The innocent sufferer

It's nice to see everyone who's here again this morning, and we trust that we will enjoy the Lord's continued presence and blessing in the course of today as we did yesterday from his word. Those of you who were here on Friday evening will remember that Brother Stephen took us to that post-exilic period and read from the book of Nehemiah and was thinking about the state of crisis that really existed in the nation of Israel after the period of their captivity. And we went back yesterday to the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel.

We're going to turn to that again just now. And we were thinking from 1 Samuel of a period that preceded that by many hundreds of years, actually before the period of the kings at all. And we've been thinking about how in the absence of godly leadership, the nation of Israel had descended into chaos and departure from their God.

And we were observing yesterday that there were things recorded in the book of Judges that we could hardly believe. And the reason really was that there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. We thought yesterday then about a godly woman who was burdened by the state of the nation and who brought that need to God in prayer.

And we read the words, the beautiful words of Hannah at the end of chapter 1 of 1 Samuel. She said, for this child I prayed. She was praying for someone who would be raised up by God to be an answer to the leaderless state of the nation in which she lived.

Then we went to chapter 12 in the afternoon yesterday, and we were thinking about Samuel and that period after Samuel has been rejected by the nation, and they have said to Samuel that they wanted a king in order to be like the other nations. And Samuel, he takes that burden to the Lord as well. And the Lord instructs Samuel to anoint Saul, but he tells him to first of all describe to the people the kind of king that Saul would be.

And I didn't quite resist the temptation yesterday to tell you what I think of Saul. I don't find him at all an impressive man, and I'm going to try and resist the temptation to say a whole lot more about Saul, but I might need to say a little bit more this afternoon. I want to skip a little bit because in the afternoon we are going to think about David and his great triumph over Goliath.

But I want to just skip a little bit beyond that, and I want to come to chapter 20 today, and I hope that this will be appropriate immediately after the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. It wasn't really possible for me to get the sequencing exactly as I would have liked. But let's just read the words of David in chapter 20 and verse 1. David has for a time now been within the close quarters of Saul.

He has been ministering to Saul there, playing the lyre and no doubt singing his psalms and praising the Lord and bringing peace into Saul's troubled soul at times. But the resentment of Saul against David grows, and he has to flee from Saul. And we read in chapter 20 verse 1, David fled from Nioph in Ramah.

That's where Samuel was. He had been taking refuge for a time with Samuel, and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? I want us to just think this morning in a devotional way about this question of David. What have I done? What is mine iniquity? What is my sin before thy father? You know, I think Saul really got to David.

I do. I don't think this is just a rhetorical question. I don't think this is a man full of confidence who says, I haven't done anything, but I think that this is a man who has been so messed in his head by Saul, a man who appoints him, brings him close, makes him a commander over his army, and then sets about trying to kill him.

A man who offers as a prize for victory in war, his daughter to be the wife of whoever would defeat the giant. And at the very moment that David is supposed to be given Saul's daughter in matrimony, he gives her to someone else. And then when he sees that there is perhaps an attraction between another daughter and David, he thinks to himself, I can use this as a bait to have David put himself in danger to the extent that he will die.

And so he sets a bride price of 100 Philistine foreskins. And of course, you remember how that David actually brought double that. And instead of being full of joy, Saul is full of enmity and envy and jealousy.

And the more he sees David succeed, the more angry he is, and the more he despises him out of jealousy, and the more he determines to put David to death. He brings him close, but then he tries to pierce him. He tries to pin him to the wall with a javelin.

He makes him a commander, and then he tries to destroy him. And I honestly think, as I've read it a little bit more closely in the last few weeks than perhaps I had done before, I honestly think that Saul's gaslighting got to David, and he really is starting to doubt himself. And he asks the question, have I done something wrong? Do I really deserve this? What is my iniquity? What have I done? Why is it that your father, who after all, he repeatedly refers to as the Lord's anointed, he says, what is mine iniquity? What is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? I want us to think this morning about a man who was an innocent sufferer.

I want to think about a man who, at least at this point in his life, has done nothing wrong, and yet by reason of envy, a wicked king is trying to destroy him. And I can't help but read 1 Samuel chapter 20, verse 1, but think about the words of the Lord Jesus. The context is a little different, and certainly the confidence of the Lord Jesus is absolutely assured, for the Lord Jesus was that servant who was never discouraged and who never doubted.

