Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1770
“And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold unto David. And David went out to meet them, and answered and said unto them, If you ha ve come peaceably unto me to help me, my heart shall be knit unto you: but if you have come to betray me to my enemies, seeing there is no wrong in myhands, the God of our fatherlook thereon, andrebuke it. Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said, ‘Yours are we, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse: peace, peace be unto you, and peace be to your helpers; for your God helps you. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band.” 1 Chronicles 12:16-18.
David had to stand upon his guard, for traitors were all around—the men of Keilah would have delivered him up when he went in all simplicity of heart within their gates. The fortunes of David were at a low ebb and, therefore, when these men came to David, they did a valorous action—an action which he would be sure to remember in the later days of his triumph. I want to run a parallel between the case of David and that of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the present moment our Lord Jesus, the Son of David, is still in the hold. Among the men of this world, He is not yet enthroned—their hearts go after another prince—and as yet the kingdom has not come to the Son of David. I know that He reigns in Heaven and that He is, in very deed, King of kings and Lord of lords—but before the eyes of the mass of men He is still despised and rejected.
His people, as yet, are but a feeble folk and often hard put to it. His kingdom is ridiculed, His claims are derided and His yoke is scorned. The doctrines which He preached are tossed to and fro like a ball. And men at the present time are glorying in science or tradition, in reason or in speculation! Yes, they speak as if human wisdom would soon wipe out the very name of Christianity! It is not so in truth before God, but it is so in appearance before men. This is an age of blasphemy and of rebuke for our Lord the King! Brave are they who will stand for Christ in this, the day of His exile! They shall be right royally rewarded who will now take up His cause and will go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. He is the man for the Lord Jesus who can now run the gauntlet of miles of scoffers and be willing to be called a fool, a madman, or an idiot for His name’s sake.
Blessed are they who are not ashamed, this day, to bear the name of Christ written out large and to confess that, after the way which men call, “orthodoxy,” so worship they the Lord God of their fathers! The philosophic Christian may escape if he will drown the Christian in the philosopher; but this is not to stand out square for Christ. It does our heart good, nowadays, to meet with a few Brothers and Sisters who are not ashamed to believe in the merit of the Redeemer’s precious blood and in the power of His Spirit to regenerate. We feel at home when we drop in with a few who believe in prayer and expect the lord to interpose on the behalf of His people. I say, blessed are they who, like these men of Benjamin and Judah, are willing to go to the King in the hold and take up His cause though it is at a low ebb—and stand up for Him when the many are ready to trample Him down—and are ridiculing His work and His cause. For my own part, I never loved my Lord more than now, that He is defamed! And His Truth is all the dearer to me because it is flouted by the worldly-wise.
It is to those who will volunteer for Jesus that I am about to speak, and our first head is that using the text as a parable, we have here a commendable example. It is a commendable example for men to join themselves with Christ while He is unpopular. Secondly, here is a cautious inquiry. When David sees these men come, he does not, at once, receive them with open arms, but there is a reserve about him till he has asked them a question or two. He wants to know who they are before he writes down their names in his muster-roll. And, thirdly, here is a very cordial enlistment as they answer to his question, and say, “Yours are we, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse; for your God helps you.”
I. First, then, here is A VERY COMMENDABLE EXAMPLE. May the Holy Spirit lead many of my dear Hearers to follow it. Many of these men of Benjamin and Judah, in the first place, went to join themselves to David because they had heard that he was the Lord’s anointed. They understood that Samuel had gone down to Ramah and, in the days of David’s youth, had anointed him in the name of the Lord to be king instead of Saul. Therefore they said, “Whom God anoints, we will follow,” and they came after David. It was fit that they should be loyal to David if they would be obedient to God. Now, it is within the belief, I trust, of all assembled here, that the Lord God Almighty has anointed “one chosen out of the people” to be His King in Zion—the King of His Church forever and ever—and that One chosen out of the people is Jesus of Nazareth, of the house of David, who is Himself, as Man, the servant of God, but who is also Divine, and counts it not robbery to be equal with God.