Sermon for Sunday morning, September 15, 2024 at Unionville Presbyterian Church, BPC
Old Testament reading:
[Psa 34:15-22 ESV] 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. 21 Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
New Testament reading:
[2Pe 2:4-10 ESV] 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,
Gospel reading:
[Mat 6:7-15 ESV] 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Scripture reading:
[1Sa 29:1-11 ESV] 1 Now the Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek. And the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel. 2 As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, 3 the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day.” 4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? 5 Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” 6 Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the LORD lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign. For I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords do not approve of you. 7 So go back now; and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8 And David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9 And Achish answered David and said, “I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 10 Now then rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you, and start early in the morning, and depart as soon as you have light.” 11 So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
Introduction
David has himself in quite a predicament.
Fearful of King Saul, David has moved to Ziklag courtesy of Achish, the King of Gath.
But David has never switched his allegiance. He is always a follower of God and devoted of son of Israel. So while living in Ziklag of the Philistines, David has continued on with the work of God, devoting the Amalekites to destruction. (And lying to Achish about that fact.)
But now David gets himself into quite a predicament.
King Achish, believing David to be “his servant” has brought David and his men to join the Philistines in battles against Israel.
Whatever is David going to do?
He is in a predicament, a dilemma.
If he fights against Israel he will be killing his own people and going against his God.
But if he does not fight against Israel, he will betray the confidence of Achish and no longer have a home! He’ll be back to being “on the run” and in the wilderness risking Saul’s continued attacks.
So which way does David go?
He’s got two options, right?
Which one does he take. (Against Israel, or Against the Philistines?)
Fortunately for David, that need to choose (and suffer the consequences) never comes as the Lord makes for him a way of escape. [REPEAT: the Lord makes a way of escape.]
I. In a dilemma, don’t forget about God.
When ethical dilemmas come about, there is an unfortunate tendency to forget about God.
Perhaps you’ve seen the “trolley problem.” This is the type of ethical dilemma presented in a philosophy course. Usually it goes something like this: “There are innocent people tied to the railroad tracks and the train is going to run them over unless you pull this lever and send the train down another track where it (and all the people aboard) will fall off a cliff and die.”
So you have a dilemma.
And a dilemma is said to be stronger than a predicament.
Maybe there is a hierarchy like this:
1. There are conundrums
2. There are quandaries (which are stronger than conundrums)
3. Then there are predicaments (which are worse than conundrums)
4. And finally there are dilemmas (that are the most serious)
And a dilemma and the “di” indicates is a chose between 2 seemingly bad options.
What are we to do?
What is David to do? Fight or not fight? Against Israel or against the Philistines?
Well, in all predicaments, we ought not to forget about God.
You see, the Trolley Problem falsely puts us in the place of God. It claims that if A then B (if you don’t pull this lever, these people will die) and it claims if C then D (if you DO pull the lever than the passengers will die.)
But nothing is life is so assured!
We are not in control. God is!
The reality is that the innocent victims tied to the tracks MAY escape in the nick of time. Or the lever you pull might not work. Or the train may come to a sudden stop. Or an angel of God may come and save us all from having to make such a lever-pulling decision. Or … or … or. You get the picture. Those contrived moral dilemmas are indeed contrived, and not the reality of our world.
II. God Makes the Way of Escape for David
Now, we ought not to forget about God. And God certainly was involved in solving David’s dilemma and finding for him a way of escape. And, here, God works even through the Philistines.
The lords (the other kings of the Philistines other than Achish) say “What are these Hebrews doing here? Isn’t this David, the servant of Saul.” “Isn’t this he of whom they sing “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
And you’d think here that David’s problems are getting worse! They’ve caught on to him. Maybe the Philistines themselves will attack David!
But Achish saves the day telling David “I have found nothing wrong with you, but the other lords do not approve of you.” “So go back now; and go peaceably.”
Thus the situation, the tension, is diffused. And David never had to make a decision. The Lord made for him a way of escape. The Lord directed his paths. The Lord delivered him from evil.
Commentator Robert Bergen says “A providential supply of an alibi, excusing David from any involvement in the death of Saul.”
Through the Philistine lords, God has made a way of escape for David.
III. What are we do to in a dilemma?
This, you might say, (truthfully) is ancient history. David’s dilemma; God’s solution. But what about MY dilemma?
What are we to do in a dilemma?
Or, let us first ask, what is a predicament you have found yourself in with no clear way of escape?
Perhaps you’ve been invited to an event (Let’s say an outdoor festival) that you really don’t want to go to. But your lack of presence there would be detrimental to your relationship with the person who invited you. So you hem and haw, should I go? Or should I skip out? And you think about this for some weeks. And then the day arrives, and its raining and the whole thing is cancelled. There was a way out, but it didn’t come by your intervention.