But I hear the Lord Jesus ask, which of you convinceth me of sin? The prince of this world cometh, speaking of Satan, and finds nothing in me. But you remember that as we come to that mock trial of the Lord Jesus before he is crucified, you remember that even Pilate, who pronounced his innocence on multiple occasions, he recognized that it was for envy that they had delivered him. So I want us to think a little bit this morning in a devotional sense and perhaps draw a few practical lessons as well from this incident, from the life of David, that will encourage us this morning.

So as I've mentioned already, David had served Saul faithfully. He had been his court musician. Not only that, but he had been a national hero.

We will go back to the episode in 1 Samuel chapter 17 this afternoon, God willing, and see the military prowess and the courage and the confidence of David. He was a man of God, and Saul had brought him near. And he had served Saul in the capacity of court musician and as a commander of his armies.

And he had done so with absolute integrity. There are so many ways in which David was unlike Saul, or so many ways in which Saul was unlike David. He should have been like David.

But there were so many ways in which that wicked king was unlike David. And David was a man of integrity. He was a man of loyalty.

He was a man who, as things developed and as the treachery of Saul became so very, very obvious, David was a man who remained loyal. There were times when that loyalty was pressed to an extreme. And there were times when I think the Lord intervened.

For example, whenever David was amongst the Philistines, I think there were times when the Lord intervened to prevent David from doing something that he would have regretted, just as the Lord intervened in the case of Abigail when she came to intercede with David on behalf of her husband. That dear woman, that godly woman with a godless husband, she intervened in such a way as to prevent David from doing something that he would afterwards desperately regret. We mustn't think that David was without any cause of rebuke.

We know that David failed. There were certain areas where David failed desperately. But I think it's instructive to see that when David did fail, he was desperately stricken with remorse and regret.

Perhaps David could have done with some of the ministry that we tried to give last evening on recovery, because I think there is a sense in which David never really recovered from the great mistake that he made in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. And that would have terrible consequences in his family life. It would have terrible consequences in the nation, actually.

And it is a shame that a man who was so gripped with remorse and was so full of repentance, it is sad, I think, that in a sense, he didn't go on to enjoy the fullness of recovery as he might have done. Now, some of you might see that differently, and I'm happy to chat about that. Please share your views if you don't quite see it that way.

But the point was that David was a loyal man. And when he had opportunity, on multiple occasions, when he had opportunity to exact revenge upon Saul, he refused to allow himself the indulgence of taking revenge. And I think that is very instructful.

Instructful? I don't think that's... That's not a word. I think I just manufactured a word. Do you call me Trump? I don't know.

I think I just manufactured a word. It's certainly very instructive. That's the word I'm looking for.

And insightful, perhaps. Gets to this stage on a conference weekend, and the preacher's brain's slightly fried, so we'll try and use that as an excuse. But he wasn't going to exact revenge.

He wasn't going to take the opportunity that he could have taken in the cave and down in the valley when he could have finished off Saul. He said it would be a terrible thing to raise his hand against the Lord's anointed. But this question, I think, that we read in chapter 20 and verse 1, really reflects the agony of one who was hated without a cause.

And I remember the words of the Lord Jesus. At least we will ascribe them to Him prophetically from Psalm 69 verse 4. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty.

Then I restored that which I took not away. A brother referred to that in his thanksgiving this morning. But I think this integrity of David's is really born out of his deep devotion to God.

We've thought about the fact that he refuses to harm Saul. But this is a man who, unlike Saul, is regularly inquiring of the Lord. Over and over again, we read of David inquiring of the Lord.

For example, in chapter 23 and verse 2, David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah. He was a man who sought the Lord. He sought guidance from the Lord.

And he sought the Lord's approval upon his life. This was what really mattered to David. It really mattered to David that what he would do in his life and with his life, that it would be approved by God.

And he was a man because we know that he was a man after God's own heart. That's what it tells us in 1 Samuel chapter 13 and verse 14. Whenever Samuel is speaking to Saul, he says, your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you've not kept what the Lord commanded you. He was a man who shared God's values and a man who submitted to God's will. I want to stop just for a moment or two, and if we can just take those various threads.

