faithful to the Word, and faithful to each heart, and to glorify Thee in the preaching of Your Word. We ask this in Jesus' precious and wonderful name. Amen. Amen. Two weeks ago, when we were in the life of David, we came to a very dark chapter of David's experience, and we noticed a number of very serious declines until we found this one-day king in the presence of King Achish, the Philistine, and to escape from whatever was before him, he acted the madman. and we learned of how he just behaved like an animal, the spittle running down his beard, scrabbling on the doors and walls, and of course the king says, get this fellow out of here, and he was gone. Now in that we have a very sad scene. not a man who's walking with God, not a man who is trusting in the Lord. And of course, we came to that passage in the Psalm 56, what time I am afraid. I will trust in thee. And there appeared to be in that psalm a turnaround in David's life. But we certainly learned that fear is the Christian's enemy. And we know that the fear of man bringeth a snare. And we have to acknowledge tonight that each one of us is just a page away from fear. Fear may stalk us. We may have the fear of the future, the fear of our own inadequacies, and many things may really haunt the assurance of our faith. We know too that faith is not a solid thing. Faith is not like bricks and mortar where they just solidify into place and there they stay. Our faith is more like water. and the tide rises and the tide goes down. And there are those periods when our faith is high and we can fight our Goliath boldly. And then other times like David, we are running like a rabbit, running from one fearful situation to another. And so don't be surprised if your faith is not always on the up and up. You may and no doubt will have your moments of doubt and your periods of fear. But I think we can all testify that the best days of a Christian are those days when we are full of faith. And praise God, that can be our, well, most common experience. We read of Stephen, he was a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. And those two things go together. Our faith is fueled by the Spirit of God. Faith doesn't come out of our flesh. Faith is not something that we produce. We are dependent upon the life of the Spirit of God pouring in the oil of grace that we may have strong faith. And so over chapters 20 and 21 in 1 Samuel, we're going to write guilt and shame. We're gonna write that right over those two chapters, guilt and shame. But when you get to chapter 23 especially, chapter 22 is sort of just filling in the gaps. Chapter 23 especially, we can write guidance. So the chapters 21, 22, guilt, chapters 23 and maybe a little bit into 22, guidance. And we're going to see this marvelous advance in David's godly life. Every step God is going before him as he leads him. Now very quickly turn with me to chapter 23 verse 2 and you'll have David seeking guidance. And David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go and smite these Philistines? And he gets the guidance that he needs. And then in verse four, when his men are objecting to this, David inquired of the Lord yet again. So there he is in prayer, seeking God's mind, and he gets it. He gets it. Then down in verse 11, And he asked the Lord, will the man of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard, O Lord God of Israel? And the Lord said, he will come down. So you can see now the switch from guilt in the past to guidance. And this is a whole new chapter in David's life. He's resigned. He's confident. He's not like a fugitive anymore. He's a leader of men, and he's a man of prayer. Now, as I search these passages, I notice that this change, this turnaround for the better in David's life, happened in the cave of Adullam. Now let's go back to chapter 22. When David got out of the Philistines' grasp after feigning to be mad, and Achish said, go get him out of here, we're told in chapter 22, David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And it was there that somewhere around 400 men, They were troubled men, disheartened men, hurting men, and David became a leader and a minister unto them. Now, if we were to visit this cave of Adullam today, we would need to travel along the road in the Valley of Elah past the site where David slew Goliath. It's up on those hillsides in a peak of Judea, and it is very near Gath. And this cave of It's really called today Tel Adolim in Hebrew, which means hill of Adolim. And if you were to look at a map of it, you would see that it is rolling hillsides. And this is a peak that goes about 500 feet above the rolling hillsides that are below. And you've got this panoramic view of green groves that have been planted. and also sparse pines that have been planted by the new residents of Israel after 1948. They had a reforestation program in that area and this is now parkland. It is a national park that is preserved and visitors and tourists and so on can visit there. And it's in that area, in that hill, that this cave of Adullam is located. Now, I try to look at a number of pictures that have been set up. There's a number of websites and so on that provide pictures and little video clips of the scene of Adullam and so on, and I try to gather what it's like just to be there at this cave of Adullam. The amazing thing is that there is no large entrances. One I noticed would just be about head height, and it was just like a gravel pathway down into the cave, into the rocky area. No massive mountain by any means. This is not the Himalayas. It's not the Rockies. It's not like going to Banff, all those huge mountain formations. These are just rolling hillsides. probably more like what you would see looking over Lake Okanagan, where you have sparsely treed areas, dried tall grass. You have rocks sticking out of the ground, rolling rocks that are worn and aged looking. And that's the kind of