Again, 1 Samuel chapter 22, we're preaching through the life of David. And I'm going to make an announcement here. I have two DVD messages by Brother Davis on intimacy in marriage. They are not messages that I would show here at church because they're really addressed to married couples, okay? But they're good. You know, there's a little bit in there I wouldn't do just like he did, maybe, but that might be, doesn't mean I'm right about everything, but there's a lot of good in them. If you're hearing a married couple and you're interested in seeing those, get ahold of me or have Sister Connie to order them for you. She can order them through Solving Family Problems. Or you can order them yourself, singly as a DVD. But I would encourage, it's kind of Valentine's Day coming up, and I watched one of them last night. And like I say, they're not for just a general church service or anything. They're for married couples to watch. And I will say this to you, they're for you and your wife to watch. That's what it's for. And that'd be a great thing to do, and I would encourage you. I'm recommending it, okay? Not recommending everything that he says or everything the way he does it. I am recommending the general situation. One time somebody got up and preached here, and there was a great message and everything, and I got up. There was a couple of things I didn't agree with in the message, but I got up and said, you know, I just agree 100%. What I was talking about, I agreed in general with the 100% generally. Well, I got attacked. By saying you said you got a prince said you agreed a hundred percent and then boy I'm gonna tell you what so I'm getting around just gun-shy to say anything because there's no way I can win if I say this then there's that and if I say that is that and it's just you know, I could say I don't agree with maybe everything the way he goes about it or the way he says it but there's I Still say that I could separate the alfalfa from the weeds. I And I know you can too. And I just wanna encourage you because I'm a strong believer that strong marriages make strong families, strong families make strong church, strong churches make a strong nation. And I believe that. Now, before I start preaching today in 1 Samuel 22, I wanna tell you tonight, I'm gonna preach on the life of David. I'm gonna go back to chapter 18 and go forward to chapter 22. And probably you folks have seen what I'm gonna mention tonight. I never did all my life see some things that I saw about David's life. And I believe it's in those chapters that you find the seeds of disintegration that caused David great trouble down the road in his life. Sometimes a man's strongest points are also his greatest points of vulnerability. The area where you're the strongest is the area where you're liable to fail the first and greatest. And David, I never caught this in all of my years. I'm 63 years old and I've read the Bible quite a bit. In fact, I go to sleep at nights now. I literally go to sleep listening to 1 Samuel because I'm just filling my heart and soul and mind full of David's life. And the Holy Spirit pulled something up out of Scripture and said, Reg, you see that? Lord and the Lord, I never noticed that before. And I wanna preach on some of that tonight, just the life of David. It's gonna kinda be a grazing message. We're just gonna kinda take off on the scriptures and go through and just mention different things. It won't be a centrally themed message. But the reason I say this, I think it'd be very wise for you to be here because it shows what we can do and be even as saved people that wrecks us, that train wrecks us. And it just really spoke to my heart because Brother Ralph, I could see myself and some of the problems I've had in my life as a result of what some of the mistakes David made real, real early on and that I never cut. Most people focus on David's sin with Bathsheba, but I'm telling you, it started way back there. It started way back there. And we'll get into that tonight. Second, first, I mean, sorry, 1 Samuel chapter 22 and verse number one. And the Bible said, David, therefore, departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Dulam. Now, if you have room to write on your Bible, I would write down Psalms 57 and Psalms 142. Those two Psalms were written while David was living in this cave. You didn't know cavemen wrote letters, did you? They did. The Bible talks about them living in caves and dens of the earth. And David wrote two Psalms while he was in this cave of Adullam. And if you want to really get a picture of where he was at, what was going on in his heart, the struggles he was having, how God gave him victory in the midst of these struggles, how God's mercy was poured out to him in spite of his failures. and his fears, it's great to read those passages of scripture. And it said, he escaped to the cave of Adullam, and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him, and he became captain over them. And there were with him about 400 men." About 400 men. Father, I pray, help us to preach the word of God and feed the flock of God and give the gospel today of the Lord Jesus Christ given here in this text. In Jesus' name, I pray for your glory. Lord, save people here today in this service. Amen and amen. David is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible now when you're reading your Bible from Genesis to Revelation always look for Christ and Christ in the Old Testament is typified by sacrifices offerings a lot of that by the tabernacle, but he's also typed by People Joseph is the greatest type of Jesus Christ in the Bible a forerunner or foreshadow of Jesus Christ Moses is Samson is believe it or not, but David is also a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ and Now, there are layers in David's story, his life. One of them is just what we call the surface level layer. It's just the story that's there, all that he was going through. The second layer is how you and I can apply it personally to what he's going through for you and I to learn how to handle life, how to respond to life. of what we go through. These things, the Bible said, were written aforetime, back here, for our learning that we might, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, have hope. What's God saying? God is saying that you can go back to David's life, you can read it and study it, and you can get hope and wisdom and comfort and knowing that God will take you through, even though you may have failed him, messed up, done what you thought you'd never do, God still will take you through and God will show you many things that will give you hope and bore you up and hold you up in the midst of your trials and troubles of life. But thirdly, there's a prophetic view here. Now, I told you a couple of weeks ago when David killed Goliath in the valley of Elah It is a picture of the future when Jesus Christ, our greater David, will slay Satan and the Antichrist in Revelation 19 at the end of time, at the end of the tribulation period. Not the end of time, but the end of the tribulation period. He is a picture of Jesus Christ conquering the Antichrist. Remember Goliath was a 666? Remember that it was a rock, Jesus the stone cut out of the mountain, sunk in. Remember he's cut his head off the sword of the spirit. All those things are in Revelation 19. It is a pre-prophetic picture of what's gonna happen in the future between Jesus Christ and history being written in advance. So, in this passage of scripture here today, you have a picture of Jesus Christ in history and what's going on during that time. And actually what we call this time in David's life is David's rejection. Now, I'll get to that in just a little bit more, but again just saying that David is a very important Old Testament type of Jesus Christ. Now I'm going to cut here for just a little bit and say this. Not in everything David does, not in everything that happens to David, is he a picture of Christ. It is in certain situations the Holy Ghost makes him a foreshadow of Jesus Christ, okay? Certainly, whenever David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he's not a picture of Christ. Follow me? Okay, everybody with me on that? Now, the Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ came to this world, born in Bethlehem, lived a sinless life, suffered and died for our sins on the cross, was buried, and on the third day rose again. He ascended back to heaven. But in reality, this world rejected Jesus Christ. The Bible said he was despised and rejected of men. I will tell you right now, Jesus Christ, now David, watch this, David was loved beforehand, right? He was honored. The women sang his praises. Saul hath killed his thousands. David hath killed his ten thousands. He's honored and lifted up. He's in the palace. But now all of a sudden, that popularity and that fame and that acceptance is totally gone. He is by himself. He is in a cave in the wilderness with nobody but God. I want to tell you about the practical application of this. You may get saved and everybody's happy, happy, happy, and they're thrilled for you. And everybody's your friend and your buddy. Did you know there'll come a time in your Christian life it's just going to be you and God in the cave? You're going to experience rejection, not just from the world, but from within the church. You're going to experience rejection. Just as well get ready for it. It's the way it is. It has a purpose, and the purpose is to draw you to Jesus Christ and to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. And it's through suffering, and suffering of the grief, the rejection, and so forth. But here's David, in rejection, right? He's in a cave. No friends, no family, nobody. He's in rejection. Jesus Christ, right now, as far as this world goes, is in rejection, and he is in exile. That's a fact. You say, Reggie, really? Well, I want to ask you something. What does America think about Jesus Christ, apart from the Christians? Where's Jesus Christ in our courts? Not there. Did you know you cannot use an attorney? If an attorney uses a Bible in his presentation, this is what you'll see in cases. If he uses a Bible or quotes scripture in a case, that case can be whacked. The judge can whack that case. Where's Jesus Christ in our legislative chambers? In our laws. Where's Jesus Christ in our educational institutions? Out. Where's Jesus Christ in our, I mean, you just take major segments, where's Jesus Christ in the media? Out. Woe be to the person who mentions the name of Jesus Christ in the news media. Woe be to the person who prays in the name of Jesus Christ publicly. won't be to the person who would proclaim Him as Lord of Lords and King of Kings in our educational system. Right? And even in our churches, Jesus Christ is exiled. He's put out. I always liked the story of the old boy who decided he'd go