Yes, he was a man with certain weaknesses and certain failures, but I think it's not coincidental that the Lord will put a man like Saul in the biblical record that the Holy Spirit will record the failures, the abject failures of a man like Saul, and then in juxtaposition put the success and the loyalty and the integrity of a man of God like David. And so, brothers and sisters, if we go back to where we were yesterday morning and we think about Hannah and her prayer, for this child I prayed, and we think about the way in which Samuel was used to bring God's man, to bring this king who would sit upon the throne and to whose son in perpetuity would belong the kingdom, looking all the way forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who will sit upon the throne of his father David. When we think of all of that, we can't help but see the kind of leadership and the integrity and the loyalty and the selflessness and the godliness that God seeks in those who will lead his people.

As I've said, David was a man who shared God's values and a man who submitted to God's will. We know that David was betrayed. He was desperately betrayed by Saul, the one whom he served.

You know the story of him being betrayed by Doeg the Edomite in 1 Samuel chapter 22. You remember when David is fleeing from Saul and he comes to the place where the priest is, and there is a secret observer there, a man who is opposed to David, but more importantly, I think a man who is trying to curry favor with Saul, and he betrays David. And Saul comes looking for David, and in the process, was it seventy-something of the priests were slaughtered that day? I can't remember the exact number, but I think it was seventy-something.

And then he was betrayed again by the people of Keilah and of Zith. David had come to deliver them. He had come to rescue them out of the hand of their enemies, and having done that, they betrayed him, and they told his whereabouts to Saul, who again came to try to kill, to destroy David.

So, David was a man who knew treachery and betrayal against him. But all of those things really, they peel, don't they, brothers and sisters, when we think about the greater David, and we think about the perfect sufferer. As I've mentioned already, Psalm 69, those that hated me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.

Those who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, that really is just a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus. And in John chapter 15 verse 25, we read of the fulfillment of that. The word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a cause. And we have remembered the Lord Jesus fondly this morning. It's always a precious thing, isn't it, to come around the table freshly spread and to allow the Holy Spirit to so work in our hearts, to draw them out in love and devotion to Christ.

And we've done that this morning. The Lord graciously presenced Himself with us. And whether it was in the hymns that we sang together, or whether it was in the brothers who rose to lead us in worship and in thanksgiving, or whether it was silently in our hearts, we've been drawn to Christ this morning.

And we've gladly kept this command, breaking the bread and drinking the cup. Our hearts have been full of joy, but all around us in the world, there are those who hate Him, and they hate Him without a cause. We've been so blessed this morning to remember the kind of man that the Lord Jesus was.

And David is a picture in many respects of the Lord Jesus, but just a very faint picture of Him. And how glad we are of the gospel records as we read about one who went about, as Peter will say, doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, because God was with Him. God was with Him.

John says, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God was with Him. God was not only with Him, but John will tell us in his epistle that He was God.

He was God, yet they hated Him without a cause. A man who healed the sick, a gracious man who dandled the children on his knees, a man who raised the dead, opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, had compassion for those who were in their sins, and brought healing to the brokenhearted. And he says, those that hated me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.

You think about the betrayal that the Lord Jesus experienced, betrayed by Judas for the price of a slave, 30 miserable pieces of silver, the price of a slave. That's what they valued Him at, the price of a slave, denied by Peter. Remember Luke chapter 22 verse 61, the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.

Oh, Peter had been very vocal, hadn't he, in his pledge of allegiance to the Lord Jesus. If everyone forsakes you, I will never forsake you, said Peter. And yet we were reminded in prayer how that yesterday, I think it was, how that he warmed himself at the world's fire, and how that when all he had to do was to own that he knew the Lord Jesus, he denied Him with curses.

None of us are going to be hard on Peter, are we? Because I rather fancy that there's probably not one of us in this room that also hasn't on occasion denied Him in word or in deed. The Lord Jesus knew that that's what He was coming to. None of this took the Lord Jesus by surprise.

None of this caught Him out. He saw me ruined in the fall, yet loved me, notwithstanding all. And the betrayal of the Lord Jesus and His denial, and the fact that He was forsaken by the disciples because they all forsook Him and fled, and the fact that He was accused without any fault.

Pilate says, you brought me this man as one who was misleading the people, and after examining Him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against Him. Neither did Herod, for he sent Him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by Him.

Nothing. There was no cause of death in the Lord Jesus, yet they led Him out to be crucified. And you know, everybody, I suppose, has their favorite verses.

