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  THE CAVE OF ADULLAM： MY STORY
  by Fred Tomlinson
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Summary: This sermon delves into the story of David in the cave of
Adullam, drawing parallels to the pursuit of God in our lives. It
emphasizes the need to shift our allegiance completely to Jesus,
surrendering our entire lives to Him. The speaker shares personal
experiences of encountering God's presence, love, and transformative
power, urging listeners to seek a true 'cave of Adullam' where the full
gospel is ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Topics: "Surrender to Jesus", "Encountering God's Presence"
Scripture References: 1 Samuel 22:1, Psalm 139:23, Matthew 11:28, 1 Peter 5:8, Isaiah 53:5, Jeremiah 29:13, John 14:6, Romans 12:1, Ephesians 3:17

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the story of David in the cave of Adullam,
drawing parallels to the pursuit of God in our lives. It emphasizes the
need to shift our allegiance completely to Jesus, surrendering our
entire lives to Him. The speaker shares personal experiences of
encountering God's presence, love, and transformative power, urging
listeners to seek a true 'cave of Adullam' where the full gospel is
ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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CONTENT
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Our Bibles, shall we? And we will perhaps open them to the first book of
Samuel in the Old Testament. Samuel and chapter 22. First Samuel 22.

I'm just going to read two verses from the top of the chapter. So David
departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam and when his
brothers and all his father's household heard of it they went down there
to him. Everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and
everyone who was discontented gathered to him and he became captain over
them.

Now there were about 400 men with him. Amen. I'd like to do something a
little bit unusual this morning for me.

I'd like to find several features or make several observations from
these couple of verses here and then illustrate them from my own
personal story and I pray that God may challenge you as you listen and
may God speak to you. Amen. So David, as you know very well I'm sure,
had been chosen by God.

And the fact of the matter is at this particular time the ruling king
was Saul. Interesting. He was head and shoulders above all others.

He had been chosen by the people and I guess they looked at him and
figured well he's just the man that we need and so he was chosen and
established. But the fact of the matter is that at a certain stage,
which we're not going to look at or examine this morning, God had spoken
very clearly through his prophet concerning something that he was
required to do and he compromised. He compromised with the word of God.

It's interesting that in his compromise there was a sense in which he
could claim he had done what the prophets had told him to do but the
fact is he had only partially done what God had instructed him to do and
partial obedience in the end is seen by God as disobedience. And so that
was a very serious move and then of course the story continues from that
stage on and eventually we find ourselves in the 16th chapter here of
this very book that we're looking at and he comes to terms with the fact
that God has indeed rejected him from being king and he made that well-
known statement in response, a very tragic, very sad statement. He said,
I have played the fool and I have erred exceedingly.

I can't imagine a more sobering and challenging, even heart-wrenching
thing for a man who has been used by God and then to find himself toward
the end of his life in a moment where he looks back and his own
testimony concerning his life was simply this, I've played the fool.
I've erred exceedingly. I pray God that he will please keep me to the
end of this journey and I would pray that for you also.

We're never beyond falling and there's a challenge right there that I
could say a lot more about but in any event this is exactly what's
happened and whereas Saul had been chosen by the people, God made a
choice and God chose not the most likely person but the most unlikely
person. You can remember the story, I'm sure, where he is selected among
his brethren by God but through Samuel the prophet and this young
fellow, David was the one chosen and he was anointed there in that
situation. Of course, he wasn't recognized as the king.

There would be two future events so far as the anointing would be
concerned. One, having been anointed in his own father's backyard, as it
were, he would be anointed king over Judah and then there would be a
third recognition where he's installed a king over all of the nation.
Anyway, that's the kind of background.

We're in between those events as we look here in this chapter and he's
being pursued by Saul. He's hated by Saul. Saul and those who are with
Saul obviously are rejecting David.

David is being hated and hunted and at this particular stage he's found
refuge in a hole on the hillside which is referred to as a cave, the
cave of Adullam. In very many ways, David stands out in Scripture as a
type of Christ himself and there are many Scriptures that we can find
supporting that, particularly to be found in the New Testament. As is
the case with types and those who in various ways represent something
that is going to be fulfilled in the future, certainly in particular
where someone is representing Christ in some way, it's not because they
are perfect human beings.

It's not because every single aspect of their lives is just a carbon
copy of Christ who would come in the fullness of time. That's certainly
true for David. As a matter of fact, I was reading just this morning how
the 21st chapter ends, in other words, immediately before these verses
I've just read to you.

