I want to speak this morning on the subject, the right type of soldier for the Lord's army. We're turning to 1 Chronicles chapter 12. Two verses from 1 Chronicles chapter 12. Verse 8. And verse 15, and of the Gadimes, there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness, men of might, men of war, fit for the battle. that could handle shield and butler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as a rose upon the mountain. Verse 15, These are they that went over Jordan in the first months, when it had overflown all his banks. and they put to flight all of them of the valleys, both toward the east and toward the west. Just for a moment, let us consider the historical setting of this passage from the record of the Book of Chronicles. was rejected. The young man who had conquered Goliath of Gath, who had put to fight the regiments and battalions of the Philistines, the ancient enemies of Israel. The young man who was brother-in-law to King Saul, The young man of whom the woman of Israel sang, Saul has slain his thousands, but giveth his tens of thousands. He was now in exile. He was no longer the popular leader, the great captain, the mighty man of valor. He was no longer the subject of the nation's song or the object of the nation's praise. He had fallen from his pinnacle of power because of the machinations and hatreds and jealousies of King Saul. And he now was a poor exile with no power, with no army. and evidently with no prospects. He was driven out into the wilderness. He was in a stronghold in the desert, waiting for the last battle with Saul for his very life. And in those days when David's son had In those days when David's popularity had gone, in those days when it seemed his prospects were blighted and blighted forever, there were still those that believed in him. They believed in his person, they believed in his prospects, and they believed in his future. They believed that he was destined to reign, that someday Saul with all his strength and power would topple and fall, and that King David would rightly mount the throne for which he had been anointed. And in the days of David's exile, a few people took up his cause. identified themselves with David's person, threw in their lot with David's poverty and rejection, and stood by David in the hour of his temptation, in the hour of his trial, and in the hour of his affliction. David is a perfect type of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ, the rightful monarch of this world, came to this world and it rejected Him. He came to His own nation, the Jewish nation, and they rejected Him. The Bible says He came to His own and His own received Him not. The Lord Jesus Christ is no longer upon this earth. He's ascended far above all principalities and powers. He has taken a seat on the throne of God in heaven. But as far as the world is concerned, he's a reject. He's an exile. He's an unwanted king. The world doesn't believe in the kingship of Jesus. The world doesn't believe in the final triumph of the cause of Christ. The world thinks that the prospects of Christianity are eternally blighted. The world thinks that there's no future for the cause of the saint. But in these days when our Lord is now rejected, In these days when the prospects of Christ seem dark, and the future triumph of the cause of the gospel seems an impossibility, thank God there are those who identify themselves with the cause of Christ. Throw in their lot with the rejected Nazarene, because they believe that someday Jesus Christ shall sit upon the throne of his father David, and the kingdoms of this world shall own the sovereignty of the throne of Christ. And the kingdoms of this world, saith the book, shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign. We today identify ourselves with the exiled King. We today throw in our lot with the Lord Jesus Christ, King David's greater Son. It may seem as far as the world concerned that there's no future for His kingdom and no final triumph for His cause. And yet in our hearts there is an almighty faith that sees beyond the darkness, that sees beyond the evil. that sees beyond the human impossibilities and sees the day when the cause of Christ shall finally triumph and all men shall acknowledge Him to be Lord of all, King of kings and Lord of lords. There are two things then, having sketched the historical background and the direct parallel with David and the Lord Jesus Christ, there are two things we should consider this morning. First of all, we must consider the great captain, King David, and the greater captain, King David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we want to look at the companions, those that joined themselves to David. We want to notice their characteristics, the type of people that identified themselves with the cause of David. And we want to see the type of people that God wants to identify themselves with the cause of Christ. We will look first at the great captain. Why was it that these people were prepared to give up their own prospects and their own positions and their own families and their own loved ones to go away into the wilderness and to identify themselves with an exile with a branded rebel against King Saul? Why was First of all, because they knew that David was the anointed of God. Many years before old prophet Samuel had taken a long journey to Bethlehem. He had gone at the dictates of heaven. For God had told him to go and find old father Jesse and his family. For among the sons of Jesse was to be the anointed King of Israel. Samuel made his journey and they landed the sons of Jesse before him. And God said to Samuel, none of these men are mine anointed. And he said to Jesse, is there no more sons in your family? Oh, Jesse said, there's a young lad about 16 years of age. He's a nonentity. We didn't even call him to the family festival. He's a shepherd. He's minding the sheep in the wilderness. Samuel said, we shall not eat until he comes and is sent for David. And David came from following the sheep, a young man of ruddy complexion. because the breath of heaven had stirred up the blood in his cheeks as he had guarded the sheep of his father in the wilderness, pastor. And you know what God says, arise and anoint him for he is my chosen one. Man looks from the outward appearance, God looks from the heart. They had heard that David was God's anointed. And we have heard this