Let us turn our scripture reading for this morning, 1 Samuel chapter 24. And we'll read to the end of the encounter here between David and Saul, we'll read all of chapter 24. We're going to be focused though on the first 15 verses. And then we'll come back and look at Saul's response, Lord willing, in a couple weeks. Perhaps look at Samuel's burial as well. But for now, we'll read verses one to 22, and then we'll focus in on David's actions and non-actions in verses one through 15. Page 314 in most of the Bibles under the seats. 1 Samuel 24 beginning at verse one. Let us hear the word of God. When Saul returned from following after the Philistines, he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. And Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats' rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds, by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. And David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe, and afterwards David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my Lord, the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks you harm? Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the King of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea? May the Lord therefore be judged and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand." As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And he said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear to me, therefore, by the Lord, that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus once said in Matthew chapter 5, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Brothers and sisters, we must guard against the temptation of hating our enemies. Let us put it this way, it's not wrong to use the word enemy. It's not wrong to recognize that when someone would be persecuting us or pursuing us that they can be called an enemy. We can use that word, but let us not have the word enemy always go with enmity. When we use the word enemy, that doesn't mean that someone is no longer our neighbor. When we use the word enemy, that does not mean that we no longer are called to love them, to be open to receiving them, to be open to speaking mercy to them. to be open to being restored with them. These are the kinds of things we see in David's speech to Saul. Here is an enemy who has been pursuing his very life, who is doing so with a relentless and unlawful passion. And it is to that enemy that David will show great measures of mercy and even respect and an open kind of open hearted love even as he remains wise. People of God The word enemy must be carefully used. We are probably not being pursued in our very life by someone as David is being pursued by Saul. We must be careful to even use that word enemy because for one thing, we might not have a right perception of what antagonizes us and we can label someone an enemy when they're really not. Another reason is, as we've said, because we tend to think of the word enemy as an excuse that we should not then love the other person, but this is not true. Our theme is this, love your antagonists liberally and wisely. I chose the word antagonist because Maybe you don't think of the word enemy, but there's people who annoy you, who antagonize you, and whether you're perceiving that rightly or wrongly may put someone in that category in your mind. Well, enemies, antagonists, let's use that broader word, love your antagonists liberally and wisely. We're going to look at an unexpected opportunity. We're going to look at a sharp conscience and we're going to look at a measured confrontation. So first this unexpected opportunity and let's consider where David is. Let's consider this bigger picture. David's fleeing from Saul. We don't know how long it has been. since david uh... fled his house and and and his wife michael put the idle in his bed and we don't get enough time stamps we don't we don't know how long this has been going on but months if not into the category of years this is this has been taking some time david has been pursued over a number of different places and now his current hiding place is a good one It's the place of the wild goats. And Getty literally means the wellspring of the goats. And then we see also in verse two that he's near rocks that are specifically called the wild goats' rocks. What is this? It's a place full of caves and cliffs and rocks and all kinds of places where one could hide. It's a place where the where the Ibex loves to live and where they still live to this day because it's hard for people to navigate and get in and out of, but a wild goat can handle it. And it's their place in many ways. It is near, it is in this general area where scrolls, valuable scrolls, remained hidden for more than 2,000 years before they were rediscovered. There's all these caves, there's all these places to hide. Now, obviously 600 men are not going to be able to hide for more than 2,000 years, like a whole bunch of valuable scrolls might remain hidden. But the point is, this is a good hiding place. Even 600 men could remain hidden here for quite some time. But still, they are fugitives. They're almost certainly hungry and frustrated. Even though, thankfully, there's at least a good water supply here, this is a situation which is difficult to bear, and which they have been bearing in different places for quite some time. And so it's in this situation where David and his men are hiding in the shadows of one of the caves. They are in the deep part of the cave, the innermost parts of the cave, it says. at the end of verse three. And it's at