Samuel No.19 Self Control

David is an outlaw. He has been sought by Saul and his men for many months. We commence the reading in chapter 24 from verse 5. Saul has unknowingly gone into the very cave which is David's headquarters.

Afterwards, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off the corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lift my hand against him, for he is the anointed of the Lord. With these words, David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.

And Saul left the cave and went his way. Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, my lord, the king. When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

He said, Saul, why do you listen when men say David is bent on harming you? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord gave you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord's anointed.

See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand. I cut the corner off your robe, but did not kill you. Now understand and recognize that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion.

I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.

As the old saying goes, from evildoers come evil deeds, so my hand will not touch you. Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing, a dead dog, a flea? May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it.

May he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand. When David finished saying this, Saul asked, is that your voice, David, my son? And he wept aloud. You are more righteous than I, he said.

You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me of the good you did to me. The Lord gave me into your hands, but you did not kill me.

When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today. I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family.

So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Let's turn in the word of God to 1 Samuel 24.

We've been making our way through this book now for many weeks. And I think a lot of you would agree that it contains some very precious and practical material as we try from the perspective of the 20th century to look into what happened in years before Christ. And we identify ourselves with many of the situations in which folk like Eli and Jonathan and Samuel and David found themselves in.

We're going to be looking particularly from the 8th verse through to the 13th. I guess you could define self-control as being the government of the self in the interests of God and others. Now that's my definition.

You'll not find it in any book, but I think it's reasonable. Self-control, the government of the self by the self in the interest of God and others. Some of you well-versed in scripture will know that of the fruit of the spirit, the final part of the fruit in the authorized version is translated meekness.

In the NIV, it's self-control. And our Lord Jesus has as many of his virtues this outstanding quality that he is a man of power, but that power is always under control. Now this is a challenge.

By this yardstick, the word judges you this morning. To what degree, my friend, are you under control? Not so much because we're thinking in a Christian and not just an academic context, for it was the latter that I gave you some definition of a moment or two ago. But as a Christian, are you self-controlled? Not in the sense that personal discipline is something that you've knocked yourself into.

I don't think that you can whip yourself into the self-control of which the Bible speaks. Self-control comes from partaking in the very nature of the Lord Jesus so that something of his attribute is resplendent in your life. Now that's just for starters.

Let's proceed to examine the context of my chapter. And here you find David once more as an outlaw, a fugitive, moving as we would say colloquially from pillar to post. He's been ostracized by Saul, expelled from all that he counted dear, and there in the wilderness, he's gone from one hiding place to another hiding place.

From Adullam to En-Gedi to this particular area romantically called verse two, the crags of the wild goats. And there is David in this semi-scrubland with subterranean caves and bowled in the hillside. Here is David, the Hebrew Robin Hood, once more on the run.

And his headquarters are in one of those selfsame caves. Now one of the most extraordinary things happens. It's amazing how history sometimes turns on the most natural and yet ultimately the most phenomenal thing.

Saul has been cut off from the rest of his men. He decides to go into this cave and there really down deep in the cave is David and his men. And they're absolutely astonished to discover that Saul of his own will, unknowingly as far as their presence is concerned, he makes himself comfortable.

And they see him. Silhouetted against the light of the cave entrance. Here is the gift opportunity for David to get equal with Saul.

And it's this incident that really is pivotal in this chapter. It becomes the illustration for you and for me of self-control because as our Lord Jesus is the most self-controlled man, so occasionally as we found in our Bible reading Sunday morning by Sunday morning, David anticipates something. Some of the characteristics of the Lord, though he no way has the same consistency as Christ does.

Now here is a gift opportunity, self-control. David can exercise it or refuse to exercise it. Does he dispatch Saul? Does he kill him? Or does he curb David's own natural reactions? Well, let's open up these verses.

And I do so by using the leverage of three questions. When did David retain self-control? How did he retain self-control? And what resulted from his self-control? First of all, then, when did David retain self-control? And I argue at a time of intense provocation. At a time of intense provocation.

