Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Tal Paul's preaching. The tenth sermon was recorded on Veterans Day, November 11, 2018.
[00:00:11] Episode 10 focuses on First Samuel, Chapter 30 and is titled Veterans Day a Veterans Victory.
[00:00:22] All right, well, let's pray. Lord, we thank you. You are so wonderful.
[00:00:32] We can come and petition you right in your throne room.
[00:00:37] So we do that, Lord, we ask for a blessing and that you would take care of all those who couldn't be here with us today, Lord, that you would be with them wherever they are. And that YouTube, you would bring them back with us next time.
[00:00:56] Lord, we just, we're all healing and hurting and we just look to you for our health and we trust in you and we thank you for all that you do for us.
[00:01:13] And Lord, I pray for my wife.
[00:01:16] She's running a half marathon today. Lord, that you would give her the strength to finish and finish strong. Lord, we pray all this in your son's name. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:01:33] Well, today, as you know, is Veterans Day, the 11th, and it's a day to remember the sacrifice our service members have given for our freedoms and to thank them.
[00:01:47] First, are there any veterans here today? Anybody? Veterans?
[00:01:54] Thank you for your service. I just want to thank you.
[00:01:58] And now my message will be about veterans.
[00:02:02] However, it is also Thanksgiving this month and so we can never be thankful enough, both for our veterans and for our God and the wonderful gifts he has given us.
[00:02:16] So I'd like to start out talking about grace and mercy and being thankful.
[00:02:23] And to be truly thankful, we have to understand our situation. We need to understand what exactly our condition is.
[00:02:33] What is our state? We are fallen now. Some people don't think they need God. But the wages of sin is death. James tells us we earn death.
[00:02:47] It's the payment that's due us.
[00:02:50] When we break one part of the law, we've broken the entire law.
[00:02:56] Did you know that we're purposefully designed by God as flawed we were.
[00:03:04] You see, we've got a God shaped hole missing in us from. From birth.
[00:03:10] You put the puzzle together of us.
[00:03:13] You put all the pieces there and there's this giant piece missing right in the middle.
[00:03:19] And it belongs to God and God alone.
[00:03:23] We are designed to have God complete us in order to grow properly and produce fruit and flourish.
[00:03:32] We require God and thank the Lord he is willing and able to complete us.
[00:03:40] However, there's a gap. There's a problem because it doesn't just happen automatically.
[00:03:46] We were born separated from God, spiritually dead.
[00:03:50] We need his grace and mercy to become Complete. We need God.
[00:03:56] So what is mercy and what is grace?
[00:04:00] We often use the terms interchangeably and they're similar, but they're really different at the same time.
[00:04:07] Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve.
[00:04:17] You see, with grace, it acknowledges a shortcoming.
[00:04:21] There's a failure.
[00:04:23] I can't get from there, from here, so I need grace.
[00:04:28] Grace requires another's help.
[00:04:32] Someone can't just give me grace like they can mercy.
[00:04:36] Grace requires their sacrifice, their participation, to get me to where I need to be, to give me what I don't deserve.
[00:04:46] And mercy. Mercy doesn't require action, not for me and not from someone having mercy on me.
[00:04:53] When someone has mercy upon you, it might require only that thought. The thought of mercy.
[00:05:02] It ignores the law and what is right.
[00:05:06] I'll give you an example.
[00:05:08] Let's say I'm speeding out here on Broadway. I'm going 10 miles over the speed limit, and I drive right past a police officer and he pulls me over, flips the lights on, and I'm caught.
[00:05:24] I've done it, I've committed the crime, and now I have some price to pay.
[00:05:29] Mercy is when the officer tears up the ticket and he looks the other way.
[00:05:36] I have no penalty to pay because the laws were not followed.
[00:05:41] It's like I never even committed it.
[00:05:44] But what if the officer decides to follow the law and demands justice?
[00:05:51] Well, grace is the officer giving me the ticket, but paying the penalty himself.
[00:05:59] He pays the penalty, takes on all that problem with insurance and all of that. He pays the fine himself in my place.
[00:06:09] He takes that penalty on in my place.
[00:06:13] Notice that I can't force the officer to give me either mercy or grace.
[00:06:18] It's dependent upon him and his character.
[00:06:22] We are helpless.
[00:06:25] Now we have a choice. If he does say, you know, I'm going to pay that ticket for you, I could say, no, I'm going to pay it myself. But that would be awfully foolish.
[00:06:38] Mercy is not being fair. Mercy is not fair because there is no judgment and it avoids the law. It throws out the law.
[00:06:47] That is why rule followers.
[00:06:49] Now, if we think about the Pharisees in Jesus time, they were rule followers and they had little or no mercy at all.
