Go forth to the Refuge and find rest.

Message: Turn Your Life into a Testimony

Text: 1 Samuel 22:1-2, 2 Samuel 23:8-39

More readings:

Are you in distress and despised by your friends? Are you in seclusion and rejected by your friends and called names you can’t even bear to hear? Or do you consider yourself a failure because of your huge mountain of debt? Maybe the heaven over you seems like brass. Perhaps you are suffering the bitterness of the soul, being misunderstood, undervalued, underestimated and persecuted? Maybe you are abandoned, caught up with a horrible crisis and have no place to run to. Even if that is the case, don’t waste your sorrow, because there is hope.

Even if that is the case, there is a greater debt, a spiritual debt to the law. A debt no man can offset by any means. Are you indebted to the laws of God? Are you spiritually discontented with life? Is there a vacuum in your life you cannot fill? Then, you are the materials God wants to use to bring to light his purpose and plans for the church and the nations. You might have been unprofitable in the past. God our Father said in the book of Isaiah 66:1-2, 5, that to you will I look, a man broken and contrite in heart.

Just like David who was appointed and anointed king of Israel by God and rejected by man. A king in-waiting. A man after the heart of God. He did all things right without fault only to suffer and pass through the valley of death. He was hunted by an autocrat, his friend whom he helped out of various difficulties. Now David is abandoned, the people’s hero who slew a giant that taunted the nation of Israel. Abandoned by men, but not by God. Our God has not given up on the man whom He created in His own image.

For his personal safety, he escaped into the deep places of the land. He sought for a refuge and found a cave called Adullam which means a “refuge”. There he lodged and called it home, a place of safety. Also, gathered to him where the four hundred motley crew. Now the cave is a type of the visible church on earth. People came to find refuge in the church from the threatening problems of life. People in debt, distressed, dissatisfied, discouraged, and discontented. They all come to meet with the person in the midst of the church.

However, it is not the place that makes the difference, but the person in the place. It is not the place that transforms, but the person in the place that does the work. Therefore, we do not come to a place, but to a living person that dwells in a place. The place He has appointed to meet with all that believes in Him. Let us take hints from the gospel of John. The Samaritan woman asked after the place of worship instead of the person worthy of worship. When Andrew called his brother, he simply said come and see, not the place but the person. The same with John and Philip, who called Nathaniel, they all left their places of work and dispositions to come to the Lord Jesus.

In his distress, he wrote Psalms 57, 63, and 142 while spending time in the cave. Throughout the ages, the Psalms have sweetened the heart of the children of God in all generations. He was a man lonely and broken, and in his brokenness, God led a multitude of men that were distressed, in debts, and discontented to join with him. They kept coming and the ranks swelled and reached the four hundred marks of men that choose David over Saul the tyrant.

The kind of people that flocked to him were the rejects, the misfits and the unlikely. People who needed a change in life circumstance, unsatisfied with the way things are, and the way things are run in the nation. They came from various corners of Israel and choose to be identified with David. They were the “dirty dozen”. They were debtors. We all know what it is to be a debtor and a slave to the lenders. We stand many risks, of our properties and perhaps the enslavement of our family.

In those days in Israel, to be a debtor means you are in perpetual slavery. Others were in distress, maybe about the situation they find themselves. Many of us may be passing through same or various stages of distresses. Finally, others were dissatisfied, discontented, and discouraged. The Bible said every one of the no-names came to David, to dwell in the cave.

David became a prince or captain over them, men numbering over four hundred men. We know something of their past. But what can the future hold for such misfits and outcast and outlaws as the world would call them? Let see from the Scripture. 1 Samuel 25:14-16. After being with David they became men described as disciplined, reasonable, teachable, good, respectable, virtuous, non-violent, honest, brother's keepers, protective walls, and well behaved.

Look at the fruit of the spirit reflected in the life of these men displacing the sad nature of the past. The old man gave way to the new creature created in righteousness. The principles of their life moved from the lower nature to a higher spiritual level. The Spirit of God worked and transformed them from disillusionment and defeat to men bold with good nature. A good tree producing good fruit. Good beliefs definitely impact character.

What has caused the changes? Is it David that changed their behavior, character and worldview? It was the Lord, and the word of God, they heard out of the mouth of David. It was the transforming power in the word of God that does not return void. They moved from one level to a higher level.

What happened to these men that the Bible could describe them in such glowing terms in 2 Samuel 23:8-39? They became mighty men of battle, fearless warriors that brought down giants and break through the enemy defensive lines. They could shoot without miss. They knew how to keep the ranks. They watched each other back. They risked their lives for David to have a drink from the wells of Bethlehem. That is, they counted their lives as nothing to serve their master. Let’s say it in plain language they counted their lives as nothing so that David can perform his duty. They were loyal and dedicated men who gave themselves as broken bread and poured out wine. They lived according to the laws of the kingdom of God promised King David and his seed.