You see, Saul is responsible for David living the sort of life that he has to live. David describes himself as a flea. Can you imagine describing yourself as such? What does a flea do? Verse 14, a flea jumps.

Ever watch them? I used to be mesmerized by fleas when I was a youngster. Just watching them hop from place to place. Now David's like that.

Why does he live the life of a flea? Or as he quotes perhaps more eloquently on another occasion, the life of a partridge, moving from one nest to another. And the reason is because of the provocation that he's under by Saul. And here for starters, you can perhaps start, you can commence relating to David's situation by asking yourself too, when you're under provocation, can you exercise self-control? Well, for David, you see, it's the sweat and the dirt of the wilderness.

But here is Saul almost in his clutches. One fair swoop of the sword with which he had taken off the head of the Goliath, of the giant, would also mean that David's problems are eliminated. Now, no one can argue that David wasn't justified in having this sort of thought.

The provocation was on the part of Saul. And here is the opportunity for David to put it to right, to balance the odds, to finish him off. David showed self-control at a time of intense provocation.

And what's more, when he himself was engaged in a sort of prevarication, he wasn't too sure what he ought to do. He slides alongside. It's really a very dramatic passage, is this.

Can you see, David, you gather what is happening from the third and the fourth verses. David creeps up. He goes almost on his tummy towards Saul.

And the possibility is that, well, Saul might be done to death. But David stops short of cutting into the heart of Saul, instead of which he cuts off part of his robe and takes it back as a little sort of memento. You see, he's prevaricating.

Now, are you sometimes like that? A situation has arisen in your life and you're not too sure just how to handle it. Do you go with your Adamic nature sort of in a full-blooded fashion and just vindicate your own case, believing that you're really in the right? You see, you must have this sort of swing of the pendulum. I get it so much myself.

I call it my Yorkshire blood. The Apostle Paul would have said my Adamic nature. You know, to get your own back and to do it in the context of justice.

David, he shows self-control at a time of provocation. During moments of prevarication, when he's not too sure what way to react to Saul. And what's more, he does it during a time of the persuasion of his men.

You see, his men, they're egging him on. Can you hear the echoes of their whisper as they tell David to go and get rid of Saul once and forever? Verse four, the men said, This is the very day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish. You see, it's all so perfectly justified, isn't it? Or so it would seem.

And very often, when you're tested in the area of your self-control, there may be a many a situation and many a whisper that tells you, go on, make the balances equal yourself. Just use this particular circumstance to assert your rights. Dr. Hendrickson, a great American theologian, said in a book on Philippians, which I read many years ago, the thought just comes back into my mind, that the only man who came into this world with a right to assert his rights, waived them in the interests of others.

Jesus Christ was the only man who had a right to assert his rights. You have no right to self-assertion, my friend, because there are things that you have done which have dishonored God and dishonored your fellows. And the righteous indignation that sometimes you use as an excuse for behaving in a certain fashion as you lose self-control is perfectly unjustified.

And here is David, lesser than Christ, but at this point illustrating the Savior, waiving his rights with the whispers of his men urging him on, with all the possibilities of changing life from a fugitive, of being able to go back to the sort of style of living that he's enjoyed before. And yet, and yet he knows that if he exercises his rights now, if he puts Saul to death, if he gets the throne as a result of his activity in that cave, he will offend God. And a thousand opportunities of God drawing near to him and showing him more and more of his grace and his character.

And David says, no, a throne at that price, I will not buy. David has realized, you see, because he's a good personal preacher, he applies his ministry. Commit your way unto the Lord and wait also upon him, for he will bring it to pass.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently before him. Carlisle said that the whole of the Bible is really a testimony to the patience of God. And I find one of the hardest things in my life, come on, be honest, let's have some self-confession, at least at a personal level as you respond quietly to my ministry this morning, is not that your difficulty? You see, we're so speedy.

Someone said that modern life can be summed up in three words, hurry, worry, and bury. But God's not in a hurry. And if you try to sort of gee him up a little bit, the possibility is that you may run ahead of the Lord and miss some of the many lessons that he wants to bring into your experience as he fashions your character, even when circumstances are as unpleasant for you as they were for David just here.

