Place of reproach, recovery, restoration

We're going to read in First Chronicles chapter 12, verse 16, says, And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold unto David. And David went up to meet them, and answered and said unto them, If ye become peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you. But if you come to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers, look thereon and rebuke it.

And the Spirit came upon Amasiah, who was chief of the captains, and he said, Thine are we, David, and on thy side thou son of Jesse. Peace, peace be unto thee, and the peace be to thine helpers, for the Lord helpeth thee. Verse 19, And there fell some of Manasseh to David, and with the Philistines against Saul, and so on.

Now just for sake of time, verse 20, As he went to Siklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Edna, and Josabad, and Jediel, and Meshel, and Josabad, and all these names that I mispronounced. And they helped David against the band of rovers, for they were all mighty men of valor, and were captains of the host. And we're told in verse 23, These are the numbers of the bands that were ready, armed for war, and came to David, to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the Lord.

And the children of Judah, that bear a shield and spear, were 6,800 ready, armed for war. And it speaks of the children from all the tribes. I won't read all the verses, but you have them from Simeon, in verse 25, and from Levi, 26, and right down, and we'll maybe refer to them later.

And then at the end of the chapter, or maybe I should read the one of Issachar, verse 32, And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, the heads of them were 200, and all their brethren were at their command. Now the end of the chapter, it says, verse 38, All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel. And all the rest also of Israel were of one heart, to make David king.

And there they were with David three days, eating and drinking, for their brethren had prepared for them. Moreover, they that were nigh, them even unto Issachar, and Zebulun, and Nephthali, brought bread on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, and meat, meal, cakes of figs, bunches of raisins, and wine, and oil, and oxen, and sheep abundantly, for there was joy in Israel. And we know that God will bless the reading of His Word with what we have already heard.

Now we've read about three places. One of them is called the Hold, and I think we all understand that would be the cave of Adullam. And we're going back to the cave of Adullam, you remember, when David was seen in all his reproach.

And then we read a little bit about Ziglag, another place where David and his hosts were. And we're going to speak a little bit about recovery. We all need to be recovered, some of us more than others.

And when we come to the last part, it's maybe somewhat the same, but I call it to come to Hebron, the place of restoration. They were restored to the Lord. Hebron means company or fellowship.

It's a wonderful thing to be in fellowship. Hebron is a interesting place. Yeah, that's where Isaac died at Hebron, and some of the other great Old Testament saints.

And it'd be a wonderful thing, wouldn't it, if we all died in full fellowship with God. That's what we'd like. We'd like to be in fellowship with God, and with the people of God.

And when the end comes, I hope that we won't have wandered far away. So we have these three places that are very important. We all know the cave of Adullam wasn't a very attractive place.

And we use it, and rightfully I think, as a beautiful little picture of God's assembly. And it was a great place, not because a cave is a wonderful place to live in, or to be in. Some caves I know are very picturesque, but I don't think this was one of them.

And there was only one thing that would attract people to a place like that, and that was David. David had won their hearts. David, no doubt, they knew all about him going down into the valley, the valley of Elah, to defeat Goliath.

And likely, like Jonathan, he was one that was there. And he, after David had defeated Goliath, the enemy, he stripped himself of all that was valuable to him, and of his garments, and his shield, and so on, his spear, and his sword, and his girdle, the things that were so important. He divested himself of those things, and you say, well, why would he do that? Well, I think that Jonathan thought, I should have been the one that was going down to the valley.

I should have been the one that was facing the giant. But he didn't have the courage. But here's one who took my place.

I hardly need to make the picture for you and for me. The Lord Jesus took your place. He took my place there at Calvary.

I deserve to suffer for my sins. I should have been defeated. But instead of that, he defeated the great enemy, and he won the hearts of the people of Israel.

But there weren't too many that really followed him. But there are those that are in God's assembly today. It may not be a very attractive place to the world.

It's not. And no stained-glass windows or anything like that, and no amenities in this cave. You know, I know a couple, and they found—they left an assembly because they found a perfect church in California.

It'd be hard to do that, maybe. There are a few assemblies, though. But anyhow, they said, it's perfect because there's a Starbucks in it.

Well, at least it would maybe keep them awake while the sermon was going on. Well, but, you know, there was nothing attractive here. And here these people—well, I say there's nothing attractive in the cave, but the attraction was David.

Now, if we could just keep that in our mind, when God saved you and God saved me, the one that we were attracted to was David, and he meant everything to us. And we didn't think of anything else or anyone else. Our hearts were captivated.

Paul, he said, a captive of Christ Jesus, a captive of the Lord. And I think what he meant was, I'm not a captive of Rome, but the Lord captivated my heart. And if we could just keep that in our minds, we make a little bit of progress in the things of God.

But that's so important, to have one's heart won by Christ, to know what we were. These men were distressed and in debt, and they were discontent. And while I'm not going to apply that to us in a literal way, you know, many of us were distressed before God saved us with our lives and conditions in the world.

And we knew we had a debt. We wanted God's salvation, but we couldn't pay the debt. But thank God we found one that paid the debt for us.