Well, let’s have an INTERACTIVE sermon today.
I want you to write down a present dilemma in your life.
You don’t have to shown anyone.
It can be whatever problem you are facing that doesn’t seem to have a solution. Or there are two or more solutions that are all equally bad.
Then I’ll ask you to apply some Biblical advice to those problems.
Here are some possibilities if you’re not having one come to mind:
You have two invites at the same time, and you don’t want to disappoint anyone.
You have two different job options to chose from, neither ideal.
You have two (or three) financial needs that have come up, but the money to handle only one of them.
I’m not saying that this advice will solve all your problems, but it will certainly alleviate some of them.
Before we start, we must advise “avoid dilemmas in the first place.”
I know this is very unsatisfactory advice. How to deal with a dilemma? Firstly, Avoid them!
How do you treat an injury from a bicycle crash? Don’t fall of your bike!
While such advice is unsatisfactory for the CURRENT injury, it may be valuable to prevent future injuries!
We must recognize that David GOT HIMSELF into his dilemma. His lying to King Achish made the King think that David was on his side. But truly David was on the side of Israel; true Israel.
Well, what was David to do? With Saul chasing him.
I’m not exactly sure. Maybe he should have toughed it out; God had protected him so far in Saul’s attempts to kill him. And moving to Philistia can’t be a good idea with all of its foreign gods and bad influences. And then lying to King Achish only got David into his predicament further.
So to solve the predicament, David needs to get into his time machine and NOT get into the dilemma in the first place.
But YOU have a predicament NOW. And you’re all out of time machines!
So you need Biblical advice GOING FORWARD.
So, what did we learn before … “Don’t forget about God.”
Now, remembering God, I have five points of Biblical advice on dealing with a dilemma.
1. Go to the Lord to “Stop the Spinning.”
Many of you are in a predicament or facing a problem, and you need to ask yourself, “Am I facing this the way God would direct me, or is my mind needlessly spinning to solve the problem on my own?
A guy I know called me this week “spinning” over some church issues. He was playing out the possibilities in his head over and over. And perhaps it is easy from the outside for me to say “stop spinning.” But it is a good reminder to go to the Lord. And I’m impressed with many mature Christians who seem to do so much better at that than I do. When you’ve been through the battles, and come out the other side, you know that a new battle is not the end. It is good to think through issues, but not so much that you’re spinning round and round, and not sleeping, but tossing and turning.
2. Ask “Is this a false dilemma?”
The solutions you can think of might not be the only answers.
“Faced with only choices that seem to lead to bad outcomes it’s always worth revisiting the basis of the decision Do you have other choices you could make that don’t necessarily lead to equivalently bad outcomes?”
3. Pray
Admit your insufficiency. Come to God with problems, not solutions.
4. Recognize that God may make a way of escape.
That is why we pray “deliver us from evil” in the Lord’s prayer.
We don’t actually know what David would have done. Would he have fought against Israel? Would he have turned against the Philistines? Would he have found an escape. The text intentionally doesn’t tell us. But God made an escape come about in His eternal plan.
5. Trust in the Lord.
Trust in God. In a predicament, follow the Lord. In a predicament, trust the Lord.
What about taking action? It may come to that.
And when a decision must finally be made, do so with prudence, the wisdom of God from his word. And leave the results up to him, knowing that you’ve chosen honestly.
In all things trust the Lord.
IV. God’s Way of Escape in the Gospel
There are dillemmas.
And suppose there are tri-lemmas, and quad-lemmas as well.
But ultimately we find ourselves in an infinite-lemma. Wherever we go, whatever we do, sin is out condition that we cannot fully avoid.
In these dilemmas we want to know “what should I do.”
But how often is the solution beyond you?
Such it is with our salvation.
We cannot save ourselves.
But God saves us.
Jesus saves; his intervention is our salvation.
The Lord Makes a Way of Escape. The Lord IS our way of escape. Through Christ we have salvation.
God rescues the godly from trials. 2 Peter 2:9 “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials”
And in that we see His love.
Did you know that God loves humans more than he loves angels? He sent His son to die for mankind, not angelkind.
Verse 9 – some theology. Angels are sinless. The ones in heaven anyways. Not the ones with Satan.
[2Pe 2:4-10 ESV] 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
What it comes to the biggest predicament of all—our sin— the Lord makes a way for our escape. WE DO NOTHING. Jesus Christ died on the cross the salvation of all who will believe in him. Praise be the Lord. We are free. Let us pray.
So we have the promise in the Psalms:
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. 21 Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
So let us go to the Lord, praying for his way of escape to be seen.
Let us pray.