We're turning in the Word of God to 1st Samuel chapter 30 this evening. 1st Samuel chapter 30, and we'll come into the narrative at the ninth verse of the chapter. It may feel a little disjointed, but we trust in our introductory remarks to the message that the portion will make sense to you. And so we're coming into the chapter, the verse number nine of 1st Samuel chapter 30. Let's hear God's Word. So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besar, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued he and four hundred men, for two hundred men abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besar. And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat. And they made him drink water. And they gave him a piece of cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread, nor drank any water three days on three nights. David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? And whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. He made an invasion upon the south of the Cherthalites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziglag with fire. And David said unto him, Canst thou bring me down to the company? And he said, Swear unto me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company. And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon the earth, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. David smoked them from the twilight even on to the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away. David rescued his two wives. There was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, or anything that they had taken to them. David recovered all. David took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before these other cattle and said, this is David's spoil. We'll end there at the natural break just of the chapter at the end of verse 20. Let's unite in prayer. And if you're a Christian, you pray that God will help in the preaching of the gospel tonight, even from this portion of God's Word. Let's seek the Lord again in prayer. Our loving Father, we are before Thee. We confess our great need. And yet we thank Thee that that was said, that Thou would supply our need according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We thank Thee for the throne of heavenly grace. For there it is that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Lord, we need mercy in this meeting. For those who are strangers to God's grace, who have no thought or time for Thee, we pray that as the meeting progresses, that Thy presence will be known in a very felt reality that everyone will become God-conscious as we make our way through the message, that help might be given to both preacher and hearer alike. We pray for Christ to be exalted, for His name to be glorified. We pray, O God, that Thou wilt be pleased to minister to hearts and to lives. And may this night be a night of salvation. May this night be a night of restoration. May all of our hearts be thrilled as we hear once again the glad tidings of the Gospel. Bless not only here but across the province. Add to thy church such as should be saved. Glorify thy well-beloved Son. May we know, dear God, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Assist me to proclaim. Fill me with thy Spirit. For I ask this in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. For sixteen months, David and his wives, along with six hundred men and their families, have been living in Ziglag, a town of the Philistines, seeking refuge from the murderous intentions of King Saul. A compromise by David to live among his enemies was going to place him between a rock and a hard place. Because in the previous chapter we find the Philistines mustering their troops together against Israel, David's own kith and kin. However, in jury to Gath's king Achish, who had given Ziglag to David as a place of refuge and asylum, David is found among the ranks of the Philistines on their march towards the field of battle. and recognized by the other princes of the Philistines, David, by God's providences, sent home again to Ziglag for fear that he would turn coat in the midst of the battle and slay the Philistines instead of his own countrymen, the Israelites. By the time we reach the end of chapter 29 of 1 Samuel, we find David and his 600 men starting on that three-day trek back home again. As they traverse the last valley and climb the last hill and round the last corner, David and his troops were about to be confronted with a scene of complete devastation. Ziglag had been plundered and set on fire, leaving nothing behind it but smoldering ashes. Chapter 30, the verses 1 and 2 recounts for us what happened. Because as while David was away with his men to fight alongside the Philistines, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziglag and smitten Ziglag and burned it with fire, and had taken the woman that tells us captives and all that were therein, and slew not any, neither great nor small, but carried them away and went on their way. As David and his men entered the city, there is no sign of life. Their wives and their children are nowhere to be found, and the response to such devastation is recorded in verse 4. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. That sorrow was soon to be turned into anger and then revenge. As David's men turn on David, They now speak of stoning him, stoning him to death. David, the man of God that he was, seeks the help of a priest, Abathur the priest, who would fetch the ethod to discern whether or not it was the mind of God for them to pursue after the enemies. Encouraged by God to pursue, for thou shalt without fail recover all, David rallies his 600 men and pursues after the Amalekites. By the time they reach the brook in Bezor, two hundred men are exhausted and left there, while David and the remaining troops continue to chase the enemy down. That brings us to 1 Samuel 30, in the verse 11. Within that account, and within that verse, we have the account of some of David's men finding an Egyptian servant who was at the point of death, who was involved in that particular raid upon the city of Ziglag. What occurs between David and this Egyptian, I believe, is a vivid picture of all that occurs between a sinner and David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. One has to think about this event in the life of this unnamed Egyptian and the details that we have about him in the verses 11 through to 16 as we view him and we view his change of allegiance. He becomes now a friend of David. having previously become a foe of David. In light of that, I have entitled this gospel message Under New Management. Under New Management. For that's really what occurs here in 1 Samuel chapter 30, as this young Egyptian now comes under the control, the governance, the care of David. That's what happens. whenever Christ enters in. That's what happens when a sinner comes to faith in Jesus Christ. There is a change of master. The sinner comes now under new management. Can I remind you this evening that there are no split allegiances? And there are certainly no split loyalties that are permissible when it comes to the matter of salvation. Jesus Christ said, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. If you're ever to be a Christian, a genuine Christian sinner, you must then come under new management. You must come under the governance and care of Jesus Christ, David's greater Son. To give a little structure to the message, I want us to consider the three personalities that we meet within this particular context, within the chapter this evening, draw some gospel parallels, and make some application to you in the gospel before we leave this house tonight. The first personality that I want you to consider in the gospel is this young man. This young man, I believe, is a fitting picture of the sinner, someone who knows nothing of God's saving grace. As we read the account here in 1 Samuel chapter 30, we can draw, I believe, a parallel between him and those who are here tonight who are unconverted, who know nothing of God's saving grace within their soul. The first detail that we have about this young man was that he was an Egyptian. His name is not revealed to us within the Bible narrative, but we are at least told his nationality. We are told that he was a young man who had come from Egypt, verse 13, and David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? And whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt. that mysterious land, that land that was full of dark magic. We know that it existed in the days of Moses. At least those magicians were able to replicate in some way a number of the miracles that Moses himself performed along with Aaron. It was a land where the sphinx and the pyramids cast their long shadow over the landscape. Often the land of Egypt is depicted by Bible commentators and by those who have read the Word of God and preached the Word of God as a picture of the world. It was certainly the place of bondage, we can say that, and hard labor. The Israelites were to know that. They came to appreciate that as a nation when they went down into Egypt, and the memory of their brother Joseph had long been forgotten. They served with hard rigor, it tells us. They were under bondage, under slavery. It was the place of pagan religion. It was the place of bondage, the place of superstition, the place of idolatry, the place of sin, the place of rampant sensuality and immorality. That is a place where that young man came from, the land of Egypt. And sinner in this meeting house tonight, it is from a similar place that you come from, because tonight finds you in the world, a world of sin. Tonight finds you on a spiritual level, a citizen of the world that is overrun by false and pagan religion. A world that promises its citizens freedom but only brings them into greater bondage. A world that is full of the most ludicrous and bizarre superstitions imaginable. A world of sin, a world of immorality, a world of sensuality, a world of idolatry, a world of superstition, and of sin. That's where you're fine tonight. You're not like the Christian. No, the Christian is one who has been called out of the world. He is a citizen, she is a citizen of a better country. Because the Christian is one who has taken a non-conformist stance with the spirit of this world. Be not conformed with this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. because you're off this world, this means that you are at odds with God tonight. Would you have come to appreciate that? Sit under the ministry and