[00:07:00] Because the law must be followed, the Sabbath must be followed, even if it means loss of life. You can't heal that person because it's the Sabbath. That's a law, they thought, and so they had little mercy.
[00:07:18] And we find that those who rely on mercy and kindness are often the most shocked when justice is given to them. Instead, merciful people often disregard the laws.
[00:07:31] Now let's look at God.
[00:07:33] God is just and righteous.
[00:07:37] He doesn't look the other way with sin. It doesn't work like that.
[00:07:42] There is a penalty for sin and payment must be rendered. There is no escape.
[00:07:49] And God's law shows us our failures and our helplessness. We need grace if the law is to be upheld.
[00:07:59] And God must hold true to the law. Otherwise he would not be righteous and just.
[00:08:04] And grace is the only option when the law is upheld.
[00:08:09] This is where our thankfulness comes to play.
[00:08:13] God is just, but God is also loving.
[00:08:18] God understands our condition, that we need not just mercy, but grace where we cannot, God provides out of his love for us.
[00:08:32] God is extremely gracious and has gone far and above all we could ever dream as he himself has made payment for our sins.
[00:08:44] We have much to be thankful for.
[00:08:48] And speaking of thankfulness, let's talk about veterans.
[00:08:53] Now, David, King David was a war veteran.
[00:08:57] And so I'm going to be looking at 1 Samuel 30 and let me set the stage while you turn there in your Bibles, if you want.
[00:09:07] Now, Saul is against David. Saul disobeyed God. And because of Saul's disobedience, David was anointed king.
[00:09:19] But from his anointing to him becoming the actual king, David had a lot of time to grow.
[00:09:29] God wasn't ready for David, or David wasn't ready to become king really.
[00:09:34] So he grows over this time. And during that time, while Saul is still alive, he tries to kill David. Over and over, Saul tries to eliminate David.
[00:09:47] And so finally David is like, you know, I don't know what to do. So he flees into the enemy territory. He flees over to the Philistine side, and that's where he lives.
[00:09:59] Now, if Saul wants to get David, he's got to go against the enemy, the Philistines, like he should anyway. But to get to David, he's got to go through the Philistines.
[00:10:12] Now there's a great battle between Israel and the Philistines that's taking place. In fact, this is where Saul and his sons are going to die.
[00:10:22] Now David is marching under one of the Lord of the Philistines, and they're marching through this great battle between Israel and the Philistines. And David's on the wrong side.
[00:10:35] But the other leaders, the other lords of the Philistines, say, no way are we going to go to battle with David behind us, at our backs or shoulders, they sung songs about him when he killed Goliath they said, he's killed his ten thousands, right? And they're like, no way.
[00:10:52] So David is sent back to his home in Ziklag, and that's where we start in 1st Samuel, chapter 30.
[00:11:00] And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south. And Ziklag was smitten and burned it with fire and had taken the women captives that were there. They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way.
[00:11:20] Now, the Amalekites were the exact same people that Saul was to wipe out.
[00:11:28] And that was the failure that led to David becoming king.
[00:11:34] Verse 3. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive.
[00:11:42] Now, David didn't know that.
[00:11:45] That's for us, the reader, we read that.
[00:11:49] But David had no idea what had happened. He just comes and Zikleg is burned to the ground.
[00:11:55] It was very real to him.
[00:11:58] 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.
[00:12:07] Everyone had lost their family and all their possessions.
[00:12:11] They were in the dark. The world around them was collapsing, and it was terrible.
[00:12:17] Verse 5. And David's two wives were taken captive.
[00:12:21] Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself. And the Lord is God.
[00:12:41] The people turned to blame, but David turned to God.
[00:12:48] Verse 7.
[00:12:50] And David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray you, bring me the ephod. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?
[00:13:05] And he, the priest, answered him, saying, pursue, for you shall surely overtake them. And without fail recover all you see.
[00:13:16] David did not know which way to go. He. He just sees that the city has been burned with fire. He needs God's direction. He needs to know which way to go. And he seeks the Lord.
[00:13:29] Verse 9. So David went, He and the 600 men that were with him and came to the brook Besore, where those that were left behind stayed.
[00:13:39] But David pursued. He and 400 men for 200 stayed behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook. Besore some you see in this party. And his men could not continue.
[00:13:58] They had just done a three day march home to Ziklag and now they were in hot pursuit.
[00:14:07] And 200 of his men were so weak they couldn't even cross the river. And. And so they were left behind.
[00:14:16] 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 figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread or drunk any water for three days and three nights.
[00:14:46] Those words there, the three days and the three nights we are going. Hmm, yeah, sounds familiar. I have heard that somewhere.
