I'm going to be in trouble now. I forgot to pass on that message. I'll be in trouble at home. I knew there was something I was supposed to tell James, and I forgot all about it. But there we go. Anyway, we got the message across. I'm going to turn to our Bibles, please, to 1 Samuel, chapter 24. 1 Samuel, chapter 24. And we're continuing on in our series, looking at the life of David. 1 Samuel, chapter 24. We'll read from verse 1 down to verse 15. And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep coat by the way, where was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his feet. And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David also rose afterward and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My Lord, the King. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. And David said unto Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee today into mine hand in the cave. And some bade me kill thee, but mine eyes spared thee. And I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand, for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not. Know thou, and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it. The Lord judged between me and thee, and the Lord avenged me of thee, but mine hand shall not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, but mine hand shall not be upon thee. After whom is the King of Israel come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea? The Lord therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand. Amen, we'll end at verse 15 and we know God will bless the reading of his word to our hearts this afternoon. Now as we continued last week in our study in the life of David, we completed chapter 23. And there in that chapter we considered the truth that the promises of God are always greater than the problems of life. The promises of God are always greater. than the problems of life. David had been strengthened, and immediately after he had been strengthened by Jonathan, the next battle came along, and the Zephites told Saul where David was hiding. Saul has come out after David. He's come with his whole army. He gathered all of Israel together, and as we looked at that passage last week, we saw three things. We saw that there was an enemy who is cunning. We saw there's a warning to be careful, and that there's a God. who was in control because God stepped into the whole circumstance. God stepped into the whole situation when the backs were against the wall. We notice that David wrote Psalm 54 around this time. And in Psalm 54 David had cried out to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord to save him, to rescue him from the enemies, from those who were against him. And really as we thought about that last week, we thought about the fact that we ought not to lose heart as believers. We ought not to lose heart and to give in to the enemy, just because it seems that hope has passed us by, hope's gone. You see, there's always hope with the Lord. God has promised. God continues in His Word to promise to lead and to guide His children. And we just simply need to learn to rely. upon the promises of God, and that's all of the promises of God. And we could see, as we studied that last Lord's Day, the hand of God at work, and how David had been delivered. And the application for us really was that, as God's people, if we're depending upon the Lord, and if we're living for Him, we can expect God to work in our lives in exactly the same ways, if we're prepared to surrender ourselves to Him. and to cry out to him for help in our time of need. Now, as we move on this morning, we remember, of course, that David had escaped to the strongholds of Angaria. It tells us that at the end of chapter 23. He went up from thence and dwelt in strongholds at En-Gerai. And he's found in our opening verse that we've read this morning, he's still in the same place. He's in the wilderness of En-Gerai. En-Gerai was a place of safety for the time when Saul was pursuing after the Philistines. David and his 600 men have left the wilderness of Ziph. They've gone down to En-Gerai. They've gone under the strongholds there. And while Saul's out fighting the Philistines who've invaded the land, And he's out pursuing them. David and his men have a time of rest here. A time whenever they can refresh themselves and be re-energized as it were. I thought then about what it tells us here that when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, then it goes on and it says in verse 2, Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men. I thought it was interesting. Because previously, when Saul has come out after David, he's brought all Israel. He's brought all of the army. Everybody has come. But now he's chosen its 3,000 chosen men, the finest soldiers in the army of Israel. Saul has whittled them down, as it were, to a smaller force, maybe more refined in a sense. Now we can look at this in one of two ways as to why Saul might have done that. Either Saul, first of all, has learned his lesson. He can't put all his eggs in one basket. Remember what happened. He'd gone out with the whole army to pursue after David and the Philistines had come into the undefended land and had attacked. Maybe Saul has learned, well, you know, I can't do that again. I need to leave at least some sense of defense in the land so the Philistines don't come in and take the kingdom off me that way. Or alternatively, Saul has gotten complacent, because when he had chased David previously in