the sound of the gospel, that you're a worldling, you're off this world, a world of sin, and as such you are a stranger to God and to his grace. He was an Egyptian, something else about the young man. He was a servant, brought before David in the verse 13, and asked the question, to whom belongest thou and whence art thou? The young man's reply was, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. From his reply, we note that he was a servant. Now, we need to remember that a servant in Bible times had forfeited all of his rights and all of his freedoms to serve another. He was no longer a free man. He was a slave. He was a bondman, one who was governed by another. And surely in that detail we find once again a parallel between that man and every sinner. Because the sinner, you the sinner, you have forfeited your freedoms and your rights to serve sin. Sinner is one who is under the control of another. under the control of Satan, children of wrath, children of the devil. We read about the sinner's servitude to sin in Romans 6, verse 20. For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. King James II, on his deathbed, addressed his son. And he said, there is no slavery like sin, and no liberty like God's service. Is that monarch not right in those words? Think of the drunkard tonight who cannot resist the craving of alcohol. Do you not know of a more thorough captive than the drunkard? Consider the covetous man who toils day and night in order to gain wealth. Are they not but a slave? Think of the sensual man, the ambitious woman. Think of the worldly young person. Think of the immoralists. Are they not all slaves to their lusts and to their passions? They're servants to sin. And sinner, it is no different for you. For you are a servant to sin. A servant to sin and to Satan. If you deny that, then I challenge you to try at least a week to stop sinning. Try and stop your swearing, try to give up your lying, try to have done with your drinking, try to quit your smoking, and you'll soon appreciate that you're a servant to sin tonight, a bondman to it, held captive by the enemy. The sad thing is that men and women and teenagers and boys and girls that come to meetings such as this are slaves to sin and Satan, and they do not even know it. Sinner, you talk about your freedom. You say you're a free person. You tell me that you are your own master, and you tell them that the Christian is one who is a slave, and yet the Bible reminds me in Romans chapter 7, verse 14, that you're sold under sin. You're under sin's control. You're under sin's power. Oh, that a greater power would come. greater power than sin, a greater power than the enemy. Thank God for the power of the gospel. Thank God that the gospel is the power of God onto salvation. Oh, that that power would come tonight into that very soul of yours and deliver you from the bondage. Oh, the hard bondage, the hard bondage of sin, sinner. and deliver you tonight and bring you into the glorious and wondrous freedom that there is in Jesus Christ. O sinner tonight, it's time to be under new management." Note who this young man was a servant to. He was a servant to a Malachite. It was A. B. Simpson who wrote that Amalek was a type of the flesh. that is true. He was a descendant of Esau, and Esau represents the carnal nature. He was a servant to his own flesh, his own base desires. It's not true that, sinner, that you're a servant to your own lusts, your own passions, your own desires? Is it not the case that you, your fleshly appetites and your desires are given precedence over the matter of your soul's salvation? Is it not true that tonight the indulging of your flesh The indulging of that base nature of yours, that sinful nature, that carnal nature of yours is much higher on your list of priorities than the matter of your soul's salvation and the matter of eternity. That tonight your desires and your passions and your lusts is the thing that drives you to life? Is it not true that the pampering of your body is more critical than the pardoning of your sin? What a tragedy! that you're concerned more about a mortal body that will someday lie in some grave, and the worms will eat it, and your soul be lunged out into God's eternity, and you'll be lost forevermore. Understand it, sinner. I remind you tonight that he that soweth to his flesh shall off the flesh reap corruption. A servant to sin, a servant to the world, a servant to Satan. That's what you are tonight. A servant. You're not a free man. You're not a free woman tonight. You're under a hard task, master. It's time to come under new management. There's something else about this young man I want you to notice. I want you to notice in the third place that he was perishing. In verse 13, the young man, the Egyptian servant, reveals that three days prior to him being found by David and his men that he had fallen sick. In the intervening time, he has had nothing to eat and he has had nothing to drink because of his helpless state. I am told that you can live up to three weeks without food. But water is a much different matter. At least 60% of our bodies is made up of water, and that every living cell within our body needs water to keep it functioning properly. Some suggest that a person can live a week without