this point that Saul comes near to them. The text describes it tastefully. In euphemism, Saul went in to relieve himself. Now, there is one, there's one, there's one, There's something that's not quite clear enough and that's because there's a Hebrew euphemism here also, which is more specific than the English one Because when the English says Saul went in to relieve himself that could mean It could refer to any reason for using the bathroom, but in the Hebrew, it's more specific It's a saying which speaks to one more specific need David Samura, he's a wonderful reformed Scholar from Japan, he said it this way, quote, the Hebrew expression here is a euphemism for evacuating the bowels. Nobody, not even his personal bodyguard, would accompany Saul into the cave for this purpose, end of quote. Now this also explains how David and his men, sitting in the back of the cave, I've always kind of wondered about that. How do they have time to have this conversation and go up and take off a part of the robe? Well, I think this explains how they have time to whisper a conversation among themselves and do all of this. And Saul is sitting there very vulnerable and completely unable to defend himself. Now, I'm just going to pause here for one moment for a couple sentences. The Bible describes this tastefully. It is not puritanical or prudish to speak delicately about things. Ever thought about that? You ever think, well, why can't we just say this or say that or whatever or whatever? When we would speak delicately about things, we're following the pattern of the holy word of God. There's a euphemism in the English because there's a euphemism in the Hebrew. It's a different euphemism that wouldn't make any sense if it was translated literally. But let's just think about that. It's good to speak delicately about matters of decency and modesty. Well, now they have this time to have this conversation. And what conversation do they have? David refuses to take advantage of Saul's vulnerability despite the urgings of his men. Take advantage of the situation, they're saying. Basically, the attitude of David's men is this. You have a free opportunity, David. You've got an open door. We're miserable. We're running. hungry, we're frustrated, we're sick of being fugitives, here's your chance. God's given you an open door. Walk through it and take it. And then they even take a promise that God has given to his people and they kind of turn it around a little bit and they even say, look, this is what the Lord has promised you. This is what he's open to you. Of course, they're taking things out of context and they're twisting it a little bit. God never said it exactly that way. They think, if God is giving us this kind of an opportunity, this clear of an opportunity, this open of a door, it just fits so neatly together with what we want. It must mean that we should take advantage of this opportunity. You know, this kind of thing happens all the time in our lives. We desire a new job, a door opens. But it's a job that will require much more time away from our family. It may quite possibly make spiritual growth more difficult. We desire a new relationship. A boy asks the girl out, but he's never demonstrated spiritual maturity. He's never demonstrated a consistent faithfulness to God. We desire a new toy. Latest Xbox is on the market and it's affordable, but I already spend too much time with technology. I think if each one of us sat here and contemplated, we could imagine more open doors, things which we could easily do. But as every open door, which is a door which is open because of God's providence, God controls all things, this open door for David, that was God's directing. God had Saul go to that cave. As every open door, an invitation to walk through that door the way we think we should. You see how if we take Christian discernment out of the equation, we can quickly twist things into saying, well, if God's opened this door for me, then it must be what God wants for me. And if we do that, what we're really doing is throwing Christian discernment out the window and just doing what we want and pretending that since the door was opened, it must be what God really wanted for me. David, in wisdom, does not assume that every door of opportunity opened by God's providence is a door which should be walked through in accordance with God's commands. Or to say it a little bit differently, as Gordon Keddy, he once carefully said it this way, quote, an open door is not in itself proof of God's will. Circumstances in God's providence are not a substitute for the principles God has revealed in his word, the Bible, end of quote. We must be very careful in our lives to discern each opportunity and not to just walk through whatever door is open to us. Well, here David is cautious and he says, I cannot. lay my hand against the Lord's anointed. See, he knows the command not to murder, not to harm. He knows the command to respect those in authority, even when they're abusing that authority. He will not touch Saul to harm him. Now, we come to our second point. Because even the door that David does walk through, which is the opportunity to cut off part of Saul's robe, even this, David cannot rest easy with. Now, here, in order to kind of understand what's going on in David's heart, I think we need to think a little bit about what a robe is in the ancient world. So in the ancient Near East, A corner of someone's robe, especially if you were a royal person, it's kind of like an identity card. It's kind of, it's a type of authorization. It even has, there's