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The Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek and Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel.

As the Philistine rulers marched with their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men were marching at the rear with Achish. The commanders of the Philistines asked, what about these Hebrews? Achish replied, is this not David who was an officer of Saul, king of Israel? He's already been with me for over a year and from the day he left Saul until now, I have found no fault in him. But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish and said, send the man back that he may return to the place you assigned him.

He must not go with us into battle or he will turn against us during the fighting. How better could he regain his master's favor than by taking the heads of our own men? Isn't this the David they sang about in their dances? Saul has slain his thousands and David is tens of thousands. So Akish called David and said to him, as surely as the Lord lives, you have been reliable, and I would be pleased for you to serve with me in the army.

From the day you came to me until today, I have found no fault in you, but the rulers don't approve of you. Now turn back and go in peace. Do nothing to displease the Philistine rulers. But what have I done? Asked David.

What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord, the king? Achish answered, I know that you have been as pleasing in my eyes as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the Philistine commanders have said, he must not go up with us into battle. Now get up early along with your master's servants who have come with you and leave in the morning as soon as it is light.

So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went to Jezreel. Bart. Thank you, Tom, and thank you for the welcome. It's lovely to be with you. Great to be back again.

And, yeah, greetings from Hope Church and everyone there sends love and greeting. I mean, they didn't know I was coming here. So but I would I would imagine they would send their love and greetings and all that kind of thing. But it is lovely to be here. And it was funny having that that passage read because there are some passages where you can imagine everyone's following on along really well and understanding what's happening in the passage.

And then that one, where as that's read, I imagine most of you are probably going, what on earth is going on here? Haven't got a clue what's happening. Well, hopefully, maybe by the end of this sermon, might know a little bit more about what's going on there. The reason why we've gone for this passage, it does feel a bit random, but we at Hope Church have been working our way through one Samuel. And we got to this chapter this morning, and so I thought this evening, you could have it.

I could have another go at it, see whether I could get it right this evening for you. Alright? So that's why we're going for it. But we're gonna need god's help. Let me just pray for us.

Heavenly father, we pray, please, now as we come to this passage. Open our eyes, we pray. As has already been prayed, father, please, would you open our eyes, teach us, help us, and help us to live out your word. Amen. So there is a truth that that runs throughout the whole bible.

There are many truths that run throughout the whole bible, but there are some which are on pretty much every page. That wherever you go, particularly in the narratives, the stories in the of the bible, that you can pick out this truth. You could even say, if as a preacher, you're preaching a passage of narrative and you're not sure what it's really all about, you can go for this truth because it's always true and it's always there. And that truth is the sovereignty of God. The sovereign control of God.

That is that God is in control of everything, from the small to the great, from, international events to even a bird falling from the sky. The Bible says, God is sovereignly in control of everything. And we can hear that truth so often in the Bible. It comes up so frequently that we can become a bit punch drunk to it, that we can sort of hear it and hear it and think, yeah. Okay.

I've got that. I've got it. And yet, it is a truth which needs to be drummed home. We need to hear it over and over again because we very quickly give up on it as a truth. We might hear it on a Sunday.

We might read about it in our daily bible readings. And then as we go from church or as we get into our everyday lives, the truth of God's control over all things very quickly vanishes. I mean, it it it can be the the collapse of that doctrine in our minds can be sparked just by a traffic jam or by WiFi not collapsing at at a vital moment. Very trivial things make us suddenly go, maybe God isn't in control of everything. And then, of course, there's the big events in the news.

Things even over this last week, the floods in Nepal and Tibet where we question, is God really in control? Or maybe you heard about the Christian festival recently where, sadly, there was an accident and and someone died there. And you think, well, those are Christians going to a festival. Is God really in control if that happens? You see, it doesn't take much for us to go, well, maybe he isn't in control.

And yet the bible says on almost every page, god is in control. And that may raise a whole load of questions for us, and it should. But, nevertheless, we don't get anywhere good by abandoning that truth. And the truth of God's sovereignty is one of the greatest comforts that we can have. Alec Mateer, who's, who was a a bible scholar, theologian, Old Testament theologian, he said this.