He's disguising himself and is in great fear for his own life and so on,
which is the basis of him then fleeing as we find in the 22nd chapter in
the verses I've just read to you. But certainly it is true that in many
ways, in many respects, he is set apart from other men and the way he
rules the nation and so on, the kingdom, are all things that are very,
very significant as he is a type of the Messiah. But when I read these
things about David here, my mind is turned to the Lord himself, our
Lord, the Lord Jesus, and we can see a similarity here.

Though the reasons and background are different, we know as we think
about the times in which we live today, right in our own culture at this
point in time, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is unrecognized by our
culture. He's hated within our culture. He's rejected.

Certainly he's rejected as the anointed one. He is rejected as the
triumphant warrior indeed. Although we know from the very scriptures we
have before us just now that there's a day coming when, and likely quite
soon, when he will be revealed to all and he'll be revealed as the King
of Kings and as the Lord of Lords.

And he, we're told, will subdue kingdoms beneath his feet and under his
own authority. And so we have that very much in our mind today. But
today, I pose this question, where will he be discovered? Where will he
be discovered at this moment in time? I can tell you this with full
assurance that he will not be discovered in the king's palaces of this
world.

He will not be discovered in the great cathedrals of our nations. And
perhaps he will not be discovered in the mega-churches. But I believe it
may be that he will be discovered in a cave of a dolem, in an unlikely
place.

An interesting feature about the cave where David was hiding was as he
looked out from that cave, he would see Bethlehem in the distance. And
he would also look down on the very spot where he had slain the mighty
Goliath. Without the slaying of Goliath, there would be no dolem.

And of course, I'm finding a parallel as I'm saying these things to the
Lord Jesus. We're going to find him where he is near to the place where
he experienced that supreme victory, even the cross of Calvary. Amen.

David goes to this place and soon he is joined by 400 men. And we've
read there in the verse how that the men that come to him, they're
coming with purpose. They want to find David.

They want to be with him. They're recognizing him as God's choice. And
the people who are coming are people who have their own issues.

We'll think about that again in just a moment. The interesting thing for
you and me is that we won't need and we never need to initiate a search
for him. He knows who I am.

He knows who you are. I believe that on the basis of what I'm reading in
Scripture, that he had my name before him, before I was conceived in my
mother's womb. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we were chosen in him
before the foundations of the world, before creation.

We were chosen in him. He knows me. He has always known me.

He has always known you. And so I don't need to find him. As a matter of
fact, Paul on another occasion said, there's no one who seeks after the
Lord.

This touches on a much bigger subject than we're dealing with just now.
But the fact is, I do not need to try to find him. He is the one who is
pursuing me.

He has been pursuing me from my earliest days. And I can say to you, he
has been pursuing you from your earliest days. What I need to do and
what you need to do is to discover him.

We don't need to find him. We don't need to launch out a program on a
program to somehow find where he is. Where is he located? How shall I
find him? What will I need to do? No, no, none of those things apply.

He knows who I am exactly. And I've never been out of his sight. He's
been aware of me from the earliest days.

I only need to discover him. And that's where I think about my own life.
I know that there's people listening to me right now who know a little
bit about my background.

But I was born into a family where my dad was physically handicapped and
where my mother had a heavy load to carry during those early days
because the six-year Second World War was just drawing to an end at the
time I'm thinking about. And I was four years of age at that time. And
my dad was anxious that his son, his only son at that point, would be
saved as he would have referred to it.

He wanted to be sure that I surrendered my life to Christ. And this is
something I can remember very vividly sitting across from an old coal
fireplace and my dad facing me and he was seeking to lead me into the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus as my Saviour. I prayed what is today
referred to as the sinner's prayer.

I prayed after my dad. And I had a Bible. Even at that time, I don't
know, my dad probably gave it.

I'm sure he gave it to me. I didn't go out and buy it. At age four, I
had a Bible.

And I can remember that, because I had it for a long time afterwards,
that written in the front, I can't tell you that I wrote this on the day
or how many days later, but I had it written in there that I was saved
on such and such a day. I wish I had the Bible today, but I don't. But
there you are.

And my family belonged to a Christian group who at that time, in
particular, were known as Plymouth Brethren. In the 1960s, for reasons
we're not thinking about just now, they decided to change the title that
they would operate under, and they would become known as Christian
Assemblies. But my father and mother belonged to that group, and so did
other members of my family.