[00:14:56] And those three days and those three nights, that represents the time that Jesus was in the grave.
[00:15:02] And what follows after that is the resurrection. Our Lord was resurrected after three days and three nights.
[00:15:10] We are going to see a little resurrection here for this Egyptian.
[00:15:14] It said in verse 12, when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him.
[00:15:20] That is a little bit of resurrection reference, verse 13. And David said unto him, to whom do you belong? And from where are you? 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.
[00:15:42] Oh man.
[00:15:43] Being sick for the glory of God.
[00:15:47] It was God's will that this guy be sick to death.
[00:15:53] He's going to be delivered, he's going to gain freedom because he was sick to death. Now when he was sick to death, that's not what he was thinking.
[00:16:01] He was not thinking, oh, I am just going to wait for the Lord to deliver me. He was sick.
[00:16:09] But we need to look at our current circumstances, whether we are sick or in need of recovery, like we prayed about at the start, that God is in control and God is there for us.
[00:16:25] So the Egyptian speaks in verse 14 and he says, we made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites and upon the coast which belongs to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire.
[00:16:41] You see, you've got these two major nations fighting each other, Israel and the Philistines.
[00:16:46] And so the Amalekites, they're invading these little cities along the edge of the territory while they're involved in battle. So you've got all the men of war going to this great battle, leaving all of these cities along the edge unprotected, and the Amalekites, they take advantage of this, so they raid all these cities. And they not only raided and took everything from Ziklag, but they burned it to the ground.
[00:17:17] Verse 15. And David said unto him, can you bring me down to, to this company? And the Egyptian said, swear unto me by God, that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to the company.
[00:17:34] And when he had brought him down, obviously David accepted the terms and he gained his freedom.
[00:17:41] And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing. Because, because of the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.
[00:17:56] And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them, except for 400 young men which rode upon camels and fled.
[00:18:13] Now if 400, that's a large number, 400, only 400 escaped. That means many, many, many were killed.
[00:18:22] There was 24 hours of fighting.
[00:18:26] David started at twilight and fought until the next evening. Now this is after their three day march back home to find Ziklag burned with fire. They wept and cried until they could cry no more. And then they left in hot pursuit, so much that 200 of his men could not even cross a river and had to stay behind when they get there.
[00:18:52] They fought for 24 hours.
[00:18:55] That is God giving them the strength.
[00:19:00] Verse 18. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.
[00:19:13] And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken from them. David recovered all.
[00:19:27] Praise the Lord.
[00:19:28] And David took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before those other cattle and said, this is David's spoil.
[00:19:37] And David came to the 200 men. So they were returning back, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besore. And they went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted them, then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial of those that went with David, and said, because they went not with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man, his wife and his children, that they may lead their family away and depart.
[00:20:23] God thinks of men of that mindset that they are of the devil and wicked.
[00:20:30] See that is not God's mindset. That is these guys.
[00:20:34] They wanted to cast away any who couldn't continue because they lacked the strength. There was no mercy, there was no grace.
[00:20:43] They were full of greed, with no love, no mercy, no grace.
[00:20:48] And God lists them as wicked men and men of Belial.
[00:20:54] 23.
[00:20:55] Then David said, you shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.
[00:21:10] You see, David recognizes who gave them the victory.
[00:21:15] God did not by their own strength did they do this, but it was God.
[00:21:22] Now this next verse, verse 24 is the key.
[00:21:26] 24. For who will hearken unto you in this matter?
[00:21:30] But as his portion that goes down into the battle, so shall his portion that tarries by the stuff, they shall part alike.
[00:21:39] And it was so from that day of ward. And he made a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.
[00:21:45] And when David came to Ziklag, he sent the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.
[00:21:58] Now the rest of the chapter is going to go on and state who David sent all his presents to and spoil.
[00:22:06] The list is long, indicating it was a great spoil that David recovered.
[00:22:12] And also notice that Ziklag was destroyed.
[00:22:16] And this again was for God's purpose.
[00:22:20] Your home is burnt to the ground.
[00:22:22] It is hard to think that that was God's purpose.
[00:22:26] But David may have stayed in Ziklag had it not been so.
[00:22:32] You see, back in the battle, Saul the king is killed, and David is now going to become king. But if he were in Zechlag and the comfort, his familiar home, he may not have returned to Israel. And so God in his wisdom burned his house to the ground.
[00:22:55] Now that key verse.
[00:22:57] It's this concept of sharing in the spoils of victory.
[00:23:01] It wasn't something new that David came up with. In other words, this wasn't from David.
[00:23:08] It was God's idea all along. See way back in Numbers 31:27.
[00:23:15] By God's wisdom, Moses is instructing the people. And Moses tells the people and divide the spoil into two parts between them that took the war upon them who went out to battle and between all the congregation.