the wilderness of Ziph, and do you remember he had got David surrounded? Do you remember that they were on one side of the mountain and David was on the other side, and Saul had split his forces in two, and he'd encompassed round about, he'd come round both sides of the mountain, a pincer movement as it were, and he'd come in to take David's army. And just as they were about to lay hands upon David's army, The word has come to Saul that the Philistines have flooded into the land. And his land is about to be taken from him by another army. Saul has, of course, gone after the Philistines. He's gone to defend his land. But I think perhaps there's a sense here that he thought, well, I nearly had him before. And if I come with my best soldiers, if I come with a reduced size of army, I can deal with the attacks from the Philistines, and I can still take David as well. So he's handpicked 3,000. David has 600, so there's still an advantage there, numerically speaking. He has five for every one of David's men. Maybe he thinks that will be enough. But you know, as we think about that, We have to understand that in the bigger picture, Saul has underestimated something. Saul has underestimated the fact, and we've emphasized this previously in our studies in the life of David, that the Spirit of God has departed from Saul, and the Spirit of God is now with David. Saul had all of these spies. Saul had this great army. He had this majority in terms of soldiers with him. He had people telling him where David was. He was able to pursue after David, time after time. And even though it appeared that Saul had David on the run, the principle still stands. And it still stands today. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can stand against us? You see, David had the Lord on his side, and Saul didn't. The Lord was with David. The Lord moved in. When all hope appeared to be gone, God moved in. God protected his people. Do you know, just because the Lord was with David doesn't mean that life was going to be easy. In fact, the scriptural principle is that it's anything but. The scriptural principle is that for the Christian life is a battle. We stand for truth. We stand on the side of righteousness. We stand for the truth of the word of God. And in a world that wants ease, in a world that wants its own ways, we stand for truth. And the world will stand against truth in order to justify its own sin. And Saul continues to pursue David. And he pursues those who are with David. And we can be in no doubt, as we have studied the life of David, that if Saul catches David, he's not going to catch him and just give him a good talking to. Saul's chasing after David with one thing in his mind, and that is to kill David. Do you know our passage today that we have read is one of the most instructive for the Christian in the life of David. in terms of how we ought to live our lives in the light of the difficulties that we face as we seek to stand for the Lord. People might ask the question, well, do you know why, given that David has been anointed of God, given that David's going to be the king, why could God not just step in and hand David the kingdom? Why did God just not, whenever David was anointed, why did God just not deal with Saul and deal with the issue of Saul and just give David the kingdom. God could have done that if that had been his will. God could have stepped in just very quickly if that had been his desire. But the fact is that there are many lessons for us to learn in the life that we live and in the difficulties that we face in the life that we live. Do you understand that difficulties for the Christian are seasons of refinement? Difficulties for the Christian are seasons whenever God shapes us and molds us into the people that he wants us to be. John Woodhouse, in his commentary, writes these words. He says, if God's ultimate purpose for his creation is the new heavens and the new earth, where there will be no more tears, why is the journey to that kingdom so long and difficult? Why are there so many tears on the way? Difficulties are seasons of refinement. Problems are times whenever we ought to be seeking to draw closer to the Lord, to be seeking Him, to be seeking His help, to be seeking His strength. We're gonna see that here today as we consider this passage of Scripture. Let's look and see why the Lord works in the way that He does. The New Testament principle of this is in Romans 8 and verse 28 where the Apostle Paul writes and he says, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. To them who are the called according to his purpose. Sometimes we ask questions, why? Why did this happen? Why did that happen? But God knows why. He's in control. And there's a purpose for it. And there's a reason for it. We see David in this passage this morning, and we see that David makes a declaration of truth. David presents an upright witness before Saul, and really to coin a phrase, David takes the high ground. You've heard the phrase about taking the high moral ground. Well, David takes the high ground here, and there's two things I want us to notice this morning from this chapter. I want you to see that he takes the high ground in his practice. We ought to be taking the high ground in our practice. In the first seven verses here, it speaks about that. It speaks about what David does whenever he's presented with an opportunity. It's a very descriptive incident, a very descriptive passage of scripture. It talks about how David and his men