scene that you have. And no wonder that in chapter 22.5, that this cave of Adullam is just called a hold. It's not the kind of place you want to live for long. I noticed in one of the pictures that a traveler had a flashlight. You don't go far into that cave until you're in pitch darkness. It's not Some people say they're very large, and there may have been interconnecting entrances. And that'll be something I would have been concerned about, that if David led his men and there was just one entrance, well, Saul or someone could just trap them right in there. But if there are interconnecting entrances and other ways of escape, that might change things. Now, in that cave of Adullam, chapter 22, verse 5, Something happened. This is the event that I think changes the life of David at this point. The prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold, depart and get thee into the land of Judah. And what I notice here is that God is speaking to David again. He sent him a prophet. Now remember, these are the days where there's no Bible. These are the days when speaking prophets and writing prophets were God used to speak to his people. And so, on scene in the cave of Adullam, Gad appears. G-A-D is his name. And right there, David is given new guidance, and the word is, don't stay here. You stay here, Saul will get you. And so David departed, and he came into the forest of Harith. And so we can see that David now is walking with God, and he has anew in his life the Lord's help, and the Lord's strength." Well, how precious this is. How invaluable to every Christian and to us as we seek to walk with God and serve Him. Now, David found God's favor in a cave. That tells me that we can have God's favor anywhere if we're willing to open our hearts and do business with God. And no matter how difficult the circumstances, you can have the Lord directing you and guiding you. That's certainly what we see here. And I want us to note the steps of David's spiritual renewal. It started in the cave of Adullam, but we're going to look at chapter 22, And verse 23, and here you will see that fear is turned to faith. Fear is turned to faith. Now, if you were in the meeting two weeks ago and you heard the message, you would have known how David was so controlled by fear. He fled from Saul He fled from Jonathan. He fled from Samuel. He was on the run like a fugitive, always driven by fear. But how reassuring is this word at the end of chapter 22, where he says to his priest, Abiathar, abide thou with me, fear not. What a difference. And you remember that text that we learned in Psalm 54, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. And as Saul's murder plot thickened, David's faith strengthened. That's the wonderful thing. The more that the enemies pursued him, the more it drove David to seek God's help and to seek God's power. Now, what other windows into this event do we have? Well, let's turn to the Psalm 34. And you will notice something in the inscription at the head of Psalm 34. A psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech. Now, for some reason, this name Abimelech is achish. It is that Philistine King, where David played the madman. And so this Psalm 34 was written after that event and perhaps in the cave of Adullam. Many commentators certainly state that. Now, Psalm 34, if you know it, and we'll point it out just in a couple of places here, is a psalm that deals with fears. Look at verse 4, I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Verse 7, the angel of the LORD encompeth round about them that fear him. Now that's a different kind of fear, of course. One is the fears of man, of danger and so on. Then the fear of the LORD. the angel of the Lord encampeth around about him." What a reassurance. And then verse 9, the appeal, Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no one to them that fear him. And verse 11, Come, ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What an insight This is to the heart of David, God's troubled servant, not only hunted but in his own heart for a long while plagued with fears. And here's the antidote. Here's the answer that we find right here. I want to quote you what Matthew Henry said on this. David's prayers helped to silence his fears. Having sought the Lord and left his case with him, He could weight the event with composure. God can do that for us too. And there may be those things that we tremble and fear of. We wonder what the future's going to bring to God's work, the gospel ministry, or our own individual cases and our own walk. And here we find that the fear of the Lord is the answer. During our week of prayer, the Reverend Myron Mooney preached on the Thursday morning, and he preached on this subject, the fear of the Lord. To me, it was the message of the week. It just spoke to my heart so quickly, so straightly. And this is so vital, that we be a people who really live not in the fear of man, not in the fear of circumstances, but the fear of the Lord. I was so blessed by the Reverend Mooney's message that I wished, number one, I'd recorded it and I'd wished I'd taken more notes on it. And I emailed him and asked him to send me his notes that I might go over those things again. Now, he said during his preaching that morning that he never got my previous email when I had asked him to preach through the week, and he sort of teased me a little bit, saying that it was very short notice for him. So I'm not totally surprised if he didn't get my email. I may have to call him. But please take note here. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, of wisdom. It is the answer to so many things in the Christian's life. Now, Mark 2 of David's renewal, he returned to a life of prayer. Let's go to chapter 23, look at these several places in this chapter where we see David praying. And you have the word inquired, verse 2, therefore David inquired of the Lord. These are great days for David when he's in prayer, when he's on his knees asking God for guidance. And the thing to note here, that he's asking for guidance at each step. Should he go up? And then when he is up, should I stay? And if I don't stay, where do I go? Now, let's look at these verses just together as we see David in prayer, inquiring of the Lord. He says in verse 2, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? Now, it really was Saul's prerogative to deal with the Philistine invasion. Saul was the king. Saul had the army. He had a much larger army than David had. And it may be that he would jeopardize his life and his men's life by getting into a battle that Saul should have been resolving. But such was his love for his country and for the people of Keilah, who had been invaded by the Philistines, their harvests were being stolen, that David sought God's face, Shall I go up? And the Lord said unto David, Go and smite the Philistines and save Keilah. Now, you'll notice in verse 3 that David's men, his warriors and commanders, they weren't so sure. And, of course, they were putting themselves in a very difficult situation where they might get sandwiched with the Philistines ahead of them and Saul's army of 3,000 men coming behind and his 400 or 600-man army seeking to drive off these Philistines. What if the Philistines are strong? What if Saul comes up the rear and they are destroyed right in the center? And so the commanders, the men are not so sure. What does David do? Goes back to pray again. Verse 4, David inquired of the Lord yet again, and now he gets an even more clear word. The Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I," oh, this makes the difference, I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And I don't know what the commanders thought, but David was going. And up he got, verse 5, David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines. So the Lord gave them good success and the Lord helped them through. Now, In that verse 5, they drove them off. Verse 6, you will see another area where God rewards David for his prayer and his asking. It came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. Now, you know what the ephod was? Worn by the priest. sometimes the high priest, and it was the instrument by which God revealed His mind and His will to Israel. It sometimes included that Urim and Thummim, that set of stones that the priest wore, and by some lighting effect, that's about as much as we know, God spoke to his people by that means. And here you will see David is on the path of God's direction. The Bible says that the path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day. That if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us. So as you step out in God's will, it leads to greater light and greater light. That's the pattern we see right here in the life of David. Then down to verse 10 is another event where David gets on his knees and cries out to God for guidance. Then said David, O LORD God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard? O LORD God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant." And the Lord said, he will come down. And David said, will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? Will they betray me? Now remember, David had just delivered them from the Philistines, saved the city. And now he's asking the Lord, if I stay here, will these men of Keilah hand me over to Saul in a treacherous manner? He feared that, obviously. Oh, he had learned the rot of human depravity. Do not trust in men. And he asks the Lord. And the Lord says, yes, these men of Keilah, don't trust them. And the Lord says, get away. And from there they went where they could. And so again, the Lord was wonderfully delivering and answering the prayers of David. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord step by step, constant seeking God's face. When are we going to learn this? How long do we have to be in the Christian life before we get a hold of this truth? and stop trusting in our own wisdom? Do we not need to hang our heads in shame of the foolish decisions we make at times because we don't take everything to the Lord in prayer? Well, you mentioned, well, I prayed about step one, and I asked God, should I go in that direction? But did you ask the Lord again? And when you went into a new situation, did you ask the Lord again? That's what we must do as the Lord's people. Not just pray when we're in the bunker of trouble, but pray at every step that we might truly be led by the Lord. Mark number three of spiritual renewal is that God turned to David in great deliverance, daily deliverance. Look at verse 14. And David abode in the wilderness and strongholds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day. There's that old Saul, that hunter, that incensed, mad Saul seeking David's life every day. I can just see the devil of that in our lives. There's not a day the devil gives up, but God delivered him not into his hands. And every day we need daily deliverances. Every day we need the Lord to lead us out of temptation, out of evil. And we need to be kept by the power of God through faith. Number four now, the mark number four of spiritual renewal is David's major escape. And that again is attributed to the Lord. And if you look at verse, well, let's begin at verse 19, verse 19. The Ziphites, and here is a story in itself. This area of Ziph is really very close to Adullam. If you look at a Bible map, you will see that a number of these locations, Adullam, Ziph are all up in that same little range of mountains in Judea. It's about 13 miles from Bethlehem. It's only a couple of miles from Gath. And it's all in the same little mountainous area. And in those areas David was hiding, Saul was hunting him every day. When you get down to verse 25, you will see that Saul is closing in. And as I say, this is not the Himalayas or this is not the