Here's a quote from him. Never be afraid to exalt the sovereignty of God to the nth degree and beyond. It's the pillow on which we can lay our heads. We are only safe in this world because it's his world. And that's what actually we see in one Samuel 29.

And I hope by the end of this sermon that you might understand a bit about what's going on in one Samuel 29, but also that you might rest your head more on the pillow of God's sovereignty. So where are we gonna go? First off, I'm gonna tell you the story of one Samuel 29 and give you, hopefully, as much context so it makes sense. And then we're gonna pick out five truths about the way God acts. Okay?

So go through the story, then five truths about the way God acts. First off, the story of what's happening. Now we start one Samuel 29 with what seems like a bit of a ridiculous scene. You have David. Now David has been chosen to be king of Israel, but he's not king of Israel yet.

God has anointed him through the prophet Samuel to be king of Israel, but he's not king yet. And at this point, David is marching out with the Philistine army, and that is ridiculous because the Philistine army are the enemies of God's people. They are, God's yeah. They're the enemies who have attacked Israel over and over again, and yet David is marching out with the army of the Philistines against Israel. It would be like Donald Trump marching out with the armies of Iran to go and fight against America.

It's that ridiculous. And you think, what's going on? What's gone on such that David, who God has chosen to be king of Israel, is marching out with the enemy against his own people? And the answer is David has been faithless. In chapter 27, so two chapters before, David has come to the conclusion that it is better to flee Israel because he is not yet king, as I've said.

Saul is king of Israel, and Saul knows that David has been chosen to be his successor. And Saul, therefore, hates David and has been pursuing him, trying to kill him, and he has tried many times. And in spite of the fact that God has said to David that David will be safe, David decides, at some point, Saul is gonna catch me, so it is better for me to flee. He says the best thing I can do is flee, and he flees to the enemy. He flees to the Philistines, which, I mean, sounds like a ridiculous plan because earlier on, he killed Goliath, Philistine, you know, David's going to them, to the enemy.

But in one Samuel 27, we find David who is lying, deceiving, and even killing to get in with the king of the Philistines, who is this guy called Achish. And he gets in with him to the extent that Achish thinks David is so loyal to him that Achish makes David his personal bodyguard. And in chapter 28, the Philistines decide to go to war against Israel, and Achish, king of the Philistines, says to David, you're gonna come and fight with us. And you're left on a cliffhanger at the end of chapter 27, beginning of 28. Is David gonna fight?

Is he gonna fight with the Philistines against God's people, or is something gonna happen? Chapter 28 then, there is a bit of an interlude. King Saul consults a medium. Terrible idea. You can read about that in chapter 28.

Chapter 29, you're back with David. David marching out with the Philistine army. And as he's marching out, we are wondering, really? Is this gonna happen? David gonna fight the Israelites?

And the commanders of the Philistine army say, what's with these Hebrews, these Israelites, David and his men? Why are they in our army? What's going on here? And the Philistine commanders, in verse four onwards, say that David cannot fight with them. And they say the reason why David can't fight with them is because, well, it would be easy for David during the battle to turn on them and if he turns on them, he'll get back in with the king of Israel.

He'll get back in with Saul. So they say he can't fight with us. But more than that, they know about a song, an Israelite song. It seems like everyone knows this song. Clearly, it was top of their, I don't know, Spotify list or something like that, that everyone knows this song that all the Israelites are singing, and is there in verse five.

Isn't this the David they sang about in their dances? Saul has slain his thousands. David is tens of thousands. That's how the chorus goes for this song. And who are these tens of thousands whom David has killed?

They're all Philistines, probably. And they're saying, he can't go with us. This guy David can't fight with us. And so Achish says this to David. He says to David, look, I think you're really good.

I think you're a really good guy. You've been honest. You you know, you've been faithful to me all this time. But the commanders of the army, they say you can't fight with us, so you better not fight with us. At which point, verse eight seems utterly ridiculous that David then says, but what have I done?

