It's a privilege to be here with you again this evening. Our reading of God's Word is 1 Samuel 27, verse 1 through the second verse of chapter 28. 1 Samuel 27, 1 through 28, 2. Please bear with my voice this evening. I've been sick this past week and you can maybe hear my voice is a little scratchy. but by God's grace, I've got 30 minutes in it. 1 Samuel 27, beginning at verse 1. But David thought to himself, one of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand. So David and the 600 men with him left, and went over to Achish, son of Maok, king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him. Then David said to Achish, If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you? So on that day, Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months. Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites. From ancient times, these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt. Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish. When Achish asked, where did you go raiding today? David would say, against the Negev of Judah, or against the Negev of Jeramiel, or against the Negev of the Kenites. He did not leave a man or a woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought they might inform on us and say, this is what David did. And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. Achish trusted David and said to himself, he has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever. In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, you must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army. David said, then you will see for yourself what your servant can do. Achish replied, very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. This ends our reading of God's Word. Perhaps you have had the experience of reading a book or of watching a movie, and as you've gotten a long ways into the story. You feel like you have gotten to know one of the characters very well. You've seen that to get to know what this character is like, what kind of actions this character performs, what you can expect from this character next. And then all of a sudden there's a turn in the plot. Something unexpected happens and suddenly this person who you may have thought was a good guy, someone you were rooting for, suddenly turns out to be a bad guy, someone who was working for the enemy all along. Sometimes writers can build great drama by drawing us to sympathize with a certain character and then suddenly make our sympathies vanish. As we read this story in 1 Samuel 27, we may be tempted to think that something like that is going on with the character of David. If we had been reading this story up to this point in 1 Samuel, we may think that we've gotten to know David pretty well. When I was here a few weeks ago, and I preached from the earlier chapter, I suggested to you that 1 Samuel is in large part the story of two kings, Saul and David. One king, Saul, was the king whom Israel chose. A king like the kings of the nations all around. Not a king like the king that God had instructed them to set up for themselves in the book of Deuteronomy. A king of God's own choosing. But he was a king of their own choosing, according to their own wisdom. And Israel learned more and more as the story goes on. Just how bitter it can be to live under such a king. But God raised up another king, David. A king after his own heart. The kind of king that Israel, God's covenant people, really needed. A people who could bring true deliverance, true salvation to God's people. And most importantly, could show God's Old Testament people what their greater King must look like. For David showed them who the Lord Jesus Christ would be. Their great King. Their King who once and for all would bring in everlasting salvation. And up to this point in the story, we've seen David in so many different situations. We've seen David in so many ways respond righteously to very difficult situations. We've seen him exhibit courage, fortitude, obedience to the Lord. And in the previous couple of stories, he has shown great humility, great gentleness. Perhaps you remember the story from 1 Samuel 26. David walks into the camp where Saul is lying down asleep. Saul is there before him. David's men want him to kill Saul. And yet David withdraws his hand. He will not lay his hand on the Lord's anointed. If there's anything that should be clear to this point is that David is a loyal servant of his God and he is the servant of Israel. And if there's another thing that should be clear is that David is a man who exhibits great humility and gentleness. And yet as we come to this story in 1 Samuel 27. It seems that these things go right out the window. David, the great servant of Israel, goes over and lives with the Philistines. David, the one who exhibits such great gentleness and humility, does things to the peoples of these lands that seem brutal and violent. Perhaps we have not known David. Perhaps David is not really the king that we thought that he was. Well, as we look at this chapter together this evening, I think we will find that in fact that is not the case. It is not the case that we have misunderstood David. That David is not the king after God's own heart. But there is more to David than we have yet seen in 1 Samuel. There is more to David that we have to know. David is more complex than we may have thought. And the reason why we need to learn more about David is because even in this passage, difficult as it is in so many ways, we are seeing more about our Lord Jesus Christ. We are learning more about what kind of king He was and what kind of kingdom that we have been brought into as those who trust in Him. Let us look first at verses 1 through 4 of 1 Samuel 27. As we look at these opening verses, the first thing that strikes us perhaps is how strange and how unexpected are the moves that David makes. Now, in chapter 26, we saw a David who seems fearless, almost to the point of being foolhardy and reckless. He has walked into the camp of the Philistines with only one other companion. When Saul, I'm sorry, he's walking in the camp of Israel, when Saul is there surrounded by 300 men. and yet here the first thing that David does is say to himself one of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul the best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines you see David seems to throw out his bravery and courage David seems to have a sense of fear and so he goes and he leaves the land of Israel where Saul is pursuing him the second thing that seems so strange and unexpected here, is where David goes. David does not simply go to the land of the Philistines, who are at this point the archenemies of the people of Israel, but he goes to the city of Gath. Does the city of Gath sound familiar to you? Do you remember anyone else who was from the town of Gath. Goliath. Goliath was from Gath. Goliath the giant who challenged and defied the armies of Israel whom David went out and destroyed. If you would try to imagine one city on the whole globe where David would not be welcome, where David would fear for his life, It would seem to be Gath. And yet this is where David goes. And the question comes to us as we read these opening verses. Is David defecting? Is David going over to the army of the Philistines? We could understand it. His own king is pursuing him and trying to kill him. But wouldn't this seem to ruin all of God's plans? Wouldn't this seem to ruin the story if David, this king after God's own heart, defects to the enemy at this point. One of the things that is going on through 1 Samuel is that the author, by the inspiration of the Spirit, is helping us to see the difference between David and Saul. Helping us to see how different is the king whom Israel chose. The king like the kings of the nations all around. And on the other hand, the king whom God has chosen for his people. And even in these opening verses, we can see Saul and David drawn even further apart. We can see these two in their stark differences. Notice a couple of things. Notice in these opening verses just how evil Saul appears. Think about David's situation. David feels so unsafe. David feels so endangered in the land of Israel under the reign of Saul that he feels safer in the land of Gath, in the land of Goliath than he does in his own homeland. Just think how wicked and unjust Saul has become. On the other hand, note how great David has become. Throughout 1 Samuel, Saul always has trouble with the Philistines. Whenever Saul faces the Philistines in battle, bad things happen. Saul acts foolishly. Saul does stupid things. Saul has little success against them. And yet, look at David as he goes before the Philistines. Look at how he comes on his own terms. How he comes, boldly even, Now, it's not that long before, actually in 1 Samuel 21, that David actually fled earlier to the Philistines for a very short time. Perhaps you remember that story. David went to Gath for a brief time, and he was dragged before the king of Gath. And he was so afraid that he actually pretended that he was insane. He started letting saliva run down his beard, started scratching the doorposts. And it actually worked. The king of Gath said, don't I have enough madmen in my kingdom? Send them away. But now look at how David comes. David comes and he comes openly. And he doesn't just come by himself, but he comes with all his men and his men bring their families with him. David comes not as a cowering refugee, but he comes as one who is powerful, as one who seems established, as one who indeed has not lost all of that courage that he showed in the previous chapter. And you see, this seems to heighten the question before us. Is this great king, is this mighty man really one who would defect to the Philistines? what tragedy it would be if indeed he was doing so. As we move to the next part of this chapter, indeed, the heart of the story before us, verses 5-12. As we look at these verses, what we learn is that David is indeed not defecting to the Philistines, even though he is going for a time into their country. He is not giving up who he is. He is not giving up his mission. In fact, David by going to the Philistines and doing the things that he does is in fact showing himself to be the true king of Israel. He is asserting himself as the one who belongs on the throne of God's people, accomplishing the purposes of his God. And he is doing this through reclaiming land that rightfully belongs to Israel. and showing authority over a king who has no authority to rule in this place. Now, in order to understand this point, we need to go back in the story of God's people Israel. Remember when God brought His people out of Egypt and He brought them into the Promised Land. What did He command them? He commanded them that they were to wipe out all of the people who were in the land. All of the cities, all the peoples, without mercy, man, woman, and child. All of their animals to be wiped out, annihilated. Why were God's people required to do this? They were to do it because in doing so, they were showing forth the things of the final judgment. As Israel went forth into that land, they were claiming a small piece of land as the kingdom of God here on earth. A land in which there was to be purity and righteousness. In which there was to be no idolater. No immorality. No one to lead God's people astray. They were showing forth in that way what is going to happen on the final day when our Lord comes again to cleanse not a small part of this earth, but the entirety of this earth. When He is coming to establish His heavenly everlasting kingdom once and for all to bring in a new heavens and a new earth in which there will be no more sin, no more immorality, no more idolatry, no more rebellion. God was giving to His people a picture of the greater cataclysmic things that were to come on that last day. But you see, Israel failed. Israel was disobedient. Things started out pretty well. During the days of Joshua, they began to wipe out many of the cities. We read about that in the book of Joshua. But as we get just a little ways into the book of Judges, we find that the people again and again failed. They didn't wipe out all of the peoples. They didn't fight against all those whom they should have fought against. They let some of these people stay. And in fact, in Judges chapter 2, God came to His people and He condemned them for what they had done, for their failure in this regard. And He said that these people would