some indication that it has some legal significance to it. Remember, each, especially each royal robe, it's not mass produced. There's one robe for the king. It's like, It's like the king's driver's license in a sense. It's his identification card. It's part of his authorization of who he is. And so kind of taking that together, quoting once more from the reform scholar David Samora, Quote, what David has done, quote, could be taken as a symbol of disloyalty and rebellion, end of quote. Or let's just put it in 2022 terms. Stealing the president's driver's license is not an act of respect. Let's just put it that way, okay. He's stolen the king's driver's license, okay. So when we ask the question, why would this bother David? What's going on here? I think that helps us to get a little bit of the context of what a royal robe is. And so what David does is he does not sit there and say, well, Lord, at least I didn't do what my friends wanted me to do. You see that? He doesn't say, Yeah, I took the king's driver's license, but at least I didn't kill him, so I'm really just the best guy here. Instead of this, David is pricked in his conscience, even for the smaller offense which he has committed. Look at verse five, David's heart struck him. What's another way of saying that? David has a sharp conscience. Here's another thing which we face all the time. We have opportunities to have a sharp or dull conscience all the time. What are the kinds of things that a dull conscience says? Well, I may have done this, but at least I didn't do that. You see? You see? A dull conscience says, well, it doesn't really hurt. just to do this. It doesn't really hurt just to look, or just to take one click, or just to be a little bit lazy, or just to say a little bit of a lie, at least because I'm not doing this or that, or this or that. You see, this week you're going to have a thousand opportunities to have a dull conscience or a sharp conscience. There are sins which are heavier in nature in the sense that there's sins in the Old Testament that would have required the immediate civil death penalty. There are other sins which do not. The people of God, every sin is serious. A sharp conscience may seem very strange even to our Christian friends. What do you think David's friends are thinking here? I mean, they're upset with David that he didn't kill or capture Saul. And David's sitting there pricked in his heart that he cut off a quarter of Saul's robe. What do you mean? Your conscience bothers you about that? Your heart is pricked about that? That little thing? What's going on? What person has not had some experience like that in their lives? Your conscience is that sharp? You think that's a sin? You can't watch that TV show. What do you mean? It's no big deal. So you have a thousand opportunities to have a sharp conscience or a dull conscience. And even your Christian friends might think that a sharp conscience is really weird. But brothers and sisters, every sin is serious. Every sin is serious. Is it true that there's a sense in which, you know, David did the not as heavy thing yeah there's a sense and that's true but what does every sin require. What's the only way to make payment for any sin. The blood of Jesus Christ. Are big sins are small sins are very sinful desires of the flesh what can make a payment for the smallest and that you've already committed today because we've all said today what is the only payment the blood of Jesus Christ and you see if we if we have a dull conscience and if we think that little sins are excusable because well at least I didn't do that what are we doing we are driving the nails into our savior's hands. And we are failing to understand the depths of our own sinfulness and the depths of our own need for our one savior, Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, let us have a sharp conscience. Let us confess our sins big and small. Let us examine ourselves to see what, okay, Lord, Thank you for preserving me from this, but Lord, I know that I still did not think, act, glorify your name in the way that I should. Teach me to grow more in holiness, not to be content with some superficial more than what my friends thought I should do. Righteousness, teach me to be righteous in the depths of my soul because every sin is serious. Every sin requires the payment of the blood of Jesus Christ because I am dead in sin. A dull conscience does not understand deadness and sin. And it's a problem because It's a problem because little sins lead to big sins and it's a problem because there's really no little sins. Let us confess all our sinfulness and let us recognize with a sharp conscience all our sinfulness. Coming then as sinners with repentance and faith to our only Savior Jesus Christ who can wash us white as snow. Now, let's come to our third point, a measured confrontation. It is true that David did not harm Saul, and it is also true, one of the things about committing something which is not so serious is that there are some things which, to some degree, can be undone. Now, if we steal something, it's always a sin to steal something, but you can return something that you stole, whereas causing permanent harm on someone, that's something which could not be undone. And there's a sense in which, just to return to the driver's license idea, there's a sense in which David's coming out and he's saying, well, here's your driver's license back, And by the way, it's proof that I could have done much more to you. And in all of this, David is speaking in a measured way, in a wise way, in a respectful