[00:23:31] Our country was founded on God's principles.
[00:23:35] We all enjoy the freedom we have because of those veterans who served.
[00:23:43] Our veterans were willing and able to die for others.
[00:23:48] They fought when we could not.
[00:23:52] We share in their spoils and we all have the same access to the same rights and freedoms that those who went and served and those who stayed behind, the congregation and the men of war share in the freedom and rights.
[00:24:13] And it's the same with God.
[00:24:15] We have a spiritual battle we often forget about.
[00:24:20] See, we were unable to atone for our sins.
[00:24:25] We were unwilling to completely do God's will in our life.
[00:24:31] We could advance no further. We could fight no more. Exhausted, we lay down our lives in hope of a Savior.
[00:24:41] We didn't have what was necessary to continue on in battle.
[00:24:47] We were too weak to fight the sin.
[00:24:52] We were at the mercy and grace of God to deliver us. We had to stay back at the river and rely on Jesus to win the victory.
[00:25:03] And Jesus won the victory.
[00:25:06] Oh, victory in Jesus.
[00:25:12] See John 15, 4, 5.
[00:25:16] Jesus is speaking. And Jesus says, abide in me and I in you.
[00:25:23] As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me.
[00:25:32] I am the vine, you are the branches.
[00:25:36] He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit. And this is the key.
[00:25:43] For without me Jesus says, you can do nothing.
[00:25:50] Isaiah 25:8 says, he will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth. For the Lord has spoken it.
[00:26:12] 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 54, 5, 57.
[00:26:18] And this is key to everything I have been talking about.
[00:26:21] O death, where is your sting?
[00:26:26] O grave, where is your victory?
[00:26:29] The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
[00:26:36] But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, payment had to be made. We needed grace, and we get that grace through the victory of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:54] We should remember that victory that we share in. We share in the spoils of the victory that Jesus did at the cross.
[00:27:05] And we should be thankful.
[00:27:08] You see, King David, he did a lot of growing.
[00:27:14] But at the end of his life, he never forgot the victory that God gave him.
[00:27:22] And David was very, very thankful.
[00:27:26] Even at the end of his life. He did not forsake God like Saul did. Saul at the end of his life turned to this witch to find direction on what should happen.
[00:27:40] But David always turned to God first. Chronicles 29, 10, 13. This is at the end of David's life. This is where he is giving the kingdom over to his son Solomon.
[00:27:57] David speaking and says, wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation.
[00:28:03] And David said, blessed be You, Lord, God of Israel, our Father forever and ever.
[00:28:12] Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted, head above all.
[00:28:33] Both riches and honor come of you and you reign over all.
[00:28:40] And in your hand is power and might. And in your hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all.
[00:28:49] You see, God has everything and we get to share in those spoils.
[00:28:56] What a victory in Jesus.
[00:28:59] Praise the Lord.
[00:29:03] And I spoke too fast. But no worries, I'll just pray long.
[00:29:13] Lord, we thank youk and we don't thank youk enough, Lord, for we were helpless, we could not continue, we could not fight on, we could not.
[00:29:25] We did not have the strength, we did not have the capability, Lord, but you didn't cast us off, send us away.
[00:29:34] You won the victory. You fought on to great spoil, everlasting life, Lord, what a prize. What a victory.
[00:29:47] Lord, we just thank you and praise you that you were able, that you fought in our place.
[00:29:56] And Lord, we thank those veterans of our country who did the same for us.
[00:30:03] We had to stay back and they fought for us. And Lord, you have enriched us with great freedom in this country.
[00:30:14] Freedom to study and worship you in the open, in the public. We can have service and worship you and grow in grace and knowledge of you, Lord, and we thank you for that. And we thank and bless those veterans, Lord, and be with us in this country as we continue that fight against evil.
[00:30:40] Lord, we are thankful and we have great spoils. And so, Lord, at this time of offering, we want to give back, Lord, to you.
[00:30:53] Give back in the spoils that you have given us. Just as David did at the end there, Lord, he spread it out. He did not hoard it to himself. He gave it to his friends. So Lord, as we enter into this time of offering, will you just bless that from our thankful hearts we give to you, Lord, we just praise you. You're so, so awesome and so great. Thank you for that victory.
[00:31:20] In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:31:28] Thank you for listening to this message.
[00:31:31] We hope you enjoyed it.
[00:31:34] Our prayer is that the message, in some way or another, helped in your walk with God and that your relationship with God was strengthened and grew more intimate.
[00:31:46] If you would like to contact us with questions or comments, you can email us at the following, that's meredletters.com or me-l e t t e r s.com thank you.