What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? Okay. We'll come back to that. But David is saying, I wanna go and fight.

Odd. Okay. We'll come back to that. Achish insists, no. You cannot come and fight with us.

I think you're alright, but the commanders of the army say you can't fight, so you better go. And at that point, David leaves. He heads off. So that's what's going on in one Samuel 29. I hope that makes a little bit more sense.

Okay. What do we learn from this chapter about the way God acts? Five things. First, God acts quietly. God acts quietly.

One of the most noticeable things in the chapter is that God is hardly mentioned. In fact, the only person who mentions God is Achish, the king of the Philistines, and even that's really only in passing. And yet, as we read this chapter, it is clear that it is God at work, that God is at work here making sure that David does not fight against the Israelites. It is God who is very, very clearly at work, and yet God is hardly mentioned. Now this isn't the only place in the bible where this happens.

There are quite a few places where where this kind of thing happens. One very famous place is the whole of the book of Esther, which is a wonderful book, isn't it? If you know that book of Esther. Great book. Wonderful twists and turns in the plot, and yet, famously, God is not mentioned at all throughout the whole book.

Now why is this? Why would there be the book of Esther? Why would there be one Samuel 29, where God is so clearly at work, but the narrator, the writer doesn't mention God at all? And the answer is, because this is very often the way God works in our lives too, that very often there isn't an announcement, there isn't a label saying God is at work here. God just works often quietly.

And the Bible encourages us to look at the world and to look at our lives as it were sort of with the cover off. Back at home, when I was a a child, we had a a piano, at home. I know it's not an unusual thing, but it we had a piano. But it was a proper piano, not not a keyboard. It was a proper piano, you know, with strings and that kind of thing.

And sometimes we'd take the front off the piano so that you could see all the mechanics at work on inside, and it was gripping. Well, no. It wasn't gripping. Alright. It wasn't it wasn't that exciting, but it was good.

I mean, it's probably the nineteen eighties equivalent of giving your kid an iPad or something because you go play with that. And you take the front off the piano. Yes. They were dull days. But you take the front off the piano, you see all the workings.

You see all the mechanism. And as you play, you see what's happening. And you put the cover back on and you remember what's going on there. And the Bible is sort of saying to us, look, don't lose the fact that actually, although you might look at the world as if as it were with the cover on and go, well, things just seem to happen. Luck just seems to happen.

Things just seem to to happen as they do. Actually, don't forget with the cover off that God is at work quietly in a whole load of different ways. And what we need very often actually is to help one another to spot how God is at work in our lives. It's what you need to do in your home groups and just in conversations. I mean, not to the extent of being annoying where you do it.

That's got to do it. That's got No. But but we do need it, don't we? Because otherwise, we just think, well, things just happen. You know, that good thing happened, whatever it was.

We need sometimes people to say, has god at work doing that, providing for you? God works quietly. Second, God God acts surprisingly. It is surprising what God God uses in this chapter. Yeah.

He doesn't issue any commands. God doesn't issue any commands. David doesn't consult God. David, who you would think would be the hero, doesn't do anything particularly spectacular in this chapter. God isn't using any of those people.

Who does God use to achieve his purposes? Who does God use to stop David fighting against the Israelites? And the answer is God uses the Philistine army commanders and their anger that they would look at David and the other Israelites and go without no. No. No.

He can't he can't go and fight with us. That's who God is using. He's using them. He is so in control of all things that even the enemy, the Philistines, are under his control. Now that's important.

We need to remember that because we can often think I think sometimes we think, well, yeah, God's in control and he's in control particularly of his people, Christians. Yeah. He controls what they do, what we do, but other nations, people of other religions, is god in control of them? Yes. He is.

We see it right here. He's even in control of these Philistine commanders. Dale Ralph Davis, in his book on, one Samuel, it's a great book. It's a really helpful book. He, at this point, gives an illustration.