morning that Christ is the anointed of heaven. In fact, the word Christ in the Greek, Messiah in the Hebrew means anointed. And away in eternity before the hills in order stood the earth received her freedom. Away before this world was thought of, away in the untrodden mysterious past eternity, God anointed His Son to be the Savior of the world. And we today join ourselves to Christ because He is the anointed of God. We are sure of His anointing. And because he's the anointing of God, the divine appointment will eventually be fulfilled and he shall sit upon the throne governing the nations and ruling them with a rod of iron. The second thing that these men moved to David for was because they knew that he had a personality fitted to the great task of kingship. My, they had heard of the exploits of David. They had heard of his strength as a captain, of the uniqueness of his leadership, of the strength of his faith. It had been written down in the annals of their day how he had overthrown Goliath of Gath, when Saul was afraid, when the great man of Israel's army was afraid, how this young shepherd boy with sling and stone had met the great Goliath of Gath, a man of war from his youth. and how he had overthrown them in the valley of Edah, and how he had cut off his head and brought back the gory head of Israel's enemy in his hand. I had people not sung about the exploits of this young man David. They had heard of what David had done to deliver Israel. And praise God we have heard of the exploits of Christ. whose arm is like the arm of Christ, breaking the chains of sin, breaking the iron of filthy habit and evil living, changing and transforming lives by the power of His everlasting gospel. We have heard of the power of Christ, but thank God we have experienced it in our own lives. We have met Him. He has changed us. We have entered into the experience of the book that all things have passed away and behold all things have become new. And the things that we once loved, praise God we hate them today. And the things that we once hated, praise God we love them today. Why? because Jesus Christ has worked a miracle of transformation in our hearts. I look down on this congregation. I know this history, this spiritual history of many of you, because I led you through the preaching of the gospel to Jesus Christ. There was a time when you never frequented God's house. There was a time when you were chained and tied. and the chains of sin and the habits of evil, and the dark thoughts of guilt. But praise God this Sunday morning you're clothed and in your right mind at the feet of Jesus. Why? Because you've met with the transforming Master, with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. These men aligned themselves with David because he had a personality fitted to the task of kingship. What's true of David is true of Christ. These men allied themselves to David although at this particular time he was rejected. Let me say something to you friends. We follow a rejected Christ. That's why the Bible says, let us therefore go unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. The world is not going to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. The world doesn't care for the Savior and his claim. They will trumple in his precepts. If he walked again this earth, they would spit upon his face and buffet the very countenance of heaven. A Scottish preacher once entered his pulpit on a Sunday morning and he said, the virtue came down and incarnated itself among man. Man would be so moved by the nobility of its character that man would follow the path that virtue draws. It was a flowery sermon, but it was false to the core. In the evening, his associate minister mounted the pulpit and he said, this man and brethren, virtue did come down to earth, and virtue incarnate did walk among the sons of man. pilloried virtue, and eventually put virtue incarnate on a cross, and drove the kneels through the hands of Christ, who was virtue personified and virtue incarnate. Don't you believe the world's going to follow Christ, for they're not? Don't you believe of the masses? are going to turn from their sin and follow the rejected Savior. Our Lord is now rejected and by the world disowned, by the many still neglected, and by the few enthroned. The world is basically in eternal hatred against Jesus Christ. And men, because of sin, are at enmity against God, says the book. They're not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. And yet, although the masses were not going to turn to David, these few men turned to David even when he was rejected. When the cause of Christ is despised, that's the time to stand by his God. Let me tell you a parable. You'll get its meaning. A king had one son. He sent him on an errand into a far country. When he came to the far country, although he was the prince of that country and its legal monarch and sovereign, the people of that country rejected him. They put him in the pillory. They sneered at his claims, they buffeted his body, they spat on his very face. But there was one man in that country that acknowledged the king's son. And when the king's son was buffeted, he took the buffets for him. When the king's son was sneered at, he identified himself with the sneers. When the king's son was spat upon, he stood and took the spittles and identified himself with the king's son. The king's son returned to the father's house, and the father sent for the man who had identified himself with his son in his humiliation. And one day when the court was in session and the king was on his throne and his prince beside him, the king summons all the peers of the realm and the great men to stand Through the open door of the great palace came the man who had stood for the king's son in the day when the king's son was rejected of man. And as he stood before the king's throne, the king gave him the greatest honors of his realm. It is a parable, friend. I trust you've got its meaning. The king's son today is unwanted in this world. There are sneers for Christ. There are blasphemies for Jesus. There's all the ignominy and shame of his rejection. There are men in the very pulpits of this land who tear asunder his gospel, who despise his person, He denied the purity of His birth, the vicariousness of His blood-shedding on the cross, the reality of His rising the third day according to the Scriptures. And if you identify