Distressed, debt, discontent. You know, sometimes we hear the Gospel preached today, even among ourselves, and there's no thought of ever repentance. But you know, we'll never go on well for God if we don't realize how great sinners we were.

We're all 500-pence sinners. And even that Pharisee in Luke 7 there that the Lord spoke these words to, he didn't realize it, but he was a big sinner too. And we're all big sinners, and we realized how much we were in sin.

And I realized far more after God saved me, when I started reading the Word. And I'm ashamed of the life that I had, but I'm thankful that I found one that took my place. You know, we've been referring to the Apostle Paul.

And you know, in Philippians chapter 2, you have the Lord Jesus going down into the valley. Have this mind in you, which also was in Christ Jesus. Not going to quote all the verses I could, but it shows that he went down seven downward steps, seven upward steps, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.

And sometimes we forget that the Bible wasn't written in chapters, because if we went to chapter 3, we'd see seven things that Paul once counted but gains. But he said, I count them but loss. Just like Jonathan, he stripped himself of those things that he could boast about, and they meant nothing to him.

And when he wrote the Philippians, I think, if my mind's ready, it was about 26 years later. Long time afterwards, he hadn't changed his mind. And that's why it's so important for us and for the brethren that preach the gospel.

Preach the clear, simple gospel, and preach repentance and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And if he captivates our heart, we're going to go on. And that should never change.

We grow in the things of God, but we still are humble. And well, I could get away on so many tangents, but anyhow, I'll go away on one more. And that is, you know, for where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.

And you know, when you read that verse, and I've read it, and others read it, and they preach from it, and I learned a long time ago, if you want to really know what a verse means, take it into context. I don't mind if you take a verse out of context in the gospel. I don't think God would mind either, but we do that often.

But what's a context? He put a little child before them. What was he teaching them? Lowliness. They were saying, who's going to be greater in the kingdom? He put a little child, and he said, you need to be like this little child.

You need to be turned around. Get your mind all changed. Why would I have to be a little child? Why would I have to be lowliness in God's assembly? Because the one in the midst is lowly.

How could I ever aspire to be something among God's people when I realize the lowliness of the Lord? And then, you know, it deals with sin, and the man that wouldn't repent, and so on. And it had to be dealt with. Why? Because we need holiness in the assembly.

That's why we need to go according to the word of God. We need holiness. Why would we need to be holy in God's assembly? Because the one in the midst is holy.

I think we take a lot of things maybe for granted, or maybe don't even take them at all. And we don't think about it, but we should. And what about forgiveness? Is there anyone in your assembly or anyone you know you haven't forgiven? Forgiving one another, as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Peter said, how often shall I forgive him? Seventy times. That's a lifetime. The Lord said, no.

Seventy times seven. Unlimited forgiveness. Wonderful to have the spirit of forgiveness.

And if we're real, and remember what we once were, and what we are now, we wouldn't have any difficulties in that way. So they all, they went to him in the cave, and they were with David. He had won their hearts, and they wanted to be with him.

No matter what the consequences were, they were willing to bear reproach. Are we? Some assemblies today, they're bringing in all kinds of things to do away with their reproach. We're not reigning, Paul said.

Word to God we were reigning, he said. You're reigning without us. They thought the millennial had come, and they're taking it easy.

He said, no, we're not there yet. We enjoy some of the benefits that are going to come in the millennium, and so on. And he touches on those things.

But anyhow, he said, we're not there yet. Word to God we were reigning. If we were, all the suffering would be over.

Are we willing to suffer? Maybe we haven't suffered very much, as Paul did. Maybe we will before too long. Things aren't getting all that great in this, even in this country in which we live.

But it's a great thing to be attracted to this David. Now, we come to Siglag, and I'm trusting on your memory, you remember that's where David had gone down among the Philistines. And while we take David as a beautiful picture of Christ, we know that everything in his life wasn't typical of Christ, or reminders of Christ.

He got among the Philistines. Who are the Philistines? You ever wonder who they, who they really are? They were in the land when the children of Israel went there. They went by the 11-day journey.

They didn't know any of those beautiful pictures of the death of Christ, and so on, and Passover, and all those things that won't go through the Red Sea, and Jordan. They knew nothing about that. But who were they? Well, they were descendants of Ham.

Ham means black, and the thought, I believe, and look at it typically, is that the light of God shone upon him, but instead of enlightening him, it darkened him. And then the descendant of Ham was a man called Mizraim, which is often translated Egypt. That's the world, and that's where these Philistines came from.

And then after Mizraim, you have Kazloom, and his, I think his name would be linked with believing in himself to be wise, he became fools. And then the Philistine comes from him, the migratory one, and that's what happened to God's people. They were taken into captivity.

I'm not speaking about Judah, and so on, but I'm thinking of God's people, and the things that prevailed. I'm not saying they're not, I believe there always were assemblies, but there's a time when it was all mixed up with Christendom, and the true and the false all together, and so on. And that was a sad time, but they needed to be taken, and you remember how the enemy came in and took David's wives, and a lot of the wives, and so on, and then they had to be defeated.