Rockies where you can be miles and miles apart. These things are in very close proximity. And a scout could soon send the signal. He's here! Come and get him! And when you read these verses down in verse 26 in particular, Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain. Now, when it says mountain, you've got to think of a rolling hill. This is not some huge, snow-peaked, rocky mountain. This is just a rolling, rocky, barren-looking mound of a hillside. And there is Saul on one side and David on the other. And in this event, David made haste to get away for fear of Saul. This was real. This was not a phony fear. This was reality. Saul was closing in. The net was closing on David. And his men compassed David. He was surrounded. He was outnumbered. He was outmaneuvered. And you could say he was outmounted. He had nowhere to go. And at any moment, David's whole band of men would be in Saul's net, doomed to death, to certain annihilation, and the blood of every man would flow on the side of that mountain, for David was absolutely set on their total destruction. What could David do? Well, let me take you to Psalm 54. This is another psalm that was written by David in the heat of these events. Psalm 54, and you'll notice right up there at the head, to the chief musician of Neganoth, Maskell, a psalm of David, when the Zephims came and said to Saul, David doth not hide himself with us. And so the Ziphim are betraying David, and this is the time of that whole event at Ziph. And when you read Psalm 54, what a prayer. Here's not only David on his knees, but you're going to hear his prayer. Save me, O God, by thy name. And judge me by thy strength. Hear my prayer, O God. Give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul. They have not said, God, before them. Behold, God is mine helper. The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. He shall reward evil unto mine enemies. Cut them off in thy truth. I will freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. For he hath... Here's the prayer of faith now. He hath... delivered me out of all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies." Did God answer that prayer? Well, let's go back to 1 Samuel chapter 23 and verse 27. In that hour when David was surrounded, when he cried to God for help, verse 27 says, there came a messenger unto Saul saying, Haste ye and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land." And when that word came to Saul, out of a sense of panic, he called off his army, he called off the hunt, and he took his men in a new direction to face the threat of the Philistines. And David, without a sword being drawn, without a drop of blood being lost, was saved by the providential workings of God at the cry of David in prayer that day. And so the whole event was turned into a mighty item of praise. Verse 28, Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Selah Hamalukoth. And, of course, it means a rock of divisions. Saul on one side, David on the other. But by his pleading in prayer and that mighty deliverance, the Lord saved his life. What is the mark of a Christian when they have God's help? Deliverance. Deliverance. from different serious situations. And I think every Christian has a number of stories where God delivers you from impossible situations unless God intervened. I have. I could stay here all night to tell you stories of God's help. in what seems to be impossible situations. I wanna give you Paul the Apostle's statement on this. Just a couple of verses, I'll read them to you. Colossians 1.13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. 1 Thessalonians 1.10, and to wait for a son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. And 2 Thessalonians 3, 2, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith. And then 2 Timothy 3, 11, persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. What a great testimony of God's servant in difficult times proving God's mighty, wonderful deliverance. I'm sure if I talked to you one-to-one, you would have your story of a time when the Lord just came. I didn't know whether to go to the right or the left. I had no idea how to answer the problem. and the Lord stepped in and heard my cry. And you took it to the Lord in prayer, and he answered in a very signal way." This is the power of prayer, and this is the God whom we serve tonight. And we learn from David that we've got to get rid of our fears of man. Fear the Lord. and trust Him in every situation of life. Let's sing in our closing hymn tonight, Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord. Hymn 517. Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach me thy way. Thy gracious aid afford, teach me thy way. Help me to walk aright, more by faith and less by sight. 517 Let's stand to sing. For my faithless life, lead me with heavenly light, teach me thy grace. When I am sad and tired, teach me thy grace. When earthly joys depart, teach me thy grace. When doubts and fears arise, lead me thy way. When storms or strenuous skies, lead me thy way. Guide through the cloud and rain, through sorrow, war, and pain. Be thou my pathway. Long as my right shall last, teach me thy way. Where thy law be cast, teach me thy way. Lord, we praise Thee tonight for the mercies of the Lord. And we know that it was Your plan that David would be king. We know that You watched over him, and You were merciful to him even in his times of fear, but how You rewarded his faith and heard his prayers. O Lord, we thank Thee that You are faithful, and we pray we may prove Thy faithfulness in the week to come and in our service for Thee. Thank you for this gathering. Thank you for this time in your Word. Make it to bring forth fruit in every one of our lives. And now dismisses with thy blessing, may the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with your people now and ever. Amen. Amen. Oh. How are you doing? I was concentrating.