It's an illustration which is a a children's, a Christian children's storybook. And the story is to do with a Christian woman. And this Christian woman is very poor. She's alone, and she doesn't have enough food. And in the story, she prays.

She tells her heavenly father and asks him for bread. And somehow a neighbor who's not a Christian, an agnostic or an atheist, hears her and decides to play a trick on her. And he goes out and buys bread, two loaves of bread, and puts them on her doorstep. And when she opens the door, she bursts into a prayer of praise. Thank you, lord, for provided for answering my prayer.

And the neighbor then tells her, I was tricking you. I bought the bread. It wasn't god answering your prayer at all. To which she replies, oh, yes. It was the Lord who answered my prayer even though he used the devil to do it.

God's ways are surprising. And Dale Ralph Davis, in his commentary, then says, when we catch a glimpse of how God is at work, even in surprising ways, especially in surprising ways, it should move us to worship and praise God. He says there ought to be times when you throw up your hands and say out loud that God's decisions are unsearchable and his ways beyond tracing out. Maybe you can testify to that. Maybe there have been things even this last week.

Will you tell someone afterwards how God has been at work in surprising ways? That's second. Third, God acts mercifully. We see this throughout this chapter. God is acting on behalf of David, and David has been sinful.

He's been he's done he's acted unfaithfully to God. He's with the army of the Philistines because he didn't trust God's promises. He's used deception. He's used lies, which is all a good reminder to us. As I mean, you'll see it many times.

You'll see it many times in the book of one Samuel. So you'll see it throughout the whole of the Old Testament that every Old Testament hero is flawed, is sinful. In fact, every character in the Bible is sinful and flawed apart from Jesus. And this is the greatest king Israel ever had, and yet he was unfaithful. And God didn't leave David in it.

He didn't just say, oh, well, that's enough, David. It's too much. I'm gonna leave you leave you there to wallow in your sin. Now his mercy and grace towards David here is relentless, rescuing him from his own mess. And, again, we need to be reminded of this, don't we?

Because we're made of the same stuff as David. We too are sinners. We too get ourselves into terrible messes because of our our lack of faith. And we can get to a position where we wonder, how how did it get to this? I wonder whether David thought that as he was marching out with the Philistine army, as he was marching along thinking, how did it how did it get to this?

And maybe you know that feeling too. How did it get to this? How have I got to this situation? How did it get so bad? Is there any way back?

Is there any way out of it? You know, the the the the worst sort of bit of help you can get if so if you ask someone for for directions, you say, you know, how do you get to wherever? And they say to you, oh, oh, well, if I was going there, I wouldn't start here. We go, well, that's not very helpful because here is where I am. And we can feel that about, about being faithful to God.

If you're gonna be faithful to God, sometimes we feel, well, that I wouldn't start where I am now. Am I too far away from God? Am I beyond his help? And one Samuel 29 says, no. You're not.

David wasn't. And if you aren't a Christian today, don't think that you are too far away to come to God. No one is. Whatever you've done in the past, however bad you've been. We do need to remember that Saul, actually, in the previous chapter, chapter 28, God did say, actually, time is up for Saul.

But I want to suggest to you that the issue there wasn't that that Saul was necessarily worse than David. It's rather that he was just stubborn and wouldn't turn back to God and was stubborn and persistent in disobedience. God calls us to turn back, and it is not too late. Turn back today. So God acts mercifully, we see it here, and then fourthly, God acts to achieve his plan.

Now this is where we come to the, slightly odd move that David makes. That Achish having said to David, you don't need to fight. That David then says, verse eight, but what have I done? What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?

Now that does seem really odd. We kinda think, David, shut up. Accept the win. Just leave. Why are you saying I wanna go and fight?

Well, the problem is we're not actually given the answer, but let me give you three options. The first one, I don't think is right. You may wonder why I'm telling it to you then. But anyway, the first option could be David genuinely wants to fight with the Philistines against the Israelites. He has genuinely turned.

Yeah. I don't think that's right. Chapter 27. Yeah. He has been lying to Achish.