Now I'm just going to say a few things here about this passage. I had, of course, all going to go down, right down through all these tribes, but we'll just mention a few things. David was going to be put back on the throne, and that's a wonderful thing, and that's the way to a restoration.

We've already been reminded of that nearly by, I think, by every speaker. We need to give the Lord his place in our lives. That's the only way of restoration, and that causes praise.

They come to Hebron, and you have Judah, first of all, and his little army, and they're all willing to stand up for David, and defend David, and defend the truths concerning David. And as Judah, of course, means praise, and then you have Simeon, means hearing, and we need to hear the Word of God. It was the Word of God that gave us the assurance of our salvation, but that's only the beginning.

That's only the beginning of salvation. We need to continue hearing, if we love the Word of God so much, we should. God saved me when there were no preachers around.

There wasn't anybody preaching the gospel, but I heard many preachers, of course, but the Word of God, that I remembered that God spoke to me. When my father died, there was a man, one of the men that took part in his funeral, he read two words. I wondered, what's he going to say? He said, Salute Philia Logos.

You say, what does that mean? Well, Philia was love, and Logos is the Word. And he said, this man is a lover of the Word. Are you a lover of the Word? It was the Word that gave you assurance.

How could you not be a lover of the Word? I don't know the Word as well as my father did, or many other people, but I know this, I love it. Because it's through the Word that I found out I was a sinner, and that Christ died for me, and it gave me the assurance of salvation. You have joined by Levi.

I won't even mention these things, what they mean. You can figure that out for yourself, I would think. Benjamin, the son of my right hand.

That's wonderful to know, the one at the right hand, and especially since Benjamin was an enemy. He was born in the enemy's territory, and yet he loved David, and David loved him. And all of us were enemies of God.

Think how far away we were from God, and yet God loved us. And the Lord Jesus died for us. Ephraim, fruitfulness.

Going to be fruitful, we need to be occupied with him. Manasseh, forgetting. And you know what people say today in the world? I think they do, anyhow.

They say, forget your failures. Just start over, you know. Forget all your failures.

No, no. Forgetting those things that are behind. Paul was forgetting the things that he boasted in.

It wasn't his failures. Well, that would humble you, wouldn't it? Remember your failures. You remember your triumphs, and when God used you a little bit, and somebody got restored, or somebody got saved.

Man, we're doing great. Remember those things that will humble you. We need to keep humble.

We shouldn't have any trouble, because we have nothing to be proud about. So it shouldn't be a big difficulty to be humble, and we can go right down. But Issachar is the one, really, that we want to speak a little bit about.

And he was a man that knew what Israel ought to do. What, if you read down this chapter, you say, what did Israel, what did they have to do? Well, we need people in the assemblies today, elders and so on, that know what they have to do. There are a lot of decisions that come up that aren't easy.

But that's not what he said. He knew David should be on the throne. And maybe I'll just leave you with that.

David on the throne. Whatever decisions we make in our lives, will this please him? They would say, well, let's please David. Well, let's please the Lord.

Well, I do this. Oh, no, the Lord wouldn't mind if I did that, you know. Ask him.

That's the thing. We need to be dependent on the Lord. And you know what will happen? Well, when we come to the end of the chapter, just give it very, very quickly, there was bread.

Bread, when we break bread, it speaks of unity. So there was unity because they all loved David. So it wouldn't be too hard for us all to be unified if we all loved the Lord, wouldn't it? And we're all trying to please him.

And he brought them meat or food. That would be strengthening. Forgive him that, please.

That will give us strength. The meal is a spotless one, like a meal offering to be occupied with him. The figs speak of sweetness or grace.

That would be wonderful if we all had more of that, wouldn't it? And then you have the raisins or grapes, the grapes of Eskol that keep us going on, knowing what it's like when we get right back into our inheritance. We can enjoy it now and measure, but I'm thinking about heaven in this instance. And that should keep us going on for God.

Wine, mature joy, wonderful to have the joy of the Lord as our strength. Are we enjoying these things? We're going to enjoy them in the future, but can we enjoy them in part? Now we often sing the streams on earth I've tasted, more deep I'll drink above. And then we have the oil, the Holy Spirit, moderating in the assembly and in our lives.

We have oxen service, fit for service. We have sheep submissive to him. What a wonderful thing.

So I'll just leave with these few little thoughts. Cave of Adullam, 1 Samuel 22 and 1, the place of reproach. We love to be there because the Lord is there.

And then 1 Samuel 30 and 1, the city of Ziglag, the place where it needed recovery. And then 1 Chronicles 12, where we have read Hebron, and a place of restoration. And we all need it, and it's available for all of us.

And the way to it is this, to know what to do. Put the Lord on the throne. We could go into Ephesians 3, some of these things you could talk all night, you know.

But one thing I notice about most preachers and myself, we're all good at English. We can keep talking and talking, but we're not too good at math, at dividing the time. So you'll forgive us anyhow, and there's at least a little bit of time for another brother.