water, but if exposed to extreme heat, three to four days is more realistic. Now notice that this man has been lying in an open field. He's got no shelter to protect him. He's been under the burning glare of the Middle Eastern sun. Then the sub-zero temperatures that came about with result of no cloud cover during the night. His life was about to be extinguished. He was about to go out into God's eternity. He was on the brink. He was in the brink of death. He's been three days. A man can live for three or four days without water. Here's a man on the brink of eternity. Then is the word not perishing an apt word? It is. He's perishing. Sinner, you are perishing. Perishing in your sin. Perishing without a refuge! Perishing without a Savior! Perishing without a sacrifice! Perishing! What a suitable word. It is how the Bible describes you. You're perishing in sin. God will say to you tonight that He is not willing that any should perish, and yet That is the state of you this evening, still in your sin. I put it to you, sinner, in this house tonight, that you're in danger of perishing eternally if you remain a stranger to the gospel, to the blood sacrifice, to the atoning sacrifice, to the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I mark a fourth thing about the young man. He was guilty. Note the young man's confession of guilt with respect to his role in the looting, ransacking, and destruction of Ziglag in verse 14. He says there, we, we made an invasion upon the south of the Cherthalites, and upon the coasts which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziglag with fire. By using that personal pronoun, we, that Egyptian servant was owning up to the part that he had played in the destruction of Ziglag. It was a confession of his past guilt. What had driven him to be involved in this? A covetous heart. The Tenth Commandment now broken. For there, with covetousness, he involved himself in this raid in Ziglac, and took away the spoil, and took away the goods, and took away the wise, and took away the children. He had taken them because of a covetous heart, and that meant that he had also broken the other commandment, Thou shalt not steal. In the eyes of God's courts, he was a transgressor of God's law. He was guilty. He was guilty of breaking the law of God, and his guilt was brought to his attention. What about your guilt? What about your guilt, sinner? Yeah, your guilt, your sin. What about those past offenses? What about those transgressions? What about those sins? What about those iniquities? What about those sins of yours that have never been confessed? What about those transgressions of yours that have never been subdued under the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ tonight? Is there not a guilt within the soul? A guilt of past sins still unforgiven? Oh, that it would drive you to Jesus Christ tonight. These are not present in your conscience this evening, a sense of guilt with respect to your crimes against the holy law of God and its lawgiver. Oh, that tonight that you would at least admit your guilt, seek the acquittal of that guilt with your respect to your crimes against God, lest on judgment day Oh sinner, think about it! Lest on Judgment Day those sins be gathered together and damn your soul into Christ's eternity. And then it will be forever too late. Too late to seek His mercy. Too late to seek His grace. Too late to seek His pardon. Too late to seek His forgiveness. I point you to a fifth thing about the young man, namely that he was misinformed. Let me explain what I mean by that point. This young man, when brought before David, thought that this man, David, was going to execute swift swift justice against him. Mark his request in verse 15. Swear unto me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master. You see, in the mind of this young Egyptian, David was an avenger and a destroyer. But he was misinformed about that because David was not going to destroy the young man's life. but rather he is going to save his life. And many a sinner has been misinformed by the devil, fed many a lie by the father of lies about the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells the sinner that Christ would never take them in. all their sins, with all their crimes, with all their past, the places that they've gone, the things that they have done, those things that they have seen. God could never forgive a sinner like them. They've been misinformed. For thank God, thank God the promise is that the blood of Christ cleanse us from sin, and that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, and that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. O sinner tonight, be not misinformed about the blessed Savior." You'll tell the sinner that the Christian life is boring, tedious, and satisfying, restrictive, and that God is a hard taskmaster who will destroy their life rather than give life. And yet, I remind you of the words of Christ himself, words that Christ spoke when he was on this world, and words that every believer have found true when they have come and trusted in Jesus Christ. Those words are found in Luke 9, verse 56. to see them. That's what he's come to do. He has not come to destroy life, but thank God to give life and to save life. And so if you're