way. David is not holding a grudge against Saul. He's holding a robe. And even that he was pricked in his heart about. To hold a grudge is to build up a wall, to close others out, to say, you have been too hotly and unjustly pursuant of me. I want nothing to do with you. This is not the attitude of David. David takes that wall and tries to break it down with mercy and with this measured, wise confrontation. David doesn't pretend he's guilty. No, he pleads his innocence. He says that those who slander him in verse 9 are liars. And he gives that robe as, look, this is proof, Saul. I could have done much worse to you. Believe me, I could have harmed you, but it was not in my heart to harm you. And then he uses this old proverb in verse 13, which basically means what we do outwardly is an expression of what is in our heart. And he's saying, Saul, you have no proof that I've ever done anything against you outwardly. And instead, what I've done outwardly is proof that I do not hate you in my heart either. Now theirs is not holding a grudge. When we would not outwardly hold a grudge and build walls against another, when we would not inwardly build a wall up against someone to shut them out. David does none of this. He is open. He's liberally, openly, mercifully, loving, pleading Saul. does this with respect. That's how he begins in verse eight. He begins with respect. My Lord, the King. Now, Saul's probably not very high on the popularity list of David and his men. This is a this talk about a reason to to not approve of the appointed leader of your land but let's just say this my lord the king is that different than saying not my president or let's go brandon or any kind of nonsense disrespectful words like that it's a lot different he speaks respectfully Even though Saul is an awful and unjust king, he's still the king, and David's still going to call him the king. My lord, the king. And then he bows down before the king of Israel, the end of verse eight. But again, he's not pretending that he's not innocent. He defends his innocence. But all of this is with a certain humility, both a humility where David speaks of himself as a lowly creature. What am I? I'm a dog. I'm a flea. But more importantly, and a greater sign of his true humility is he's leaving everything in God's hands. See that in verse 12 and in verse 15. Vengeance belongs to God. Judgment belongs to God. Of course, this is critical because Saul, as king, is the judge of the land. An unjust king has only one authority over him, and that is God. And that's what David is saying. He's saying, I leave it in God's hands. I trust that God knows who is innocent. And the clear implication from his declarations of his innocence in verses 9 and 11 is David is saying, God knows I'm innocent, Saul. This is a confrontation, but it's a respectful confrontation. It's a measured confrontation. David's innocence is wisely, even tactfully stated. It reminds us of the wisdom of Proverbs. Proverbs 15, verse 1, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Or Proverbs 25, verses 21 and 22, If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. And if he's thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you." We're going to look at some of those burning coals on Saul's head next week. But it's the mercy of David which is heaping those coals upon Saul. David's display of mercy here is one of the ways that David is a type of Christ. Christ who, against a worse enemy, against a worse rebellion, displays the much greater mercy. Ephesians chapter 2 speaks about how we are by nature separated from Christ, but Christ, who is our peace, takes the dividing wall of hostility and breaks it down. We are reconciled to God through the cross. The cross is where, this is the language of Ephesians 2, the cross is where hostility is killed. Or we might consider how the Apostle Peter says it. And if you turn with me to 1 Peter 2, this is how this description is made. Remember, God loved us while we were yet enemies. His mercy brings us to himself. And Peter describes it this way in 1 Peter 2, verses 10 to 12. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against the soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. David, who has been shown the greatest mercy by God, is quick to show mercy, this openness of love, and all of this to Saul, who is pursuing his very life. We're going to look at this more, Lord willing, in two weeks, but it breaks down Saul to a certain point, though sadly Saul will not go all the way. It's this conduct among the Gentiles, Saul being the religious Gentile, which is so honorable, which makes Saul to recognize the righteousness of David, even though, again, he won't continue in that thread. People of God, we see that David's mercy will bring Saul to a partial, but sadly, as we'll see in two weeks, an incomplete repentance. People of God know that we need mercy first. And so when we consider our enemies, our antagonists, those who annoy us, whether it's something that we should be annoyed by or not, and far too often it's probably something we shouldn't even have even been annoyed by, People of God, let us love all our neighbors. Let us do so mercifully as those who have first been shown mercy. Let us do so liberally. Let us freely load up mercy for those around us as God has so bountifully given mercy to us to save us from our sins. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God of peace. We praise you for the reconciliation which you have made for us. That you have brought us near to you by your mercy and we pray Lord God.