This event foreshadows the Son of David, the type of Christ and the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. There was a man, appointed King over all by his Father. He was not of this world, but came from the invisible spiritual world to live among us. He chooses to be so poor that he could not pay his tax to the authority 2 Cor 8:9. He was rejected by his friends and neighbors. He was esteemed as nothing, an outcast, a misfit and good for nothing. His friend ran away from him. His relation thought he was a madman, out of mind Mark 3:21. His own did not receive him. His nation, the people he came to save rejected him. They even plotted to kill him on several occasions. For his love, they hated him, Ps 109:4. For the words He spoke, they envied him and said where did he learned wisdom, having never been to school.

He was called the friend of sinners and tax collectors Luke 7:34. He was oppressed, so oppressed more than any mortal man can endure Isaiah 53. He had no place to call his home, sometimes He spent whole nights in the mountains with the wild beast Luke 6:12. His life was a mystery, called the mystery of godliness 1 Tim 3:16.

He came to call all men to repentance to God through Him Luke 5:32. And that includes those who are in debt, distressed and discontented. He came to pay the debt we could not pay. He also came to buy us back and set us on the right path. He said to all who are heavy burden and laden, restless, to come to Him to find rest. He even called religious and non-religious, the sick, the lepers, prostitute, thieves as Matthew the tax-collectors, murderers as the Apostle Paul, Peter the rash and impatient man who denied Him, John and his brother James who wanted to rain fire upon a village because they refused to receive the word.

The question is who can make such men a world changer? The secular world or humanism says give them a better education and a good environment, that would make humanity more civilized and refined. I doubt if there is any who have not watched the news feed lately. We hear of the barbaric acts committed by the sophisticated and highly educated class. The United Nations has set a date when illiteracy will be eradicated from the earth. Looking at these programs, has anything changed for the better?

Let us look at the life of the men who followed Christ Jesus. Men who turned a new page in their life, whose life was a model reflection of the Lord Jesus. Even the priestly class acknowledge that they had been with Jesus Acts 4:13. Peter the fearful and restless, became a pillar of the church. In his first preaching, three thousand men were saved. Paul the murderer became the greatest evangelist the world has ever known.

Christ Jesus our Lord redefined the culture of the day. He taught that the poor in spirit owns the kingdom of God. The meek, merciful the mourners, peacemakers, and the persecuted are also included. Even He said the pure in heart shall see God. What wonderful word?

Have considered your calling? God has called everyone to Himself without qualification. 1 Corinthians 1: 26-29. He wants to do a work in you so that you would know it must Him. He is able to turn water representing the natural into wine the spiritual. God is looking for broken vessels. He wants you to come to Him as you are. You can be in the same shoes as the men of David, it makes no difference. He is the Potter and we are the clay. He wants to mold us to the shape that can perform His plans and purpose.

There is no case beyond His power to mend. His grace exceeds our sins. There is no limit to what He can do with a heart that is yielded to Him. You have seen what happened to the men that followed David, God can do exceeding abundantly above that with you. He is able, more than able to do whatsoever it takes to bring to life His purpose for your life. His resurrection power that dwells in us is able to build and transform us from the inside outward. His word is spirit and life, holding the power to transform us through the working of the Holy Spirit. Consider Onesimus, a man considered unprofitable, who ran away from his slave master. When He joined with Paul the Apostle in Rome, his life turned a hundred and eighty degrees for the better. He became profitable for the kingdom of God. Philemon 1:10-13.

The Bible invites us to go out to meet Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach, Hebrews 13:13. Let us go to meet Him on the mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and innumerable company of angels, the general assembly of the church of the Firstborn written in heaven, Hebrews 12;18-24. Let us go out to meet the Living God the Judge of all, and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant. He has appointed a place of meeting to all men. Just as the men met David at the cave of Adullam so we can meet the Lord Jesus our Savior in the church.

The Bible says we are dead and our life is hidden in Christ Jesus our Life. Through Christ, we are crucified to the world and all that is found under its power. We have received the fullness of Christ. The Bible says that as He is, so are we in this world. Therefore let us work out that which is made life in us by submitting to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

God invites us to come to Him with boldness, and enter into the Holiest by the blood of the Lamb. We have a new and living way open for us through the torn veil, the person and works of Christ our Great High Priest. He also warns us not to forsake the assembly of saints. Let us then enter the kingdom of God that has one way, a narrow gate and many mansions.

Finally, you can say I am a debtor to the lost, to preach the gospel of salvation to them. I owe no man anything but the debt of love. Romans 1:14-17, 13:8.