I know they tell us we're not supposed to have favorite verses, but I think secretly we all do have verses or passages that really seem to continually warm our hearts. You know, there's something that never ceases to cause me to wonder, and that is that as they led the Lord Jesus down there at Calvary, and as they were nailing His hands and His feet to the cross, He was repeatedly saying, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

It's no wonder, was it, that the centurion, when he saw how he died, he said, surely this was a righteous man? Surely this was the Son of God? And so this morning, my time will soon be finished, but this morning we remember David and how that he cried, what is my sin? And yet we know that he was not a sinless man. We can trace in his life times when he stumbled, times when he fell, times when he got deeply, deeply discouraged, times when that discouragement led him to do things that were foolish and undignified, just like you and me. But we look at the life of the Lord Jesus, and we see the perfect servant of Jehovah, and we see the one who was never discouraged and never turned back.

And we see the one in whom there was no sin at all, and we praise God for him this morning. Do you remember what Peter said about him? He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And so David says, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? What is my sin before Thy Father, that he seeketh my life? At least at that stage, Jonathan was able to reply that there was no guilt in him.

But this morning, I just want to leave this with us as we depart from the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. And as we put those words into the mouth of the Lord Jesus, if you'll allow me to do that, the Lord Jesus says to us, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? What is my sin that you seek to kill me? And we reply, who his own self bear our sin in his own body upon the tree. There was no cause of death in him whatsoever.

And the Lord Jesus, he suffered not just as an innocent man. He was an innocent man, but he was more than just an innocent man. He was an absolutely sinless man.

There was no trace of Adam's sin in him at all. And this morning, I trust that our hearts will just continue to overflow in worship, and in thanksgiving, in wonder, and in praise that he died, the just one, for us the unjust, that he might bring us to God. What can we learn from that, brothers and sisters? Well, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we sometimes suffer in his rejection, and we can be hated without a cause.

Whether that's by the world who doesn't understand us, and who has no time, no care for the gospel, sometimes we can be hated without a cause. It should be without a cause, shouldn't it? There shouldn't be any cause in us that someone might hate us. If I'm speaking to a brother or a sister, and you find yourself the object of someone's hatred and scorn, and you feel like crying out as David did, what is my sin? What is mine iniquity? The Lord Jesus understands.

The Lord Jesus understands. He identifies with our suffering. Hebrews tells us that he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. The Lord Jesus never responded to temptation by sinning. He couldn't.

I was thinking about this this morning. I confess to you, I've often struggled with this. How could the temptation of the Lord Jesus be real, and yet he didn't ever have the ability to sin? I struggle with that.

It kind of blows my mind. I believe it, but I don't claim to understand it. I don't claim to understand it.

I don't claim to be terribly good at explaining it, but all I know is that the provocation that the Lord Jesus experienced was as real and greater than any provocation that you or I could experience. The pain that he suffered was as real and more intense than any pain that you or I could experience. The enmity of the enemy was as real and more intense than any hatred that you or I have ever experienced, and yet the Scripture says he was tempted.

He was tested in every point as we are, yet without sin. Why did he experience that? He experienced that so that he could be our great high priest. And so, whatever the trial, whatever the trouble, if it is unwarranted hatred, the Lord Jesus, he understands.

He knows completely what we're experiencing, and we can follow his example. That's the reason that we have that example, that we might follow in his steps. When he suffered, he threatened not.

When he was reviled, he reviled not again. We were reminded of this this morning, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, and we're called to follow in his footsteps. Remain faithful.

Trust in the Lord Jesus, not just for your salvation, but every single day for everything that you need. Trust him. He's faithful.

Come to him as a great high priest who is touched with the feelings of your infirmities, the weakness that you experience. He understands it. Come to him with your burdens and your cares, and leave vindication to God.

Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12, "'Beloved, never avenge yourselves. Leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." And remember, just as we were thinking yesterday in the case of Hannah, often God uses these deep trials to produce greater faith in us. He uses these deep trials to produce in us that which honors and glorifies him.

He produces in us through these deep trials, if we allow them to work in us and to bring us closer to him, he produces in us that which brings honor and glory and praise to him. And remember what Paul says, this light, momentary affliction is preparing us, preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, which is beyond all comparison. So, as I finish, my time is now gone, trust in the righteous one who suffered for the unrighteous.

Not just, as I've said, for our salvation, but day by day. He suffered, the just one, for us, the unjust. Trust in him, live before him, even when you're wronged, and find comfort in the God who knows your heart and defends his own.

May the Lord bless his word to us this morning.