He's been deceiving Achish. One of the things that he's been doing is while he's been living in Philistine territory, he and his men have been going raiding other places, and, you know, taking things captive and, you know, benefiting from that. And, when Achish says, where have you been fighting? He's been saying, oh, we've been fighting against the Israelites, but he hasn't been. He's been fighting against other people, not Philistines, but other people.

And so David's been lying all along to try and get in with Achish, but he's not actually so far turned. And it would be really odd here if, actually, this is genuinely a turning moment where he genuinely wants to fight with the Philistines against the Israelites. So I don't think that's the way to go. Second, maybe he feels he can't back down too quickly. He kinda, you know, no.

You don't have to fight. No. No. No. Let me fight.

Let me fight as he's packing his bags to you. No. Please let me fight. No. No.

Maybe that's that's the way it is. Or maybe, Woodhouse in his commentary suggests, maybe he wants to fight so that he can do what the Philistine commanders are frightened he will do. So maybe, Woodhouse says, he actually does want to fight so that when in the heat of battle, he can turn on the Philistines, fight against them, win a wonderful victory for Israel. And Woodhouse says, maybe that's why end of verse eight, if you got it open in front of you, is a bit ambiguous. Did you notice the way David says it?

He says, why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? But he doesn't say who my lord the king actually is. Maybe my lord the king is actually Saul, king of Israel, and he's saying I wanna fight for him, but which means I'll kill some Philistines. Maybe. Hard to know.

But okay. Let's say, okay, let's say that David is doing that. Let's go for the best option, that he does actually wanna fight and turn against the Philistines. The thing is we know that that is not God's plan for this battle that is about to happen because in chapter 28, God says what's gonna happen in the battle. Would you just look at it?

That chapter 28 verse 19. The lord will deliver both Israel and you. He's talking to king Saul, by the way. The lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.

Okay. Let me explain what that means. That means that God's purpose for this battle which is about to happen is that Israel are going to lose and Saul and his sons are going to die. And God has already said that's the plan for this battle. But David doesn't know that that's the plan.

Okay. So do you get it? Maybe David is going, yeah. I'll fight. I'll go out with the Philistines.

I'll turn on them and I'll win the victory for Israel and Israel will win, but we know from chapter 28, God's plan is Israel will lose and Saul will be killed. David doesn't know that though. And so David could be leaving this battle at the end of chapter 29, at the end of our chapter, thinking, but I had this great plan. This great plan that would glorify God with me turning on the Philistines and winning a great victory for Israel. I've got this great plan.

Yeah. But it's not god's plan. God's plan is that the Israelites lose. It is, in fact, the opposite of your plan, but David doesn't know that. But we need to know, we need to learn from that, that God achieves his purposes, his plan.

And, actually, he doesn't often tell us what that plan is in advance. Sometimes our purposes and plans happen, and sometimes they don't. In fact, sometimes even things that we think will glorify and honor God, the opposite actually happens. And we can think, is God really in control? When actually it's just that God is achieving his plan.

I think of, maybe you know people like this, a family who were gonna go and be missionaries in Africa, and they'd arranged everything. It's taken a lot of preparation. There was a good plan, good place that they were gonna go and serve in Africa, And they arranged everything for taking their children there. It was a lot of work, lot of money, a lot of planning went into it. And within a year, they'd come back.

And as far as I'm aware, there was no sin. It wasn't because of sin that they came back. It wasn't necessarily bad planning. It was just it just didn't work out. And I would think when things like that happen, we can think, God, are you really in control?

It just seemed like this was the way you were gonna be glorified. And we have to trust at that point. God is in control. He does know what he's doing. He always achieves his plans.

And this isn't just true with missionaries and ministry, although it is true with ministry. Sometimes, you know, we might have our plans and God says no. But it can be in our lives as well. Sometimes the job application doesn't isn't successful. Sometimes the school application isn't successful.

Sometimes the house purchase falls through, and we can't see why why it should. It seemed like a great thing for the glory of God, and we need to trust God that he is still in control. He acts to achieve his purposes. Lastly, God acts to glorify Jesus. Now our usual question, as we've been going through one Samuel at Hope Church, has been, how does this passage point us to Jesus?