As a matter of fact, on my mother's side, I might just add that she
became a Christian as the result of hearing some singing out the back of
the house where she lived, in a little alley, a little cul-de-sac that
ended right behind their house, and there were some other houses backing
onto that area that I can remember. And she went out to see what was
going on, and there was a group of Brethren people who were holding an
open air meeting there, and she went down and stood with them, and she
gave her life to Jesus that night. And as a result of that, her mother
became a Christian, and her two sisters became Christians, and then
there was the story of how she met my father, who was a Christian as
well, and belonged to the Brethren, but a different assembly.

The fact that I'm trying to establish is that I was privileged to be
born into that home, and where our family life centred around the Bible,
and centred around meetings, and around Christian fellowship, and so on.
That was the environment in which God saw to it that I was born, and I
was known to him at that time. But if I can fast forward a number of
years, quite a number of years, and I can tell you that I was in my
early 20s, and I was a committed Christian.

That's how I would have seen myself and understood myself. I was
married. I had one son.

Another son was soon to be born, and I had a good job and a career ahead
of me. But what I was unaware of at that particular point in time was
that God, who knew me, was pursuing me. He was pursuing my wife, Sheila,
also.

Although the world would look on and would make references to chance,
and circumstances, and so forth, being just the way life is, I can say
that I do believe, and I see it very, very clearly, never more clearly
than today, that God was leading and directing us. He was pursuing me,
and I was made aware of a particular meeting that was taking place
regularly in a house in the city of Liverpool where we lived. I
personally had no interest in going at all, and it was not a brethren
meeting, and so that was disqualified as being top of the chart to start
with.

But eventually I did go, and there were about 50 people, as I remember,
in the room at that point in time. It was an old house. It was going to
be demolished in a few years' time, so it was semi-derelict.

It was a kind of suburban cave, if you will. I discovered in that house
that Jesus was there. It was a true cave of a dolom, and it had a clear
view of the cross, I can tell you.

As a result of what was going on there, I may say a little bit more
about it in a few minutes, but as a result of what was going on in that
meeting and in that house, and what was going on in my heart, and I can
speak for my wife Sheila also, what was going on in our hearts and our
response to what we were exposed to, enabled God to take our knowledge
of God to a whole new level. And as a result of that, within four years,
my career had been drawn to an end. God had brought great changes into
our lives, and as I say, four years after that first time of going into
that house, I, with Sheila, became involved in full-time ministry, and I
was included in the leadership of that church that was there.

And I thank God for the way in which he was leading us at that time. It
was unforeseen. It was not anywhere in my thoughts or in our thoughts in
the earlier days.

This was just an amazing development that had to be God, and it wasn't
something that we were forced or into. It was something that was
responded to with a glad heart and with a sense of excitement and
anticipation as God was opening something completely new to us. In the
Scriptures, it's very obvious that the cave of Adullam carried a stigma
with it.

David, who was there, was stigmatized, and we can be very sure that
anyone who gathered with him and everyone who gathered with him were a
people who were stigmatized. Yet knowing that, many came. I hope you can
see some parallels without me trying to explain each and every thing
that I'm touching on here as I say these things.

But David very obviously carried in his person a moral quality, a
certain kind of magnetism. There was something about this man that drew
people to want to be there, to respond to him. And he there in that
unlikely place, in that cave of Adullam, was able to establish what
Charles Wesley would refer to as a haven to take the shipwrecked in,
because that's the kind of people that were coming.

These were people who were in trouble. And they were not merely, how can
I say this, they were not merely accepted by David when they came, but
they became transformed as the result of being there with him. And let
me just say again, as I think of my own life or our lives together,
there's a lot of decades gone in between that initial event.

And here we are at this stage in life. But I can say now, I know that
forever I will be thankful to God for those days which were our initial
days of involvement in that that was taking place. This was not some
kind of crazy, bizarre, charismatic thing.

There was a lot of things going on around at that time. This was not
part of those. This was not the result of a man or a group of men
deciding to plant a new work.

But this was a sovereign, solid work which was indisputably of God and
was incredibly special for that very reason. When we came to that place,
we came with a good deal of knowledge of the Bible We had listened over
many, many years to teaching of the Bible and exposure to the things of
God without any question. And yet what we were being exposed to seemed
to come with fresh light.

Somehow things that were familiar, passages of scripture that were
familiar to us in so many ways became quickened and were alive to us.
And as well as that, there were new things. There were new discoveries
that we were able to make concerning the truth of God and concerning the
Lord himself.