yourself with Christ, you'll receive all the shame and all the spitting of an age that hits us. Praise God, there's a better day coming for the people of God. When the word of Christ will be fulfilled, he that is ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed of him in my Father's house. But he that confesses me, I will confess before my Father and the holy angels in the day of judgment. Will you identify yourself with the rejected Christ? Just a few words about the companions of David. Look at that. Eighth verse of 1 Chronicles 12. And of the Gaddites, they are separated themselves. The first characteristic of the companions of David was this, that they were separated. They were separated. This is the great doctrine that needs to be preached today. The people who are going to follow Christ must be a separated people. What, said the companions of these men, will you separate to the ragged regiments, to the bandits of David? Yes, said these men, we will leave our homes, we will leave our positions, we will leave our places, and we will say to David, Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse. Let me tell you, friend, God is looking for a separated people. The people that are going to make soldiers in this battle need to be separated unto the Lord. They need to know separation from the world. The world holds out its inviting hands. It lures us in to buy path metal. It presents as gold its gilded bubbles, and it says, come with me for pleasure and enjoyment. The man that follows Christ must rigidly set his face against the world. The church that would do battle for God must be a church that is separated in deed and in truth. The world today said, Horatius Bonner, is found in the church. And the church today, said the same great Scotch preacher, is found in the world. This ought not to be. If this church is going to be the church that God wants it to be, its hallmark will be separation. The membership of this church will be separated from the world. Its temptations and sins will be utterly rejected. We have not to conform to the wicked vanity of this world, either in our dress or in our pleasures. We have to take a firm stand against the encroachments of worldliness in the life of God's people. How much is this message needed today? I look with alarm upon evangelical churches in this city that have lost their standards, that have lost their separation in an effort to keep their peoples. My friend, it is not the business of the church to fill the pews, it's the business of the church to stand true to Jesus Christ. This is the business. I shall not, when I give account of my ministry, give account of the crowds that came to hear the preaching. I shall give an account of the nature and characteristic of the things I preached and of the standards I read. Separation! Let that word go forth today. If we're going to be companions of Christ, we must be separated. But could I say that separation is not a negation? It's not merely what we separate from. There's something positive and affirmative about separation. We are separated unto Christ. That's the difference. There are denominations that preach separation, but it's a separation to themselves. to their own creeds, to their own peculiarities, to their own form of meeting, to their own standards of worship. May God deliver us from a separation to ourselves. May we be separated unto Christ. I want you to notice where they separated to. They separated to David who was outside the camp. He was in the wilderness. There were no prospects there, but still they separate upon today. Look at that verse here again. These were not weaklings. These were men of might. God was not looking for weaklings. God was looking for men of might today. This is a battle A spiritual battle not formed, fought with the instruments and machinations of man. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan. God is not looking for weaklings, who as the winds blow they shall change. Some people will follow Christ in the sunshine, but when the dark day comes, they will forsake the Savior. But these were men of might. These were not puny weaklings and dwarfs. These were men of giant character and of stern resolution and of fervent zeal. I want you to notice secondly that they were man fit for the battle. Oh yeah. They were fit for the battle. If you compromise with the world, you'll not be fit for the battle. If you forsake the reading of the holy book and the place of prayer, you'll not be fit for the battle. the means of great, you'll not be fit for the battle. I wonder how many of God's people in this house this morning, by the standards of God Almighty, are fit for the battle of life today. By our compromises and our temptations to which we fall, we're unfitted for this life and death struggle in which we're engaged. I want you to notice that their faces were like the faces of lions. These were men of lion-like countenance. They could stand up to opposition. They could resist the enemy. Someday, when I get time, Perhaps when I'm in prison another time, as it seems to be the only time I do get time, I'm going to write a book upon some dogs that barked at me in life's trail. Some dogs that barked at me in life's trail. You know the Lord, Apostle Paul said, beware of dogs. He wasn't talking about four-legged ones when he wrote that one. Beware of dogs. Let me tell you something. This is a life and death struggle and we have got to be a man of lion-like kindness. determined that no matter what the cost may be, we shall go through with God. So many people are like ruben, unstable as water, they will not excel. There are very few who with godly determination carry the battle right into the enemy's There's something else about these men. They swam the River Jordan. The River Jordan speaks of death. And they breasted the tides of death in order to triumph over the enemy. My, these were determined men. These were like C.T. Studd's early missionary crusaders. who put a skull and cross bones on their baggage and said it's either death or victory. That's the type of Christian God wants us to be. I wonder are we fitted to be companions of the great captain of our salvation today? God granted it may be so. For his name's sake, amen. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word, right its principles and precepts in our heart, and help us to practice it in our lives for Christ's sake. Amen.