It's a safe question to ask, but it can be tricky to answer because some passages, it's just trickier than others. But we know that that the whole bible, all of it, every bit does point us to Jesus. So we want to ask, how does this passage how does one Samuel 29 us to him? Three times in the passage, you may have spotted it, three times in the passage, Achish, king of the Philistines, says of David, the anointed king of Israel or future king of Israel, that David is without fault. Did you spot it?

Verse three. Verse three. Right at the end, Achish says to the commanders of the Philistine army, I have found no fault in him. Verse six. So Achish called David and said to him, as surely as the lord lives, you have been reliable, and I would be pleased for you to serve in my arm with me in the army.

From the day you came to me until today, I have found no fault in you. And then verse nine, Achish answered, I know that you have been as pleasing in my eyes as an angel of God. So Achish says three times, David, I find no fault in you. Now it has to be said Achish has been fooled here. David has deceived him.

He's lied. And therefore, is David really that innocent, that guiltless? You gotta say, in order to see that, you've gotta kinda half close your eyes at David. He's kind of I mean, there's a way in which he's kind of faultless in that he's not actually turned against Israel yet. He's not actually fought against Saul, although the temptation would have been great.

So in some ways, you go, well, he's kind of faultless that way, but really, you've got to half close your eyes to see David as being faultless. But do you hear in what Achish is saying, a kind of foreshadowing of something that happened in Jesus' life, at his trial, that Pilate says of Jesus, I find no basis of a charge against him. And in two of the gospels, three times, he declares Jesus' innocence. And with Jesus, there is no need to half close your eyes because he never used deception or lies. He was without fault.

And just as Achish caved in to those Philistine commanders, so Pilate caved in to those who were pressurizing him. For David, that meant leaving the battle. For Jesus, it meant heading out to the cross where he died for us, and it was very important that he was innocent, that he was without fault, that he was, as it were, a lamb without a blemish, spotless. Because you and I, we need Jesus to be innocent to die for us. Just someone dying for us will not achieve our forgiveness.

Just any person dying for you will not achieve your sins being dealt with. It has to be the innocent, spotless lamb of God. It has to be Jesus without fault dying for you and me. And so in one Samuel 29, we see a little foreshadowing of Jesus and Jesus' trials. Though Achish would have no idea of the significance of his words, and David wouldn't have known the significance of Achish's words, proclaiming David without fault.

Yet we see here is God's big purpose through this chapter to glorify Jesus, to point us forward to him. And there is no better outcome for our lives as well that Jesus be glorified. We like to think that maybe in putting our trust in God that he would put us at the center of his work and do all of our desires and our purposes and our plans. But we need to remember he achieves his purpose and his great purpose, and the greatest purpose that could happen in your and my life is that Jesus be glorified. Well, I hope maybe you've understood a bit more about one Samuel 29.

I hope even if it's just a little bit more than you had before you arrived this evening, that would be a success, but I hope maybe you've got a bit more than that. And that you have marveled just a bit more at god's sovereignty, his control over all things. And that, therefore, this evening, as you lay your head on your pillow, you might think, actually, I can lay my head on an even better pillow, the sovereignty of God, his control over all things. And I'm gonna finish again with that quote from Alec Mateer, which I just think is a really, really lovely quote. Never be afraid to exalt the sovereignty of God to the nth degree and beyond.

It is the pillow on which we can lay our heads. We are only safe in this world because it's his world. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for this chapter in one Samuel 29. Thank you that in it, see you at work.

Though you are acting quietly and surprisingly, yet we see you're also full of mercy. We see you achieving your plan, and we see you glorifying Jesus. And we thank you so much for it. Father, please, where we are slow to trust this truth and, father, we know that we are, Help us to trust your sovereign control in all things. Where we are frightened, where we are fearful, help us to turn to you and to trust in your control of all things.

In Jesus' name we pray.