to church, you know, and he just, he's dirty as he could be and, you know, he'd been an old bum and he walked up church. I started to come in and the deacon stopped me and said, you can't come in looking like that. He said, go home and get cleaned up and you can come back to church. And the old bum went out in steps and said, Lord, I wanted to go to church. They won't let me in. The Lord said, don't worry about it, son. They let me in there in 50 years. Amen. If you ain't careful, this whole world puts Jesus Christ out. You go around the world. What about Europe? What have they done with Jesus Christ? What about the Mideast? What about Asia? What about Africa? The world has rejected Jesus Christ by and large. Alright? So that's where you're at in this picture. Now Christ is a picture of a rejected Redeemer, but what we're going to have in here, and I'm going to preach a message on this subject, the rejected regiment. The rejected regiment. Notice that there was 400 people that came to David in that In that cave and those 400 people are a picture of the kind of people God saves while Christ is in exile and it also is going to tell you our place in this world as Christians While Jesus is in exile But Jesus is returning someday, amen? He is returning as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. But just for today, I'm gonna mention just in general some primary things in passing in David's life from chapter 17 with Goliath up to chapter 22, where he's not there. First of all, in 17, he kills Goliath. After that, he makes a covenant with Jonathan, Saul's son. It's a covenant with Jonathan, a friendship covenant, a love covenant. Then he is made famous in Israel, the Bible said. He is lauded and paraded and glorified and lifted up around the whole nation. He has set over the men of war, exalted up, and at that point, the Bible said that Saul became wroth with David. Now I want to tell you something right here. The moment in your life that you decide, I'm going to come full out for Christ, I am not going to be ashamed of Jesus Christ, and the moment you start doing something for God, killing Goliaths, taking a stand, verbalizing your faith, your popularity is going to get over with. Jesus Christ, the first year of his ministry, when he was healing everybody and feeding everybody, the crowds followed him. He was famous in Israel. But when he began to tell the truth about what was going on at the temple, and to tell the truth about what was going on in their religious facade, he began to be hated, and the Bible said that the multitudes left him. Did you know that by the time Jesus Christ got to the cross of Calvary, who was left to be with him? His mother. Maybe in John, one disciple. You know, when the Apostle Paul, he said, I'm now ready to be offered in the time that my departure is at hand, did you know what the Apostle Paul said? All have forsaken me. He didn't have a friend left. You mean Paul, all those people you led to Christ, all those churches that you preached at, all those people you established in Jesus Christ, they've abandoned you? There is a, now listen, this is not to have a pity party, but there's a principle in the scripture. You're going to come out for Jesus Christ, and if you think you're going to make everybody happy because you got saved, you got another thing coming. And you may have a period, you may have a honeymoon period. But eventually, if you take a stand for Jesus Christ, and you say, you know what? Because I'm a Christian, I'm not doing this anymore. And because I'm a Christian, we're going to take care of this and get aligned with the Bible about things. The next thing you're going to find out is this person will peel off, and this person will peel off, and this person will peel off, and this family member will peel off, and this friend will peel off. And pretty soon, you're going to be standing one day in the middle of your house going, Lord, is there anybody left? So he's I'd he's a solid Roth with him He eyes David the Bible said that word means he became jealous of him And let me say to you if you're going to go out win souls to Christ and you're going to do something for God How many knows what that does to people who aren't doing that? It condemns them so then to cover their condemnation they're going to start calling you holier-than-thou and You make up your mind you're going to dress like a Christian ought to dress, and you're going to act like a Christian ought to act, and you're going to do the things a Christian ought to do. You're going to bring condemnation on people who are not doing what they ought to do. And they're going to peel off on you, and they're going to accuse you of being holier than thou, radical, bigoted, prejudiced. Super spiritual, those kind of things. So here's what happened. The honeymoon's over. Saul attempts to kill David now. He wants to put him out, get rid of him. The Bible said jealousy is as cruel as death, and brother it is. Saul is crazy, and he's crazy because he is so out of touch with God, he gets loony. And he makes up his mind, he's going to give, by the way, how many picked this up in the scripture? Remember what David was promised? He asked, what will happen to the person who kills Goliath? He'll get the king's daughter, his family will be free, and Israel will not forget it. I mean, there's a whole list of things. How many recognizes that none of that happened? Saul lied like a dog, he