be a snare to them. They would put them to the test. They would put them under trial to see if they would be obedient. Or would they lead them astray to all sorts of sin and rebellion? And you see, this was an ongoing problem for Israel. Through the book of Judges and now through the book of 1 Samuel, they are troubled by the peoples that remain. The peoples like the Philistines who continue to fight against them. Who continue to lead them astray and to worship false gods. And so as we come here and see David entering into the land of the Philistines, interacting with other non-Israelite peoples in this place, we should remember the task that was originally given to Israel. For you see, David is in part fulfilling that task. When David comes and fights brutally against these people here, he is not setting a moral example for us. He is not showing us today how we should interact with our non-believing neighbors. What David was doing is acting as Israel should have acted from the very beginning. He is reversing the failure of Israel. He is taking upon himself the duties of a true king of God's people. Remember, the Philistines and the Philistine king had no right to be there. These other peoples living in these lands had no right to be there. They should have been wiped out centuries before. In previous chapters, in previous chapters in 1 Samuel, David has shown us something of the gentleness and the humility of our Lord. When he had Saul in his hand twice and refused to lift up his hand against him, but waited on the Lord's timing for his deliverance, he showed us something of our Lord Jesus' patience and gentleness and humility. We need to know that about our Lord. we need to know that when He came the first time, He came not with a sword. He came not to wreak vengeance upon His enemies, but He came in humility to bear our sin, to endure the wrath of man against Him, to endure their insults and their blasphemies and indeed the cross to win our salvation. We need to know that about our Lord. And David has shown us something of our Lord in this way. But we also need to know that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. And He is coming again not with mercy, not with gentleness, not with patience, but He is coming with justice and with wrath and with vengeance upon those who do not know Him. Now is a time of mercy, of repentance. But there is a time when there will no longer be opportunity for repentance and mercy. And as David comes and he shows the fierce wrath of God against the enemies of Israel, he is showing us indeed something of the wrath of our Lord on that last day. Let us look at some of the details in verses 5-12 and see how David shows for us the superiority of his kingship, the authority that he has, even as he seems to earthly eyes to be in banishment, to be a refugee. The first thing to note as we compare David to Achish, this king of the Philistines, is that David is always the one taking initiative. Achish is always the one reacting. Remember, Achish thinks he's in control. Achish thinks he's the king of this land. And yet it's David who comes to Achish and he says in verse 5, to give me a place, assign a place for me in one of the country towns. And in fact, Achish listens to David and does what he asks. We also read in the verses that follow, beginning in verse 8, That David goes and he raids towns. He raids peoples. He does what he wants. And then Achish asks him, what have you been doing? And David tells him. Actually, he lies to him. But you see, Achish is not in control. Achish thinks he is. But David is the one who calls the shots. David is the one who is taking the initiative time and time again. And notice as well that Achish is completely deceived about what David is doing. Again, Achish thinks he is the one in the know. That's what a king should be. But he is completely wrong about David. One thing that Achish thinks about David is that David is his vassal. A couple of times, he makes mention of David as his servant, as his bodyguard. He thinks David is working for him. But in fact, David is off doing his own thing. You notice, David is going and raiding the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites. Enemies of Israel. But when he reports to Achish, what does he say? that he's raiding against the Negev of Judah, the Negev of the Kenites. Achish thinks that he is raiding Israelite towns or allies of the Israelites. And so Achish thinks that David has become a stench in the eyes of his own people. Notice in verse 12, he says, he has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever. But of course, that is not at all what is going on. David is not raiding his own people, not putting his own people to death. In fact, on the contrary, he is asserting what the true king of Israel should do, which is fight against the enemies of his people. One final thing to note that displays David's superiority to Achish. Achish thinks this arrangement is permanent. Notice in verse 12, Achish says, David will be my servant forever. In chapter 28, verse 2, Achish says, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Achish thinks he has David in his hand forever. But notice what the author of this text does. He alerts us right from the get-go that this is temporary. This is not going to last. In verse 7, The author tells us David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months. Just for 16 months is David going to be living in this land. But perhaps the most striking thing in this section of the text is what we read in verse 6. In verse 6 we read, On that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. Ziklag was a town that is deep in the heart of Judah. Ziklag is a town that belongs to the people of Israel. The very fact that Achish had this city to give is a sign of the failure of Israel, a sign of the sin of Israel. They had not taken the land as God commanded. And yet as David goes into Achish's territory and as the city is given to him, we are told that it has reverted back to Israel forever and now belongs to Israel and her kings, now and in perpetuity. David has reclaimed land for God's people. David has begun to reverse the failure of Israel, has begun to reverse the sin and rebellion of his people. David