in this house tonight and up until this present moment of time you've been misinformed, don't allow misinformation from the devil. to be the basis upon which you form an opinion about Jesus Christ, but instead, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is a man that trusteth in him." This young man and all these things paint a very pitiful picture. Moving on from the young man, I want you to secondly think of that second personality. I want you to think of the old master. The old master of this young Egyptian servant has many similarities, I believe, to the wicked one. But let me give you just two. Can I say in the first place, just like the devil, this young man's former master was an uncaring master. When this young man fell sick, what did the old master do for him? Did he nurse him back to health again? Did he nurse him back to strength again? Did he place him on one of his wagons or on one of his horses and have him carried to a field hospital? Was he placed onto the care of some tender nurse? left with sufficient funds to compensate the treatment that he would receive. As I read this account, I read that he did none of those things. Mark the testimony of the young man with regard to his old master when he fell sick in the verse 13. He said, my master left me. My master left me. That was his testimony. That young man was profitable to the master for a little while. But after falling sick and unable to serve him as he once did, his master left him to die, to perish. I tell you, sinner, whenever the devil extracts from you a lifetime of sin, serving his purposes and using you to further his anti-God agenda, he will leave you to die in your sin. He will leave you to face the judgment alone, and he will leave you to perish eternally in a Christless hell. Certainly the wicked one, the devil, does not care for you. He doesn't care tonight that you're on your way to hell. He doesn't care tonight that you're headed for a Christus eternity. He doesn't care tonight that you'll be separated eternally from God and from those saved ones of yours, because he is an uncaring master. But although the devil does not care, Jesus cares. Jesus cares. He cared enough to leave heaven behind. He cared enough to take to himself humanity. He cared enough to live among the fallen human race. and to endure all the miseries of this life from birth to cross. He cared enough to climb a rugged hillside outside the citadel of Jerusalem. He cared enough to carry a cross. He cared enough to be kneeled to that cross and to be suspended between heaven and earth. as if, both said, abandoned. Abandoned by heaven, abandoned by earth. He cared enough to be stripped naked. He cared enough to be spat upon. He cared enough to be crowned with rough and sharp thorns. He cared enough to have his hands and feet kneeled to the tree. He cared enough to have his side riven. He cared enough that he would endure divine justice in all of its concentrated form in those three hours of darkness. when the Father poured upon His Son divine justice and payment for sin. He cared enough to be abandoned by the Father. He cared enough to be laughed at and to be scorned and to be spat upon. Oh, how much He cared for you and for me. He cared enough to become the sinner's substitute. He cared enough to become the sinner's surety. He cared enough to become the sinner's atonement. He cared enough to become the sinner's redeemer. He cared enough. He's so unlike the old master who just left him. Oh, that tonight God would open your eyes to the uncaring master that you serve and bring you to the one who cared enough that he would die for your sins and he would take the punishment that was your due. An uncaring master, but not only was the old master an uncaring master, he was a destructive master. It was under his old master's leadership that this young Egyptian ransacked and destroyed the homes of David and his men in that city of Ziglag, as well as carrying their wives and little ones away into captivity. It would be right to say that devastation and destruction followed in the wake of his old master. The devil is no different. He enters homes. He penetrates marriages. He infiltrates into communities. He captures lives only to leave a wake of destruction and devastation behind him. Whether that be by means of alcohol or drugs or adultery immorality. He leaves in his wake families and marriages and communities and lies broken and shattered. And how true then was the Savior's assessment of him in John 10 verse 10 when he said of the devil that the fief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. Sinner be in no doubt about it tonight. The devil will destroy your life. Sin will destroy your home, and your marriage, and your health, but most importantly, it will destroy your soul. He'll destroy it in this life, and he'll certainly destroy it in the world that is to come. I don't know if you have known someone within an abusive relationship, Maybe a husband being abused by a wife. Maybe a wife being abused by a husband. Maybe children being abused by a parent. I don't know if you've ever known of someone like that. Maybe you have. You've asked yourself the question, why do they not get out of that relationship? Why do they stay in such a destructive and a devastating