In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the story of David's fight with the Philistines as described in 1 Samuel chapter 23. The Philistines were attacking the people of Kailah and robbing their threshing floors during harvest time. David sought guidance from the Lord and asked if he should go and defeat the Philistines. Through prayer, David received confirmation from God and led his men to victory against the enemy. This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking God's guidance and trusting in His power to overcome challenges.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be following David's fight with the Philistines As we pick up in 1 Samuel 23, verse 1 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Kelah And they are robbing the threshing floors Now, during the time of harvest They would harvest the grain, the threshing floors And then they would heap the grain Into piles there around the flat rock Until they had finished threshing And then they would put it Wherever they would keep their grains, in the silos Now, while it was being stacked in these piles It was unprotected, there on the threshing floors And that's when the Philistines chose to attack them And to rip off these beautiful piles of grain That had just been threshed And so they came and they began to harass the people of Kelah They robbed them from their threshing floors And David therefore inquired of the Lord, saying Shall I go and smite these Philistines? Now, Kelah was only about four miles from The cave of Abdullam, where David was hiding And so it was just a short distance away He got word that the Philistines are down there harassing the people And David inquired of the Lord Probably through Abiathar, because when Abiathar came He brought the ephod with him The instruments by which, the urim and the thumim The instruments by which they sought the wisdom of God And so David had the priest with him And he inquired of the Lord, no doubt through Abiathar Shall I go down and smite the Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, go and smite the Philistines And save Kelah And so David's men said to him, verse 3 Behold, we're afraid here in Judah How much more then if we come to Kelah against the armies of the Philistines Hey man, we're not ready for this We're hiding from Saul, we're afraid here in Judah We're not ready to tackle those Philistines going to the Philistine country So David inquired of the Lord again Lord, are you really sure? And the Lord answered him and said, arise, go down to Kelah For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand So David and his men went to Kelah Fought with the Philistines And they recaptured the cattle And they smote them with a great slaughter So David saved the inhabitants of Kelah It came to pass when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David to Kelah That he came down with the ephod in his hand And so it was told Saul That David was come to Kelah And Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand For now he is shut in by entering into a town that has gates and bars Now I can capture him So Saul called all of the people together to war To go down to Kelah to set a siege against it And against David and his men And David knew that Saul secretly practiced mischief against him And he said to Abiathar, the priest, bring hither the ephod And David said, O Lord God of Israel Your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Kelah To destroy the city for my sake Will the men of Kelah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, I beg thee, tell thy servant And the Lord said, He will come down And David said, Will the men of Kelah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee It is interesting that if you had been the one Who had delivered the people, the inhabitants of the city from their enemy Who was harassing them You would think, well surely the people will appreciate what I've done And they will help protect me It is quite possible that you would think There's no need to even pray about this It's quite obvious what the answer is I don't have to ask the Lord about this situation And you know, that's always a dangerous assumption to make It's always wise to seek the counsel of God Even when things seem to be quite obvious The Bible says, If in all of your ways you acknowledge Him He will direct your path But you've got to seek, you've got to acknowledge And it is always dangerous when we presume The answer and we don't seek the guidance and the wisdom of God David could easily have assumed that these people are so appreciative They'll help me And so he is begging God Well my life is on the line God Answer me, please answer me on this issue Is Saul really coming here? The Lord said, yes Saul is coming Well Lord, will these men then turn me over? Yes they will And so he was guided by the Lord God gave him the answers he needed And as a result David was able to escape From the hand of Saul David and his men, which were now about 600 Remember back in the last chapter, verse 2, there was only 400 The ranks of David are growing rapidly His popularity is increasing There's more people who are distressed in debt and discontent And they're gathering together As David's popularity and army begins to grow And he went, whether so ever they could go And it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah And so Saul called off the attack And David stayed in the wilderness, in the strongholds And he remained in the mountain, in the wilderness of Ziph Which is in the area again, eastward from Hebron Towards the Dead Sea, a very barren area And Saul sought him every day But God did not deliver David into Saul's hand And when David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life And he was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David into the wood And strengthened his hand in God So Jonathan heard that David was there And Jonathan slipped out and came to David And he said to David, fear not For the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you And you shall be king over Israel And I shall be next unto thee And that also Saul, my father, knows By this time Saul had figured things out God had said to Saul through the prophet Samuel Because you have rejected God from reigning over you God has rejected you from reigning over His people He's going to take the kingdom from you And give it to a man whom He pleases A man of His choice Saul knew that his days were numbered as king God had ordained another man And by now he had figured out David's the man And that is why he is intending to kill David He's trying to thwart the plan of God He's trying to keep God's plan from being inaugurated actually By killing David, he figures he can maybe hold on to the throne Jonathan, though he is the son of Saul And if the kingdom then went into the family Would have been the heir apparent to the throne Realizes that David is to be the king And Jonathan is saying, David I'll be next to you He is abdicating his position willingly to David Because of the love that these fellows have for each other And so the two of them made the covenant before the Lord And David remained there in the wood And Jonathan went back to his house And then came up the Ziphites to Saul, to Gibeah And they said, does not David hide himself with us In the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hakela Which is on the south of Jezamun And so they are telling Saul where David is Rats Now therefore, O king, come down according to all of the desire of your soul to come down And our part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand Come on down, we'll deliver him, king, into your hand And Saul, this hypocrite, said, blessed be ye of the Lord Not so Boy, if you listen to David's prayers too Lord, cut off their noses, you know And wipe them out, Lord And those that hate me, you know, without a cause Blessed be ye of the Lord For you've had compassion on me Sick, sick Go, I pray you, prepare