When did David retain self-control? During intense provocation, when naturally he might prevaricate, and with the whispers of the persuasion of his men to get rid of Saul. My second question was, how? How did he retain his self-control? Well, I answer again threefold. He retains his self-control by referring to the Word of God, by referring to the Word of God.

You see, Saul has now gone out from the cave, and David arrests him, and he starts to speak to him. I wish I'd had a camera. Wouldn't it have been marvellous? You see, all that's happened in the bowels of the cave, Saul is completely unconscious of.

He's been there for a few moments. He doesn't even know that his outer garment's just been, a little bit's been taken from it. And as he moves out into the sunshine of God's day, he hears a voice which must have made him freeze.

My Lord, the King, and there's, as Saul spins round, there is David, and he doesn't have his javelin in his hand ready to spear Saul, let alone the sword of Goliath. He's biting the dust. He's on the ground.

He's doing honour to the man that God initially appointed as the first king of Israel. How then, David, in the name of sanity man, do you retain your self-control? Well, he does so by referring to the word of God. He says, towards the end of the 10th verse, some urged me to kill you, but I spared you.

I said, I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord's anointed. You see, David is a man of power, but he's also a man under control. He recognises the word of God, and the God of the word.

God has spoken. God has spoken concern those who are on the throne of Israel, whether they're good men or bad men, initially they're there because God put them there, and let not man take away from Israel what God put there in the first instance. David is not afraid of Saul.

David has respect to the God who puts Saul there. Touch not my anointed. Now, you see, this is so important, my friend.

It's a great practical application. The Bible is replete with the word of God, and sometimes that word becomes very personal as you read it through in your private study, and you know that God is speaking to you. And when the word of God becomes very personal to you, then latch on to it.

And no matter who quotes another scripture to try to get you to change your mind, you handle that and stay with that that God has given you. You see, these men, David's counselors, they too had quoted scripture. They had said that this is the day when you are to put Saul to fight.

This is the day that God has made. But David knows scripture too. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, who doesn't allow those who purport to speak in the name of God to deflect them from doing what they know is God's will.

You see, David's greater son will have this problem. The devil can quote scripture. But Jesus has in front of him the word of God by which he will run his own life.

And as a result of that, he maintains self-control. And that goes with you, my friend. Whether you're old or whether you're young, whatever promises God has made special for you, you live your life by those promises.

And don't let even the persuasions of men deflect you from knowing this, that behind all your circumstances is the living God. And you will not hurry him up or help him to get yourself out of a problem because in so doing you would make your problem even more gigantic. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

David retains self-control, I say, by appealing, or rather referring to the word of God. And also he does so by appealing to man. Now this is rather interesting.

You see, David is going to come to Saul and he's going to appeal to Saul at a very personal and a very emotional level. The man, you see, who's retained his self-control has a tremendous influence over against the one who can't be self-controlled. See, that was Saul's problem, wasn't it? I mean, he flies off, I was going to say at the handle, let's say at the judgment, but it's literally correct.

You see the same with the high priest in Jesus. I think that that's one of the most remarkable pictures in the whole of the scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ, bruised, beaten, battered, stands before the high priest Caiaphas and Caiaphas blows all the fuses.

He can't contain himself. He utterly lacks self-control to the extent that he breaks the law of Moses by ripping his own garments. You remember that? And here Jesus stands, powerful, controlled, not conditioned by his environment, not flapping because of the service of his experience, things are unpalatable, but caught up by the Word of God, knowing that the whole of his life has been mapped out for him by the Father.

He remains, well, if not impassive, certainly completely in control. And so David starts to speak to Saul. And how does he address the king? It's marvellous.

The psychology is superb. Some urge me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not lift my hand against my master because he is the Lord's anointed.

See my father, verse 11. Look at this piece of your robe in my hand. Is this soft soap? My father? No.

Who is David's wife? Michael? Or as we might say today, Michelle, the daughter of Saul. So Saul is David's father-in-law. David, in complete self-control, goes out from the bowel of the cave and he addresses the king and he says, My father, my father, not my pursuer, not the one who robs me of my sleep, not my treacherous one-time colleague, a greater than David.