relationship? Why do they not break with that relationship? Sinner, why do you remain in league with the devil? Why are you still in the relationship with him? Because surely that relationship is much more destructive than any relationship that is abusive in this world, although we do not demean it in any way or belittle it. Because that relationship, your relationship with the devil, will ultimately lead to your eternal destruction and hell if you will not break with the devil. so may sense prevail tonight. May there be a divorcing between you and the devil and sin and a siding with Christ tonight in the gospel, the old master. But having thought about the young man and his old master, I want to think in closing about the new master. I believe this new master, under whose care now the Egyptian servant had come, is a picture, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. David was everything that his old master wasn't. You see, unlike the old master who was uncaring, David cared. And rather than being involved in destroying the lives of others, David was engaged in sustaining life. When we think of the servant's new master, we would have to say then in the first place that he was one who demonstrated unconditional love. He demonstrated unconditional love. This young man was dying on the verge of eternity. He was wholly impoverished. And as a result of that, that Egyptian had nothing to bring to David. Nothing that would have merited David doing anything to help him out of that perilous state. And yet guided by a heart full of unconditional love, David brought this young man into his tender care. when God sees a sinner, any sinner, he finds an unworthy object to set his unconditional love upon. He sees nothing good in their past. He sees nothing good in their present. And because he is omniscient, he sees nothing good in their future. And yet, in an act of God's free grace, He sets his unconditional love upon the sinner, a love that draws them savingly unto himself. Christ displayed his unconditional love at the cross. Romans 5 verse 8, God commendeth his love toward us, that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4 verse 10, here in his love, not that we love God, but he loved us, and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. David came to him, set his love upon him. And Christ in the gospel comes and he sets his love upon the sinner. The question I ask is, what have you done with his love? Spurned it? Refused it? Rejected it? Despised it? And let that no longer be the case, but from this night, from this moment, let love lift you. Let that love draw you to Christ's wounded side. Let that love bring you into saving union with Christ, whereby you rest upon Christ's blood and His righteousness alone as your only hope of salvation. Something else that the new master did for this young man, he distributed unlimited resources. Famished and dying, the young man is carried into the presence of David. But instead of David flogging and whipping him, David fed and watered him. Notice with me that the young Egyptian man was not only given the basics of bread and water. We read of that. He was given bread and water. But we see that David went beyond. Out of his abundant wealth, he went beyond the basics of just bread and water. Because I read in the verse number 12 that he was given a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. It was more than he needed. It was more than he expected, and it was certainly more than he deserved. But you see, folks, he's now under the care of a better master. The Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of life and the water of life, and he is much more besides. And you'll find that sinner to be true on your coming to him, because out of his abundant wealth, he will open to you his unlimited resources of grace and of mercy as you come as a sinner to him. There's one last thing that we can note about the servant's new master. He dispensed undeserved mercy. We thought about the personal guilt of the young Egyptian with respect to all that had befallen Ziklag. David's seeking swift revenge could have easily put that young man to death. He was involved in it all. He admits to it. But instead of doing that, David dispenses mercy. Instead of killing him, David spares him and brings him under his loving care. God, as he looks down into this meeting, he sees your sin record. It would be his sovereign prerogative to cut you off this very moment, sinner. Yet tonight, in the gospel, he's willing. Thank God he's ready to dispense to you his undeserved mercy, because another has died in your place. that you would experience that mercy in the gospel. I want you to notice the request of the young man in the verse 15. He said, swear unto me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master. I can hear the young man saying to David, don't send me back to the old master. Surely you would think that this young Egyptian would have wanted to be there, of what we read on within the chapter. Because we read there in the verse number 16, that they were spread abroad, eating and drinking and dancing. Surely that's where the young man, with his beast desires, with his fleshly appetites. Surely that's the company that he wanted to be in. Surely that was