were upon the rocks of the wild goats, and Saul has gone there to seek after David in this place. When we think about the rocks of the wild goats, the picture there, and remember that the Hebrew is a picture language, what it's actually trying to tell us, or what it's saying to us in painting that picture, is this was somewhere that was hard to reach. It was somewhere that it was hard for someone to get to. So I suppose in a sense if we're talking about taking the high ground, well even geographically David and his band of men here have taken the high ground. They're in the rocks of the wild goats. It's a place where largely speaking only the mountain goats would normally be found. It's not the goats that are being cared for by the shepherds here, these are wild goats. Now I don't know, I'm not a great one for watching documentaries. Sometimes I walk in and I sort of have to sit and watch a documentary because that's what's on. But I'm not really a great one for watching documentaries. But maybe you've seen a documentary on television and you know you have all of these nature ones. Well, I went looking for a clip on Friday in the study about a documentary in relation to wild goats and I couldn't really find very much. But I started to read into the habitat of wild goats and generally speaking, they frequent areas with steep slopes, rocky environment with caves and close to water sources. That's largely where they go. So steep slopes, rocky environment with caves and close to water sources. In Gedi, is exactly that. And Gedi is on the western shore of the Dead Sea. It's an area which has many caves in a band of rocky hills. So that's exactly where David was. And David and his men have taken refuge here perhaps in the caves. In fact we know it's in the caves. Saul has been told that this is the general location. And Saul with his 3,000 men, he comes along, and they start searching diligently across this whole wilderness in Gedi. And they're doing it to such an extent that David and his men have had to go higher and higher, and steeper and steeper up the cliff faces, up the hills, and have had to take refuge in the caves in these high places. And David and his men are in this one particular cave. They're away and at the back of the cave, out of sight. hiding from Saul and his army, and suddenly, as they're there in the back of this long, this big cave, and they're there in the shadows, and into the cave comes one man on his own. And who is it but Saul? Saul himself. Think about this. Saul and his men are searching for David. They're searching for him, and they know he's in the general vicinity. Why would Saul take the risk of going into this cave on his own, with the knowledge that David and 600 men were round about? Well, very simply, and without labouring the point in any detail, it tells us in verse 3, Saul went in to cover his feet. Literally, it was a bathroom break. Saul needed to go to the toilet. And Saul has gone into this cave for a little bit of privacy. That's what the phrase means. And he's gone in there for privacy, he's gone into the entrance of the cave. And Saul thinks the cave is empty. But lo and behold, and at the back of the cave are all of these men along with David. And they're there in the back of the cave in the darkness. David, in a sense, is in the shadows here. David's men start to whisper to David at the back of the cave in verse four. The men of David said unto him, they started to whisper to him about the opportunity to deal with the problem of Saul once and for all. And they say, look, behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, I will deliver thine enemy into thy hand. And of course, we can understand what they're saying. If we had been presented with this opportunity and we were in this circumstance, we probably, if we're truthful, we probably would have said the same thing. Here's my chance. I can deal with Saul now. Saul can be dealt with once and for all and this chase will be over. Life will be so much better. We can see the justice in what they're saying. Saul has pursued David on numerous occasions and he's tried to take his life, and in the purpose of doing that, he's taken many other lives in pursuit of David. So why shouldn't David now deal with the problem when the opportunity presents itself? Well, why shouldn't he? Well, the first thing is the men are being economical with the truth. Because the Lord never made such a statement to David. Never once did he say anything like this to David. In the previous chapter, chapter 23, God makes a direct statement to David about the Philistines. He says, I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. But he never says to David, I will deliver Saul into thine hand that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good to thee. So they've taken what the Lord has said to David about the Philistines and they've applied it to Saul. They seem to think it's alright to just misappropriate what God has said and to twist it to suit their own ends. They're looking at an opportunity that's been presented and they're thinking, if David ends this now, we won't be on the run any longer. Do you know there's a contrast here which is presented in this section of the passage between David and the men who were with him. Those men who were on the side of right, those men who were there, remember they had been in debt and they were distressed and they were discontented and they'd all come to David and they've gathered themselves together with