All these things together, the fresh light, the new revelations that
seemed to be coming to our hearts in those days became integrated into
our lives and integrated into our minds and into our understanding and
became, as it were, a foundation and a basis for what today I can say
has been a lifelong ministry into which God has called us to be. My
purpose today in sharing these things is not to try and give you a blow-
by-blow detailed account of everything, but I'd like to just briefly
point in one or two directions which were particular features of what we
were exposed to, which I think I can safely say would always be expected
as features of any true Adullam, a place where Jesus is. Certainly these
details of what I experience and what I will describe are different from
what David was facing.

The particulars are different, certainly, but there are features which
are exactly the same. They're perhaps just on a different level, that's
all, but these were broken lives coming to David and finding rescue and
finding his love and his embrace there in that place, but they were also
being transformed as I have indicated as well. There would be many
others who'd come, I should tell you that in case you're reading on a
little further, there'd be many others who would come.

There would be thousands of people who would gather with David before
the story's out, and many of those that came were people who were quoted
in Scripture as being mighty men of war and so forth as they're
described. At this particular juncture in the story, these are people
who are in trouble, as we see in the text in verse 2, who come to him.
So the details are different, but there's a sense in which, well, isn't
this exactly what God is doing in a local assembly, a place where Christ
is, perhaps the most unlikely of places, some kind of cave of a dolem,
if you will.

There'll be the presence of God by his Spirit, and there will be people
who will be drawn by his Spirit, not because of our advertising, but by
his Spirit he will draw and gather those who he will have there in order
that he can minister to them and transform their lives according to his
own good pleasure. And one thing is certain that these people that came
on this occasion would be included with the entire group who would be
known in the future as David's mighty men. I only knew Plymouth Brethren
meetings.

We would never venture beyond the context of our own assemblies. We
would visit other assemblies. We would have, as young people, youth
camps in North Wales with people from many different assemblies around
that area and so on, but it was always within that context.

We had no TV. There was no TV for us at that point in time, so there was
no TV ministries that we were exposed to. There were no music CDs.

There weren't even music cassettes at that point in time. Everything was
different. I look back on these things.

You can't change how things are today, but I'm glad I was born at that
particular time because I didn't face so many of the distractions that I
think so many people face today, but there the road was narrow. There
were good people who believed the Bible to be the Word of God, men who
would teach in the assemblies that were solid men with a desire to help
and minister to young people as we were in those earlier days certainly,
but I can remember going up the steps of the house I've described, and I
remember going up with a lot of reservation. I'd resisted going for a
long time.

Here now I was climbing up the steps, a group of steps up into the front
door of this place, and based on the fact that I was a policeman, so I
wasn't isolated in other senses, but as far as my faith and my
Christianity, I was isolated. Here I was venturing out beyond the wall,
if you will, and I had a sense that really I shouldn't be doing this. I
really shouldn't be going to this place, but the fact is I was outside
of my comfort zone.

I was outside of that which was familiar to me. I was unsettled in my
heart. To some degree I think I was upset that I was even doing this.

It was probably Sheila encouraging me strongly. No, it was the Lord, I
know that, but the fact of the matter is I was going to be exposed to
the way of God more perfectly. That's what would happen.

I didn't know that. I wasn't aware of that. I wouldn't have wanted to
have admitted it at all, but the fact of the matter is as I proceeded on
that particular day, God would begin to open up a new chapter in our
lives.

As a matter of fact, from that moment, from that night, our lives would
begin to pivot off in a totally different direction. I can say looking
back and know that this is true without question, almost everything
about our lives, almost everything would be changed as the result of
going to that cave of Adullam and responding to what we were exposed to
in that place, and I thank God for it with all my heart. What we found
in that cave of Adullam was, perhaps I've already said this, but let me
say it in a different way, was the very presence of God.

It was that sense of his holiness. I'd heard about it. I knew scriptures
that related to it, but somehow I was actually exposed to it on that
occasion.

What was going on in that place, it wasn't some kind of rave up, it
wasn't, nor was it some kind of sober, somber religious event at all. I
can say this very honestly, it was like a searchlight, like God's
searchlight that was just blazing a beam right into my heart and
illuminating my soul. I had never dabbled in the occult.

I had never taken illegal drugs. I'd never become hooked on pornography.
I'd never been unfaithful to my wife.

I was a committed Christian, yet my response in that context was one of
profound uncleanness, and I think and believe that's exactly what we
would expect should we find ourselves in the presence of God. No matter
who we are, what kind of good lives or moral lives we've lived, in his
holy presence, his searchlight searching out every crevice and corner of
our hearts and of our minds, we would say with the Apostle, we're just
undone, we're exposed. And then I even had literally hot and cold
sweats.