the kind of living that he wanted to live in order to satisfy his beast desires and his sinful passion. Surely he wanted to eat and drink and to dance. But this young man didn't want to go back to that kind of living because that was the old life. That was the old life. David Don't send me back to the old master, because I've come under new management. I've come under the care and the love and the provision of a better master. Don't send me back to drink and to dance and to eat, because that's the old life. I tell you, if you're a professed Christian, and you're still eating and drinking and doing your dancing on a Friday night, you've never come under new management. You've never come under the control of God. You've never come under his fever. You've never come under his care or his love, because I'll tell you, sinner, if you come under his care, you'll never want to go back to the old master again. No matter how difficult the Christian road is, No matter what valleys God takes you down into, no matter what troubles come into your home, thank God you'll say, I've got a new master I love. I love my master. I will not go out free. You come under new management, better management. And from that day on, he just wanted to obey and serve the new master. Don't deliver me into the hands of my master. And thank God, those who come under God's care, those who are genuinely converted, thank God they're in the Father's hand and they're in Christ's hand. And they'll never come under the governance of the old master again. All things will pass away. All things will become new. The old life is gone. New desires, new passions, new interests, new goals, ah, new disposition of heart. Thank God all these things become ours as we come under the new master, the Lord Jesus Christ. When you come to personally experience God's unconditional love, And whenever you come to experience His unlimited resources that are at our disposal, when you come under the undeserved mercy of Jesus Christ in the gospel, you'll have no desire to go back to the old master again. Thank God you'll say, I'm under new management. So as I close, I want to ask you a question. There's a question that David asked the Egyptian when he first came into contact with him. That question is found at the start of the verse 13, and David said unto him, to whom belongest thou? It's a very simple question tonight. To whom do you belong tonight? Do you belong to Christ? Do you belong to the household of faith? Do you belong to the redeemed of God? Do you belong to the church of Christ, the blood-bought church? Do you belong to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? To whom belongest thou? Or do you still belong to Satan, the child of the devil? a child of wrath, a child of disobedience. To whom belongest thou when you belong to Christ? Thank God there's pardon and peace and provision found in him. You come under the care of the greatest master, David's greater son. And he'll provide for you more than you ever thought, not only in this life, but in the world and in the life that is to come. What a pathetic, what a pathetic picture this young Egyptian was until David passed by. And then all was changed. All was changed when David passed by. I tell you, sinner, all will change when the Christ of God passes by that heart's door of yours and you bid him enter. Jesus is passing this way. Oh, that tonight you would come under new management. and say, I am Christ's. I have left the old master, and I now submit to Christ's governing and governance of my life. May God bring you to Christ, and may God save you by his matchless grace this evening. Let's bow our heads in prayer. I wonder, have you been pictured in this Egyptian, sold under sin, a servant of sin, perishing, helpless, hopeless, one who has been left Well, tonight God, in his mercy, has sent a message to your heart that Jesus Christ is passing by. Tonight he wants to save you, deliver you from your bondage and from your sin. He wants to bring you under his care. wants to bring you into and under His love. Oh, may tonight you come to the Savior. May you be saved from sin. Oh, walk the road of repentance and trust in Christ. If I can help in any way, we'll be at the door. Speak to us. Don't go on in your sin. Maybe you're like this Egyptian on the verge of eternity. make sure you become acquainted with Jesus Christ and the gospel. Our loving Father and our gracious God in heaven, we thank thee for the day that David passed by this Egyptian. We thank thee, O God, that in pity and in love he dispensed undeserved mercy and grace. and opened to him all the treasures and all the wealth and all the resources that was there and required to sustain life. We thank thee for what Christ does in the gospel, how he passes by in our sin and finds us a pathetic wretch about to go out into God's eternity with no refuge and with no hope. And yet he opens on to us the storehouses of his wealth and grace and mercy, forgives us of our sin and our repentance from sin. Oh, that tonight that Christ would do that for sinners in this house. Bless thy word in all of its weakness and use it, O God, to the glory of God and the salvation of sinners. We pray these are petitions in and through Jesus, precious and worthy and wondrous name. Amen.