him, but they're prepared to do whatever it takes. Even if it means crossing a line in terms of integrity. While David is seeking to maintain his integrity, he's seeking to maintain his testimony. He's seeking to be obedient to the Lord at all times. Now we can take a parallel with ourselves here. We can ask ourselves, how would we act in such a scenario? And if we're truthful with ourselves, it might just surprise us how much we would act. You see these men were acting according to the flesh. They wanted to act according to the flesh and then what they were doing, by quoting or misquoting what the Lord had said to David, they were trying to justify their own actions by misappropriating Scripture. Misapplying Scripture. Being dishonest with Scripture. Lifting Scripture out of context and applying it to whatever circumstance you want it to apply to. And so often that happens. So often people take a verse and they say, oh but I got this verse. And you can take it and mean whatever you want and it's not even in the context of what the Word of God says. It's possible to do that. To cross what is to us a blurred line. to take a chance on something and we know even in our own conscience that it's not the right thing to do but still we decide that we'll do it and we act and then so often people try to rationalize these things away. They'll say, but this and but that. Just like David's followers were doing, they would say, we would say, well the Lord gave me the chance. The Lord gave me the opportunity. I want you to understand that acting impulsively on something which is not black or white, is not the way to go. The Word of God tells us to abstain from all appearance of evil. Not just abstain from evil, but to abstain from all appearance of evil. Running to places that we shouldn't be in. Going to places that we know we shouldn't go to. We're there because friends want us to be there and we think we'll be alright. I can be a testimony in there. I can be a testimony in the pub. I can go in there and I can hold my testimony and I'll be alright. But when you come walking out of there, and you're walking out of the pub and someone sees you, that weaker brother or that weaker sister, and they think, well it must be alright because they're in there. Abstain from all appearance of evil. These men misappropriate a scripture for their own ends, to justify their own sin. Now I want you to understand, I'm not suggesting that David perhaps didn't think of doing this. David, as he was making his way forward, sneaking forward from the back of the cave, with a sword in his hand, maybe he was thinking, well, do you know what, I could. I could deal with this now. And if I dealt with this now, that would be it sorted. I can end this conflict. Saul won't even see me coming. How do we know? We don't know. It may have gone through his mind. But here's the thing. That's not David's way. And that's not what David does. And it tells us in the passes that David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. Literally, it means that he cut a piece of cloth off the bottom of the robe. Now there's a wonderful parallel here in relation to the robe. And I want you to think about this. Back in 1 Samuel chapter 15, Saul had grabbed onto Samuel's robe. Do you remember when Samuel said to him, look, the kingdom's been taken from you. God's going to replace, God's going to put another one on the throne instead of you. And Saul grabbed onto Samuel's robe and it had ripped. The robe had torn. And Samuel said, the Lord has taken the kingdom from you. We know that the recipient of the kingdom is going to be David because David's been anointed. And now David has come along and he's come to the king, the one who is currently the king, and who is also anointed. And David has, to quote one commentator, symbolically laid claim to the kingdom. He's torn the robe. The robe's coming to David. The kingdom is coming to David. I don't know if David knew about the statement by Samuel, but there's significance in what David has done. Do you know immediately afterwards David regrets it? David regrets what he has done. Verse 5, David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he enters into a debate with his men, these men in the back of the cave. And they're having this whispered debate, can you imagine? His soul's at the front of the cave. And David and his men are at the back of the cave and they're whispering to one another. And David is saying, no, we're not going to lay our hand on him. He's the anointed of the Lord. Tells us in verse 7, David stayed his servants with these words. That phrase stayed, it can be interpreted as held back, but the most literal interpretation of it is he cut them off. He literally cut them in two. His words had so much power that they had no argument against him. And David stopped him, he restrained him. He's acted with great dignity here. But more than acting with dignity, he's acted with great spirituality here. You see, while the flesh may be rising up and saying that now it's time to finish this, David's not interested in acting according to the flesh. David is not prepared to raise his hand against Saul, given that Saul is the king of the land. And whatever else Saul might be, and Saul is many things, but whatever else he might be, he's still, as far as David's concerned, the anointed of the Lord. And it's not David's place to lay a hand on him. It was the Lord who had brought Saul to the throne. And ultimately, it would be the Lord who