yet And know and see his place where his haunt is And who has seen him there For it is told me that he is a very subtle man You know, he's clever So, you know, spy him out now Therefore, take knowledge of all of the lurking places where he hides himself And come again to me with certainty And I will go with you And it shall come to pass, if he be in the land That I will search him out through all of the thousands of Judah So they arose and went to Ziph before Saul But David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon So David had already moved on a little bit further south Into the area of Maon In the plain that is south of Jezimun And Saul also and his men went to seek him And they told David, wherefore he came down into a rock And he abode in the wilderness of Maon And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon And Saul went on this side of the mountain And David and his men on that side of the mountain And David made haste to get away for the fear of Saul For Saul and his men had encircled David And his men around about to take them Now, in this area where David was hiding Was this steep, steep ravine That you just couldn't get across Here was Saul, they probably were inside of each other Saul on this mountain, David on this mountain But between them, this steep, deep ravine And the only way Saul could get there would be to go around the ravine One way or the other Which would of course give David time to escape So what Saul was doing was breaking his troops into two companies To go around both sides and to encircle David And David was in a trap Saul had pretty much circled him in at this point But there came a messenger unto Saul saying, hurry Come, for the Philistines have invaded the land Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing David And went against the Philistines Therefore they called the place the Cliff of Division And David went from there And he dwelt in the strongholds of En Gedi Now he's heading on down toward the Dead Sea In that wilderness area of En Gedi But David was providentially saved by God By the attack of the Philistines And Saul had to go in order to protect the people from the Philistines So it came to pass when Saul was returned From following the Philistines It was told him saying, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all of Israel And went to seek David and his men Upon the rocks of the wild goats And he came to the sheep coats by the way Where was a cave And Saul went in to cover his feet That is to go to sleep, to take a nap And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave Now David and his men were hiding in this cave And Saul came to that very cave And went in to rest, to sleep Now those caves looking into them is pitch black You come out of the sun and into those caves and it's just pitch black You can't see five feet ahead of you Trying to look into the cave But inside of the cave where you're in the dark and your eyes are accustomed to the darkness Looking out you can see anything that's going on So here were David and his men Perched back in the cave And who should come into the cave but Saul And he lies down Goes to sleep And the men of David said unto him, behold The day which the Lord said to you That I will deliver your enemy into your hand That you may do to him as what seems good to you Hey David This is it man You know God's placed him in your hand So you can wipe him out So David arose at the instigating and the encouragement of the men And he cut off the skirt of Saul's robe And it came to pass afterwards that David got convicted I shouldn't have done that, that's not right Because he had cut off Saul's skirt Sensitive, sensitive conscience, got convicted for it 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 my hand against him Seeing he is the anointed of the Lord David had tremendous respect for Saul Even though the anointing of God had departed from Saul God had ordained that David be anointed king Samuel had come with the anointing oil, anointed David And yet the fact that this man had once had the anointing of God upon his life David would not touch him Tremendous respect for the anointing of God So David stayed his servants with these words And the word in the Hebrew is quite strong He actually restrained and with difficulty He would not allow them to rise against Saul They were ready to do Saul in right there But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way So David also arose afterward And he went out of the cave and he 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 so here's David still respecting and honoring Saul Calling him my lord the king And then doing obeisance, bowing himself before him And David said to Saul Why have you listened to men's words who say Behold David is seeking to hurt you Behold this day your eyes have seen How the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave And some of those that were with me Were urging me to kill you But my eyes spared you and I said I will not put forth my hand against my lord For he is the Lord's anointed Moreover, my father And calling Saul respectfully his father Not a father-in-law but just a term of respect I am the son, I am inferior You are the elder my father See, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand For in that I cut off your skirt of your robe I did not kill you Know this And see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand I have not sinned against you And yet you are hunting my soul You're trying to kill me The Lord then judged between me and you And the Lord avenged me of thee But my hand shall not be upon thee Here is tremendous wisdom in David's part And it shows the spiritual character of David I'm not going to touch you If God wants to do it, that's his business But I'm not going to take God's business into my hand If the Lord wants to smite you, that's his business But I'm not going to smite you And David was willing to wait for God's purposes to be worked out by God It's a lesson that we often stumble at Understanding and knowing the purposes of God I feel that it is my duty to plunge in and help God do his business Doesn't God want this done? Of course he does Then let's get in and help God out Because how can he do it without our help, you know David did not make that mistake Hey, if God wants to depose you and put me on the throne God can do that I'm not going to step in to do it I'm not going to try and help God out I'm not going to lay my hand against you If God can avenge me But I'm not going to try to avenge myself We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel In our next lesson As we find David saving Saul's life And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online, anytime When you go to TheWordForToday.org And while you're there, be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs, and so much more Once again, that's The Word for Today, online At TheWordForToday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station With your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of 1 Samuel That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today And now, once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing prayer Father, we thank you for this opportunity Of studying the Word That we might learn and grow thereby And Lord, we so appreciate Your grace towards us We thank you, God, that We can put our trust and our confidence in you Lord, too long The enemy has held us down Too long has the enemy Tried to keep us in defeat In the name of our Lord, we shall rise And we shall be victorious Thank you, Father In Jesus' name Amen Peace Be still Lay all Your worries down All the pain And the shadow of death And the fear of suicide And broke their chains in pieces To order the DVD of this conference And to watch a sneak preview online Visit us at thewordfortoday.org Or call 1-800-272-WORD Again, the number to call is 800-272-9673 This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California