is a true king. David is the sort of king that God's people need. He is one who will win deliverance from the enemies of God's people. Well, the story ends in the first two verses of chapter 28. It may seem odd that I read into this chapter, but it's really not until verse 3 of chapter 28 that the next story begins. Now, these next two verses, in a sense, set the stage for what is yet to come at the end of 1 Samuel. You see, to this point, we're not really very encouraged about the cunningness or the wisdom of Achish, king of Gath. Achish doesn't seem to be quite on top of things. And so Achish is probably not showing his cleverness at this point, perhaps just from his naivete. But he acts to put David in a very difficult situation. For we read in these opening two verses of chapter 28 that the Philistines, presumably under Achish and the other leaders of the Philistines, gather to fight against Israel. And Achish says to David, Come on, you're going to fight with me. That puts David in quite a bind, doesn't it? Here he's been carrying on this ruse, fighting for Israel, but making the Philistines think he's fighting for them. David is going to have to show his true colors. What is he going to do when the Philistines and the Israelites come into battle against each other? Did you notice David's answer in verse 2? David says, then you will see for yourself what your servant can do. That's a nice ambiguous answer, isn't it? Yes, what will you do? And precisely at this point, the author cuts off the story. And he transfers our attention back to Saul. And the very interesting story of Saul meeting the witch of Endor. David is left hanging, and we are left hanging, wondering what David will do. It's a story that will get picked up later in chapter 29. But as we come to the end of this passage before us, what can we conclude about this story? This in many ways puzzling and troubling story about David. Certainly we must conclude that David is by no means a perfectly righteous king. In 2 Samuel, we will learn that David is a murderer, an adulterer, a man who doesn't know how to discipline his children. David is not a perfectly righteous king. And even in this story, his deception towards Achish, the lies that he tells seem difficult to justify, certainly not models for us to follow in our dealings with the people of this world. and yet when David goes and he plunders and even destroys these pagan enemy peoples, the Geshurites, the Gerzites, the Amalekites, those who are living within the boundaries of the promised land, we do not look at David as one who is being unnecessarily violent, brutally rebellious against God. but instead as one who is showing forth our Lord Jesus Christ. Not in His first coming, but in His second coming. This is part of our Lord Jesus Christ, a part of His kingship that we need to understand. For the time being, people of God, we are called to live in peace with our unbelieving neighbors. We are called to live at peace with our enemies as far as it remains with us. We are to seek the purity of the church. We are to seek a pure congregation, free from idolatry, free from immorality, free from rebellion against God. And we are to preach the Gospel. We are to call our enemies, to call our unbelieving neighbors to repentance, to trust in the Lord Jesus that they may escape the wrath of God on the day that is to come. As long as our Lord delays, as long as it is still today, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, we are to preach the Gospel and draw in the nations. But we are also to remember that there is a day when the Gospel will no longer go forth. There is a day when the present age will come to an end. And on that day when our Lord is revealed from heaven, He will come with glory. And He will come with wrath. And He will come with a sword. And there will be no more time. No more time to repent. No more time to believe. No more time to bow before the Lord Jesus and to confess that He is Lord. On that day, those who are rebellious, those who are His enemies, will be destroyed once and for all. And the Lord will establish a kingdom forevermore in perfect righteousness and holiness and justice. For now, let us be grateful for the day of God's patience. Let us be sure that we have believed. And let us call the nations to believe and to turn and to join us in confessing Christ. But let us also look forward to that day that is coming. It is hard to imagine. It is hard to picture. But let us be grateful that on that day when our Lord comes, that we are on His side. That His enemies are our enemies. And that He will do justice and righteousness. And that we will rejoice to see His name vindicated and His justice done. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we give You thanks that You have given to us Your Word. O Lord, You have given to us some passages that are so easy to accept, so easy to believe. And yet you also give us others that are difficult, in which things happen that we do not understand, things that we would not like to witness with our own eyes. Lord, we thank you for giving us your entire word. And we pray that we would strive to believe all that is written. That we would strive to put into practice all of those things that you have called us to be and to do. Oh, Lord, we thank You for our Lord's first coming. We thank You for that amazing gentleness, for that amazing patience, for that amazing love as He endured the insults and the physical abuse of sinful men and went even to the cross to bear our sins and to win our salvation. But, oh Lord, may we also set our eyes upon that coming day, upon that day in which we will see Him come not in humility, not as a carpenter, but He will come as a great warrior destroying His enemies and bringing us into that everlasting kingdom of justice and righteousness and peace. Oh Lord, may we look forward to that day may we as a church be all the more eager to proclaim your gospel may we do it faithfully so that many may turn to you and be saved while there is still time but oh Lord we pray with your saints through all history come Lord Jesus come oh Lord may our hearts be ready for that day may we not be left unprepared We pray this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.