would remove Saul from the throne, and it wasn't for David to interfere. There's a parallel, of course, between David and the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've been picking that up on our way through this study. David here has remained faithful to the will of God. His actions have been upright. He's acted with integrity and dignity. In 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 22 and 23, Peter speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ and he says about the Lord Jesus, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. That's a wonderful picture for us of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who's that? He committed himself to his father. committed himself to the Lord. We have to ask ourselves the question. We're born again. You're saved here this morning. You're a follower of Christ. We're to be Christ-like in our actions and in our behaviors and in our reactions. Maybe there's a circumstance in your life that you've been dealing with. I don't know. But maybe there's something that you've been dealing with and you've acted in haste. You've acted in anger. Maybe you thought to yourself, well, I have an opportunity to do this person harm. I didn't like the way they did that, or I didn't like the way they did that, and now I've got my opportunity. Let me say to you this morning, it doesn't matter whether you think you have just cause or not, that is not the appropriate action of the child of God. That is not the way a Christian should act. And David here, by his practical example, in the face of extreme provocation as Saul has pursued after him, he shows us the way that the child of God should act. Even when given the opportunity to get one over on Saul. In Luke chapter 6, The Lord Jesus Christ, and it's Luke's account of the Sermon on the Mount, and Luke says there that he said, That's the clear principle that's established in Scripture for the follower of the Lord. It's evident in the actions of David. It's evident in the words of Christ. It's evident in the testimony of Christ. We're to be gracious in our actions towards those who would attack us. Doesn't mean we just simply accept their attacks without defense. But we must always exercise grace. And there will be attacks that will come upon the Christian from outside of the church. And we know that. And we understand that. But sadly, There are attacks which can come in different forms within the New Testament church. And that's an indictment upon the church. It's an indictment upon individual believers who act according to the flesh. There's much that can divide us. We have to understand that there's much that can divide us if we allow our behaviors to be ruled by the flesh. The church will be divided. There will be no unity. But we are called to be Christ-like. In that same passage in 1 Peter 2, Peter as he wrote there, and he talked about Christ, he said, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. In the previous verse, he's speaking about Christ, he said he left us an example that we should follow his steps. Our lives are to be Christ-like. in our actions. We're to take the high road in our practice. Now, we're running out of time, but we'll finish off this second point. We're to take the high road in our proclamation. This speaks about our words, how we speak as Christians. From verse 8 down to verse 15, we read this account of how David has spoken after Saul. He shouted to Saul as Saul has gone out from the cave. And he's made a number of statements to him. Saul has left the cave, he's making his way back to his waiting army, David comes out of the cave after him, and it tells us that he cried after Saul in verse 8. He cried after Saul. What is he doing here? David's drawing Saul's attention to himself. David there, if you think about it, is surrounded by 3,000 men. David's up on a hill, in a cave with his men, and he's calling out to Saul. What does he do? David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. He humbled himself. He showed humility in his actions, and he pays respect to Saul. He calls Saul, my lord, the king. So as he's there in the entrance of this cave, and there's 3,000 chosen soldiers waiting for their king to return, and that king's intent on killing David, and David cries out to Saul, and he shouts to him, gets his attention. Now, looking at it practically, David's taking a risk here. Humanly speaking, he's taking a risk. He's playing, in a sense, with life and with death, but I believe there's something greater at play here in the mind of David, because his actions up to this point have already indicated to us that David is seeking to be entirely faithful to his God. And what that tells me is that we have evidence that he's completely trusting. in his God. He's trusting the Lord. Remember the Lord has chosen David to be king. The Lord has sent Samuel along and Samuel has anointed David even when there was already a king Saul on the throne. You see, God was at work in David's life. And David had, through the very many difficulties that he'd encountered, especially since Saul had started to pursue David, David had learned to wait upon the Lord. He'd learned to depend upon the Lord for his protection and for his strength. And as we've looked at the various Psalms over the past number of weeks, the Psalms that David has written through these trials and difficulties, Psalm 54 verse 7, he talks about the Lord, he says, He hath delivered me. Psalm 56 and verse 3, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 142 verse 7, Thou shalt deal bountifully with me. And David is relying upon these truths because he knows the Lord is there. And He knows He can depend upon the Lord in every difficult circumstance. Beloved this morning, those truths are for us too. We can depend upon the Lord in every circumstance that we face, in every difficulty that we go through. The Lord is there for His people. And I believe that is what caused David to be so bold as to call out to Saul. And then if we, very quickly, we go through his words. His words are so astute. You may recall that Saul was struggling with the evil spirit. And when he was struggling with that evil spirit, his attendants, his servants had come and they had sought out a man. who could come along and could play, remember, the instrument and try and bring some calm to Saul. And they had brought David's name forward to Saul and one of the descriptions of David that they used was this, he was a man who was prudent in matters. And literally that means that he spoke wisely. David was a man who was articulate. He could articulate himself and get the message across. And now he comes and he uses all of those abilities that he has, and that command of language, and he makes an appeal to Saul. And he says to Saul, why are you listening to people who say that I am out to cause you harm? Now, Saul wasn't listening to people. who were saying that David was out to cause him harm. Saul had got the idea in his mind that David was after his throne. There was no one came and said to Saul, secretly, David wants to kill you. But David here is giving Saul, in a sense, the benefit of the doubt as he speaks to him. And he says to him then, if I wanted to kill you, I have had the opportunity today. Look at the opportunity I've had to do you harm. And I never laid a finger on you. I let you go. And I have a token of the fact that I could have done you harm. And he holds up the piece of the robe, and he says, I never touched you. I've let you go. David appeals to Saul, and he goes on to Saul, and he says to him, he says, it's for the Lord to decide what happens now. Verse 12, the Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but mine hand shall not be upon thee. And David, as he's speaking to Saul, he declares truth. And he declares his trust in God. Do you know he calls Saul wicked here? He says, What's David saying? Wicked people do wicked things. And there's truth in that statement. Wicked people do wicked things. In Matthew 7, verses 19-20, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the New Testament principle of this Old Testament truth. Matthew 7, verse 19, the Lord Jesus says, It's the same truth, same principle. Do you remember that Saul had on a number of occasions tried to align himself as the Lord's servant? And even though Saul knew he was following after his own desires and his own ambitions, he tried to pretend that he was following after the things of God. But Saul's fruits were evidence of where his heart was. He was pursuing after the man of God, the man after God's own heart. Friends, this morning, that's the same today. There are those who will claim to be Christian, but their actions and their life tell a completely different story. Anything but. We can think of those who are false teachers of a variety of different types, and we don't have time to start going through them. We can think of those who elevate themselves and are full of pride, and we don't have time to deal with that all today. But David here has implied that Saul is wicked. And just as David has made that implication, so it lies with us to call out wrong when it is clear. But ultimately, we're not the judge. David wasn't the judge. Ultimately we have to understand that final judgment comes from the Lord. And David doesn't take revenge into his own hands. He leaves it all to God. What does he do here? He speaks the truth in love to Saul. And while we're not going to have time to go into Saul's response to David in detail. If you read on down from verse 16 to the end of the chapter, you'll see from Saul's response that he knows the truth. He knows the truth in this because he says in verse 17 to David, thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded the evil. And further on down in the passage, he acknowledges openly for the first time that David will be the king. He knows that David will get the throne. He knows that the Lord has given it to him. Now while Saul acknowledges all this, he hasn't really changed at all, because as you go further on into the life of David, you'll see that again he comes hunting after David. But it doesn't matter about Saul, because we're worried about David this morning. And we're worried about the lesson that we need to learn from the life of David this morning. You see, the words of David were God-honoring words. The words of David exalted God as the one who is sovereign, as the one who's in control of all things. And David's words, as they have honoured the Lord, they've turned the heart of the king for a season, because Saul takes his army away and leaves David for a season. David honoured the Lord, and in turn, the Lord honoured him. Text above my head. This afternoon is a reminder of the fact that this is a continuing principle for the child of God. We must be faithful in our actions. We must be faithful in our words, treasure our testimony, and then simply leave the rest to a sovereign God who says, them that honor me, I will honor. Amen.