Judas comes into the garden of Gethsemane during the hours when the only light is from the full moon. And when Jesus spots Judas, what does he say? Friend, wherefore art thou come, my father? Why? Why do you treat me like this? You've listened to what people have said about me, but you haven't listened to what I've been saying. James will tell you in the scripture that bears his name that the essence of wisdom is first of all purity, and then peaceableness.

James chapter 3, towards the end, I think you'll discover it. The essence of wisdom is peaceableness. You see, my friend, you and I are not just called to keep the peace, we are called to make the peace.

Now, I'm not just speaking nationally, though obviously it has some political repercussions. I'm speaking personally to us as a fellowship here. You see, you can pour oil on many a troubled water, or you can fuel a fire.

And as a Christian, you're called to do the former, and not the latter. You're called to be a David when confronted by Saul. You are called to make peace when peace doesn't seem to be existing at all in that circumstance.

And as a result of that, you get blessings from God because he honors the peacemaker. Now, my brother and sister, analyze your relationships, your attitude to me, your attitude to one another, your attitude to the church here. Take it all the way down the line and ask yourself, are you a peacemaker? For a peacemaker is one who is supremely under control.

A soft answer, says the Proverbs, turns away wrath. And you and I are called to give the soft answer. My father, my father, you've listened to what they've said about me, but you've never listened to what I have to say about you, myself.

David retains self-control, and he does so by appealing to the Word of the Lord, by referring to man, and ultimately by calling on God. Verse 12, May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but as my hand will not touch you, as the old saying goes, from evil doers come evil deeds, so my hand will not touch you. Hey, who am I speaking to this morning? You want to write the balances on planet Earth.

Someone offended you, did they? And you yourself want to put to rights what they have done that is wrong against you. Judgment is mine, says the Lord. I will repay.

Oh, to turn the other cheek. Oh, to recognize that in all the warp and woof of my life, there is a sovereign God who is ultimately in control. I once spent hours, almost into the early hours of the morning, pleading with a brother minister, once not to disgrace his profession by certain activities that he was contemplating.

I pleaded with him to let go of the case that he thought was just in the interest of the gospel, so the whole thing was not brought into disrepute, and one day to look to the God who judges all things, to vindicate him if he was as innocent as he claimed to be. Alas, I lost that battle to the eternal discredit of the work of God in certain areas. My friend, I put it to you.

Leave with God the things that are not for you to put right at this moment, and retain as a result your self-control. How did David retain his? By appealing to men, by referring to the word, and by calling on the Lord. Now finally, what resulted from David's self-control? Oh, this is marvelous.

This really is choice. What resulted, you know, sometimes I get so excited when I'm teaching this stuff, because I have never myself before come across this sort of lesson. I've never worked through the book of Samuel, and I haven't yet found a preacher, at least with a sermon in my library, that has actually ministered from 1 Samuel 24.

So I get terribly excited when I appreciate just what amount of practical logic and reasoning and meaning there is for us today, here in the tab, in the 1980s. What resulted from David's self-control? Well, immediately it shouts at you, there is the contrition of Saul. Look at verse 16, or is it verse 18? No, verse 16.

When David finished saying this, Saul asked, is that your voice, David my son? And he wept aloud. He wept aloud. It's amazing, you know, what spiritual weapons can do over against the weapons of vindictiveness in getting through to the emotions of people, isn't it? I mean, David could have reacted in a full-blooded fashion with Saul, but he doesn't do that.

He takes the other course. He takes the course of self-denial. He takes the course of control, and he speaks to Saul as his father.

And now we see Saul crippled in contrition. Is that your voice, David my son? And he wept aloud. You know, I think I sense something of the Lord Jesus in David as he encounters Saul.

I hope this isn't being merely sentimental. I love that hymn. If you'd have listened to a phone call that I was making with Betty Stoner earlier this morning, you would have thought that we were both heading to go around the bend, as they would say in my native Yorkshire.