I've been heard to say that before. That literally is what happened as I
sat in that room, and I can say, I know this to be true, if I had not
been in the center of the room in the seating position where it would be
profoundly awkward to have got out, I would have left the meeting
quickly. But God had arranged the seat for me, and I was crowded in, and
I was held there.

And God continued to make himself known to me, and I discovered
something else in the context of his presence and his holiness was his
love. And his love caused my reservations and my resistance to
evaporate. I thought I knew so much and believed that I would object to
so much that I'd be exposed to based on what conversations I'd had prior
to being there.

I know I was heard to say to Sheila on one occasion, just prior to
actually going there when I met socially with one or two of the people
from that group, I went home and said to Sheila, I've never seen love
like that. Never seen it. And, you know, I think on that occasion that
I've been describing, as things began to unfold, I felt like the
prodigal coming home.

It wasn't like, so this is different, and so I don't agree with this, or
I'm uncomfortable with something else. Something was melting in my own
heart in the presence of God. I knew some lovely folks and lovely
people, Christian people in my background, but there was something
different there.

If you'd asked me to try and write down and sort of list and categorize
what these, I wouldn't have known how to answer those questions, but
there was something different. There was almost a mystical feature to
everything. As I say, I was a policeman.

I wasn't stupid. I wasn't just caught in some silly web. I remember one
man, some of you will know who I'm speaking about.

He's gone to be with the Lord now, but his name, we just knew him,
although he's quite a bit older than we were, as Dave. But I remember in
conversation with him, I truly became convinced if push came to shove,
that man would lay his life down for me. There was just something about
that love that was flowing from him, which I believe was the love of
Christ himself, flowing through that man, and these things were making
profound impressions.

There was another feature there, and it was the preaching of the Word of
God. As I have indicated, in my background, I had listened to some very
gifted Bible expositors, but this was different. This was very
different.

I think it was as different as this. Paul writes to the Thessalonians
and he said, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also
in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, just as you
know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. That's
exactly what was happening.

It wasn't just a very gifted exposition of the text. It was that, but it
was more than that, and I think that's exactly what Paul's saying. He
said, when you listen to us, it wasn't just words.

He wasn't merely teaching what we could find in the Old Testament
scriptures and so on, but that Christ lived in him. The Spirit of God
was working through him, so his words were quickened. This is that
mystical, strange feature that we feel beggared to try to describe it or
analyze it, but when you're exposed to it and your heart is open to it,
you know it's there.

It's another aspect of hearing the shepherd's voice and recognizing this
is the shepherd who's speaking to me. That certainly was taking place on
those occasions. To hear the speaker on one occasion say, tonight I'm
going to talk to you about God.

You know, I think that statement, which is an accurate verbatim
statement, kind of sums up the kind of thing I'm trying to communicate
to you. It wasn't, yes, we want to know about the Bible. We want the
Bible to be explained to us and applied to our lives in a very detailed
way, but somehow there's something beyond it all, and I believe that
this is what was going on there.

I was exposed to godly men preaching the text but causing our hearts to
burn within us. You'll remember the passage of scripture I'm thinking
about when I say that. This was not just clever preaching, but this
preaching was bringing us to God, and there's a world of difference.

I don't know what David said to the men as they gathered around him, but
I'm confident that in one way or another his goal would be to bring them
to God, and this, I believe, is a key feature to this Adullam
experience. You know, over the years I've witnessed many broken people
being drawn by the spirit of God. Not to a cave in the hillside, but to
the cross of King David's greater son, even the Lord Jesus, and I've
witnessed the gospel working.

Whatever I've known of it in my own life is one thing, but I've seen it
working in the lives of others where it's not merely words. Paul would
say he was not ashamed of the gospel of and we've seen that. Before I
close, let me give you just one example, one person that we witness
being drawn in the way that I'm describing to you.

Her name was Alison. I can't tell you all her story this morning, but to
start with, her parents wanted a son, she wasn't a son, she was a
daughter, and she was rejected from the beginning, but she became a
medical nurse. In her final attempt to commit suicide, she poured
kerosene over herself and ignited it.

Her scars, head to toe, would testify to the horror that she had known.
After performing a leucotomy, the medical world had exhausted their
resources and she was left to vegetate in a psychiatric ward, consigned
to the rubbish bin of society. But God had a different plan for Alison.