didn't do any of it. But now that there's trouble comes, Saul decides he's gonna give his daughter to David, but he said it for a purpose. I'm gonna destroy him with my daughter. Then he doesn't give him that daughter, gives her to another man, and then finally gives him Michael, the second daughter. But even in that, he said she would be a snare to him. And you know the story. He's in there in the palace, and Saul's got a javelin, and he tries to kill David with the javelin repeated times. David finally flees from Saul. Jonathan comes out to meet him and tries to get him to realize all dad's not going to kill you. That's not he said I don't think so I think your dad's out to kill me So he goes back does a test comes back and said yeah It's over with and when you get into the last part of chapter 21 you find out that it is over with David leaves for I mean it's over with between him and Saul and between him and people the kingdom All right, and he leaves out and he goes into basically what we'd call exile. There is a final break and Now what I want to preach to you this morning is about this, this regiment that comes in chapter 23. The Bible said that in verse number one it said, all his father's house heard it and they went down to him. And then everyone that was in distress, everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented. Now these people, and there's 400 of them, now watch this, the Bible said they came to David once they heard about David being alone down there in this cave, they came. This is a picture of people in this world who will come to Jesus Christ while Christ is not here, while Christ is in exile. And it's an amazing to me statement in the Bible. It's a beautiful picture of those who leave the world, who leave the kingdom of this world and the ways of this world and are willing to, watch this, willing to leave all that and go to a cave or to a guy, to a person who has nothing. Can I tell you something? When you get saved, you gotta be willing to leave this world and go to Jesus Christ. if there's nothing to benefit you other than your salvation of your soul. Who is this regiment of 400 people, this group that comes to David? Who is it that he becomes captain over, that he becomes their redeemer, their savior, their king? And you'll learn something about becoming a follower of Christ here, and let's find out who these people are. Because David is a type of our Lord, and those coming to him during his rejection and his humiliation represent those of us who come to Christ at this time, Think about this with me for a second. Who was it that came to Jesus in the New Testament? Was it the Pharisees? Mm-mm. Was it the Sadducees? No. Was it the lawyers? No. Was it the doctors? No. Was it the political leaders? No. Who was it sought out Jesus Christ? The blind? the maimed, the poor, the common people, the nobodies in society. And I want you to keep this in mind as we look at these people. The humble would come to Jesus. Even Nicodemus, who was a ruler of the Jews, what did he do? He slipped to him by night. He was afraid for other people to see him come to Jesus Christ. But other people who were poor, maimed, lepers, blind, dumb, halt, they'd come to Jesus. They could get to him, they'd get to him. People that had issues would press through the crowd to get to him. They didn't care what you thought. They didn't have a bunch of pride about, you know, becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you, that's the kind of people comes to Jesus today. First of all, there's what I call the despised. The Bible said his brethren in all his father's house, what a statement. Who is Christ's brethren in all his father's house? We are, the saved. The Bible said David's family, by the way, here's what, why would David's brother in all his father's house come down to David? Association, who they were, who they identified with. You know, today in Muslim countries and when Hitler was in power, you see, it wasn't just you. If you were an officer in Hitler's army and you begin to show disloyalty, you know how they kept the disloyalty from coming? They knew that they'd kill your family, they'd arrest your family and put them in a concentration camp if you dared whisper anything wrong. They kept everybody in line. by association. And what happened was David's brethren and his family knew we're David's kin, and there's not going to be a place for us in this world's kingdom. And you know what? We're gathered here this morning. The truth about it said, this world is not our home. The Bible said, what's this? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore would be the friend of this world is the enemy of God. That's a strong statement. Friendship with the world is enmity with God and that bunch knew they said if we don't go down to David We're probably going to get killed by Saul We're his family. You know something this world is never going to be your friend You say what you want to it's never going to and That's why we have such a fight about not upsetting the world because we want to be accepted by the world So we're not going to do anything to upset the world. We want to go to heaven sure We want to be following Jesus Christ, but oh my goodness. We're not going to take no stand nowhere and They're despised. I want to tell you this, the world despises Christ's brethren today and they despise the Father's house. Friendship with the world is enmity with God.