We were trying to work out the beginnings of a hymn, and we could both only get the second line. So we were singing it one to another. We still haven't found out what the hymn was, actually, but we enjoyed the song.

Good job nobody intercepted the telephone call. Her voice is more tuneful than mine. But there's that lovely hymn that says of our Lord Jesus, Friend of sinners, love's redeemer plead for me.

Whenever I sing that couplet, my eyes want to brim with tears because I do believe that He's my redeemer. He's a friend of sinners, and He pleads on behalf of me with the Father. There's an empathy between the Lord Jesus and me.

And here is an empathy between David and Saul. David's seeing something of a terrible, pitiful state, psychologically and spiritually that Saul is in. And now as a result of David's self-control, Saul is contrite.

Saul is contrite. The contrition of Saul. The second thing that emerges is the confession of Saul.

You have treated, verse 17, you are more righteous than I. You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. Took a lot to get Saul into acknowledging this, but he has to, you see. He's brought up with the naked goodness of the self-controlled David, knowing that full well, as David shows that piece of garment that he's cut from Saul's robe, it could have been the head that he was lifting up, having beheaded the king.

You are more righteous than I. Saul, you never spoke a true word. And all that you could have recognized, Saul, that there was no righteousness to be compared with David whatsoever. If only your repentance might have been a godly repentance that led to sorrow, that led to deep remorse, so that with David you might have become one, and with your God you might have become one, then your eternal future would have been so much different from what seems to be the case, as Scripture tells us, more and more of your life.

There was contrition. There was confession. May the Lord reward you well for the way that you treated me.

There's conviction. I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family.

You see the point? You see how much David has achieved through his self-control? Now it's the same with you, my friend. The most powerful fruit of the Spirit that God could bring into your life as you partake of the nature of Christ is that of self-control, because we live in our world that hangs on the balance between war and peace as a result of men not being able to control themselves. Is not that so? And the self-controlled man will always be the most powerful man because power has nothing to do with political influence or authority.

Here is John Knox and he stands before Mary, Queen of Scots, and she is afraid of John, more of his prayers than the total forces of the English army. Here is Herod, and he quivers like a leaf in the wind as he stands before John the Baptist, Herod with all the political authority and clout that he's got, and John with the most peculiar set of clothes on that anyone ever saw, including OM people who get their clothes from a thing called Charlie. Your spiritual authority is correlated to your self-control.

And your self-control is not brought to the forefront by lashing yourself with personal discipline. Your self-control comes to you as you become more like the Lord Jesus, as you open up your heart to his holy influences, and as his love just permeates through the total personality. And so you sing more and more, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

Here is David, you see. It's a marvellous picture, showing us this outstanding characteristic brought to its height by the Lord Jesus. This is self-control.

And my brothers and sisters, I recommend it for you. I recommend it for myself. Our fellowship here will never be more powerful than the aggregate self-control that this congregation exhibits in personal relationships, and as we put our act together, down here in this town, and as we move out to take this county, and by God's grace, this land for Christ.

Let's pray. Father, we offer ourselves afresh to you. Often we're more like Saul than David.

More like Judas than Christ. More like Herod than John. More like Mary, Queen of Scots than John Knox.

But Lord, having recognised the problem, at least we believe we're on our way to resolving it. And to the degree, Lord, that you have granted us control, and to the degree that that virtue is seen in the lives of my brothers and sisters here, I want to thank you for those who are gentle in their attitudes to me and to one another, to those who remind us of our Lord Jesus. We praise your name.

But Father, many of us here, we recognise that there's a lot of yardage, a lot of mileage to be made up, and we're just praying that as we open ourselves more and more to the ministry of Jesus Christ and the fullness of his spirit so he might produce in us what brought him favour in your eyes, the gentle spirit, the self-controlled temperament, here as blessed God and encourages to this end. For his sake. Amen.

Let's go to 245 in hymns of faith. It's a prayer. Pulls together all that I've been trying to encourage you towards this morning.

245, Gracious Spirit, dwell with me. I myself was tender, in temptation shall I be free. Gracious God, Gracious Spirit, dwell with me.

I desire to be free. I desire to be free.