She was destined to become an outstanding trophy of his transforming
grace, and one Tuesday evening that I remember very clearly, against the
better judgment of her psychiatrist, he had given permission for her to
come out with two Christian men, who happened to be elders of our
church, to come to a meeting. I will never forget that dear, violently
shaking woman, and the horrible scars that were obvious on her legs. It
wasn't that night, but God met Alison, and she became a treasured
friend.

She lived in the church house, and later lived in her own apartment, and
became a valued and deeply loved member of the Devonshire Oak Christian
Fellowship, until many years later the Lord took her home to himself. I
could share stories of others. Many of them would have professed that
they were Christians, and yet they were struggling with issues,
struggling with demonic bondages of one sort or another.

Sometimes things they had inherited, sometimes, and perhaps more
commonly, things that they had acquired. You know, the Apostle Peter
said that the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour. And in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verse 8, I read,
he who breaks the hedge will be bitten by a serpent.

Did you know that men and women rip down that hedge, and when they do,
they invite demonic trouble? And it can come in many ways. You can rip
the hedge down as a result of many activities you engage in. It could be
something as common as your smartphone.

And you rip a hedge down, and expose yourself to things that you should
never have exposed yourselves to. And as I've said to many people over
the years, you know the painting that's been drawn of Jesus standing at
the door with the text, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any
man open, he would come in and sup with them, and so on. Someone saw
that painting after it had been drawn and commented to the painter that
he'd made a terrible mistake because he'd missed something, and he
wanted to know what it was.

He said, well, there's no handle on the door. And the artist said, well,
that's by design, he said, because the handle's on the inside, not on
the outside. And so the fact is what we're thinking about is just the
Lord in his grace.

He is, as I've referred to him many times, he's the perfect, he's the
ultimate gentleman. He makes himself known to us. I'm required to open
up my life to him, and so are you.

But by complete contrast, he who is referred to in the text of 1 Peter
5.8 that I just quoted to you is the devil. And I believe that these
dark spirits, they're not perfect gentlemen, they're gatecrashers. And
where we open the door a chink, we break a little bit of the hedge down,
we engage in some illegal, immoral activity, something forbidden by God,
we inevitably give an occasion to the enemy who is like a roaring lion
seeking who he may desire, seeking to rush in.

I was thinking about this yesterday as I was driving quite locally, and
for some reason, I was aware of this text in my mind that I'm quoting to
you from Peter. But the picture I saw in my mind was these strange
people who climb up cliff faces. And we've seen the pictures, I've never
been close to one while he or she has been doing it.

But you see them, and the amazing thing is they go up sheer faces, and
sometimes the rock is actually leaning against them. And they've got no
ropes or anything, but with their fingers and their toes, they're
finding little crevices that they can hold on to and pull themselves up.
And it's just an amazing thing.

But let me tell you, the devil does things like that. He doesn't always
come like a great bulldozer and crash into our lives. But he'd be
climbing there, and he'll find any little chink that we give to him, and
he'll gain an advantage and progress.

And his goal is, according to this text, to devour us, to devour my
testimony, to devour my faith in Christ, and so on. Is there a balm in
Gilead? The text reads, and the answer is yes. Yes, indeed.

We understand that in responding to he who is the balm in Gilead, we'll
be required to transfer our allegiance. Just as these men coming to
David in Adoam, they were transferring their allegiance from Saul to
David. And in responding to him, who is making himself known to us,
revealing himself by his presence and through his word, by his love to
us, to respond demands that I shift my allegiance completely from
myself, from the world, from every other thing, and give myself to him
wholly and surrender my entire life, your entire life, to him.

As I close, may the Lord direct you to a true cave of Adoam, where you
will discover Jesus, where the full gospel is being ministered in the
power of the Holy Spirit. I was so blessed to have a cave of Adoam, just
across town from where I lived. Whatever you do, don't settle for
anything less.

Amen. Shall we pray? Father, I have not the faintest idea what from this
talk and the things I have said will mean to the people who have
listened. But Father, I am convinced in my heart that you have a purpose
for this message, and you have prepared a people to receive it.

And I pray for them, Lord, in the name of Jesus, that you will cause the
truth to come like that searchlight into their hearts. Arrest them,
Lord, I pray by your word and by your love. And Father, I pray that you
will quicken within each and every one such a response that cannot be
satisfied with anything less than the very highest that you have
ordained and provided for them.

Lead them and direct them, assist them, and further melt their hearts
into your great love and your salvation. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/F8dxULjhS_s.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-tomlinson/the-cave-of-adullam-my-story/
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