subjective. We need the objective truth of Scripture to anchor our hearts. 
• When weariness hits, stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. 
• Don’t ask your fearful heart what is true; tell your fearful heart what God has promised.

• David’s solution here was to just flee to Achish, king of Gath. 
• Remember David’s last experience there in chapter 21? He had to fake insanity in order to get away with his life.
• And now he thinks this is the better alternative to dying in the wilderness by Saul’s hand. 
• The difference now is he is coming with an army. And the Philistine king is delighted.
• And for the moment, it seems like David’s plan worked. Saul no longer sought him. The pressure is off.
• Years of running ended the day David stopped trusting God and made his own arrangements. 
• But that came at a tremendous spiritual cost. 

• This is how sin often works. There are short-term benefits and short-term relief. That’s why it’s tempting to compromise. 
• And some think, well it worked out, the ends justifies the means. But that’s not how the Christian life is supposed to be lived out.
• We don’t do things because we think they will work out, we do things because they’re right.  
• None of those benefits or experiences of relief that come to us because of our faltering faith and lack of trust in God are God’s blessing. 

DAVID GIVEN ZIKLAG

1 Samuel 27:5-7 

• David asks Achish for a town to live in and he is given Ziklag, a settlement in the southern country. 
• The narrator gives a short historical footnote that Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah up to the time he was writing this. 
• For a year and four months David lives in the land of the Philistines; sixteen months outside the land God promised him. 
• This is the same man that said to Saul that all of this chasing was driving him out of the presence of the Lord and into the service of foreign gods. 
• But nobody drove him out. He drove himself out. 
• Notice the tragedy here. David started by looking for temporary relief, but sixteen months later, he is in Ziklag. He didn’t just visit the wilderness of compromise, he moved in and made it his home. 

And that’s exactly what happens to many believers. They don’t set out to backslide. They just needed a break from the pressure, and the break got longer and longer, and now the thought of coming back feels much harder than staying away.

DAVID’S RAIDS AND DECEPTION

1 Samuel 27:8-12 

• David’s decision came with a massive price tag. He ends up living a double life. 
• David and his men raid the pagan neighbors of the region. All of these were ancient enemies of Israel, including the Amalekites, whom Saul failed to destroy in chapter 15.  
• So in one sense, David is doing what Saul failed to do, executing the judgment Saul neglected.

• But to maintain his cover with Achish, David lies, claiming he raided his own people in southern Judah. 
• Verse 11 tells us that the reason David left no one alive was so there would be no survivors that could report the truth.
• David’s motive isn’t zeal for God’s judgment or obedience to God. This is self-preservation to protect the lie he’s telling Achish. 
• “Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines.” (11) 
• When you build your life upon lies and deception, you have to defend your previous lies with more lies.

• Achish trusted David. That’s what David’s plan bought him, the trust of a pagan king who thinks he owns him. 
• In chapter 28 we see that it gets worse before it gets better for David. He will find himself in a difficult situation when he is expected to march out against God’s own people. In chapter 30, Ziklag burns to the ground when the Amalekites raid it while David is away.
• David has to hit rock bottom and only then do we see David turn again to the Lord. 

• But look at all the compromises to get to that place. He is tangled in a web of deceit, mass slaughter, and political maneuvering.
• He sought refuge in Gath because he thought he could not survive in Judah. And in doing so, he entered a moral mess of his own making. 
• 1689 LBCF 17.3 describes this exact reality in the chapter on The Perseverance of the Saints. "They may fall into grievous sins and continue in them for a time, due to the temptation of Satan and the world, the strength of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation. In so doing, they incur God’s displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit; their graces and comforts become impaired; their hearts are hardened and their consciences wounded; they hurt and scandalize others and bring temporary judgments on themselves. Nevertheless, they will renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end."
• David is the Lord’s anointed, he is a man after God’s own heart. But he is still plagued by indwelling sin. When he neglects to seek God, he falls into foolish decisions. 

• Where do you run when trials and temptations don’t end?
• Driven by anxiety, we often replace prayer with pure human strategy without ever seeking God or counsel from others. 
• But self-preservation without faith leads straight to compromise and compromise always carries a hidden price tag. 

• But we see the grace of the Lord! Through all of this, God never let David go. God didn’t bless David's sin nor excuse it. God worked right through it and brought his anointed back home. 
• What a comfort for us to know that God never lets his children go. 
• If your salvation depended on you never saying anything foolish in your heart, or you could lose your salvation by a lapse of faith due to fear or besetting sin, none of us would make it. 
• Your salvation doesn’t depend on the strength of your grip on God, it depends on the strength of His grip on you. 

• If the Bible were just a collection of moralistic fables, it would present David as a flawless hero, but it doesn't.
• Chapter 26 shows us what a godly king should look like.
• Chapter 27 shows us that even the best godly king is flawed and weak. 
• This contrast forces our eyes off of David and onto King Jesus.

• Consider how David’s life points us to the Greater Son of David. 
• Jesus was led out in the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Like David, he was weary and exhausted from hunger. Satan offered him a quick way to gain the kingdom without suffering, and Jesus resisted the shortcut. 
• We’ve seen David resist the shortcut twice, but then he took a worldly shortcut. 
• Jesus never did. He never succumbed to fear. He never spoke unbelief in his heart. He never compromised with the enemy. He stood firm in total obedience to the Father, even when obedience meant facing the horrors of Calvary. 
• David said in his heart, “I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul,” and he went down to Gath to save his life. 
• In Gethsemane, when the weight of his suffering pressed him to the ground, he did not take his own counsel. He prayed and said out loud what was in his heart to the Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.” 
• When Jesus faced his enemies, he showed perfect mercy. On the cross, as men mocked him and pierced his hands and feet, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 
• Unlike David, who lied and killed to protect himself, Jesus offered up his own innocent life to cover our lies, our cowardice, and our self-reliance. 
• Jesus took the cup of divine wrath, bore it fully, so that sinners like us, who often act like David in Ziklag, could be forgiven and brought safely home. 

• If your faith has felt weak lately, if you look at your life and see moments of deceit, fear, or worldly self-preservation, look to Jesus. 
• Your salvation does not hinge on the perfection of your faith. It hinges on the perfection of your Savior. 
• He is the faithful King who never falters and holds his people fast. 

CONCLUSION

• Consider how we should live in light of this Romans 7 reality. How do we navigate our Christian life where indwelling sin still fights against us? 
• Here are three simple postures for your walk this week:
• First, guard your heart after times of spiritual victory. 
• Satan often attacks or tempts us when we are tired, especially after a major triumph. Don’t let your guard down. Stay rooted in prayer, in the Word, and in fellowship with believers. 
• Second, stop listening to your heart and preach Christ’s promises to it.
• When fear speaks to you, talk back to your fearful heart with Scripture. Remind yourself of what God has said.
• Third, run to Christ, not Ziklag. 
• We’ve all tried taking a detour into our own version of Ziklag, where we try to fix our life through fleshly control, deceit, or worldly compromise.  In those moments we need to turn to the Lord whose grace is sufficient for us. We need to look to Jesus, our great High Priest, who was tempted in every way as we are, and yet without sin, and we need to come to his throne of grace. 
• God’s grace is deeper than our failures. 
• And he welcomes faltering saints and sinners with open arms. 

APPLICATION AND REFLECTION

In light of today's message....

• What did I learn about the gospel?
• How can I apply what I learned about the gospel to my life?
• With whom can I share the gospel this week?