This Amalekite

It says in chapter 1 verse 1, Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Zilgalab. It came even to pass on the third day that behold a man came out of the camp of Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head. And so it was when he came to David that he fell to the earth and did obeisance.

And David said unto him, From whence comest thou? He said unto him, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped. And David said unto him, How went the matter? I pray thee, tell me. And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.

David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? And the young man that told him said, As it happened by chance, notice that, upon Mount Gilboa, behold Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me, and I answered, Here am I. And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me, for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.

So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelets that was on his arm, and I brought them hither unto my Lord. Then David took hold on his clothes, and he rent them, and likewise all the men that were with him, and they mourned and wept and fasted until evening.

For Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword. David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? He answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite. David said unto him, How was thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand, and destroy the Lord's anointed? David called one of the young men and said, Go near and fall upon him.

And he smote him that he died. David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth has testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed. How are the mighty fallen? Saul began his career standing, and he stood head and shoulders above his fellows.

1 Samuel chapter 10, verse 23. But he finished his course by falling. 2 Samuel chapter 1, verse 4. And he fell among his enemies.

You spend time among your enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and you'll do what he did. You'll fall. So will I. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12 is the word.

Therefore let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. I take it that that is a warning to each and every one of us against self-confidence and arrogance. Is that possible among the people of God, that there would be self-confidence in any one of us, and arrogance in any one of us? You know, the natural ability and great opportunities do not guarantee spiritual success.

I want to notice this Amalekite. I think he's an interesting person, and I believe I can learn things just by taking a look at this Amalekite. In verse 13 and 14, the young man that told him.

Who was that young man? Was that Amalekite? And you know, he's a picture. He's not a type, but he's a little picture, at least he's a picture in my mind, of a tale bearer. You know what a tale bearer is? It's the word of God says things about tale bearing.

I've had this on my mind for a long, long time, and I guess I've never really had the courage to speak on it. And I'm not sure that I do now, but I'm going to speak on it anyway. He's a picture of a tale bearer.

You know what that fellow was doing? He was scavenging, scavenging among the dead. That's what he was doing. This Amalekite.

He had a nice story to tell David, but it wasn't true because all he was doing was scavenging. He was scavenging among the slain to see what he could find. Tale bearers still grub around.

Tale bearers today still grub around. They're still scavenging. They're still looking around to see what they can find, digging up things about others.

That's a tale bearer. We don't like to hear these things, do we? But they're very true. And those things go on among us.

Sad to say, I know for sure they go on among us, digging up things about others. And then they enhance their story like this man did. That's what he was doing.

He was enhancing his story to make himself look good. And that's exactly what a tale bearer does. They enhance their story to make themselves look good.

And they do that by manipulating the facts. You want to know something about somebody, why don't you just go and ask them? Just go ask them. If there's something about that individual that puzzles you, well just go and ask them.

Ask them about it. Well, they might answer you, or they might tell you to take a hike, one or the other. But they're going to tell you something.

How do we deal with people like that? I take it that they must be judged by the edge of the sword, which is the Word of God. It's the Word of God that judges them. It's not me, and it's not you.

It's the Word of God. I want to consider verse 19. How are the mighty fallen? You know, it's clear in my mind that the fall of Saul and his sons touched David's heart.

And any time we see a child of God fall, and they do, sometimes they rise like a rocket and they fall like a rock. You know, the same lady that told me that told me this. She said that a tree that grows fast grows weak.

She's no longer with us. She's in the glory. But I understand more today what she told me in that day than I did in that day.

I'm not sure that I was really gathering up in my mind what she was telling me, but I know today what she was telling me. But that was a lot of years ago. I've been around a lot of years.

I didn't get this gray hair for nothing. I guess it ain't gray, it's white. White hair.

You've got to be around a while, brother, to get a little white hair on your head, eh? Well anyway, the fall of Saul and his sons touched the heart of David. Is it possible that any one of us in this room today could fall? Is that a possibility? Interesting isn't it? Because Peter did. Peter fell.

I can tell you someone else that fell, and that was Satan. He fell, didn't he? How about Adam? Did he fall? That's the reason that we're in the condition that we are today, is because he did. And sin was inserted into the whole human race.

And we all have that nature today. It's never been eradicated. And it won't, until we leave this poor, groaning world behind.

And there was another man that fell, his name was Moses. Imagine that. And then David.

David. How could David fall? But he did. And then there were many others.

Mighty men so called. And you know, this no doubt touches the Lord's heart. And because it touches the Lord's heart, it should touch my heart.

When I see a fellow believer fall, rather than criticizing him and being critical, it should touch my heart. It should drive me to my knees. I should be able to remember his name and pray for him.

You know you could fall? Did you know that? Do you know that I could fall? You probably look at me and say, oh yeah, I have no problem seeing that. Well I could. I want to notice this man, Mr. Saul, who chased David.

And he cast a javelin at him. And he did something else. He made David's life absolutely miserable.

Dindy. And yet David never said an evil word about him. Never took that javelin and cast it back.

What would you do if someone took a javelin and cast that javelin at you and meant to punch that right through your heart and you knew it and David knew it? What would you do? What would I do? Well I was going to do something to somebody one day. And it was all because of this matter of tail bearing. And it burned my hide.

Is that an old Iowegian saying or what? Or does that just come from Oklahoma? Hide burn. And there was a man that sat at a table and he told me where the cow ate the cabbage. That's just what he did.

And when he was all done telling me where the cow ate the cabbage, I was going to get a hold of him and show him where the cow ate the cabbage and here come a brother and a sister and they sat down with me. And they knew that I was fried. I mean, boy, I'll tell you, my heels were hot.

I was a bit younger then. I'm too old now. I'm harmless.

And they sat down at that table and told me this little story about Saul throwing a javelin at David and David never took and threw the javelin back and I knew exactly what they were telling me. Sometimes folks will throw a javelin at us and then we get an opportunity to react toward that. Untrue words.

Anybody ever speak untrue words about you and you found out about it? You'll find out about it if somebody talks and says something untrue about you because there are birds all over the place and they're just going to beat their feet to you to let you know. Did you know that so and so said this about you? Right? That's how it works. Untrue words, unkindness towards us.

How do we react towards those things? When somebody is unkind towards us, when somebody says things about us that aren't true and has all kinds of things to say and never ever asked a question to find out anything about it and yet they knew all about it or at least they thought they knew all about it and had a million things to say, that still goes on. You know, these men mentioned that I mentioned, Moses and so on, like Saul and his sons fell on high ground. It's ground where they should have stood.

They should have been standing on that ground. You know, the mountain is a place of privilege and advantage. You know what I think it's like? I think it's like God's assembly.

Do you think God's assembly is a place of privilege, advantage, or do you think it's just some other church and town? Well, I can tell you this afternoon, it's not. It is absolutely, totally unique, uniquely different than anything that you can put your eyes to or ears because they make quite a bit of noise. They got orchestras.

We don't have orchestras. They have orchestras. They can't prove their existence from the Word of God, but guess what? We can prove ours.

Yeah, even Alpena, Arkansas, a little old company of believers, nine of us, we're just happy as a lark up there on top of the hill in that little old wooden white building. You've been there, brother. So has this brother.

It's a wonderful place to be. You know, my wife now, my now wife, you know, I had a before wife and a now wife. Some of you have never had a before and a now, but I had a before and a now wife.

Oh, she's wonderful. Anyway, I said to her one time, and she was not raised in the assemblies, and that was really, let me tell you, I know full well she wasn't raised in the assemblies, and the Amalekites just popped out of the walls. Well, she's in the assembly now, and she was in the assembly, just for your information, in case you're puzzled or wondering about it, she was in the assembly when I married her.

Oh, yeah, yeah. You know how she got there? You say, well, you took her there. I sure enough did, but she's the one that talked to the brethren.

I said, you want me to go along with you? She says, that's all right, I can handle him. So, she went and talked to the brethren, and they received her into the assembly. I don't know how I got off on that story.

Well, I'm talking about high ground now, and we know where high ground's at, it's right here, isn't it? The assembly of the Lord's people were in a little tiny white building sitting up on top of the hill, and people drive by there as if it wasn't even there, and you know what they miss out on? They might see the old white siding on the building, and there used to be some outhouses in the back, but we have since gotten modern, got rid of those, and what they don't know is that the gold glitters on the inside, because Christ is in our presence. Yeah, that's what they miss out on. You could have the ugliest building in the world, and I know of some that are pretty ugly, but they ain't ugly on the inside, they're just bright and shiny with the gold that glitters.

Christ is there. How privileged you are that you're in an assembly of the Lord's people, and how much more privileged are you that were raised in a Christian home? You really know? Do you really appreciate that? I hope you do. I hope you appreciate that, because you really should.

My daddy, he couldn't spell grace. I don't know if he didn't go to school or what the story was, but he couldn't spell it, and so he knew nothing about it, and I never saw the inside of a Bible until I was 34 years of age, and I ain't going to tell you how old I am now, but I'll tell you what, I've been up the creek and over the mountain. I worked for a guy one time, and he says, man, he says, that fella, he's getting a little long at the tooth.

Well, I'm a little long at the tooth. So I'm just saying this, you young folks in this room that are raised in Christian homes, you thank the Lord for that every day, and those of you that have been raised in a Christian home, you thank Him again, day after day, for the privilege that you've had. A place of privilege, a place of advantage, that's God's assembly.

It's high ground, high ground. It is lofty ground. That's God's assembly.

It's a place of spiritual protection. You know, one may have skill, might have ability handling the sword, the Word of God, and still go down. Saul's sons did.

You know, them old boys, they weren't slouches, not in any stretch of the imagination. You know what they were? Skilled warriors. Very, very skilled.

Saul and his sons were warriors, and they weren't just warriors. They were very skilled warriors. You know, all it takes is one arrow of covetousness, immorality, dishonesty to take us down.

Well, we have the shield of faith, don't we? Every one of us that are saved in this room today, we have the shield of faith to deflect those arrows, those darts of the devil. And back in the day, they kept their shield oiled. So when a dart hit that shield, it shot right off of there.

And we have our shield, don't we? And we have our shield oiled, don't we? With the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God. I tell you, we got it made, don't we? We just plain have it made. So we need to keep our shield oiled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit by staying in constant communion with Christ.

How are the mighty fallen? That's just a little warning to me, and you can listen in if you want. How are the mighty fallen? A little warning against self-confidence and arrogance. And again, we read in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12, Therefore let him that thinketh, he standeth.

Take heed, lest he fall. That little word, lest, is a preventative word. And that's what the verse is seeking to do, is to prevent you and prevent me from falling.

So we need to take heed. We need to take heed what we hear, and we need to take heed how we hear.